282. Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) – 2nd Interview

A. H. AlmaasA. Hameed Ali was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the USA to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him more and more into inquiring into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature.

Hameed’s interest in the truth of human nature and the true nature of reality resulted in the creation and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach®:

“The Diamond Approach is a path of wisdom, an approach to the investigation of Reality and work on oneself that leads to human maturity and liberation. Because of our particular vision of Reality it is not completely accurate to think of this approach as spiritual work, for this work does not separate the spiritual from the psychological, neither does it see these two as separate from the physical everyday life and scientific investigation of the content of perception. However, because we live in a society where the prevailing thought is that of the separated facets of Reality, the closest category recognized in this mentality, to our approach, is that of a spiritual path or exploration.”

Some of Hameed’s many books:

Website: ahalmaas.com

Transcript of this interview

1st interview with Hameed

Hameed Ali and Karen Johnson on nondual relationships

Interview recorded 3/15/2015

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to “Runaway Realization”
  • 00:04:24 – The Journey to Realization
  • 00:08:36 – Different Paths of Realization
  • 00:12:45 – Perception of Reality and Different Experiences
  • 00:17:04 – The Individual Being and its Intrinsic Reality
  • 00:21:16 – The Enlightenment Drive and its Relationship to Instinctual Drives
  • 00:25:30 – Aligning Humanity with True Nature
  • 00:29:18 – The Emphasis of Vajrayana and Tibetan Buddhism
  • 00:33:17 – The Manifestation of Grace and the Illusion of Separate Self
  • 00:37:48 – The Illusion of Separateness and Development of Consciousness
  • 00:42:14 – Different Ways of Manifesting Reality
  • 00:46:15 – The Two Conditions of Freedom
  • 00:50:05 – The Endless Process of Actualization
  • 00:54:15 – The Development of Faculties and Expressing Realization
  • 00:58:33 – The Process of Realization and Integration
  • 01:02:01 – Removing the Barrier of Goal-Oriented Thinking
  • 01:05:28 – The Freedom of Being and Views
  • 01:09:40 – The Beginning of Fundamentalism
  • 01:14:09 – Total Being and Non-Linearity of Time
  • 01:18:13 – The Concept of Time and Timelessness
  • 01:22:14 – The Subtlety of Motivation in Spiritual Practice
  • 01:26:20 – The Practice of Living Life
  • 01:30:25 – The Individual and the Whole Universe
  • 01:34:14 – Interpenetration of Time and Space
  • 01:38:20 – The nature of reality and our creative potential
  • 01:42:30 – The Fine Gradations of Pure Presence
  • 01:46:22 – The Nature of Consciousness and Knowing
  • 01:51:00 – The Knowingness and Being
  • 01:55:02 – The purpose of creation and the expansion of happiness
  • 01:59:00 – Concluding Remarks & Future Interviews
  • 02:02:06 – Next Week’s Guest: Vasant Swaha