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Author: [[A. H. Almaas]] Full Title: Diamond Heart Category: #books Realization of Being is not simply realization of the true self, but also realization of reality—of primordial true nature, more fundamental than the realms of form and mind. The second theme in Indestructible Innocence is the movement to and exploration of this nonconceptual realm. This is the dimension of Being “beyond form,” in which there is pure awareness with no conceptual content. This dimension is a radical departure from the perspective of egoic reality, and even from the view of manifest Being as fundamental ground, which arises as various essential qualities. Almaas conveys vividly the quality of awareness that Krishnamurti called “freedom from the known”—awareness unfiltered by concepts. It is this “empty” awareness that is most often associated with Buddhism, particularly Zen. This part of Indestructible Innocence clarifies the similarity between the Diamond Approach and other spiritual traditions in relation to the basic dimensions of reality that are experienced on this path. One of the greatest puzzles for the serious student of spiritual disciplines arises from the encounter with the realm of pure awareness, usually accompanied by a perception of emptiness of the self or of the world previously seen as solid. Here there is great wonderment, and sometimes concern. What does this insight mean about the world of forms? What does it mean about the spiritual world, and about the realm of Essence? Almaas begins in Chapter Sixteen to clarify the ontological status of the essential qualities of Being and of the human soul which he has discussed in his previous work. These qualities are universal concepts or noetic forms which can be known as objective forms not constructed by the personal mind, just as the forms of the physical world are not determined by the individual mind, although they are recognized through the construction of concepts. Until the realm of these forms is understood, the experience of many practitioners seems to present a dichotomy or dualism between mental structures (which are seen as unreal) and basic nature, which is seen as the real and also as completely nonconceptual. ONE Clarification of Personality My perception of what happens with people who claim to have lost their personality totally and spontaneously is that there often remains a split-off or suppressed part which will manifest as a distortion or a lack of integration. This means that there has been an essential realization, but the realization has not clarified the personality. It is, rather, a state of transcendence of the ego personality. If the personality is abandoned rather than integrated, the totality of life cannot be lived. We can look at the process of realization from the perspective of transcendence or from the perspective of embodiment. When people talk about getting rid of the ego, they’re talking about a transcendent experience. It is possible to transcend the personality or the ego, or even physical existence. However, there is a more difficult process which leads to the state of embodiment of reality. Rather than simply transcending the personality or physical existence, this state involves actually embodying essential existence in one’s life. This is what is sometimes called death and rebirth; death is transcendence and the rebirth is embodiment. Human life is not complete until the realization can be integrated into every aspect of you, so that all elements of you are in harmony and have an understanding of the situation. If one part of you is alienated, rejected or split away, the integration is not yet complete. It seems that the best thing we could do would be to obliterate it, to wage spiritual warfare, inner guerrilla warfare. In fact, many stages of the Work do feel like a kind of warfare. But successful warfare doesn’t mean destruction of the enemy; it leads, rather, to the annexation of the territory. This is often the original reason for warfare; it is actually a movement towards expansion rather than destruction.

AI Summary

Diamond Heart-3 by A. H. Almaas presents wisdom from the contemplative traditions.

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