Diamond Heart: Book Five (A.H. Almaas)
Flat, Apophatic, Psychologized Advaita
[My 3-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Diamond Heart; Book Five: Inexhaustible Mystery” by A.H Almaas.]
A few weeks ago, a woman who liked my Amazon book reviews e-mailed me. She said my reviews had led her to buy my book “Beyond the Power of Now,” and she wanted to know if I had read A.H. Almaas, a spiritual teacher she considered very deep and special. I told her that I knew of Almaas, but had never read him. I let her know that I would order the book of his that she recommended—“Diamond Heart Book Five”—and review it; and this is the review.
The title of the book says “Diamond Heart,” but Almaas never says what the Diamond Heart is. Moreover, he repeatedly and loosely uses the word “heart,” but never defines it. When I think of the spiritual Heart, I equate it with the Self, which is intuited, and finally realized, by the piercing of the causal-knot, felt just to the right of the center of one’s chest. Gautama Buddha equated the severing the Heart-knot, which he called the “Heart-release,” with the attainment of Nirvana (the end of becoming), which is tantamount to Self-realization (permanent abidance in Being).
Almaas immediately got my attention in the book’s Introduction, where he emphasizes that enlightenment is not a final condition, but rather a “continuous process of creative renewal.” He is wrong. The Buddha talked of no further enlightenment beyond the Nirvana he awakened to under the Bodhi Tree, and Ramana Maharshi, similarly, states: “Once the [Heart] knot is cut, one is never bound again. This is considered the state of power supreme and peace supreme.” In other words, you’re either Self-realized or you’re not. Prior to full, permanent en-Light-enment (or Self-realization), there are degrees of en-Light-enment, but once the Heart-knot is cut, you eternally (or timelessly) rest in the Light, or Radiance, of Being.
One reason I looked forward to reading this book was that some of the talks in it were about Jesus and esoteric Christianity. This was of particular interest to me because I have just finished writing a book--‘Electrical Christianity: A Revolutionary Guide to Jesus’ Teachings and Spiritual Enlightenment” (available Spring 2013)--on the subject and wanted to see if Almaas had anything interesting to say about it. He doesn’t. He equates Jesus’ “poverty in the spirit” with self-emptying, which is old hat, and doesn’t even mention the Eucharist (the sacrament of Holy Communion) or explain the Trinity.
As I moved quickly through the book, which had nothing new for me, it became blatantly obvious that Almaas has not “cracked the cosmic egg,” has not put it all together spiritually. His teachings are flat, bereft of both practical instructions and esoteric insights. He’s read the Zen, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta books and has “psychologized’ them, but he never moves beyond apophatic Advaita “psychologization” into profound cataphatic explication of the God-realization Process. He doesn’t talk about Siva-Shakti, the dyadic interplay between Consciousness and Energy (or Spirit) in the Atman project, and the end result is a reductionist drone that underemphasizes Presence (“Voltage” or Thesis), overemphasizes Absence (Ohms-reduction or Antithesis), and completely ignores Spirit (Amperage or Synthesis).
Three decades ago, I leafed through a couple of Almaas books in a bookstore, but was not motivated to buy one. After reading “Diamond Heart Five,” I remembered why.
[My 3-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Diamond Heart; Book Five: Inexhaustible Mystery” by A.H Almaas.]
A few weeks ago, a woman who liked my Amazon book reviews e-mailed me. She said my reviews had led her to buy my book “Beyond the Power of Now,” and she wanted to know if I had read A.H. Almaas, a spiritual teacher she considered very deep and special. I told her that I knew of Almaas, but had never read him. I let her know that I would order the book of his that she recommended—“Diamond Heart Book Five”—and review it; and this is the review.
The title of the book says “Diamond Heart,” but Almaas never says what the Diamond Heart is. Moreover, he repeatedly and loosely uses the word “heart,” but never defines it. When I think of the spiritual Heart, I equate it with the Self, which is intuited, and finally realized, by the piercing of the causal-knot, felt just to the right of the center of one’s chest. Gautama Buddha equated the severing the Heart-knot, which he called the “Heart-release,” with the attainment of Nirvana (the end of becoming), which is tantamount to Self-realization (permanent abidance in Being).
Almaas immediately got my attention in the book’s Introduction, where he emphasizes that enlightenment is not a final condition, but rather a “continuous process of creative renewal.” He is wrong. The Buddha talked of no further enlightenment beyond the Nirvana he awakened to under the Bodhi Tree, and Ramana Maharshi, similarly, states: “Once the [Heart] knot is cut, one is never bound again. This is considered the state of power supreme and peace supreme.” In other words, you’re either Self-realized or you’re not. Prior to full, permanent en-Light-enment (or Self-realization), there are degrees of en-Light-enment, but once the Heart-knot is cut, you eternally (or timelessly) rest in the Light, or Radiance, of Being.
One reason I looked forward to reading this book was that some of the talks in it were about Jesus and esoteric Christianity. This was of particular interest to me because I have just finished writing a book--‘Electrical Christianity: A Revolutionary Guide to Jesus’ Teachings and Spiritual Enlightenment” (available Spring 2013)--on the subject and wanted to see if Almaas had anything interesting to say about it. He doesn’t. He equates Jesus’ “poverty in the spirit” with self-emptying, which is old hat, and doesn’t even mention the Eucharist (the sacrament of Holy Communion) or explain the Trinity.
As I moved quickly through the book, which had nothing new for me, it became blatantly obvious that Almaas has not “cracked the cosmic egg,” has not put it all together spiritually. His teachings are flat, bereft of both practical instructions and esoteric insights. He’s read the Zen, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta books and has “psychologized’ them, but he never moves beyond apophatic Advaita “psychologization” into profound cataphatic explication of the God-realization Process. He doesn’t talk about Siva-Shakti, the dyadic interplay between Consciousness and Energy (or Spirit) in the Atman project, and the end result is a reductionist drone that underemphasizes Presence (“Voltage” or Thesis), overemphasizes Absence (Ohms-reduction or Antithesis), and completely ignores Spirit (Amperage or Synthesis).
Three decades ago, I leafed through a couple of Almaas books in a bookstore, but was not motivated to buy one. After reading “Diamond Heart Five,” I remembered why.
