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“Early on Hameed’s publisher encouraged him to choose a pen name. Hameed decided on ‘A. H. Almaas’ because almaas means ‘diamond’ in Arabic, and he felt it was an accurate reference to the true author of his books – The Diamond Guidance – which was responsible for the wisdom coming through him”
KAREN JOHNSON - Co-Founder of the Diamond Approach
Over time A.H. Almaas has published numerous books that describe the Diamond Approach path. These books include a collection of titles within the Diamond Heart Series, the Diamond Mind Series and the Diamond Body Series.
We invite you to browse this comprehensive library to assist you to discover more about the Diamond Approach path.
The complete catalogue of A.H. Almaas books
Upcoming and recent publications
The Diamond Heart, Mind and Body series
The Diamond Heart series
Diamond Heart Book One: Elements of the Real in Man
We live in a world of mystery, wonder and beauty. But most of us seldom participate in this real world, being aware rather of a world that is mostly strife, suffering or meaninglessness. This situation is basically due to our not realizing and living our full human potential. This potential can be actualized by the realization and development of the human essence. The human essence is the part of us that is innate and real, and which can participate in the real world.
This series of books, Diamond Heart, is a transcription of talks I have give to inner work groups in both California and Colorado, for several years, as part of the work of these groups. The purpose of the talks is to guide and orient individuals who are engaged in doing the difficult work of essential realization.
-Author’s Preface
Available at Shambhala Publications or Booktopia.
Diamond Heart Book Two: The Freedom to Be
We live in a world of mystery, wonder and beauty. But most of us seldom participate in this real world, being aware rather of a world that is mostly strife, suffering or meaninglessness. This situation is basically due to our not realizing and living our full human potential. This potential can be actualized by the realization and development of the human essence. The human essence is the part of us that is innate and real, and which can participate in the real world.
This series of books, Diamond Heart, is a transcription of talks I have give to inner work groups in both California and Colorado, for several years, as part of the work of these groups. The purpose of the talks is to guide and orient individuals who are engaged in doing the difficult work of essential realization.
-Author’s Preface
Available at Shambhala Publications or Booktopia.
Diamond Heart Book Three: Being and the Meaning of Life
We live in a world of mystery, wonder and beauty. But most of us seldom participate in this real world, being aware rather of a world that is mostly strife, suffering or meaninglessness. This situation is basically due to our not realizing and living our full human potential. This potential can be actualized by the realization and development of the human essence. The human essence is the part of us that is innate and real, and which can participate in the real world.
This series of books, Diamond Heart, is a transcription of talks I have give to inner work groups in both California and Colorado, for several years, as part of the work of these groups. The purpose of the talks is to guide and orient individuals who are engaged in doing the difficult work of essential realization.
-Author’s Preface
Available at Shambhala Publications or Booktopia.
Diamond Heart Book Four: Indestructible Innocence
-Author’s Preface
Available at Shambhala Publications or online.
Diamond Heart Book Five: Inexhaustible Mystery
From one perspective, we can see ourselves merely as human beings struggling in a crowded and chaotic world of suffering. This book opens our eyes to a different reality, one that turns our familiar world inside out. We need only explore – with curiosity and love – our true potential as human beings in order to discover infinite depth and creativity in our lives as we act and interact in the world. When time and space expand their meaning, we come to know ourselves as having infinite dimensions of being and qualities of spirit, and uncover new mysteries about ourselves, one another, and the reality we live in.
This is the last of the five-volume Diamond Heart series of transcribed and edited talks given by A. H. Almaas to inner-work groups in California and Colorado.
Available at Shambhala Publications or Booktopia.
“We can think of no more significant voice in the transpersonal field than A. H. Almaas. His work is a seamless integration of cutting edge psychology and profound spirituality that addresses the concerns and hopes of contemporary people.”
—Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson, authors of Personality Types
“The work of A. H. Almaas places him among the greatest psychologists alive today.”
—Jack Kornfield
The Diamond Mind series
The Void: Inner Spaciousness and Ego Structure
In this book Almaas brings together concepts and experiences drawn from contemporary object relations theory, Freudian-based ego psychology, case studies from his own spiritual practice, and teaching from the highest levels of Buddhist and other Eastern practices. He challenges us to look not only at the personality and the content of the mind, but also at the underlying nature of the mind itself.
Available at Shambhala Publications or most book retailers.
“In a remarkable and direct way, Almaas introduces us to the space or ground of Mind within which mental structures operate. He shows how inner spaciousness can be experienced in somatic, psychological and spiritual ways, details some of the many levels of inner space and, more importantly, illustrates how these experiences of space can lead to fundamental healing and integration of our being… The deep spiritual and psychological knowledge which Almaas brings to this work places him in the forefront of a new movement in psychologdy which draws on the practices and understanding of ancient and Eastern traditions and the best contemporary and Western psychology as well.”
– Jack Kornfield from the Introduction to The Void
The Pearl Beyond Price: Integration of Personality into Being: An Object Relations Approach
In this book Almaas demonstrates that healthy ego development is part of the continuum of spiritual development. He also establishes the possibility of attaining inner realization and developing our essential being—”the pearl beyond price”—in the context of living a normal human life.
Available at Shambhala Publications or Booktopia.
“The work that you have in your hands is quite extraordinary in that it unfolds a comprehensive theory of personality grounded in a dimension of Being beyond our normal understandings of ego and identity. For here a knowledge of the spiritual path of transformation appears within, and is conjoined to, the modern context of western psychological process. Anyone with knowledge of the sacred psychologies at the heart of the world’s religious traditions will immediately recognize the significance of this major work by A. H. Almaas. “
—Larry Spiro, Ph.D.
“A masterpiece of integration of both the spiritual and psychotherapeutic traditions, which is essential material for anyone concerned with helping others to develop a deeper sense of personhood or to liberate themselves from the repetition-compulsion to suffer that defines the neurotic condition.”
—David Boadella
The Point of Existence: Transformations of Narcissism in Self-Realization
The Point of Existence describes the underlying spiritual basis for the common understanding of narcissism, which is the experience of a disturbance in the inner sense of self and the resulting need for constant reflection from the outside. This vulnerability in the inner experience of identity arises out of a basic separation from the essential presence which is the source of a true sense of self.
Available at Shambhala Publications or most book retailers.
“Almaas’s The Point of Existence is a supremely original and unique work at the interface of spirituality and psychoanalysis. It will be of immense significance for anyone involved in a spiritual path. The promise and challenge of this work for both transpersonal and psychotherapeutic orthodoxies is immense. It will be studied and debated by psychologists, spiritual practitioners, and theologians for years to come.”
-Harry Hunt, author of On the Nature of Consciousness
“Almaas has given us a powerful unfoldment of a new field of study. This pioneering work renders outdated both the psychologist’s traditional avoidance of deeper dimensions of experience and the mystic’s dismissal of psychology. Almaas’s tour de force is must reading for anyone who is seeking a more profound understanding of human experience.”
-Sherry Ruth Anderson, co-author of The Feminine Face of God
“Almaas is one of the most significant voices for a new and remarkably integrated spiritual vision. His work connects the personal, the universal, the psyhcological and the spiritual not as pieces put together, but as the inseparable mandala of the sacred the we are. I respect his work to the highest degree and commend it to anyone interested in living the life of the spirit”
—Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart
“A.H. Almaas is an astute and brilliant explorer of the common ground of psychology and spiritual development. Almaas provides a much larger and more satisfying framework for understanding the quandaries of self, identity and the resolution of narcissism. He shows how the universal narcissism of everyday life is an incomplete stage of development that can only be overcome through realization of one’s deepest, most essential nature. This is a book to study, to contemplate, to live with, and to use as a guide on one’s journey.”
-John Welwood, author of Love and Awakening
The Diamond Body series
Spacecruiser Inquiry: True Guidance for the Inner Journey
Over the past twenty-five years A. H. Almaas—widely recognized as a leader in integrating spirituality and psychology—has been developing and teaching the Diamond Approach, a spiritual path that integrates the insights of Sufism, Buddhism, Gurdjieff, and other wisdom traditions with modern psychology. In this new work, Almaas uses the metaphor of a “spacecruiser” to describe a method of exploring the immediacy of personal experience—a way of investigating our moment-by-moment feelings, thoughts, reactions, and behaviors through a process of open-ended questioning. The method is called the practice of inquiry, and Spacecruiser Inquiry reveals what it means to engage with this practice as a spiritual path: its principles, challenges, and rewards.
The author explores basic elements of inquiry, including the open-ended attitude, the focus on direct knowledge, the experience of not-knowing, and the process of questioning. He describes the experience of “Diamond Guidance”—the inner wisdom that emerges from our true nature—and how it can be realized and applied.
Available at Shambhala Publications or Booktopia.
“Almaas is one of the most significant voices for a new and remarkably integrated spiritual vision. His work connects the personal, the universal, the psychological, and the spiritual not as pieces to put together, but as the inseparable mandala of the sacred that we are.”
-Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry
“Readers of Almaas’ previous books will not be disappointed. This new work is intended as a practical guide to applying the methodology of the Diamond Approach to personal inquiry. The true power of this book lies in its ability to address ‘a part of us that does not inhabit the words in our mind but lives disguised in the varied content of our life.’ “
-NAPRA Review
Brilliancy: The Essence of Intelligence
Intelligence is one of the defining characteristics of human beings: an inherent ability to respond to the world with awareness, knowledge, learning, and insight. Most considerations of human intelligence are based on the notion that intelligence is a product of brain functioning. A. H. Almaas introduces here a radically different viewpoint, one that recognizes an actual quality of consciousness as the source of intelligence. He calls this source the Brilliancy of our true nature.
The presentation of his understanding of intelligence is followed by in-depth dialogues with his students on the various barriers to recognizing and embodying this essential quality. In particular, an unresolved relationship with one’s father is found to shape the experience of Brilliancy. Using a Socratic method that draws upon techniques of body-centered, Gestalt, psychodynamic, and cognitive psychologies, Almaas helps participants work through their defenses and conflicts surrounding this issue and then, diverging from pychotherapeutic practice, guides them in discovering their own Brilliancy.
Available at Shambhala Publications or Booktopia.
“In this potent and luminous work, the master teacher A. H. Almaas brings clarity concerning the spiritual ground of Intelligence, which evokes and quickens the reader into a remembrance of her true nature. The presence of the teacher is evident in actual facilitation with his students as well as in words that themselves are transparent to transcendence. “
—Jean Houston, author of Jump Time
“A. H. Almaas is one of the foremost spiritual teachers of our time. His methodology for realizing true nature is precise, teachable, and remarkably clear. “
—Joan Borysenko, author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind
The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence
The keys to self-knowledge and deep contentment are right here before us in this very moment—if we can simply learn to live with open awareness. In The Unfolding Now, A. H. Almaas presents a marvelously effective practice for developing the transformative quality of presence. Through a particular method of self-observation and contemplative exploration that he calls inquiry, we learn to live in the relaxed condition of simply “being ourselves,” without interference from feelings of inadequacy, drivenness toward goals, struggling to figure things out, and rejecting experiences we don’t want. Almaas explores the many obstacles that keep us from being present—including defensiveness, ignorance, desire, aggression, and self-hatred—and shows us how to welcome with curiosity and compassion whatever we are experiencing.
Available at Shambhala Publications or Booktopia.
“Almaas is a genius at revealing both the core qualities of Essence and the veils that obscure it, always in language that helps peel away those veils, always holding open the door to the unfolding presence and awareness that remains when the veils have dissolved. The Unfolding Now leads the reader through a masterful series of inquiry processes, invitations to sense and know ourselves at increasing levels of subtlety, gently walking us deeper and deeper into Truth.”
—Sally Kempton (Durgananda), spiritual teacher and author of The Heart of Meditation: Pathways to a Deeper Experience
“I love the unfolding Almaas! His clarity never diminishes, yet each book brings an increasing simplicity and gentleness. As I worked with this latest material, I felt like I was receiving a transmission of pure compassion. His strong, true voice reminds us that beyond the endless self-improvement projects and idealized mystical states with which the spiritual path is strewn lies the simple but exquisite taste of our own being.”
—Cynthia Bourgeault, author of Mystical Hope, The Wisdom Way of Knowing, and Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening
Other book titles
The Inner Journey Home: Soul's Realization of the Unity of Reality
What is the soul, and how do we come to know it? What is its journey in life, and what stages and obstacles are encountered along the way? These questions are explored here in detail according to the Diamond Approach, a spiritual path that combines systematic inquiry into personal experience, the practice of traditional spiritual methods, and the application of modern psychological research. The Inner Journey Home is the centerpiece of the Diamond Approach literature, providing a complete overview of the teaching with references to the author’s other books for more details on certain topics.
Available at Shambhala Publications or most book retailers.
“This informed and scholarly work effectively counters a materialist view of reality. Its value is further enhanced by appendixes presenting different cultural concepts of the soul and extensive endnotes grounding the author’s views in other historical and philosophical works.”
—Library Journal
“This profound book offers a visionary understanding for anyone who wishes to know and traverse the territory of the psyche and the soul, the spiritual and the psychological. Almaas is among our wisest and most illuminated teachers, and this is one of his masterworks.”
—Jack Kornfield, author of After the Ecstacy, the Laundry
“Through his own wise and passionate inquiry, Almaas brilliantly illuminates a transformative path to inner freedom.”
—Tara Bennett-Goleman, author of Emotional Alchemy
The Power of Divine Eros: The Illuminating Force of Love in Everyday Life
The Power of Divine Eros: The Illuminating Force of Love in Everyday Life What do desire and passion have to do with our spiritual journey? According to A. H. Almaas and Karen Johnson, they are an essential part of it.
Conventional wisdom cautions that desire and passion are opposed to the spiritual path—that pursuing desire will take you more into the egoic world. And for most people, that is exactly what happens. Wanting is experienced as self-centered. The Power of Divine Eros challenges the view that the erotic and the divine are separate. When we open to the energy, spontaneity, and zest of erotic love, we will find it holy and sacred. Thus desire and passion become a gateway to wholeness.
The authors reveal how our relationships become opportunities on the spiritual journey to express ourselves authentically, to relate with openness, and to discover dynamic inner realms with another person. Through embodying the energy of eros, each of us can learn to be fully real and alive in all of our interactions.
Available at Shambhala Publications or most book retailers.
“A truly in-depth exploration of an embodied spirituality. We find out how Eros is an energy of love and creativity in all of us—and how we can release it. We come to see how our feelings, without exception, are useful for our personal and collective evolution. I felt continually held by the authors’ compassionate and wise presences. “
—David Richo, author of How to Be an Adult in Relationships
Facets of Unity: The Enneagram of Holy Ideas
Facets of Unity presents the Enneagram of Holy Ideas as a crystal clear window on the true reality experienced in enlightened consciousness. Here we are not directed toward the psychological types but the higher spiritual realities they reflect. We discover how the disconnection from each Holy Idea leads to the development of its corresponding fixation, thus recognizing each types deeper psychological core. Understanding this core brings each Holy Idea within reach, so its spiritual perspective can serve as a key for unlocking the fixation and freeing us from its limitations.
Available at Shambhala Publications or most book retailers.
“Lucid, precise and infinitely helpful to seekers everywhere. I heartily recommend Facets of Unity to Enneagram enthusiasts, to my own students of inner knowing, and to followers of every spiritual tradition.”
—Helen Palmer, author of The Enneagram
“Serious students of the Enneagram will find much of value in this book. . . . The Holy Ideas can be highly challenging material, but Almaas presents them with clarity, thoroughness, and grace such that we can all gain a taste of the deeper truths of this remarkable system. “
—Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson, authors of Personality Types
Luminous Night's Journey: An Autobiographical Fragment
In Luminous Night’s Journey, Almaas shares excerpts from his personal journal, which describe a certain thread in his own journey of realization and the processes involved in integrating that realization. This publication marks a fortunate development in our knowledge of how Being is realized in and through the human soul: The process of realization and integration of true nature described in the voice of one who articulates precisely and vividly the psychological and epistemological barriers which confront the individual consciousness as realization is integrated in the context of personal life.
Almaas describes how his participation in the unfolding manifestation of Being ushers him into realms that expose and transform increasingly deep ego structures and attachments. Luminous Night’s Journey clarifies how the unveiling of Being and the exposure of ego structures constitute one process, leading to the soul’s integrated realization of absolute nature and the manifestation of the human being as a personal embodiment of that nature.
Available at Shambhala Publications or most book retailers.
Essence with The Elixir of Enlightenment
Essence has been combined with The Elixir of Enlightenment, a short introductory text directed toward students on the path who are frustrated by either the spiritual or psychological barriers that Western life can present. Discusses the values and shortcomings of spiritual training, and explores why an impasse may occur. Reveals how a precise understanding of your own personality can free your inner resources so that your essential being can lead you toward enlightenment.
Available through Amazon.
Books by Diamond Approach teachers
The Jeweled Path: The Biography of the Diamond Approach to Inner Realization - by Karen Johnson
The Jeweled Path invites you to enter into the story of how the modern spiritual path of the Diamond Approach emerged. With humor and intimacy, Karen Johnson, cofounder with A. H. Almaas, reveals the personal experiences that birthed the teaching and furthered its development. These profound awakenings—occurring amidst ordinary life—became the building blocks of a remarkable new approach to human nature and to our understanding of reality.
Available at Shambhala Publications or Booktopia.
“For anyone interested in the origins of the marvelous Diamond Approach, here it is. Karen offers an inside glimpse into the DA founders’ passion, truth seeking, and wisdom—a journey that can inspire your own.”
—Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart
“A humble, honest, intimate, lucid, and above all astonishing account of the rise of a remarkable teaching. It’s good to find confirmation here that even pure diamonds don’t fall ready-made from the sky; they must be ground and polished in the crucible of the human heart. Karen’s and Hameed’s four-decade journey of unflinchingly honest and deeply mutual discovery sets a new benchmark in our appreciation of the full potential of spiritual friendship.”
—Cynthia Bourgeault, author of The Meaning of Mary Magdalene and The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three
“A rare, intimate dive into the development of a spiritual path. We don’t usually have the opportunity to witness the birth of a path from the perspective of one who is engaged with its development. Nor are we often invited into the lives of its founders as they awaken to the teaching that is emerging through them. Through Karen Johnson’s writing, her humor, her keen-eyed observations, her willingness to reveal her humanness, and her ever-cascading realization, we are able to hear the untold story of the Diamond Approach and experience its profound gifts in a new way. What a privilege.”
—Geneen Roth, author of Feeding the Hungry Heart and Women, Food, and God
The Diamond Approach: An Introduction to the Teachings of A.H. Almaas - by John Davis
Available at Shambhala Publications or Booktopia.
“I myself can recommend the Diamond Approach as probably the most balanced of the widely available spiritual psychologies/therapies.”
—Ken Wilber
“The work of A. H. Almaas places him among the greatest psychologists alive today. His brilliant vision of the human psyche embraces our Being from early development to the highest realms of spirit. From this he then offers a new language and direct approach for awakening to this manifold nature.”
—Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart and coauthor of Seeking the Heart of Wisdom
“This is the first book to bring the main ideas of the Diamond Approach together in one place. That makes it an invaluable resource for every serious student of consciousness and psychology. The surprise is that this resource is delectable, a juicy morsel that engages the mind and the heart of the reader. It’s at the top of my list for recommended reading this year.”
—Sherry Ruth Anderson, coauthor of The Feminine Face of God and The Cultural Creatives
Soul Without Shame: A Guide to Liverating Yourself From the Judge Within - by Byron Brown
Available at Shambhala Publications or Booktopia.
“This a practical and personal tool for those who seek enlightenment and wish to defeat the inner critic.”
—Library Journal
“A life preserver for the true soul drowning in a sea of criticisms from its inner judge.”
—Independent Publisher
“In very clear and available language, this book details how to recognize the inner critic and how to deal effectively with it. Byron Brown’s presentation is useful for any individual who wishes to be free from the inner suffering and coercion of this ancient foe of our humanity, but it is specifically directed to those interested and engaged in the inner journey toward realization and enlightenment.”
—A. H. Almaas
“Soul without Shame is a rare book that blends intellectual depth, genuine originality, and practical usefulness. As Byron Brown envisions the ‘inner critic,’ (the superego) it is a force that most of us accept as a necessary moral compass in our lives, but which in fact attacks us relentlessly and insidiously. Gracefully and persuasively, Brown makes the case that we literally become our own worst enemies, undermining even our most determined efforts to grow and prosper. This book offers rich and fresh insights into an aspect of inner work that is far too often neglected, and also sets out systematic ways to break free of the prison of judgment-both of ourselves and of others.”
—Tony Schwartz, author of What Really Matters
The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram
Available at Booktopia.
“In very clear and available language, this book details how to recognize the inner critic and how to deal effectively with it. Byron Brown’s presentation is useful for any individual who wishes to be free from the inner suffering and coercion of this ancient foe of our humanity, but it is specifically directed to those interested and engaged in the inner journey toward realization and enlightenment.”
—A. H. Almaas
The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues: Finding Your Way Home
The popular author of The Spiritual Dimension of the Enneagram elucidates the most intractable pitfalls of our psyches and shows how our understanding of them can lead us to our highest virtues.
The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues illuminates human experience beyond the functions of personality. Using the spiritual psychology of the enneagram, Sandra Maitri highlights two core aspects of human consciousness: the passions and the virtues.
The passions are the ego-driven emotional states that come to dominate our lives, such as anger, pride, and fear. Discovering and understanding the passions in an experiential way can lead us to what lies beyond the personality itself. As we do, the virtues which include serenity, humility, and courage naturally arise to support our unfoldment. This giving way from the passions to the virtues is one of the hallmarks of inner development.
In this second book on the enneagram by Sandra Maitri, she succeeds again, and in a more effective way, in showing how the enneagram is more than anything else a tool for inner transformation. She achieves this in a new way, one that illuminates the basic and subtle aspects on the path of transformation.
Available at Booktopia.
“In very clear and available language, this book details how to recognize the inner critic and how to deal effectively with it. Byron Brown’s presentation is useful for any individual who wishes to be free from the inner suffering and coercion of this ancient foe of our humanity, but it is specifically directed to those interested and engaged in the inner journey toward realization and enlightenment.”
—A. H. Almaas
Has your curiosity and inquisitiveness been sparked? Explore, our Glossary of Spiritual Wisdom.
Understand more about the teaching of the Diamond Approach path by delving into our glossary of key concepts. Each concept is referenced to the publications of A.H. Almaas.
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