Ep. 209 (Part 2 of 3) | In Part 2 of the 15th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali delves into the very creation of reality by the logos, the source of all life. Logos (an ancient Greek term) is often considered to mean “word,” but Hameed uses it in its deeper sense, where logos is not only the word but also the speaker—the living field of manifestation. The soul is very similar to the logos, Hameed adds, with the same sense of flow, dynamism, and creativity. Hameed points out that the universe could have been created haphazardly, but because it was created in an orderly fashion, it allows for our lives to be meaningful. And, he continues, it is the dimension of love implicit in the logos that brings a beautiful sense of harmony, love, and gratitude to the human soul.

What about all the disharmony in the world? co-host Roger Walsh asks. How can genocide happen in a world that is divinely harmonious? To help explain this, Hameed uses the human body as an example of two perspectives that co-exist: from the perspective of time, we die, he says, but from the perspective of the particle, all is perfect. Hameed also describes his personal experience of being aligned with the creative dynamism of the logos, creating himself and the world anew each moment, like the way frames in a movie are constantly being replaced. The more we live this, he says, the more we bring harmony to the world. Join us also for Part 3 of this deep and intriguing dive into the nature of reality, where Hameed continues to talk about creative dynamism and the logos, and explains how this pertains to our own individual spiritual evolution. Recorded September 11, 2025.

“For the divine all is harmony, but for us human beings, it looks like mayhem.”

• The soul is very similar to the logos, with the same sense of flow, dynamism & creativity (00:42)
• Quantum theory says the field is generated by physical phenomena—but the logos is created out of spiritual mass, it’s the living field of manifestation (01:25)
• The universe is alive and the logos is the source of all life (05:25)
• Creative dynamism is a nondual dynamism that brings order to the universe; this creative order is what makes our lives meaningful (05:50)
• An intelligence has created the universe so that it knows itself (09:42)
• All forms in the nondual are basically noetic forms, and the logos is an unfoldment of these forms (11:30)
• If the dimension of love is implicit in the logos, it brings a beautiful sense of harmony, love & gratitude to the human soul (12:35)
• What about all the disharmony in the world? For the divine all is harmony, but for us human beings, it looks like mayhem (13:24)
• Take the example of the human body: from the perspective of time we die, from the perspective of the particle it’s all perfect (14:47)
• Hameed’s experience of creating himself and the world each moment (17:01)
• The dualistic world is not an illusion; it’s one way the logos manifests reality (21:18)
• Direct transmission: the Black Hat Ceremony of the 16th Karmapa (22:30)
• In the Diamond Approach, transmission happens through words; the word is not separate from the state (25:59)
• The word transmission is a misnomer; it’s a direct invocation (28:53)

• A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond Approach
• A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home: Soul’s Realization of the Unity of Reality
• Federico Faggin, Italian-American physicist, engineer, inventor
• The Great Perfection, Center for Contemplative Research
• Advaita Vedanta
• Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa, the Black Hat Ceremony

The A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series will generally follow the sequence of Hameed’s magnum opus, The Inner Journey Home (which John describes as psychoactive and spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually transformative), so listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this exhilarating path of awakening.

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Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the essential nature of human experience and reality in general.

Hameed’s process of exploration led to the creation of the Ridhwan School and, with his colleague Karen Johnson, resulted in the founding and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach. He is the author of 20 books, including Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, and more.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 208 (Part 1 of 3) | In Part 1 of the 15th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali enlightens us about the dynamic, creative force that generates our reality. “Dynamism is constant,” Hameed explains, “it never stops—it is constantly creating what we experience, what we perceive.” Hameed calls this nondual dimension of true nature—of our nature—creative dynamism. How do you explain change, he asks, if it’s not happening in time, and all of reality is one fabric, nondual? The dynamism Hameed speaks of, ongoing and total, has a radical implication: the entire universe is re-created, instant by instant. Not only the physical dimension, Hameed adds, but all dimensions—mental, emotional, and spiritual—are re-created anew.

As co-host Roger Walsh points out, Hameed’s teachings come from direct experience, and Hameed describes his own mind-blowing experience of the moment-by-moment re-creation of himself and the world in Part 2 of this dialogue. Nothing persists, he discovers, movement is not continual. In Part 1, Hameed also explores the subjects of free will, action, and choice as addressed from a nondual perspective, and the fact that we and our actions emerge from the totality of reality. As always, Hameed transmits his joy and exuberance at the mysterious and marvelous ways true nature expresses itself, and it is exciting to realize our own nature is as dynamic, creative, flowing and changing, as the universe. Recorded September 11, 2025.

“All of reality is part of one unified fabric, so what does it mean when a bird flies from one place to another?”

• Introducing dialogue #15 in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, focusing on the chapter “Logos & Creative Dynamism” in 
• The Inner Journey Home (01:11)
• How do other spiritual traditions explain change? (03:05)
• Opening to the fact that our true nature has dynamism and flow (05:51)
• Where does the word the "logos" come from? (07:07)
• Radical dynamism: the entire universe is re-created, instant by instant (09:58)
• Replacement: reality is replaced each instant, just like in the movies when one screen replaces the last (13:13)
• Not just the physical dimension, but all dimensions—mental, emotional & spiritual—are created anew (18:51)
• Free will, action, choice addressed from a nondual perspective (21:15)
• We need to acknowledge our choice-making capacity and the fact that we and our actions are emerging from the totality of reality (24:49)
• Dynamism shows we don’t need the “doer”—the universe is what “does” (27:09)
• The teaching of transitoriness (30:20)
• Each soul is a ripple in the ocean, a part of what is being constantly recreated (30:49)

• A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond Approach
• A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home: Soul’s Realization of the Unity of Reality
• Advaita Vedanta
• Dzogchen
• Mahamudra
• Kashmir Shaivism
• The Sufi doctrine of “Renewing of Creation at each instant,” Introduction to Sufi Doctrine, chapter 10 (pdf)
• Logos

The A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series will generally follow the sequence of Hameed’s magnum opus, The Inner Journey Home (which John describes as psychoactive and spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually transformative), so listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this exhilarating path of awakening.

---

Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the essential nature of human experience and reality in general.

Hameed’s process of exploration led to the creation of the Ridhwan School and, with his colleague Karen Johnson, resulted in the founding and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach. He is the author of 20 books, including Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, and more.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 207 (Part 2 of 2) | In this extraordinary, compelling conversation, visionary, activist, and long-time politician, former Governor of California Jerry Brown gets right to the heart of the things that matter most. From truth seeking on an individual level (the importance of inquiring into the depths of our reality), to the challenge of our democracy (getting a consensus in a population that has no coherence), to the problem of leadership (now it’s all about winning, which works on the football field but not for international relations), the fear and greed that drive the arms race (we’re not talking about the arms issue, and to not talk about it is to be complicit), and the existential danger of nuclear war (as important as it is underreported), Jerry nails the essence of our most pressing issues. 

Jerry’s deep concern about the existential threats we face today, such as nuclear war and climate change, is matched by his enthusiasm for life and excitement over the fact that the future is unknowable. “We have to turn,” he says, “and everyone can contribute to amplifying the turn.” We discover some of the key formative events that shaped Jerry’s keenly discerning character, so evident throughout his career and still today in his eighties, and why co-host Roger Walsh describes him as a “force of nature.” This conversation is thoroughly enjoyable, inspirational, eye opening, and disturbing too. “We are on the brink, but no one wants to hear it,” Jerry says. “How do you speak the truth in a way it can be heard?” Recorded August 7, 2025.

“The future is unknown, so don’t conclude that all is dark – or that all is bright! It’s unknown, so as long as we’re breathing and functioning, we have a lot to do.”

• Waking up with enthusiasm, excitement, and inherent appreciation (01:06)
• What is Jerry engaged in right now? (03:34)
• Roger’s summary of the global issues facing us today (05:50)
• The nuclear danger is as important as it is underreported, and the key to proliferation is fear (07:17)
• The ICBM Caucus (11:38)
• Not talking about the arms issue is to be complicit (13:52)  
• Sitting with the question, what can I do? (16:19)
• Social and political recognition of danger is so very important (18:12)
• We have to turn and everyone can contribute to amplifying the turn (19:01)
• The future is unknowable, so we do what we can (20:05)
• Living in inquiry, the quest for truth (22:44)
• Why was Jerry drawn to work for the good of the environment? (23:47)
• The Jesuit belief in eternal damnation (27:55)
• What you can derive from Zen (30:45)
• Becoming individuators on the developmental path (33:15)
• What does Jerry wish he’d known sooner? (34:49)
• There’s always more to be learned (37:29)

• Jerry Brown, Chair of the California-China Climate Institute at UC Berkeley
• Ernest Samuels, Henry Adams
• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• William Hartung & Ben Freeman, The Trillion Dollar War Machine
• Inside the ICBM Lobby: Special Interests or the Public Interest (Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft)
• Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate and political activist
• Daniel Ellsberg, political activist, economist, and U.S. military analyst
• Denis Hayes, coordinator of the first Earth Day
• St. Ignatius’ Meditations

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Jerry Brown was born in San Francisco on April 7, 1938. He was elected Trustee for the LA Community College District in 1969, California Secretary of State in 1970, and Governor of California in 1974 and 1978. After his governorship, he lectured and traveled widely, practiced law, served as chair of the California Democratic Party and ran for president. Brown was elected Mayor of Oakland in 1998, California Attorney General in 2006, and Governor again in 2010 and 2014. Brown currently serves as chair of the California-China Climate Institute at UC Berkeley, executive chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, chair of the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation Advisory Board, on the board of the Council on Criminal Justice, and as chair of the Oakland Military Institute College Preparatory Academy, one of two public charter schools he founded in Oakland more than 20 years ago.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 206 (Part 1 of 2) | In this extraordinary, compelling conversation, visionary, activist, and long-time politician, former Governor of California Jerry Brown gets right to the heart of the things that matter most. From truth seeking on an individual level (the importance of inquiring into the depths of our reality), to the challenge of our democracy (getting a consensus in a population that has no coherence), to the problem of leadership (now it’s all about winning, which works on the football field but not for international relations), the fear and greed that drive the arms race (we’re not talking about the arms issue, and to not talk about it is to be complicit), and the existential danger of nuclear war (as important as it is underreported), Jerry nails the essence of our most pressing issues. 

Jerry’s deep concern about the existential threats we face today, such as nuclear war and climate change, is matched by his enthusiasm for life and excitement over the fact that the future is unknowable. “We have to turn,” he says, “and everyone can contribute to amplifying the turn.” We discover some of the key formative events that shaped Jerry’s keenly discerning character, so evident throughout his career and still today in his eighties, and why co-host Roger Walsh describes him as a “force of nature.” This conversation is thoroughly enjoyable, inspirational, eye opening, and disturbing too. “We are on the brink, but no one wants to hear it,” Jerry says. “How do you speak the truth in a way it can be heard?” Recorded August 7, 2025.

“We should not sleep in the delusion that things are better than they are.”

• Introducing former Governor of California, Jerry Brown (00:43)
• Jerry’s Jesuit background and the transformative process (02:29)
• What shaped Jerry’s orientation to life? Growing up in a more innocent, unambiguous time in San Francisco (04:10)
• Today’s chaos and confusion is what led to the presidency of Donald Trump (10:20)
• The challenge in a democracy is getting a consensus—right now the “We” in “We the People” doesn’t have coherence (14:44)
• Today the democratic ideal is up for grabs; it’s zero-sum—all about winning, and the payoff for scapegoating is very high (15:52)
• We need an enormous amount of resources to address our problems, but using tax dollars requires a public belief and commitment that is not there (17:41)
• The doomsday clock is ticking, the dangers are growing: nuclear, bio, climate, AI, satellites & weaponry (21:42)
• Planetary realism and the need to work together: shared vulnerability needs to give rise to shared interest (26:35)
• What can we do as individuals? Where you can be helpful and human and responsive, do that (32:05)
• We are in the power of forces that a) we don’t control and b) we can’t do anything about (35:50)
• We are on the brink, but no one wants to hear it: how do you speak the truth in a way it can be heard? (36:57)
• Sitting Zazen in the face of what’s happening (39:32)
• Jesuit slogan: Do what you’re doing (age quod agis) (42:20)

• Jerry Brown, Executive Chair of the the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Jerry Brown, Chair of the California-China Climate Institute at UC Berkeley
•  The Doomsday Clock
• William (Bill) Perry, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink
• Barry McGuire song “Eve of Destruction” (1965)
• Jerry Brown, A Stark Nuclear Warning (2016 NY Times book review of William Parry’s book)
• Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
• Lawrence Langer, Holocaust scholar who criticized Viktor Frankl’s book
• Werner Erhard, “Life is empty and meaningless, and it’s empty and meaningless that it’s empty and meaningless.”
• Age quod agis, “Digging Deeper: Age Quod Agis”

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Jerry Brown was born in San Francisco on April 7, 1938. He was elected Trustee for the LA Community College District in 1969, California Secretary of State in 1970, and Governor of California in 1974 and 1978. After his governorship, he lectured and traveled widely, practiced law, served as chair of the California Democratic Party and ran for president. Brown was elected Mayor of Oakland in 1998, California Attorney General in 2006, and Governor again in 2010 and 2014. Brown currently serves as chair of the California-China Climate Institute at UC Berkeley, executive chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, chair of the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation Advisory Board, on the board of the Council on Criminal Justice, and as chair of the Oakland Military Institute College Preparatory Academy, one of two public charter schools he founded in Oakland more than 20 years ago.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 205 (Part 2 of 2) | In the fourteenth dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali explores the nonconceptual nature of the dimension of pure awareness, guiding us into the realm that lies beyond conceptual dichotomies such as being/nonbeing, being/doing, duality/nonduality, good/bad, and meaningful/meaningless. Beyond knowing, this dimension exposes and challenges conceptual polarities, and when we arrive at this level of realization we are able to trust letting go of knowingness and wake up to pure awareness. People fear annihilation at the prospect of going beyond concepts, Hameed explains, and it does lead to a death: the death of mind, the death of the doer. But even here beyond knowing, Hameed continues, the nonconceptual always operates from compassion and love. 

How do we develop a continuity of nonconceptual awareness? Roger and John wonder. One way is when knowing is integrated into being, Hameed answers. Then everything just happens; the doing is funneled through the individual. And there is another way, through developing the “pearl beyond price,” the individual, Hameed adds, but this way is rare. As co-host Roger Walsh says, this is an especially nourishing, stimulating, and intriguing discussion, with Hameed doing a beautiful job of relating how our concepts form the basis of our existence and what it means to transcend them, let go of our mind, deconstruct our perception of ourselves as the “doer,” and wake up to pure awareness. Recorded August 14, 2025.

“Conceptual dichotomies are important for the functioning of the human being, they are our building blocks… We need to recognize their usefulness—and also be able to be without them.”

• The conceptual dichotomy between good and bad (00:28)
• The nonconceptual always operates from compassion (02:31)
• Most spiritual teachings focus on the dichotomy of being/nonbeing (04:40)
• Non-knowing is a deeper realization; if you become aware of it, you wake up to pure awareness (06:00)
• Goodness is inherent; Ram Dass understood loving awareness (07:43)
• The dichotomy of duality/nonduality (11:04)
• Conceptual dichotomies are important, they are our building blocks; we need to recognize their usefulness and also be able to be without them (13:07)
• The problem comes when we believe our concepts are fundamentally true and we become locked into our separate identities (18:27)
• The dichotomy of meaningful/meaningless (19:13)
• Purpose/purposelessness and the Buddhist idea that our purpose is enlightenment (23:05)
• Time/timelessness (25:32)
• Going beyond the concept of God: the universal heretic (26:33)
• The master of knowledge: you can use the knowledge but you are not bound by it or attached to it (28:01)
• The view of totality (32:22)
• Love & compassion are inherent to all spiritual teachings (33:43)
• Living in pure awareness: the 16th Karmapa (37:45)
• Hameed, Roger & John discuss Deep Transformation guests Frank Ostaseski of Zen Hospice and former CA governor Jerry Brown (40:16)

• A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond Approach
• A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home: Soul’s Realization of the Unity of Reality
• Ram Dass & Rameshwar Das, Be Love Now: The Path of the Heart
• Dzogchen
• A. H. Almaas, Runaway Realization: Living a Life of Ceaseless Discovery
• Iain McGilchrist, psychiatrist, philosopher, neuroscientist: Channel McGilchrist
• 16th Karmapa: Interview with a Buddha
• Learning From Death and Dying: Lessons for All of Us From Zen Hospice with Frank Ostaseski (Deep Transformation podcast)
• Jerry Brown (Deep Transformation podcast coming up October 30th; we’ll add the link here when it goes live.)

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The A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series will generally follow the sequence of Hameed’s magnum opus, The Inner Journey Home (which John describes as psychoactive and spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually transformative), so listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this exhilarating path of awakening.

---

Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the essential nature of human experience and reality in general.

Hameed’s process of exploration led to the creation of the Ridhwan School and, with his colleague Karen Johnson, resulted in the founding and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach. He is the author of 20 books, including Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, and more.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 204 (Part 1 of 2) | In the fourteenth dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali explores the nonconceptual nature of the dimension of pure awareness, guiding us into the realm that lies beyond conceptual dichotomies such as being/nonbeing, being/doing, duality/nonduality, good/bad, and meaningful/meaningless. Beyond knowing, this dimension exposes and challenges conceptual polarities, and when we arrive at this level of realization we are able to trust letting go of knowingness and wake up to pure awareness. People fear annihilation at the prospect of going beyond concepts, Hameed explains, and it does lead to a death: the death of mind, the death of the doer. But even here beyond knowing, Hameed continues, the nonconceptual always operates from compassion and love. 

How do we develop a continuity of nonconceptual awareness? Roger and John wonder. One way is when knowing is integrated into being, Hameed answers. Then everything just happens; the doing is funneled through the individual. And there is another way, through developing the “pearl beyond price,” the individual, Hameed adds, but this way is rare. As co-host Roger Walsh says, this is an especially nourishing, stimulating, and intriguing discussion, with Hameed doing a beautiful job of relating how our concepts form the basis of our existence and what it means to transcend them, let go of our mind, deconstruct our perception of ourselves as the “doer,” and wake up to pure awareness. Recorded August 14, 2025.

“To be in the nonconceptual state, i.e. in sitting meditation, is half of it, but to actualize it is the other half.”

• Introducing the 14th dialogue in the 
• A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, focusing on nonconceptual awareness & transcending conceptual dichotomies (00:51)
• Nondual reality, at the heart of The Inner Journey Home, is differentiated into five dimensions, each of which reveals something important about the deconstruction process that happens with spiritual practice (03:41)
• Nonconceptual means beyond the capacity of knowing (07:34)
• The experience of pure awareness transcends the dichotomy of existence/nonexistence (10:02)
• In Dzogchen, rigpa includes knowing—but pure awareness means no knowing, just perception (10:30)
• The dichotomy of being/doing is often a “sticking place” in our practice (16:10)
• How do we develop a continuity of nonconceptual awareness? (19:44)
• People fear annihilation at the prospect of going beyond concepts, and it does lead to the death of mind, the death of the doer (23:03) 
• With this level of realization, we can trust letting go of our knowingness (27:10)
• What are ways for actualization to occur? (29:20)
• In true, deep sleep there is cessation, all awareness gone (34:38)
• When God manifests through the individual, the two dimensions of being and knowing can happen at the same (37:16)
• Many traditions think the individual is an illusion—it’s not an illusion, it’s an appearance (39:12)
• Most human beings get arrested at the ego stage of development, the separate stage (43:14)

• A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond Approach
• A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home: Soul’s Realization of the Unity of Reality
• Gnosis
• Reification, the process of treating an abstract concept or idea as a concrete, real thing
• Advaita Vedanta

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The A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series will generally follow the sequence of Hameed’s magnum opus, The Inner Journey Home (which John describes as psychoactive and spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually transformative), so listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this exhilarating path of awakening.

---

Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the essential nature of human experience and reality in general.

Hameed’s process of exploration led to the creation of the Ridhwan School and, with his colleague Karen Johnson, resulted in the founding and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach. He is the author of 20 books, including Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, and more.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 203 (Part 2 of 2) | In this rich, delightful, and profound conversation, Integral Theory informed Father David McCallum, SJ, currently serving the Catholic Church as executive director of the Program for Discerning Leadership, leads us into a world filled with mission, purpose, and service, foundational to which is the practice of discernment. David describes discernment as the capacity to exercise good judgment, hold complexity, and wait for clarity. This is not only a practice for individuals, he explains, but also a communal one, providing a way for communities to discern and design together the future they want to create—through listening, dialoguing, participating. Discernment is a way of knowing and making sense of reality, David continues, and especially important now in this era of changes and choices to be made.

David enlightens us as to the beautiful and far-sighted reforms proposed by the late Pope Francis, who was all for changing the balance of authority and participation in the Church; for people to have direct experience of Presence and the capacity to practice discernment; who also advocated for taking swift action on behalf of our planet, even calling out the part in the Bible that says man has dominion over the Earth. From David’s description of “the journey worth making”—surrendering, opening, accepting divine grace and love—to using Otto Scharmer’s U Process to help find the courage to change and simplify our lives for the benefit of all, to the Church’s relationship with A.I., David provides us with an extraordinarily mind-broadening, motivating, and spiritually fulfilling perspective. Recorded July 10, 2025.

“Disasters and oppression today are by-products of a spiritual crisis… We don’t see the unity of all.”

• Turning inward for guidance: making discernment practices & skills available to all (01:07)
• The hunger to get back to direct experience (04:04) 
• Practicing with the Ignatius exercises including contemplation: the path of silence (06:40)
• Pope Francis’ call out for action on behalf of the Earth (09:39)
• Using Otto Scharmer’s U Process to gain the courage to simplify our lives and make the commitment to change (12:11)
• Pope Francis’ challenging the idea that men should have dominion over the earth (13:30)
• Disasters and oppression today are by-products of a spiritual crisis; we don’t see the unity of all (15:13) 
• Liberation theology: awakening the poor to their plight, giving them tools to remediate systemic injustice (16:52)
• Why Jesuits were killed in El Salvador (19:28)
• In the current situation in the U.S., what shape will/should religiously motivated resistance take? (20:23)
• The church, A.I., and the danger of losing our human competencies to machines (27:32)

• Father David McCallum, SJ, The Program for Discerning Leadership
• The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola
• Jesuit Roshi Bob Kennedy; award-winning documentary film about a 90-year-old Zen master who also happens to be a Jesuit priest (trailer)
• Frederic Laloux, Reinventing Organizations
• Connecting to Source: The U Process (The Systems Thinker website)
• Otto Scharmer, action researcher, author of Theory U, co-author of Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-system to Eco-system Economies
• Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’
• Daniel Berrigan, Jesuit anti-war activist
• Pope Leo XIV’s message concerning AI at the United Nations’ AI for Good Summit (Vatican News)
• The Friar Who Became the Vatican’s Go-To Guy on A.I. (New York Times article)
• Yuval Harari on AI and Human Evolution, WSJ Leadership Institute (YouTube video)
• Mustafa Suleyman, The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma
• They Asked ChatGPT Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling (New York Times article)
• ChatGPT is Becoming a Religion with Taylor Lorenz (YouTube video)
• Thomas Hubl, collective trauma expert, see also Deep Transformation podcast Healing Collective Trauma with Thomas Hubl, and Discerning Leadership’s Trauma Informed Leadership with Thomas Hubl (YouTube video)

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Fr. David McCallum, S.J., Ed.D, is a Jesuit priest from the USA who serves as the founding Executive Director of the Program for Discerning Leadership, a special initiative of the Society of Jesus headquartered in Rome. The Program provides leadership formation and organizational development support for senior Vatican officials and major superiors of religious orders headquartered in Rome and internationally. From 2021 through 2024, Fr. McCallum has worked with the Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops on the Commission on Methodology, as a member of the international group that developed the synthesis of the National and Regional Bishop’s Conferences reports at Frascati, and as a facilitator expert at the Synods in October 2023 and 2024. 

Formerly, Fr. McCallum served as faculty member and then the Dean of the Madden School of Business and as the VP of Mission Integration and Development at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY. His doctoral research at Teachers College, Columbia University, focused on the implications of developmental diversity in meeting the leadership challenges of conflict, complexity, and ambiguity.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 202 (Part 1 of 2) | In this rich, delightful, and profound conversation, Integral Theory informed Father David McCallum, SJ, currently serving the Catholic Church as executive director of the Program for Discerning Leadership, leads us into a world filled with mission, purpose, and service, foundational to which is the practice of discernment. David describes discernment as the capacity to exercise good judgment, hold complexity, and wait for clarity. This is not only a practice for individuals, he explains, but also a communal one, providing a way for communities to discern and design together the future they want to create—through listening, dialoguing, participating. Discernment is a way of knowing and making sense of reality, David continues, and especially important now in this era of changes and choices to be made.

David enlightens us as to the beautiful and far-sighted reforms proposed by the late Pope Francis, who was all for changing the balance of authority and participation in the Church; for people to have direct experience of Presence and the capacity to practice discernment; who also advocated for taking swift action on behalf of our planet, even calling out the part in the Bible that says man has dominion over the Earth. From David’s description of “the journey worth making”—surrendering, opening, accepting divine grace and love—to using Otto Scharmer’s U Process to help find the courage to change and simplify our lives for the benefit of all, to the Church’s relationship with A.I., David provides us with an extraordinarily mind-broadening, motivating, and spiritually fulfilling perspective. Recorded July 10, 2025.

“No secular, material, and empirical path is going to satisfy the longing we have for a transcendent purpose, for meaning, for existential belonging, in the ways that a healthy spirituality can.”

• Introducing Fr. David McCallum, integrally informed Jesuit priest currently serving the Catholic Church as the executive director of the Program for Discerning Leadership (00:48)
• How did David come to devote his life to the Catholic Church? (01:48)
• The journey worth making: surrendering, opening, accepting grace (09:42)
• So many are disconnected from the deeper wellspring of spirituality (13:07)
• Pope Francis was a reformer, focused on changing the balance of authority and participation (16:46)
• Pope Francis also focused on the process of synodality, real dialogue, the importance of discernment & following where the spirit wants to lead us (19:31)
• Pope Leo XIV, self-effacing, generous, hard working, introspective, bringing balance and discipline (22:27)
• How does David’s understanding of developmental stages inform his work? (25:28)
• Using metatheories as a map to make sense of the change in era we are living through now (28:09)
• The rise of secularism; also burgeoning fundamentalism (31:26)
• Without faith, how can we make sense of suffering? (33:25)
• The temptation of ideology in these anxiety-producing times (36:07)
• What is discernment?
• Communal discernment: What is the future we want to create together? (40:39)

• Father David McCallum, SJ, The Program for Discerning Leadership
• Graham Greene, English writer and journalist, one of the leading novelists of the 20th century
• Integral Christianity: Answering the Call to Evolve with Paul Smith and Ken Wilber (2011)
• Brother David Steindl-Rast, Benedictine monk, author, and lecturer, committed to interfaith dialogue
• Ignatius of Loyola, co-founder of the religious order of the Society of Jesus, Ignatian spirituality
• Pope Francis, first Jesuit pope, serving 2013 – 2025
• Pope Leo XIV, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State, elected in 2025
• Robert Kegan, leading developmental psychologist, The Evolving Self, In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life
• Ken Wilber’s collected works
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit paleontologist, philosopher, mystic, and teacher
• George Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory
• Quaker tradition of communal discernment

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Fr. David McCallum, S.J., Ed.D, is a Jesuit priest from the USA who serves as the founding Executive Director of the Program for Discerning Leadership, a special initiative of the Society of Jesus headquartered in Rome. The Program provides leadership formation and organizational development support for senior Vatican officials and major superiors of religious orders headquartered in Rome and internationally. From 2021 through 2024, Fr. McCallum has worked with the Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops on the Commission on Methodology, as a member of the international group that developed the synthesis of the National and Regional Bishop’s Conferences reports at Frascati, and as a facilitator expert at the Synods in October 2023 and 2024. 

Formerly, Fr. McCallum served as faculty member and then the Dean of the Madden School of Business and as the VP of Mission Integration and Development at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY. His doctoral research at Teachers College, Columbia University, focused on the implications of developmental diversity in meeting the leadership challenges of conflict, complexity, and ambiguity.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 201 (Part 2 of 2) | In the thirteenth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali delves into the subject of knowing, or basic knowledge, at the deepest level of awareness. Different from ordinary knowledge, basic knowledge is inherent and immediate, an important feature of reality. You can know Being by being Being, he says; know consciousness by being consciousness, know peace by being peace. Being and knowing are the same thing, he explains, two sides of a coin. Some of what Hameed shares here is unique to his Diamond Approach teaching, and not found in other spiritual teachings, such as what he imparts about the origin of mind and the distinction he makes between pure being and pure awareness.

Hameed explains that we need our conceptual mind (to do our taxes, he laughs), but that reification—treating concepts as if they were real things—creates obstacles and alienates us from our true nature. The aim of all spiritual practice is to go beyond reification to immediate experience, he says. When Hameed describes the difference between pure presence and pure awareness, John wonders, how does Hameed remember the state of pure awareness when there’s no knowing in that state? And what does it feel like to experience no ground of being? Hameed answers in his usual enlightening, gently humorous way, leaving listeners in a state of open-minded wonder. Vastly illuminating, this conversation goes directly to the heart of being and the heart of knowing at the very foundation of true nature. Recorded July 17, 2025.

“Mind is not an obstacle. Not an enemy. The obstacle is the reified representation of mind. If we take the knowledge of that mind to be reality, that is the obstacle.”

• How does Hameed remember the state of pure awareness when there’s no knowing in that state? (00:32)
• Most spiritual teachings have pure awareness and pure presence as inseparable, but in this teaching they can be distinguished (03:26)
• The experience of pure awareness: transparency, translucence, freedom (04:02) 
• The world is not an illusion; it is the face of God (06:13)
• The logos is what makes things manifest (09:48)
• Connecting the dimensions of pure being and pure awareness: mind is not an obstacle (11:46)
• Gurdjieff’s “stupid saints” (13:14)
• Mind is not the enemy; it’s the reification of knowing that is the obstacle (14:07)
• Pure awareness is more fundamental than pure being because there are no concepts; freedom is more palpable in pure awareness (17:14)
• Hameed’s multiple kinds of freedom; freedom independent from the ground of being (22:10)
• What does it feel like to realize there is no ground? (25:02)
• Transcending conceptual dichotomies: in spiritual liberation dichotomies can be stumbling blocks, like being vs nonbeing (25:20)
• Will science start to accept the ground of being? (29:38)
• Is math, the Euclidean theorem, a property of reality? (32:42)
• Consciousness and quantum theory (34:27)
• Knowing is fundamental to the universe; it’s inherent to our true nature (38:41)
• There’s no reason to have to choose between knowing and being, they’re two sides of the same thing (39:51)

• A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond Approach
• A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home: Soul’s Realization of the Unity of Reality
• Dzogchen
• Advaita Vedanta
• Kashmir Shaivism
• Sri Aurobindo
• The Greek logos is what makes things manifest
• U. G. Krishnamurti, Thought is Your Enemy: Conversations with U.G. Krishnamurti
• G. I. Gurdjieff, Views from the Real World
• Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Indian philosopher who became Vice-President of India
• Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That
• A. H. Almaas, Runaway Realization: Living a Life of Ceaseless Discovery
• A. H. Almaas, The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers’ Stone and the Secrets of Existence
• Roger Penrose, The Emperor’s New Mind
• Federico Faggin, Science is Ready for Consciousness
• Quantum Consciousness Debate: Does the Wave Function Actually Exist? (YouTube video with Penrose, Faggin & Kastrup)
• Ken Wilber, Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World’s Greatest Physicists

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The A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series will generally follow the sequence of Hameed’s magnum opus, The Inner Journey Home (which John describes as psychoactive and spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually transformative), so listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this exhilarating path of awakening.

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Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the essential nature of human experience and reality in general.

Hameed’s process of exploration led to the creation of the Ridhwan School and, with his colleague Karen Johnson, resulted in the founding and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach. He is the author of 20 books, including Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, and more.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 200 (Part 1 of 2) | In the thirteenth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali delves into the subject of knowing, or basic knowledge, at the deepest level of awareness. Different from ordinary knowledge, basic knowledge is inherent and immediate, an important feature of reality. You can know Being by being Being, he says; know consciousness by being consciousness, know peace by being peace. Being and knowing are the same thing, he explains, two sides of a coin. Some of what Hameed shares here is unique to his Diamond Approach teaching, and not found in other spiritual teachings, such as what he imparts about the origin of mind and the distinction he makes between pure being and pure awareness.

Hameed explains that we need our conceptual mind (to do our taxes, he laughs), but that reification—treating concepts as if they were real things—creates obstacles and alienates us from our true nature. The aim of all spiritual practice is to go beyond reification to immediate experience, he says. When Hameed describes the difference between pure presence and pure awareness, John wonders, how does Hameed remember the state of pure awareness when there’s no knowing in that state? And what does it feel like to experience no ground of being? Hameed answers in his usual enlightening, gently humorous way, leaving listeners in a state of open-minded wonder. Vastly illuminating, this conversation goes directly to the heart of being and the heart of knowing at the very foundation of true nature. Recorded July 17, 2025.

“Being is the origin of mind.”

• Introducing the 13th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, focusing on the basic knowing at the foundation of our awareness & the reified way we see reality (00:46)
• The work is to recognize that reification is happening (02:55)
• We need to understand there are two kinds of knowing: ordinary knowing and basic knowing (04:12)
• There are degrees of how immediate our knowing is (07:55)
• Where does mind come from? (09:52)
• The recognition of Being and the knowing of Being are the same thing; this is a basic nondual understanding (11:45)
• The ground of mind is knowing: without knowing there is no mind (15:20)
• To know implies a concept: the concept of being (17:25)
• Reification is a developmental achievement (23:14)
• The story of Maharishi and the Senate committee (26:50)
• The aim of all spiritual practice is to go beyond reification to immediate experience (27:43)
• For the realized individual, basic knowing is primary (29:58)
• Knowing always means concept (31:56)
• We can get to an awareness that is free of knowing; what Hameed calls nonconceptual, pure awareness (35:41)

• A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond Approach
• A. H. Almaas, The Inner Journey Home: Soul’s Realization of the Unity of Reality
• Reification, the act of treating something abstract, like an idea, concept, or relationship, as if it were a concrete object or thing 
• Bishop George Berkeley, Anglo-Irish philosopher and clergyman, regarded as the founder of immaterialism, later referred to as subjective idealism, for whom the university and town of Berkeley was named
• Gnosis
• Rigpa, a central concept in Dzogchen
• Advaita Vedanta
• Plotinus’ concept of nous, the origin of all things in the realm of Platonic Forms

The A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series will generally follow the sequence of Hameed’s magnum opus, The Inner Journey Home (which John describes as psychoactive and spiritually, psychologically, and intellectually transformative), so listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this exhilarating path of awakening.

---

Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the essential nature of human experience and reality in general.

Hameed’s process of exploration led to the creation of the Ridhwan School and, with his colleague Karen Johnson, resulted in the founding and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach. He is the author of 20 books, including Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, and more.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell