What Is The Diamond Approach?
We long to find meaning and fulfillment in our lives, to find inner peace, and to know the truth of who we are. Access to our fundamental nature, to the essence of who we are, is what the Diamond Approach (DA) facilitates. The DA was developed by A.H. Almaas. It is a spiritual path that grew out of and in response to the needs of seekers leading ordinary lives in our contemporary cultures. The Diamond Approch bridges the traditional dichotomies of the psychological and the spiritual, body and the soul, the sublime and the mundane. Timeless spiritual insight together with contemporary psychological understanding enables us to address the obstacles to realization unique to our time, place, culture, and personality. Rather than viewing the ego or personality as an enemy to be overcome or transcended, the Diamond Approach works with our psychological structure in such a way that it is metabolized though direct understanding, thus becoming increasingly more transparent and less real experientially.

Central to this work is the practice of presence and inquiry. By sensing into our direct experience and exploring its contents, including the various structures of our ego and the personal history that put them in place, students of the Diamond Approach discover doorways to our essential nature. This openness to our experience creates a field of awareness necessary for the expansion and revelation of ever more subtle dimensions of reality that have traditionally been available only to the few.

In the course of this on-going work, we will investigate how True Nature reveals Itself, its characteristics, and the compensatory movements of the ego structure, which veil the truth of Being. Unique and central to the Diamond Approach is its emphasis on the personal aspects of spiritual reality, in a way that is different from most spiritual paths. This process honors, supports, and develops the uniqueness of each individual to their fullest potential. Beingness in our own personal, human form becomes a stepping stone from ordinary consciousness to the transcendent oneness of spiritual reality. This path supports students to live in the world while being aware of their deepest nature, living a life in the world but not of it.

The Diamond Approach is taught through a combination of evocative lectures, experiential exercises designed to enable group members to contact the material within themselves, process work in smaller groups, private sessions, and meditation periods.

More Resources

The Diamond Approach is offered in groups throughout the world through the Ridhwan School. A 6-CD introduction by Almaas is also available through Sounds True.

Click here to read more articles about the Diamond Approach.

To listen to an interview with teacher Sandra Maitri about the Diamond Approach, click here to visit the Coaches Rising website. Scroll down to Sign Me Up! for a free download of the interview.

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Testimonials

"I am an ordained SEEKER who needs to look no further. The liberation has arrived and it is called the Diamond Approach. Forty plus years of searching have brought me to this place, to this home for my ancient wounds. The tears of sadness, grief and joy set me free to my true nature." – Harriett Simon Salinger LCSW, MCC

"The Diamond Approach has provided a deep support for me in my spiritual growth. I am constantly amazed at how down-to-earth and practical the teachings are. The teachings, inquiry practices, and the teachers have helped me work through and move beyond many difficult issues in my life. I love this work and would recommend it to anyone who wants a hands-on approach to deepening their spiritual path and understanding themselves better." – Steve Matheson

"I did not expect that the Diamond Approach work would be such a profound and life changing experience. I am so grateful to the teachers for bringing this work to Los Angeles. I wish I could put into words what has happened for me and to me this year. I expected my meditation practice one day to reveal the experience and meaning of the Heart Sutra, but was stunned that the DA inquiry process, not the meditation practice opened a true window into the meaning of emptiness. I know I am only at the beginning of a deep understanding, but the depth and beauty of this experience is so precious. I guess we all wait lifetimes for something like this. I am truly grateful for the Diamond Approach, now understanding this work is the "work" we get to do if we are lucky enough to do it." – A Diamond Approach LA student

"The Diamond Approach has had a profoundly positive impact on my life! I had been involved in spiritual and personal growth practices and philosophies for 40 years before I found this down-to-earth, practical and truly effective way of transforming my personal issues and difficulties into a very satisfying relationship with myself, with others and my world. I am finally enjoying my life just as it is and feeling more myself than I have ever been. I recommend this adventure as a Diamond Approach student to anyone who is serious about inner transformation and penetrating the great mystery that is our human life." – Julie Ann Matheson