Deep Transformation

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.

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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. 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

---

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.

---

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

Ep. 199 (Part 3 of 3) | Polarity management pioneer and author Barry Johnson and adult development expert Beena Sharma are masterful teachers on the subject of polarities and what polarity thinking can bring to the world, benefitting our well-being at every level. Together they explain what polarities are, why they matter, how to apply and leverage them, and the essence of polarity wisdom: pursuing the upsides of opposite poles. Barry is careful to explain that although either/or thinking is the root of our troubles, both/and thinking by itself isn’t the answer either. Integrating either/or with both/and thinking and recognizing the interdependence of all things is the road to transformation and, Beena adds, the engine of human development, of human maturity.

Barry explains the profound spiritual understanding foundational to polarity wisdom and Beena details how polarities shift according to our developmental stage. Each of the polarities discussed—justice/mercy, claiming power/sharing power, being/doing, to name a few—illuminates its sphere, whether it relates to democracy, social justice, or spiritual practice. Barry and Beena are passionate about the promise of polarity thinking and their excitement is contagious in this fast-paced, delightfully lucid dialogue, jam-packed with information that is practical, inspiring, and potentially life changing. Recorded May 22, 2025.

“Universal interdependence is the most clear example of divine, unconditional love, and the polarity is the smallest element within universal interdependence—the interdependence of two.”

• Back to stages: from self-interest to harmonizing, to independence, multiperspectivality, and oneness (00:35)
• We are born unique and we become more unique; we are born connected and appreciate being connected more and more (08:23)
• Applying polarity thinking to contemporary politics: immigration (09:29)
• The language of compassionate action (12:08)
• How polarity thinking can help us with the metacrisis (16:02)
• Leveraging polarities in everyday life, socially & culturally (20:11)
• How do we select what to do when faced by an overwhelming amount of choices? (25:42)
• We have to consciously become more competent, more masterful (27:28)
• Polarity tension is always there, and we need to forgive ourselves and others for not always doing a good job with leveraging key polarities, i.e. work & home, self-care & achievement (28:51)

• Barry Johnson, And: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox, or Dilemma
• Barry Johnson, Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems
• Beena Sharma, founder Vertical Development Academy (VeDA)
• The 8 Stages of Vertical Development with Beena Sharma (Deep Transformation podcast)
• Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer
• Daniel Schmachtenberger, “Development in Progress” (Consilience Project website)

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Barry Johnson, Ph.D., is a founder of Polarity Partnerships LLC, whose mission is to “enhance our quality of life on the planet by supplementing Or Thinking with And Thinking.” Barry has been involved in movement politics since his first march on Washington in 1963; in 1970 he turned his attention to understanding how systems became dysfunctional and how to co-create systems that worked for everyone. In that pursuit, the first polarity map and set of principles were generated. Barry has worked with organizations large and small, including business, industry, governments, educational and healthcare systems, and movement organizations to discover how And Thinking can be useful in accomplishing their mission. Barry’s recent work has been focused on how a polarity lens can be useful in addressing the rise of authoritarianism in the United States and around the world.

Along the way, Barry published three books and coordinated the publishing of a fourth: Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems, Managing Polarities in Congregations: Eight Keys for Thriving Faith Communities, with Roy Oswald, And: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox or Dilemma, Volume One, and And, Volume 2, Applications (written by 54 professionals who have applied And-thinking in their settings).

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Beena Sharma currently stewards Vertical Development Academy (VeDA) as its founding president, with a vision to enhance the practice of human development in service of civilizational resilience. Beena’s focus is on facilitating human maturity through a deep appreciation of the theory and practice of adult learning that catalyzes the development of wiser, more integrated human beings who can respond to personal, interpersonal, community, and larger systems challenges in more adequate ways. One of Beena’s unique contributions lies in leveraging the wisdom of polarities in service of human maturity, and Beena is one of the world’s leading teachers of polarity thinking. Beena is currently working on launching services that seek to build polarity wisdom in leaders and organizations around the world.

Beena is a gifted master coach, consultant, teacher, and thought leader. She has been recognized nationally and internationally for her achievements in successfully conceptualizing, developing, and delivering systemic leadership development initiatives. She is a regular keynote faculty member for McKinsey’s Executive Leadership Program serving leaders in Australia and New Zealand, and has led efforts as an executive and consultant for various agencies of the US Government, leading private sector companies in healthcare and other industries in the US, UK, Europe, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, and India.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 198 (Part 2 of 3) | Polarity management pioneer and author Barry Johnson and adult development expert Beena Sharma are masterful teachers on the subject of polarities and what polarity thinking can bring to the world, benefitting our well-being at every level. Together they explain what polarities are, why they matter, how to apply and leverage them, and the essence of polarity wisdom: pursuing the upsides of opposite poles. Barry is careful to explain that although either/or thinking is the root of our troubles, both/and thinking by itself isn’t the answer either. Integrating either/or with both/and thinking and recognizing the interdependence of all things is the road to transformation and, Beena adds, the engine of human development, of human maturity.

Barry explains the profound spiritual understanding foundational to polarity wisdom and Beena details how polarities shift according to our developmental stage. Each of the polarities discussed—justice/mercy, claiming power/sharing power, being/doing, to name a few—illuminates its sphere, whether it relates to democracy, social justice, or spiritual practice. Barry and Beena are passionate about the promise of polarity thinking and their excitement is contagious in this fast-paced, delightfully lucid dialogue, jam-packed with information that is practical, inspiring, and potentially life changing. Recorded May 22, 2025.

“Love is a natural byproduct of seeing completely.”

• Looking at the pole preferences that show up at each stage of development (00:37) 
• The integrative stage of development doesn’t reject either/or thinking or both/and thinking (04:42)
• Embracing polarities’ upsides elevates you; you come to a higher place (08:05)
• Tyranny and democracy: how do you both provide direction and encourage participation? (08:54)
• The spiritual polarity of doing and being and Martin Buber’s I and thou (14:08)
• How polarities nest and stack: Beena leads a nesting and upleveling exercise (18:10)
• Relating polarity thinking to quantum physics & the richness of the subject of universal interdependence (22:32)
• How do we respond to opposition at different developmental stages? (24:33)
• Jack Gibb’s trust theory: love is a natural byproduct of seeing completely (28:24)
• Seeing life and death as two poles and the violence in nature (29:28)
• Enhancing our capacity to love: individuals, enemies, countries; universal interdependence is a manifestation of divine love (32:44)
• Taking radical responsibility for our own incapacity to see (36:42)
• Love as a natural response to seeing fully and defenselessly (38:23)
• Barry’s profound realization about heaven, hell, and universal love (40:14)

• Barry Johnson, And: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox, or Dilemma
• Barry Johnson, Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems
• Beena Sharma, founder Vertical Development Academy (VeDA)
• The 8 Stages of Vertical Development with Beena Sharma (Deep Transformation podcast)
• Martin Buber, I and Thou
• California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), Sanjay Manchanda
• Carlo Rovelli, Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution
• Jack R. Gibb, Trust: A New View of Personal And Organizational Development
• Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation’s Daily Meditations

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Barry Johnson, Ph.D., is a founder of Polarity Partnerships LLC, whose mission is to “enhance our quality of life on the planet by supplementing Or Thinking with And Thinking.” Barry has been involved in movement politics since his first march on Washington in 1963; in 1970 he turned his attention to understanding how systems became dysfunctional and how to co-create systems that worked for everyone. In that pursuit, the first polarity map and set of principles were generated. Barry has worked with organizations large and small, including business, industry, governments, educational and healthcare systems, and movement organizations to discover how And Thinking can be useful in accomplishing their mission. Barry’s recent work has been focused on how a polarity lens can be useful in addressing the rise of authoritarianism in the United States and around the world.

Along the way, Barry published three books and coordinated the publishing of a fourth: Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems, Managing Polarities in Congregations: Eight Keys for Thriving Faith Communities, with Roy Oswald, And: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox or Dilemma, Volume One, and And, Volume 2, Applications (written by 54 professionals who have applied And-thinking in their settings).

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Beena Sharma currently stewards Vertical Development Academy (VeDA) as its founding president, with a vision to enhance the practice of human development in service of civilizational resilience. Beena’s focus is on facilitating human maturity through a deep appreciation of the theory and practice of adult learning that catalyzes the development of wiser, more integrated human beings who can respond to personal, interpersonal, community, and larger systems challenges in more adequate ways. One of Beena’s unique contributions lies in leveraging the wisdom of polarities in service of human maturity, and Beena is one of the world’s leading teachers of polarity thinking. Beena is currently working on launching services that seek to build polarity wisdom in leaders and organizations around the world.

Beena is a gifted master coach, consultant, teacher, and thought leader. She has been recognized nationally and internationally for her achievements in successfully conceptualizing, developing, and delivering systemic leadership development initiatives. She is a regular keynote faculty member for McKinsey’s Executive Leadership Program serving leaders in Australia and New Zealand, and has led efforts as an executive and consultant for various agencies of the US Government, leading private sector companies in healthcare and other industries in the US, UK, Europe, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, and India. 

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 197 (Part 1 of 3) | Polarity management pioneer and author Barry Johnson and adult development expert Beena Sharma are masterful teachers on the subject of polarities and what polarity thinking can bring to the world, benefitting our well-being at every level. Together they explain what polarities are, why they matter, how to apply and leverage them, and the essence of polarity wisdom: pursuing the upsides of opposite poles. Barry is careful to explain that although either/or thinking is the root of our troubles, both/and thinking by itself isn’t the answer either. Integrating either/or with both/and thinking and recognizing the interdependence of all things is the road to transformation and, Beena adds, the engine of human development, of human maturity.

Barry explains the profound spiritual understanding foundational to polarity wisdom and Beena details how polarities shift according to our developmental stage. Each of the polarities discussed—justice/mercy, claiming power/sharing power, being/doing, to name a few—illuminates its sphere, whether it relates to democracy, social justice, or spiritual practice. Barry and Beena are passionate about the promise of polarity thinking and their excitement is contagious in this fast-paced, delightfully lucid dialogue, jam-packed with information that is practical, inspiring, and potentially life changing. Recorded May 22, 2025.

“Either/or thinking without both/and thinking is the root cause of poverty, racism, sexism, and war.”

• Introducing polarity management pioneer & author Barry Johnson and adult development expert Beena Sharma (00:48)
• How did Barry discover polarities? (02:15)
• The essential dimension of polarities—interdependent pairs—and the universal interdependence of all of life (03:08)
• The capacity to integrate and recognize interdependence is the driving force of adult human development (03:47)
• The difference between polarity management and polarity wisdom (05:37)
• A key polarity in leadership and democracy: claiming power & sharing power (07:20)
• Experiential exercise: the infinity loop (08:11)
• What is true for all polarities: each pole brings something special that is essential to the relationship (11:15)
• The integrating wisdom that includes and transcends both polarities encompasses all dualities, reflecting traditional East Indian wisdom (12:12)
• As a leader, how can we be both clear & flexible, self-assured & humble, and as an organization, centralized & decentralized? (13:51)
• The oscillation between activity and rest (14:55)
• Leveraging polarities: maximizing upsides and minimizing downsides (16:22)
• Either/or thinking is essential, but it needs to be supplemented with both/and thinking (16:34)
• Privileging one pole as better, you enter into dysfunction (19:33)
• Interpersonal relationships: we see the positive value of our preferred pole but the downside of the other’s opposite preferred pole (20:56)
• The essence of polarity wisdom: embracing the wisdom of the opposite pole (21:41)
• Polarity thinking is an antidote to rigidity; it heals polarization (22:25)
• Either/or thinking without both/and thinking is the root cause of evil (23:09)
• Pursuing justice to the neglect of mercy (its interdependent pole) (26:47)
• Does both/and thinking require a certain level of maturity? (32:14)

• Barry Johnson, And: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox, or Dilemma
• Barry Johnson, Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems
• Beena Sharma, founder Vertical Development Academy (VeDA)
• Desmond Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness
• The 8 Stages of Vertical Development with Beena Sharma (Deep Transformation podcast)

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Barry Johnson, Ph.D., is a founder of Polarity Partnerships LLC, whose mission is to “enhance our quality of life on the planet by supplementing Or Thinking with And Thinking.” Barry has been involved in movement politics since his first march on Washington in 1963; in 1970 he turned his attention to understanding how systems became dysfunctional and how to co-create systems that worked for everyone. In that pursuit, the first polarity map and set of principles were generated. Barry has worked with organizations large and small, including business, industry, governments, educational and healthcare systems, and movement organizations to discover how And Thinking can be useful in accomplishing their mission. Barry’s recent work has been focused on how a polarity lens can be useful in addressing the rise of authoritarianism in the United States and around the world.

Along the way, Barry published three books and coordinated the publishing of a fourth: Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems, Managing Polarities in Congregations: Eight Keys for Thriving Faith Communities, with Roy Oswald, And: Making a Difference by Leveraging Polarity, Paradox or Dilemma, Volume One, and And, Volume 2, Applications (written by 54 professionals who have applied And-thinking in their settings).

---

Beena Sharma currently stewards Vertical Development Academy (VeDA) as its founding president, with a vision to enhance the practice of human development in service of civilizational resilience. Beena’s focus is on facilitating human maturity through a deep appreciation of the theory and practice of adult learning that catalyzes the development of wiser, more integrated human beings who can respond to personal, interpersonal, community, and larger systems challenges in more adequate ways. One of Beena’s unique contributions lies in leveraging the wisdom of polarities in service of human maturity, and Beena is one of the world’s leading teachers of polarity thinking. Beena is currently working on launching services that seek to build polarity wisdom in leaders and organizations around the world.

Beena is a gifted master coach, consultant, teacher, and thought leader. She has been recognized nationally and internationally for her achievements in successfully conceptualizing, developing, and delivering systemic leadership development initiatives. She is a regular keynote faculty member for McKinsey’s Executive Leadership Program serving leaders in Australia and New Zealand, and has led efforts as an executive and consultant for various agencies of the US Government, leading private sector companies in healthcare and other industries in the US, UK, Europe, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, and India.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 196 (Part 2 of 2) | n the twelfth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali guides us into the profound experience of pure being, which lies at the core of all mystical teachings. There are two nondual ways of experiencing the fullness of being, he explains. We can recognize we are infinite and boundless—as if we were the sky, but still experiencing this through our being—or, we can experience the oneness of being from the perspective of all manifestation: the mountain, the rocks, the molecules and atoms... “Wherever you go, physically or mentally, is pure being.” Hameed calls the first recognition “unity,” and the latter “oneness.”

Hameed clarifies the paradox of nothingness: “being and nothing are two ways of knowing the same thing; you can feel it as a fullness or you can feel it as an emptiness.” And he explains that being being and knowing being are the same thing, when knowing  is understood in its deeper sense as gnosis. “Awakening is knowing our being or our awareness for what it is,” he says. Why is Hameed so uniquely articulate in talking about the experience of pure being? John asks him. This talk is an amazing teaching—visual and sensory, scientific and mathematical, deeply mystical and spiritual—Hameed comes at the subject of pure being from all angles. Recorded June 26, 2025.

“Practice is clearing the way, but whether awakening emerges or not is not up to you.”

• Why Hameed is so uniquely articulate talking about these experiences, and why some teachers don’t talk about these things (00:27)
• The nothingness side of pure presence (04:28)
• The spaciousness here appears different; it is non-Euclidean (07:44)
• Being and nothing are two ways of knowing the same thing; you can feel it as a fullness or you can feel it as an emptiness (09:22)
• What other traditions teach about emptiness (11:34)
• Awareness is pure beingness too (13:53)
• Awareness is an ontological reality; it is an “is-ness” we can recognize and it includes knowing (18:14) 
• Being being is the same thing as knowing being; this is gnosis: knowing by being (20:23)
• Awakening is knowing our being or our awareness for what it is (23:44)
• Knowing and mind are fundamental, not just intellectual (25:52)
• Awakened awareness: realizing that awareness is the nature of everything (27:10)
• Awakening cannot be earned; it is a recognition, but there are obstacles in the way (29:37)
• We’ll get into knowing and reification next time (32:45)
• This teaching affirms you are a real being, and you are an expression of the being of God (33:55)

• 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
• Bernard Riemann, German mathematician who developed Riemannian geometry, a type of non-Euclidean geometry
• Saccidānanda, the subjective experience of the ultimate unchanging reality
• Mahmud Shabistari, 14th-century mystical Persian poet, The Secret Rose Garden
• Rigpa is a central concept in Dzogchen
• Mahamudra practice, the highest form of Tibetan Buddhist meditation

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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