Opening to Pure Being: Awakening to the Fundamental Nature of Reality with A. H. Almaas

Ep. 195 (Part 1 of 2) | In 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.

“One way of experiencing pure being is from within itself; then there is experiencing it from the perspective of all manifestation. This is when we understand form is formlessness and formlessness is form.”

Topics & Time Stamps – Part 1

• Introducing the 12th dialogue of the 
• A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series focused on Hameed’s nondual teachings, and experiencing the fullness of being (00:33)
• The difference between the localized experience of presence and the infinite, boundless experience of presence (01:50)
• Divine love, pure presence is the precursor of all other qualities (03:15)
• More fundamental than divine love is the simplicity of pure presence, pure being (06:09)
• Our alienation from completeness causes a sense of lack in us all (11:19)
• There are 2 major ways of experiencing the fullness of being, both nondual (15:27)
• The second way is experiencing it from the perspective of all manifestation; this is when we understand form is formlessness and formlessness is form (22:14) 
• Nonduality is implicit in both experiences—subject and object are the same thing (26:09)
• If you look a little deeper, you find that formlessness is behind everything (28:17)
• All manifestations of true nature are an antidote to suffering (28:43)
• Ordinary mind perceives everything as separate, singular (31:04)
• Science deals with behavior only; quantum physics comes closest to acknowledging there is something besides the physical (32:59)
• Can mathematics take us to a realization of pure being? (36:58)
• It would be possible for scientists to study this if they practiced inquiry into the observer, into the experience (39:50)

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
• Advaita Vedanta
• Ibn Arabi, a major figure in Islamic mysticism (Sufism) and one of the most influential thinkers associated with nonduality in the Islamic tradition
• Meister Eckhart, German Catholic priest, theologian, philosopher & mystic
• Dzogchen
• Sir Roger Penrose & Dr. Stuart Hameroff, Consciousness and the Physics of the Brain (YouTube video)
• David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order
• Niels Bohr, Martin Heidegger, Erwin Schrödinger

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