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And I want to put you in direct touch with the beating pulse of it as it continues to grow and flourish as a living teaching. The Jeweled Path covers mainly the first fifteen years or so of the path’s unfolding, referring only briefly in the last two chapters to the two and a half decades that followed. I chose to focus on what kinds of processes and dynamics were involved in the emergence of the Diamond Approach and its initial stages of development instead of detailing the content of the teaching and the path in full. In the course of our journey, we moved through many endings, many deaths. Along the way, specific turning points marked distinct passages to new realms of consciousness, exposing radical shifts in perception and the experience of reality. Each one revealed even more of the mystery of Being, giving birth to a continuing series of transformations of our sense of self. And every experience opened the way to a deeper understanding of True Nature without dismissing what had come before. An elegant system was divulging itself, presenting its wisdom for the road inward by reorienting our minds, hearts, bodies, and souls. Step by step, we followed.
Although a great deal of understanding and synthesis occurred spontaneously as the experiences were revealing themselves, much of what developed into the formal teaching was synthesized, systematized, and refined in hindsight by looking back at the copious notes that Hameed made along the way in his journals. The thoroughness of his record keeping is remarkable. Tracking the detailed, interlacing threads of our processes would have been impossible without them. Rereading those journals as I wrote this book gave me the opportunity to follow the timeline of the teaching as it displayed itself through our experiences. I saw relationships between segments of the teaching I’d never noticed before, and when Hameed and I discussed them, new details of the teaching were unpacked.
Thirteen of his books are edited transcriptions of new teachings, which are given mainly at his yearly Asilomar retreats. The first nine books were published under his own imprint, which he named Diamond Books. Beginning with Spacecruiser Inquiry: True Guidance for the Inner Journey in 2002, Shambhala Publications took over the publications of his books.
It is replete with the difficulties and delights of moving into the deep unknown. It is also a tale of friendship and spiritual
companionship, of life, adventure, mystery, and the beauty of the invisible world manifesting its secrets. Of course, mine is only one voice, one vantage point, among many.
1 The Journey Begins
Mild-mannered, introverted, quiet, but not acquiescent—that is how Hameed saw himself. A mentally autonomous young man, he actively questioned his teachers and was never satisfied with the party line. If something didn’t make sense to him, he persistently questioned it and would not take anyone else’s answer as the answer. He often challenged biblical stories and images of God that were in the Qur’an. When presented with God as a being who punishes the bad and takes revenge for wrongs committed, he thought to himself, “God can’t be that way—it doesn’t fit with who God is supposed to be.” His mind, already capable of operating in the spiritual sphere, took on the logical, scientific approach to the exploration of physical and metaphysical realms that he would apply all throughout his life.
Loving the truth was the beacon he would follow, and it eventually became one of the central precepts of the Diamond Approach—the love of truth for its own sake. While mind is a necessary instrument for discerning and synthesis, the heart lights the way to uncharted territory and enables one to feel and know with intimate immediacy. The two work as one to charter the inner realms, much like the mariner’s astrolabe. The heart provides the sense of direction toward the innermost reality; the mind contributes its gift through its capacity for discrimination and understanding in the wake of experience.
The strength he expressed was much needed to address the participants’ issues, which were usually laden with heavy challenges. Yet he was sufficiently at home in himself to let his heart show.
We fell into a feedback loop that parlayed the energy of exchange into a shared journey of discovery. Our mutual lack of self-consciousness spiced by an inquisitive interest formed the right conditions for our tête-à-têtes to evolve into multifold inner-life adventures.
AI Summary
The Jeweled Path by Karen Johnson presents key insights from the Diamond Approach tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
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Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
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