The Essence of Love and Consciousness

Ep. 189 (Part 1 of 2) | The eleventh Wisdom Series dialogue with A. H. Almaas brings us to the second turning of his teaching, into the boundless dimension of divine love. Hameed explores this nondual dimension in detail: its qualities, what it’s like to experience firsthand, and what the effects of such an experience are likely to be. This boundless dimension of loving consciousness is the first of the five boundless dimensions, though love continues to develop throughout them all. Hameed gives a beautiful account of his initial experience with this dimension, when divine love and light permeated all of reality. “Why don’t more people experience this if love is always there? asks co-host John Dupuy, and Hameed explains that it’s always there in potential form though not always manifest; the experience is there for when we are ripe for it.

Having awakened to this dimension, one can’t help but want everyone to feel this way, Hameed says, and this is the main reason spiritual teachers teach. Hameed describes the obstacles that prevent us from experiencing the reality of divine love, how it challenges our perceived separateness, and tells us that after experiencing this unity, returning to separateness is not a choice. It turns out that experiencing boundless love is not a panacea for enlightenment, but creates an upwelling of obstacles and a state where our boundedness feels even more restrictive than before. Hameed also relates how hatred and greed can exist in this reality of pure goodness, and tells us that it is here, in the ocean of love and light, that they are transformed. A wonderfully numinous, illuminating conversation. Recorded May 1, 2025.

“Full nonduality: not just nonduality between subject and object…but where nothing is separate from anything else—one indivisible medium of loving consciousness.”

Topics & Time Stamps – Part 1

• Introducing the 11th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, focusing on the first of the five boundless dimensions: the ocean of love and light (00:35)
• Transitioning to the second turning of the teaching: the dimension of divine love (01:54)
• Hameed’s first experience of boundless love (04:46)
• This is what Rumi writes about—it’s not a unique experience but a potential for everyone (10:30)
• Full nonduality: not just between subject and object, but where nothing is separate from anything else (12:00)
• Why don’t more people experience this if love is always there? (14:08)
• All five dimensions (and maybe more) are implicit in nondual consciousness (19:17)
• Obstacles in the way of experiencing divine love (21:03)
• We cannot make this experience of presence happen—it is an emergence, a revelation (22:33)
• The movement back to separateness happens because it has been imprinted in the soul (24:48)
• The experience of divine love creates an upwelling of obstacles (26:27)
• Inquiry is the way to surrender your attachment to yourself as an individual (29:11)
• Our functioning can continue to happen after our boundaries have dissolved (32:35)
• Two main ego identifications: boundedness & our sense of identity (36:02)
• This dimension teaches how we can function as an individual expression of boundless love while not being separate from it (37:59)

Resources & References – Part 1

• 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
• A. H. Almaas, Luminous Night’s Journey: An Autobiographical Fragment
• George Fox, founder of the Quakers, “I saw also… an infinite ocean of light and love…”
• Rigpa, a central concept in Dzogchen
• 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.

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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