THE DIAMOND APPROACH

The Diamond Approach is both an understanding of our deepest human nature and a path to realizing and developing our fullest potential. It provides a precise method for inner work. This understanding incorporates modern psychological insights and offers effective practices for self-realization. Furthermore, it encourages us to live our realizations in our everyday lives. Most of all, the Diamond Approach is a path for living as real, fulfilled, free, and mature human beings.

The Diamond Approach has been developed and described by Hameed Ali, better known by his pen-name, A. H. Almaas, and it is taught through the Ridhwan School. Find descriptions of the Diamond Approach at these links.

• Go here for information on Almaas and his work.
• In particular, there are a number of interviews and articles about Almaas and the Diamond Approach in popular magazines on his website.
• I might recommend starting with the interview by Richard Smoley from Gnosis, 1992, and
• the more recent Diamond Approach description by Almaas himself.
• You can also read a review of a recent book by Almaas, The Inner Journey Home: Soul's Realization of the Unity of Reality, written by Tim Sullivan and myself for Common Ground, Vancouver, BC. Go here for books and recordings by Almaas.
• My book on the Diamond Approach is an overview of its central concepts with sections by Almaas. You can read the Introduction, Chapter One, and Epilogue here.

My book on the Diamond Approach (published by Shambhala Publications, 1999) is a systematic overview of its main concepts and teachings. Each chapter includes my descriptions of an element of the Diamond Approach and selections from the writings of Almaas. Go here for more information on The Diamond Approach: An Introduction to the Teachings of A. H. Almaas.

• Go here to read the Introduction to this book.
• Go here to read a selection from Chapter One (The Orientation of the Diamond Approach).
• Go here to read the Epilogue (The Flame of the Search, Guidance, and the Love of Truth).

You can purchase the book from Shambhala Publications or other online sources. This book has been translated into German, Dutch, and Spanish editions.

The Diamond Approach Vancouver group, which I co-teach with Joyce Lyke, began in 2003, with a second group starting in January, 2006. Introductory events are now being held in preparation for the start of a third group sometime in 2008. The group meets five or six times a year for three-day weekends in Vancouver, BC, in addition to smaller inquiry groups and an annual retreat with Almaas. Go here for information on this group.

From time to time, I teach workshops and retreats on special topics from the perspective of the Diamond Approach. These include a weekend workshop on life transitions and teachings on nature and the Diamond Approach.

I also co-teach a group in the Diamond Heart Retreats program and some of the small groups in the Colorado Ridhwan School. These groups are now closed to new members.

Go here for information on other Diamond Approach groups.

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

For many years, I have been exploring the interface of the Diamond Approach and the natural world. These two paths, and their integration, have informed my work with wilderness rites of passage and vision fasts (go to my page on wilderness work) and my work with ecopsychology (go to my page on ecopsychology). I am guiding a wilderness retreat based on this material, Diamond in the Rough, sponsored by the School of Lost Borders. Go here for more background on the Diamond Approach, nature, and ecopsychology.

Naropa University
SPRING Semester Online Course

DIAMOND APPROACH (PSYT 514e)

This 15-week online course introduces the main insights and concepts of the Diamond Approach and the practice of inquiry, the central method of the Diamond Approach. Online audio and text lectures are supplemented by personal explorations, experiential exercises, online discussions, and live online chats.

We create a community of learners in the class to support the learning process. While this class is not a substitute for work with a Diamond Approach teacher or group, it will give students a taste, and a better understanding, of the Diamond Approach. In our past teaching, we have found the online environment to be remarkably effective for these purposes.

The course is taught by John Davis, PhD, and Candace Harris, MA. Both John and Candace are ordained teachers of the Diamond Approach as well as university faculty members.

This course may be taken for graduate or undergraduate credit or as a non-credit course. For more information, go to the course description.