The Passionate Love for Truth
issue 64 CADUCEUS
AH Almaas is widely respected for his powerful path of inquiry
which integrates psychology and spirit in the quest for
our true nature.
He is interviewed by Dina Glouberman.
Western psychological and psychotherapeutic ideas have
developed almost entirely without any understanding or appreciation
of our spiritual heritage. On the other hand, spiritual
traditions have tended to ignore the life of the mind and
how it gets in the way of the spirit. The result is that
we have psychological understanding which fails to free
our hearts, and spiritual understanding which can rarely
penetrate our psychological barriers.
Over the last 27 years AH Almaas, a Kuwaiti teacher based
in San Francisco, has pioneered a way of inquiring into
the truth of our experience
which cuts through these traditional barriers between the
realms of psychology and spirituality. Almaas calls the
body of practices he has built up ‘the Diamond Approach’
and has created the Ridhwan School to make it available
to students. So far 78 teachers have been trained, and courses
are running in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and for
the last three years – England.
Almaas’ form of inquiry is extraordinarily powerful
because it does not start out from any preconceptions other
than a love of the truth, an openness to whatever is arising
in our experience and a willingness to question and explore
what we find there. Inquiry draws on our natural capacity
to discriminate – to tell fear from excitement, for
example – so that we gradually become able to objectively
understand ourselves. As we can encompass more and more
of our experience, we begin to see how much of it is generated
from images and mental representations from the past that
we have been deeply identified with. When we can recognize
these images for what they are (simply mental representations
of who we took ourselves to be in relation to the world)
so we begin to be able to relax out of all the ways our
mind has learned to define us.
It is this process that was often so difficult to journey
through in traditional spiritual practices, lacking as they
did Almaas’ contemporary understanding of how the
ego develops and how it gets stuck. With sincerity and dedication
it becomes possible to see through these images and recover
the natural potentials of the heart that got confused with
them. As this happens, what is immediate, unconditioned,
and essential in our nature is revealed. By learning to
recognize these essential qualities, our true nature guides
us to directly know and live the richness and mystery
of life in all its dimensions.
Dina Glouberman: What is the central issue which you feel
most passionate about?
Almaas: The passion is really about what we call truth,
truth in the sense that the whole work is based on the passionate
love for truth, like wanting to know passionately, not from
a mental perspective
but from the depth of the heart, what we are, what is living,
what is reality, what is the point of our life. So really
the whole work is a deep experiential inquiry into those
questions.
How does this relate to your life experience?
It is the center of my life. The passion of love for truth
is not only about inquiring into our experience and life
but at some point it begins to reveal the deeper, essential
and spiritual truth.
When this reveals itself at any moment, what happens to
you inside?
A sense of freedom, a sense of authenticity, the feeling
that this is what I am, the sense of waking up to reality
from a dream: oh here’s reality – I didn’t
see it before – and a sense of fullness of presence.
Do you feel joyful?
It can be joyful, happy ecstatic, but it also can be deep
and contented. It changes according to the situation.
People say the truth hurts. Is that not your experience?
It is very true – when we explore the truth we find
many truths that hurt or are very frightening, but the passion
of recognizing the truth brings a sense of integrity and
sincerity that is very satisfying. And there is a sense
of maturity to it. Then the deeper truth is more of a sense
of liberation and fulfillment, not painful. But that’s
why we need the passionate love for the truth: if we didn’t
love it enough it would be hard to stay with it.
Do people who study with you share this love, or do they
come to share it?
Some come with some of that love and some develop it. It
is natural for the human being to love the truth, but we
are not always aware of that; it is natural, but it needs
to be awakened. It can be awakened and developed. It’s
important to recognize that the truth we talk of is not
intellectual truth but the truth of experience. As we inquire
it becomes deeper and deeper until it becomes the depths
of existence.
You talk of inquiry, which is a method you use a lot.
What is special about it?
It is not any inquiry, but the development of the Socratic
method. Socrates started that way of asking questions
where he takes the position ‘I don’t know what
is the reality, but I would love to find out’. The
mind has to be completely open. No position. In the scientific
sense you don’t know what you will find out, but you
need to find out as clearly as possible.
I have developed it so it has many parts. At the beginning
is the openness of not
knowing, and second the passion of love to know. It
has to be heartfelt. The third thing is a playful curiosity.
Someone might love the truth but they might not be curious,
so nothing will happen. The curiosity brings the playfulness
and the experimental attitude. The fourth thing needs to
be a steadfastness, a determination not to buckle in the
face of difficulties. And the other thing is courage and
boldness of heart because the truth is painful.
There are many kinds of truth. What would you say is central
to the kind of truth you talk about?
It is similar to science but it is applied to our personal
experience; to our feelings, our actions, our emotions,
our dreams. It is very intimate and personal.
For example, if I feel myself sad, first I need to be aware
of sad, then what am I sad about? After that I keep answering
the question until at some point I recognize that I am missing
something or have lost something and that will reveal some
kind of emptiness. The emptiness will show that we are sad
or hurt or angry because there is something that we intuitively
feel we should be experiencing that we are not experiencing,
and usually it is a sense of value
or love or acceptance
or strength. We continue to explore this emptiness instead
of trying to fill it. We embrace it. And as we explore the
emptiness, the emptiness begins to reveal why those qualities
are missing, some kind of historical event that led us to
lose those qualities: perhaps in childhood we were treated
in a way that hurt our self esteem. When the emptiness reveals
the original wound and we feel it with our heart fully,
the wound brings up the actual quality that was lost. If
what we lost was a sense of self esteem or value, what will
arise is a kind of nectar of the heart. We feel it as a
sense of intrinsic value. You have to go through the emptiness
and the wound that will lead to what was lost and you begin
to recognize the quality of your being. This is not only
the sense of sweetness but also a sense of presence, the
quality of being, so the inquiry continues with this quality
itself.
The purpose is
to discover the truth of what we are. We are not trying
to repair the damage; we are following the longing of the
heart to know the truth of reality.
Not to get better. The wound is part of the teaching –
the qualities of our being get hurt or wounded in early
childhood because they were not appreciated or seen or supported,
so we cannot keep in contact with these experiences of our
being.
You have said in the past ‘The personality mimics
the soul’. Is this relevant here?
In some sense the personality
is a collapse of the soul. We develop a sense of self which
is based on our history and our mind and our beliefs while
the soul is experiencing our self as a sense of presence,
a presence of the now, the reality of the moment.
I use the word ‘soul’ in the way it was used
in the ancient Western tradition: the totality of the individual,
the totality of the inner individual – our mind, our
emotions, our spiritual nature, our will. That was Socrates’
definition. In the past few hundred years we stopped using
the word soul and started using the self. Then the soul
is the spiritual part. That is not the original meaning.
If you recognize what soul is, you can sense that personality
is the collapsed soul. It is still the soul but the soul
doesn’t recognize itself. Soul is individual consciousness.
For many people soul is the eternal part.
Yes, but people think of it as a disembodied spirit. I
am saying it is the eternal part but it is our experience
right now.
What about true nature or essence? Is that different from
soul?
The soul can be formed by our mind or our history or it
can experience itself directly in the moment. When it experiences
itself it is usually through the mind and through the personal
history – as the self or the personality, emotions
and feelings and identity and desire. However if the soul
is able to feel itself immediately, to experience itself
as a medium of awareness, a field of awareness, then this
awareness, this pure presence, is what I call true nature.
Everything has true nature. I use the word essence to mean
the true nature of the soul.
What is the most important feature of our evolution? How
would you judge whether a student or anyone you know has
evolved?
The evolution means the person is experiencing the true
nature and they are expressing it in their lives. True nature
is not just pure awareness. It is also the source of clarity,
of love, of passion, of humility, maturity, responsibility,
intelligence.
To live it is to express those qualities.
What about people who have these qualities but are not
on the spiritual path?
To be evolved I also need to know my true nature. To act
well in the world is one of the stages of the evolution
of the soul.
How about a person who is aware of soul and behaves badly
– what does that tell you?
Just because we know our true nature, it doesn’t
mean we have worked out all of our unconscious motivations.
That’s why the work has to be from both sides: working
with the psychological and unconscious motivations, and
at the same time connecting with the spiritual nature.
Connected to what you are saying about the split between
the personality and the soul, many spiritual teachers do
not help people to deal with their emotional being.
That is the traditional Eastern tradition. That is why
I integrate psychology. Neither is complete without the
other. That is what is new. The method we use integrates
the two in a very organic way.
How do you get your insights? What is the process? Often
spiritual teachers teach a process which is not what they
use.
I teach the process which I use, the inquiry. That is how
I get the insights. It started for me with the love for
truth. I just want to know what is going on. I don’t
care about the results. This opens up a whole new way of
working. The true love for the truth is selfless. It doesn’t
want anything. Like when you truly love somebody you are
not wanting to get anything from it.
Speaking of love, does this make it difficult to live
with you?
It depends. I’ve been married for 25 years. My wife
says she likes it. But it is true that I am a stickler for
the truth – in myself, but also in the other. I like
to know who the other really is.
You have to choose your partners well!
I also choose my students well: those who really want to
know the truth.
What role do you see your students playing in the world,
and what role does your work have in the general transformation
of culture and consciousness. What is the larger service?
There are two levels. The first level, the basic level,
by helping people open up, wake up to their true nature,
they become sources of clarity, love and good will that
is genuine. And that is contagious. The other level is that
as the person wakes up to their true nature, they take responsibility
for their lives, they begin to see what is their role in
society, what is their contribution, and then they become
clear and dedicated to making their contribution. They recognize
they have a destiny.
Does everyone have a destiny?
Everybody has a destiny. True nature, the nature of our
soul, which is the nature of the universe, and of intelligence,
has its own evolutionary
force, and it manifests through individuals. The clearer
we are, the more awake we are to this true nature, the more
the true nature expresses itself directly, clearly and without
distortion. True nature expresses with each individual and
we see that as our destiny.
Some people find their destiny is to become healers; some
find their destiny turns out to do with conflict resolution;
some find their destiny is to be authentic and human in
the business community. It changes. Everyone is different.
True nature is preparing them for a job to do.
Let me use myself as an example. When I was younger I
was serving in a thousand different ways: I started centers
I did therapy, I taught, I was an important force in people’s
lives. I was also in many ways unhappy and undeveloped in
myself. So my soul directed me in these directions where
I did a lot of good, but I was still quite unhappy. Now
that I’ve let go of a lot of that, I’m going
more into the nature of my true self but in an external
sense I do less for the world. What is this subtle contribution
that we make by being who we are?
The more we are ourselves, the good we do has a different
effect, a more subtle effect. My history – I was a
physicist and a mathematician and I thought I would end
up teaching in the university. As it turns out it was all
to train my mind for my destiny as a teacher. We have to
look at it from the point of view of true nature. True nature
has its own love, its own intelligence and its own will
to bring into the world its own qualities – freedom,
authenticity, love, truth. As we learn about ourselves,
we allow true nature to manifest this and we help others
to manifest true nature too. When we come from true nature
we find out what is true help. What Buddha said in the Diamond
Sutra was that you can help as many people as there is sand
on the beach but that doesn’t compare to helping one
person to find the truth.
Is there something else we are doing by being more true
that is not about helping individuals?
By bringing out our true potential
we help bring out the potential of humanity and the potential
of the earth. Humanity needs to mature to be full human
beings.
If I manifest my true nature and never speak to anyone
again, will I still make that contribution?
You will, but you will do more by working with people,
not sitting on a mountain.
Do you think that when you teach, it is the content or
your presence which is most important?
Presence is most important, but the content is done in
such a way as to communicate the presence. The content will
help the person deal with their mind, how to relate to their
experience. I am teaching them how to inquire, how to be
themselves. The presence gives them a taste but the taste
does not eliminate the conditioning.
What do you mean by the mind? Many people have said we
should let go of the mind.
By mind, I mean what people are aware of. The mind as we
know it, just like our personality, is the limitation, the
collapse of the soul. So inquiry will open up the real mind.
The mind is part of what you are. You can’t get rid
of it. In my latest book, I go into detail about relating
our normal mind with the spiritual ground and show how they
are really part of the same thing. This is an idea we used
to have in the West. It was Plato’s approach.
Some people say that love and compassion is everything.
You put truth first. Does the love come naturally?
As I recognize my true nature as light, it has many qualities
and these qualities include love and compassion. This is
true for everyone. If true nature is not loving and compassionate,
it is not true nature. And it must be in a selfless way.
The soul is experiencing our self as a presence of the now,
the reality of the moment
Was there a turning point when your destiny revealed itself?
There were many turning points, different junctions, but
one of the most significant ones was recognition
of true nature, that pure presence. I already had experienced
true nature, but there came a time when I was in an inquiry
and working with the question of duality and there was a
gap between me and true nature and I finally recognized
that that gap was only in the mind and it was not real.
That is when true nature manifested as myself, as presence
and timeless. That was the most important moment. It was
a realization of being the true nature and the true nature
recognizing itself.
Do you experience this all the time?
Yes. I experience true nature all the time.
I feel some of the emotional things – they come and
go, they decrease in intensity and frequency and the sense
of presence becomes more and more dominant. It is always
there – that is what it means to be realized.
How is that different from being enlightened?
Enlightened is not only realizing the presence but being
totally free of the collapsed mind so that there are no
more reactions. That is much rarer. I have never met anyone
like that – the closest person is the Dalai Llama,
but he is not completely enlightened. There are different
degrees of realization. One can be oneself but there can
be limitations. With no limitations at all, we are enlightened.
I am not free from all limitations.
Can you think of one last thing you would like to say
to me?
When we talk about the truth, it is not some universal
disembodied truth. It is very personal, very intimate. When
we find our own personal truth, there is an intimacy in
it. We have to feel personally intimate with this truth
for it to be real and to work. It is not an abstract and
impersonal kind of inquiry. Everything I say, I feel personally
in my heart. My mind learns it after the fact.
Inquire into your love of truth.
Contemplate your heart to see whether you feel love for
truth.
If you do, then what do you find limiting it?
And, if you do not, then what is in the way of this love,
since it is natural for the human heart to love truth?
It is important that you answer these questions for yourself
with how you feel, and not what you think. It is an inquiry
into your love of truth.
Give yourself 15 minutes to sit with and reflect on these
questions and any associated insights that arise. You
can do this either verbally or through journaling, alone
or with fellow explorers. If you do it with others, it
is important that they just listen to you in silence,
simply supporting you by being present.
Dina Glouberman is an author, lecturer and co-founder/director
of Skyras holistic holidays.
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