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The Diamond Approach

A.H. Almaas

A contemplative exploration of the Enneagram and the inner path, for those who wish to move beyond understanding their type toward a direct encounter with what, within, is not the ego.

The Diamond Approach offers a profound reading of human nature. It distinguishes personality — the set of strategies we have built to survive, which crystallize into the nine types of the Enneagram — from Essence — what exists in us before and beyond any construction.

This approach is neither a religion, nor a belief, nor a closed school. It is a method of inner investigation that draws on phenomenology (what is actually lived), depth psychology, and the contemplative wisdom of several traditions, to foster a direct encounter with what is. This method has a name: inquiry — an intimate, open questioning, without agenda.

For the Enneagram, its contribution is precious: each type is not only a defensive mechanism, but also the veil of an essential quality, of a true perception of reality. Recognizing your type is also beginning to glimpse the Holy Idea it conceals — and the Virtue that comes when this Idea awakens within us.

The inner movement of the Diamond Approach

Personality the type · the defenses Inquiry open inner questioning Essence the Ideas · the Virtues Basic Trust · Living Daylight

The teachings

The foundation

The five teachings that form the heart of the approach.

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Holy Ideas & essential keys

The nine true perceptions of reality, their loss which forms each type's fixation, and the quality of Being that opens the way back.

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What is Essence?

Distinguishing Essence from personality, and opening the way to its direct recognition.

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The Pearl — becoming a true person

The articulation between personality, Being, and Essence. The “Pearl” as authentic identity beyond the false self.

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The inner return — an overview

A systematic presentation of the whole path proposed by the approach.

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Inquiry — the inner questioning

The practical method: how to actually conduct inquiry — the inner exploration that dissolves fixations.

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Going further

Further explorations of specific dimensions of the path.

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Love — its many faces

Almaas's trilogy on love: essential presence, the non-dual dimension of reality, and the way of the heart toward the Beloved.

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Essential identity and narcissism

On the “point” at the heart of the soul, the narcissistic dynamic, and the encounter with the true self beyond the image.

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Freeing yourself from the superego

A precious entry point: recognizing the inner critical voice and disidentifying from it.

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Presence in the moment

The now as an essential passage: how full presence in the moment opens inner flourishing.

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Diamond Heart — transmissions

A series of transmissions on the approach's major themes, accessible to any inner seeker.

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