Diamond Work Michigan

A Path of Embodied Understanding

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 13:39:47 GMT

A Path of Embodied Understanding

Imagine a spiritual path which embraces the truth of our interconnectedness with the ground of being, whether it is called God, Tao, the Buddha Realm or the Logos. Then imagine a spiritual path that looks at your day-by-day events, mental thought objects, reactions and expansions to see how they relate to the depth. Then imagine an organized method of looking at these events. Then you would be imagining a path like the Diamond Approach, developed by A. H. Almaas over 50 years ago.

The Diamond Approach is a path of wisdom, and approach to the investigation of Reality, and a method of working on oneself that leads to increased understanding, spiritual maturity and liberation. It is a contemporary spiritual teaching drawing on both modern psychology and traditional wisdom teachings.

A path while living in the world
This work is intended for those living in the world, supporting self-realization without needing to leave one’s life activities. It welcomes us as we are and guides us toward taking the next steps

in actualizing our potential for more aliveness, intimacy, clarity, depth, and engagement with our lives.

Accurate and deep teachings are not hard to find in today’s world. A careful search of the internet could yield talks and writings in all traditions which are deep and true.

But even with that knowledge available, most people either can’t hear or assimilate the teachings in a useful way. They listen to a good teacher with a good teaching, but it doesn’t penetrate their lives. Something more is needed—embodied understanding and application.

We are born without a small, separate self

Psychology agrees with the wisdom traditions in a very important way—we do not have our ego self when we are born. So how is it constructed? Object relations psychologists have a very detailed understanding of the stages of development of the separate self. As the infant relates to caregivers and the world, a sense of an individual self arises, mostly in response to the way that the world is perceived. This results in a relatively stable self-image or the achievement of object constancy by the age of 5 or 6. A child is then mostly participating in the egoic world.

It is a truism that one of the most persistent barriers to experiencing one’s self in the complete openness of our true nature in total freedom is this constructed self, or ego.

In the Diamond Approach, we have studied this knowledge, and we use it to inform our own inquiries into the truth of our nature. The Diamond Approach uses meditation and a unique kind of inquiry to develop greater understanding. It is usually done in group format. With a partner and a sincere desire for the truth, a person will look at an issue both historically and in the moment.

We spend as much time exploring the barriers as we do exploring the expanded states of stillness, peace and pure awareness, for example. All of it is included, and, especially at the beginning, the barriers are the most prominent.

Someone might come to practice because she sees patterns of behavior that are not fulfilling and undermine her in her job or relationships. You could say to this person—“ you need to stop identifying with this small deficient place. It is not really you anyway ”.

If a person could do this, then they wouldn’t need to have a practice. But typically, they can’t and we can’t. These patterns of behavior have many supports from our historical upbringing. So, this person will have been in an early holding environment that did not support her true nature completely; we all were.

We adjust to our caregivers
There may have been a way that her basic worth was not valued or seen. Maybe she was only valued as she performed some function in the world. Perhaps her father told her this either in

words or actions.

And she tried hard to please, sometimes being successful. But it left her with a basic feeling that she was not valued unless someone was praising her result. It left a feeling of dependency on the outside world for her value and a sense of deficiency underneath.

This example is not an isolated instance. It is almost universal. So, instead of saying—“ Stop identifying with that deficient little girl”, we say—“Let’s look at that, how did it get formed. What is is made up of? How did it make you feel when you were with your father? Is there anger, sadness, something else? What is it related to? How was that for you? ” In this way, we bring the history to light in an open and curious way.

Bringing presence to these undigested places allows us to bring our current wisdom to them. As they get unstuck, the truth of our being starts to show through. In this case, we see the truth of our own value. It is ours, without qualification. We see how we do not have to earn our value and that even in difficult circumstances we are not disconnected from it. And it is not dependent on outside circumstances. For this practice to have meaning, it must be felt in an embodied way and understood.

The above example is regarding value, one of our essential qualities. Our map includes many places where the personality “covers” up our essence: anger over strength and aliveness, willfulness over true will and hatred over peace and power, to name just a few.

Being present with our contractions allows them to relax

As these are brought to awareness, more is learned—connections to self and one’s history—often seeing the long-held contractions of the ego, and experiencing them in the moment. As these contractions are seen through and understood, they tend to thin out or fall away.

Our ego is always attempting to shore itself up with various defenses and identifications. Some are positive (like-I am a smart person) and many are negative (like—I am not worthy as in the above example, or, I am not strong enough). The map of the Diamond Approach shows the usual patterns in which we are defended or identified.

Many people come to spiritual work because something in their lives is not working. Maybe they have problems with jobs and co-workers, or feel a lack of fulfillment in some way.

As you look at the big questions such as: What is the cause of suffering? Who are we at our depth? What is the relationship of the ground of being and to the universe? the issues of our daily lives tend to be mixed up those issues—maybe our lack of confidence in our lives, perhaps relationship issues, maybe ways that we experience difficult emotions over and over.

Our personal issues connect with the big questions

Our practice deals with the big questions but also the more mundane life issues which are intertwined. Without looking at our anger, for example, we are not going to be able to fully feel our love. Without looking at hatred, we can’t experience our peace.

Our practice is to start from where the student is, with careful moment to moment exploration into what’s true in their immediate experience. It includes precise questioning, psychological discernment, breath work, body sensing practices and open-ended exploration. As we are present with all this, we let the truth unfold. The doorway to the universal is begun with the personal.

Many times, our parents don’t recognize our true nature, or sometimes are even challenged by it. A father might be upset by the unabandoned joy expressed by a small child. Because of our love for our parents, we start to give up on parts of ourselves. It starts to shape us in a certain way.

We create our identity in response to our history

A small boy has and artistic, quiet introspective nature but is in a family that honors athletic achievement. He is torn between his own natural inclinations and the love of his family. So he leans in the direction of being more gregarious and active which may not be his nature.

As in that example, we learn how to suppress parts of ourselves. It may help us to get along with society, but it’s really also about becoming something that we are not. There is something false created that takes the place of the true.

We begin to create an identity, a way to be different than we would naturally. There is a gap between our nature and the expressed identity. In order to become that identity we had to begin to disconnect from our essential nature.

That is the challenge of the personality, or ego structure, or the false identity. We inhabit it so

fully; we forget our depth. We forget who we are.

One purpose of this path is to learn about this false identity, remember the true, and connect more with the truth of our nature. It addresses this extraordinary dilemma—disconnection.

Presence brings understanding

Our inquiry practice focusses our attention on different places where we are disconnected. When we genuinely experience our anger, for example, and also metabolize the psychodynamically “stuck” places (often challenges in our history), our strength naturally arises, and it has a firmness combined with sensitivity and appropriateness.

Practicing with a group over many years, allows one to see many of the corners of our false self, which brings our history and our unconscious supports to light. As these are metabolized, the true qualities of our nature, love, intelligence, peace, compassion and many other pure qualities of our spiritual nature show through more and more. As we are more guided by our essence, we are more able to connect with the beauty and mystery of life.

Organized Group Teachings

The Diamond Approach takes us from wherever we are to what is underneath that, and eventually, to what is more fundamental. We are peeling back that onion to find the potential of the beings that we are, and that potential is unlimited. It’s not the same for everyone. It’s unique and personal. We are unique expressions of that reality, and it is a precious gift to find out more about it.

Each practice group has a combination of group teachings with guided personal inquiries in groups of 2 and 3, small group work in a group of about a dozen, and private work with an individual teacher. There is a group in Ann Arbor accepting new members called Great Lakes Diamond Approach 2. For more information about events look at the website diamondapproachmichigan.org.

The group is taught by certified teachers Lou Weir, Ben Centanni, Sue Moen, Julie Endress and

Sheryl Lyndes Stowman.

Basic Trust, support for our Spiritual Unfoldment

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 14:09:15 GMT

Basic Trust, support for our Spiritual Unfoldment

To see the truth in your practice takes a certain amount of trust. If your practice is deeper than fixing the ego, and ours certainly aims that way, then you will find out things which are not pleasant to the ego.

At first in your practice, your findings and insights are often ego syntonic. This means that your ego is okay with them. These are often the types of psychological insights which we come to in the beginning.

An example could be that you see how your reactivity to another person just creates more suffering. You might see that you are dependent on others for self-valuing. These insights are ego syntonic because they do not challenge the primacy of the ego life.

But as time goes on, our vessel of practice grows. As we spend more time in presence, with our meditation, contemplation and inquiries, we create a place for holding our difficult experiences. We can then see and integrate more of the difficult insights which might challenge our ego.

We might, for example, come upon some place of habitual emotion. It might be that we have an anger which seems all consuming. The ego approach is to be comfortable, to push it away, either by denial or projection. “I’m not angry”, or—"they are angry”--not me. If we have some trust in our practice, we may be willing to touch on it more deeply and see what it is, without pushing it away. At this point, our practice has grown from being ego syntonic to ego challenging, but in accord with a drive for awakening—a desire to see the deeper truth. This is when we need to trust our practice, which is supported by the quality of Basic Trust.

One type of trust is transactional, or relative trust. This is the trust which grows from daily experience and learning. A simple example is that you work with someone who is organized and clear. When they give you instructions, you have a sense to trust them and you are predisposed to follow them.

As a child, you gain trust in the adults around you or not, by their behavior. Do they do what they say they are going to do? Do they say one thing and do another. Each circumstance develops transactional trust. In one case, you trust that the person will do what she says, and in another you trust that it might not happen the way it is described.

So, in our work together in this group you have some kind of trust that you brought and perhaps some that you have gained from being here and experiencing it. We have created a space which is allowing and supportive for discovery. We don’t criticize each other, and we show compassion for each other so it supports a certain amount of trust.

This is another example of what I would call transactional trust. You could say that it is relative, depending on circumstances, evaluating and drawing conclusions. This is important to us, but it is based on our experience of being in the group.

But there is another kind of trust, which we call Basic Trust. This is an essential quality in the Diamond Approach. This means that this quality is beyond our conditioning, not dependent on our circumstances. It is available to all of us, but the connection can be blocked or obscured.

Basic Trust gives us the sense that we are safe, supported and loved. It gives us confidence that when some challenge comes our way, that the resources will be there to meet the challenge and that things will work out. And true nature being what it is, it will be attuned to our needs in a way that we could never think up.

This allows us to take a risk when we see something difficult in our practice or life. We can relax and just do “what comes next” and let our practice work it out. We don’t have to be in continual control and evaluation. It is ultimately connected with a feeling for the goodness of the universe.

This quality is available to all of us, but we lose our access to it by our life experience. The way that our needs were met in our early life will affect how much we are in touch with it. If we grew up with caregivers who were neglectful or inconsistent or both, we will tend to lose our connection with Basic Trust. We will develop strategies to get around it. We might develop a pessimistic view of the world and hyper protect ourselves in our lives—making our lives small. Or we might develop a precocious personality which says: “I don’t need anyone’s help, I’ll do it myself”. This also limits our life.

In our study and exploration of this topic in our retreat will look at the barriers to Basic Trust and also make contact with the quality itself. When we look at our history with interest and compassion for ourselves, we will start to see the ways that we have disconnected from it. As we do, our contractions and ego strategies can drop away and make space for the quality of Basic Trust to arise. This gives us more ability to trust our practice and look deeper, to see more of what is true for us.

As Basic Trust becomes more available, we find that our inquiry practice moves more easily, that the difficult places are accessed and understood and our essential nature can shine through. We will explore this quality in detail in the retreat from January 24, 25 and 26, 2025 .

Define Real: What Does It Mean to Be Real?

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 16:58:39 GMT

Define Real: What Does It Mean to Be Real?

. . . the part of the practice which we are exploring is **being real**. And as we have discussed, we are always somewhere, but sometimes there is much more to our reality and other times we don’t know where we are. And those two questions are interrelated.

Understanding the Concept of Being Real

Our usual state is vague and imaginary. There is a gap in our understanding. And a gap in our experience of where we find ourselves and what the potential is of who and what we are. The Diamond Approach path is organized around finding out more. We confront the usual subjective self and as we become more present to what we are at the moment, that will naturally challenge what we have taken ourselves to be, because the ego itself cannot handle immediacy. And to be exactly where we are means we are immediate to our experience. That we are right there up against it, in it, feeling it, really knowing it, being in touch. The ego is based on movement away from immediate experience. So, our intention and practice of being present is a challenge to it. And our inquiry practice has this capacity built in.

At first, we are oblivious to this. We go through life with the patterns established by our egos. This works well enough for most of us. We have areas which we avoid, and other areas we inhabit so we miss things. It’s like someone who grows up thinking that they have a bad singing voice, so they avoid ever singing in order to avoid embarrassment. But, it’s more powerful than that because it is so ubiquitous. We may think we are a helper, and we identify with it, so we go through life looking for places where we can help, avoiding other situations and maybe avoiding our own heart’s desire. Or, we identify as unlovable and see rejection in many places so we avoid any contact with them. And, this happens, for the most part, unconsciously. Life proceeds on stale patterns of our conditioning.

The Essential Role of a Teacher in Navigating Self-Discovery and Immediacy

Most people are unable to see this without a teaching and teacher to help. Even those with sincere intentions have problems with steadfastness. You have a solid meditation practice, and start to experience more spaciousness in your life, your being. But then you have a challenge of some sort, someone doesn’t see you the right way and it pricks your self-conception and you go and find another group to be with. Then the cycle repeats itself.

We use our inquiry practice to traverse the gap between what we imagine to be true and what is true.

Immediacy is the bridge between the imaginary and the reality of who you are. Imaginary is far away feeling from the fact of immediacy. Imagination is always doubtful. When we imagine something or fantasize, let our minds roll around, we know we are not in touch but we actually live according to those kinds of fantasies so there is always an insecurity underneath.

The lack of immediacy is the atmosphere the ego lives in. And, as we get to know the falsehood of it, and the un-realness that we actually adhere to so strongly, the more we begin to be aware that there is more immediacy. The more immediacy we have in our experience, the more the illusory realm of the ego is exposed to us.

Immediacy is the main characteristic of what it means to be present. The more present we are, the more in touch we are with our experience, whatever that is, regardless of what we are experiencing. There is heightened awareness. There is more consciousness. There is more sensitivity.

Exploring What It Means to Be Real

Here is an example--you might be feeling some kind of pain. If you allow yourself to simply be there without assuming anything about it, something new can happen. It might be some emotional pain. You feel some sadness. Simply being with the feeling of the sadness, you might notice that you start feeling young.

So, you allow that to come forward. That is one of the identifications that you have, that you take to be you. So, you feel sad and you feel young and maybe you feel helpless. And, as you feel that helplessness, if you just are there, completely, it opens up to more information. You start feeling sad, that opens up to feeling young…the difficulty here is that the ego only knows two options. You can repress and avoid and protect or you can express.

In this case, you can express the feeling of sadness by telling your friend and feeling sad and crying on their shoulder and letting the feeling out and expressing it. Or the other option is to find a way to avoid it and to get away from it; repressing it, defending against it. These are our usual two options.

What Does Being Real Mean in Our Practice?

Our practice is to be with it, neither expressing which is often a discharge or repressing which is avoidance. As we are with this feeling of youngness and we simply let it be. We start to feel like we are that young child. And we stay right in the thick of it, being with all the feelings, sensations, the posture and maybe some history that arises. You remember being in school as a child with all these other children and you feel small and insignificant, as you stay with that, you feel your sense of deficiency and go into it, feeling like you are going to fall into a black abyss. Then you let yourself fall and you find yourself as a spark of light floating in an expanse of black space, and you feel that indestructible part of yourself which is beyond any kind of evaluation, intrinsically valuable and precious.

This is a simplified example, it does not always work in this clear linear way, but over time, these kinds of insights can happen in our work. Each time you touch into those bigger spaces which are more true about who we are, we are in touch with reality in a real way. This can lead us home to ourselves, where we can be who we are without looking to our outside circumstances to define who and what we are. In our practice, we would describe it as coming in contact with our essence, and as we do, it brings us closer to ourselves.

Discovering the Red Essence: Igniting Strength and Aliveness in Your Spiritual Journey

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 16:46:40 GMT

Discovering the Red Essence: Igniting Strength and Aliveness in Your Spiritual Journey

There are many essential qualities which help us on our journey. Each quality is a kind of messenger from the unconditioned. Each essential quality has a way of touching the soul in a way to help it to be more flexible and open to presence. The red essence brings the quality of spiritual strength and aliveness. This quality can help us to find the boldness to move forward in our spiritual practice.

Embodying the Courageous Spirit of "I Can”

Strength is associated with the color red and the spirit of “I can”. I can do this thing which is before me. It allows us to go and seek that which we love, to connect with our true nature and gives us the energy and courage to make the journey.

Our jobs, and upbringing and society in general work against being truly ourselves. Along the way we have all made the compromises to get along. There are places which we don’t see and when we discover more, we need this aspect of strength to push through the veils to find our truest nature.

We all know that the spiritual path is a solo path in some basic way. We have friends along the way who help, such as here today, and that is very important, but ultimately it is going to be your individual work which can set you free. That is why this quality is so important.

Overcoming Obstacles with Courage and Strength

You won’t have the boldness to push into something new and possibly uncomfortable. Most of us now are familiar with the way that our habit energy and the influence of the world conspire to keep us in a rather limited place.

Spiritual Courage means that you are willing to risk it, to take a chance. You are willing to make the uncomfortable choice, even not knowing what is going to happen. When we work with our challenges, in our practice, we have to have to be willing to not know. For some, it takes a lot of courage and boldness to go forward, not knowing where it will lead.

In spiritual practice, we never actually know. And we might fail. Maybe our friends won’t like what we are trying to do. But our courage allows us to think bigger and allow more of a chance. It allows us to live fully inhabiting our life.

Embracing the Expansive Energy

Strength is associated with the color red in our path. It is associated with a feeling of aliveness and expansion. It could be like a small fire in your heart or belly, or a huge expansive force beyond your body.

When we are in touch with it, we feel the energy of it. We might feel it energetically coursing through our body. With your inner eye, you might notice a volcano in your belly, or flowing of lava.

And when we are in touch with our essential qualities in general, we feel a relaxation and usually a sense of openness and centeredness. The quality has its own intelligence and will be appropriate to the situation. Strength might be powerful or light depending on the situation.

How Family History impacts Spiritual Strength

One of the common barriers to contacting your own strength is how it was expressed in your family. And this includes how anger was expressed. You will have a history which influences this for you.

In your family, it may have been one person who exhibited the strength. Maybe your mother was strong and your father was not. Or vice versa. Or maybe it was dangerous to be strong. Maybe there were nay-sayers, which kept you from making the bold choices.

Another common twist with strength is how anger was expressed in your family. Anger is often considered the way that strength is expressed though the small egoic self. It is way that you might express strength through the veil of personality.

So, if the strength was expressed mixed with anger, it was problematic for you. Maybe it was dangerous. If there was a person who had a lot of anger and rage in them, then you may have made a vow never to be like that. In that way you may have cut yourself off from your anger but also your strength. It’s likely that you might feel small in your life in some ways

The Fire Within: Overcoming Anger and Emotional Obstacles

If you block vitality, or energy, or expansion, or passion, any one of those will block red. But also if you block your anger, you block red. Just feeling the anger does not necessarily liberate red because there are a lot of people who go around yelling, and screaming and they don't necessarily have true strength. We know that people who are usually angry and aggressive are usually seen to be strong. And they like themselves to be that way because they take it to be strength. So anger is like strength—more at the emotional level, and it is used as strength, but it is a strength that is more defensive, let's say. And it’s a kind of expression which creates chaos not harmony.

People who don't allow themselves to feel angry, who don't feel comfortable with anger usually don't have much red—don't have much strength and that is experienced as a lack of ego strength.

But if you really feel your anger and experience your anger without resistance, without judgment, it will often turn to red. So one of the main ways, at least on the surface, it is blocked is through the blockage of anger. We explore this in our inquiries in groups or privately. We spend time with our anger, feeling it, exploring it in the safety of our practices. As with all of our negative emotions, we feel them, without acting on them in order to see more. As we learn more about it, we come more in contact with the aliveness of our soul—our true strength. In time, our lives will be impacted.

Discovering Your Strength Through Guided Inquiry

Our guided inquiry around strength will help to both tease out the history and also the felt sense of connection (or lack of) with the Red. As we explore, we spend time with the quality and the barriers. As we inquire, the false starts to drop away and we feel more the truth of who we are. When we spend time with the self-images of a small child who feels small, we see through those self-images and we can feel the aliveness and excitement of the strength essence which gives us courage to fully express our heart’s desire in life.

As we engage in guided inquiry and deepen our connection with the Red essence, we naturally begin to embody a greater sense of courage, resilience, and personal power. We become more capable of expressing our heart's desires and living a life that is aligned with our authentic selves. Through this spiritual journey, we discover that true strength comes not from external sources or aggressive displays of power, but from a deep inner connection to the vital, life-affirming energy that flows through us all.

Free Guided Meditation: Find Your Inner Strength

Access your source of essential strength with our free first session . Register today.

Teaching 1: Exploring Authenticity

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 20:27:06 GMT

Exploring Authenticity

Like a diamond, we each have many facets to ourselves. In order for us to see these facets and allow our true nature to shine, we need the help of a group. Which is why we’re offering a NEW WORKSHOP and the first Diamond Approach group in Michigan to accept new members in over 20 years!

Join us for this special opportunity and immersive experience of inner renewal as we use The Diamond Approach to uncover your natural brilliance. By questioning assumptions, listening inwardly, and being present with what is, our workshop will help us:

Recognize the distractions that limit freedom
Dis-identify from conditioned beliefs
Uncover obstacles to living your authentic life
Access the wisdom of your inner body, heart and mind
Integrate presence into your whole being

Get ready to embody joy, meaning, and authentic purpose as you reconnect with your unique spiritual self.

Teaching 1: Exploring Authenticity - Begins January 10th

Price Per Module:

Early bird rate (sign up 1 month before start date): $180

Regular rate: $205

Each module is a Saturday in-person “Daylong” (two teaching sessions) preceded by a Wednesday night Zoom introduction and followed by a next Wednesday Zoom Follow up teaching.

January 10 ^th 6:00pm to 7:30pm Zoom session
Saturday January 13 ^th 9am to 12 noon and 1:30pm to 4:30pm ET
January 17 ^th 6:00pm to 8:30pm Zoom session

Teaching 2: Cultivating Joy

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 20:24:41 GMT

Cultivating Joy

We will explore and connect with the natural joy and delight of our true nature.

Cultivating Joy - Begins March 27, 2024
Price per core teaching:

Early bird rate (sign up 1 month before start date): $180

Regular rate: $205

Each module is a Saturday in-person “Daylong” (two teaching sessions) preceded by a Wednesday night Zoom introduction and followed by a next Wednesday Zoom Follow up teaching.

Wednesday March 27th 6:00pm to 7:30pm Zoom session
Saturday March 30 ^th 9am to 12 noon and 1:30pm to 4:30pm
Wednesday April 3 ^rd 6:00pm to 8:30pm Zoom session

Teaching 3: Finding Our True Strength

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 20:19:30 GMT

Finding Our True Strength

As a spiritual quality, Strength is appropriate and centered in truth. When we lose contact with this it our experience can be distorted by ill will or incapacity. We will explore the quality and the barriers that we might have to it.

Teaching 3: Finding our True Strength - Begins May 1st

Price per core teaching:

Early bird rate (sign up 1 month before start date): $180

Regular rate: $205

Each module is a Saturday in-person “Daylong” (two teaching sessions) preceded by a Wednesday night Zoom introduction and followed by a next Wednesday Zoom Follow up teaching.

Wednesday May 1 ^st 6:00pm to 7:30pm Zoom session
Saturday May 4 ^th 9am to 12 noon and 1:30pm to 4:30pm
Wednesday May 8 ^th 6:00pm to 8:30pm Zoom session

Teaching 4: Opening to our Compassion

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 17:12:48 GMT

Opening to Our Compassion

The tender presence of compassion helps us to be less timid about exploring the places that scare us. These teachings will help us to see the ways we close our hearts and support our natural compassion and holding of our experience.

Opening to our Compassion - Begins June 26th

Price per core teaching:

Early bird rate (sign up 1 month before start date): $180

Regular rate: $205

Each module is a Saturday in-person “Daylong” (two teaching sessions) preceded by a Wednesday night Zoom introduction and followed by a next Wednesday Zoom Follow up teaching.

Wednesday June 26th 6:00pm to 7:30pm Zoom session
Saturday June 29th 9am to 12 noon and 1:30pm to 4:30pm
Wednesday July 3rd 6:00pm to 8:30pm Zoom session

Teaching 5: Embodying Aliveness

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 18:15:29 GMT

Embodying Aliveness

Building on our teaching of Strength we will look deeper at this quality and see how it brings energy and zest to all of our nature. It is so necessary to bring out spiritual life into our daily activities, family, jobs and all.

To riff off of Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Embodying Aliveness - Begins September 11th

Price per core teaching:

Early bird rate (sign up 1 month before start date): $180

Regular rate: $205

Each module is a Saturday in-person “Daylong” (two teaching sessions) preceded by a Wednesday night Zoom introduction and followed by a next Wednesday Zoom Follow up teaching.

Wednesday September 11th 6:00pm to 7:30pm Zoom session
Saturday September 14th 9am to 12 noon and 1:30pm to 4:30pm
Wednesday September 18th 6:00pm to 8:30pm Zoom session

Teaching 6: Living with Openheartedness

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 18:15:29 GMT

Living with Openheartedness

The Diamond Approach combines insights from modern psychology and traditional wisdom paths. We will build on our teaching of Compassion. The deepest hurt is the disconnection with our true nature. Compassion allows us to be exactly where we are without any need to manipulate our experience.

What if peace, joy & freedom are closer than you think? Our workshop series happening now guides you inward to dissolve obstacles blocking your shine. Embrace psychology + spiritual wisdom as the path to unveiling your limitless potential. Reasonable costs and scholarship opportunities makes this transformative opportunity accessible. Take the first step toward authentic aliveness by registering today.

Join us for this special opportunity and journey of inner renewal as we use The Diamond Approach to uncover your natural brilliance.

Living with Openheartedness - Begins October 30, 2024

Price per core teaching:

Early bird rate (sign up 1 month before start date): $180

Regular rate: $205

Each module is a Saturday in-person “Daylong” (two teaching sessions) preceded by a Wednesday night Zoom introduction and followed by a next Wednesday Zoom Follow up teaching.

Wednesday October 30th 6:00pm to 7:30pm Zoom session
Saturday November 2nd 9am to 12 noon and 1:30pm to 4:30pm
Wednesday November 6th 6:00pm to 8:30pm Zoom session

Merging Gold

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 17:36:00 GMT

Merging gold love is an essential quality which is important for erasing boundaries to being, allowing resting as being. It is related to the personal essence, of course, because the personal essence does not have psychological boundaries. It also helps the soul tolerate the aloneness that can accompany this process.

Essential Qualities Connect Us with the Source

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 15:30:00 GMT

There is an inner stillness which is one of the ways that we can connect with that place beyond time. And that is just one way that this connection can be made. All Essential Qualities are by definition part of this inner connection to being-stillness, love, joy, strength and many others.

Bringing Light to Our Disconnections

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 15:19:00 GMT

The Way We Lose Our Authenticity

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 16:00:00 GMT