Diamond Heart: The Freedom to Be

The Diamond Heart books are not for everyone but are priceless for those who have been working with themselves for sometime. The transcripts of talks given don't make this a reference book but rather a way to absorb organically the teachings of A. H. Almaas. These teachings and guidance make the subtle differences to our previous understandings and introduce us to the nuances of the world's greatest spiritual teachings in a soft, gentle and expansive manner that befits the subject matter. The Freedom To Be comes from the cessation of the fight with the ego mind and the expansion of perception that allows all to be within. I found it enormously helpful to me in shifting my energy from 'trying' to 'being'.

This is the second book in A. H. Almaas's four-part Diamond Heart series. "We live in a world of mystery, wonder, and beauty," he observes in the Preface to this book, "but most of us seldom participate in this real world, being aware rather of a world that is mostly strife, suffering, or meaninglessness" (p. i). In the series of twelve inner-work teachings collected here (e.g., "Hanging Loose," "Acceptance," "Love," and "Being Oneself"), Almaas integrates Sufism, Zen and Vajrayana Buddhism with Gurdjieff and modern psychology into what he calls "the Diamond Approach" to self realization, and as the book's subtitle suggests, into "the freedom to be." This is a "Heart" that shines like a diamond.G. Merritt