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In this episode, host Michael Taft speaks with spiritual teacher and author Hameed Ali, more often known by his pen name, A. H. Almaas. Almaas is the creator of the Diamond Approach to Self-Realization, which is a contemporary teaching developed within the context of both ancient spiritual teachings and modern depth psychology theories. Almaas has authored eighteen books about spiritual realization, including the Diamond Heart series, The Pearl Beyond Price, The Void, The Unfolding Now, and The Point of Existence. Michael writes: I met Almaas at his office in Berkeley, where we sat down for a comfortable chat about attachment to the nondual viewpoint, a way of awakening that he calls the “unilocal,” the role of instinct in the spiritual quest, the essential activation of continuous awakening, integrating awakening with the phenomenology of Husserl and Heidegger, and much more. He’s a fascinating guy with a lot to say, and so I’m very happy to present to you the episode that I call “Reality Let Loose.” Find out more about Almaas at his website. Show Notes 00:25 - Introduction and summary 02:07 - The Alchemy of Freedom a the many faces of true nature 05:22 - The second turning, nonduality a the third turning, the presence in the Void 08:57 - Exploring the presence: unilocality and the experience of containing everything 14:55 - The fourth turning: singularity a the delight of freedom 19:42 - Immense lightness a the sliding scale of emptiness 23:10 - More on the fourth turning: the view of totality a the pain of going past non-duality 30:50 - Non-duality as part of a sequence of awakenings 33:39 - More fourth turning awakenings: not-anything, non-condition 38:34 - The philosopher's stone a the dynamic, quantum nature of reality 42:30 - Working with true nature a endless awakenings 46:23 - Learning to accept the view of totality a moving beyond belief 51:32 - Aliens, red sulfur, a no-end 58:47 - All spiritual paths are valid 1:00:00 - Almaas' upcoming books: phenomenology of awakening 1:05:33 - Upcoming, continued: instinct a awakening 1:09:19 - Lifeforce, enlightened aliens a the self-revealing nature of true nature 1:12:00 - True nature without consciousness a the mystery at the source of awareness 1:13:34 - Concluding remarks: practice is realization 1:16:16 - Outro   You can support the creation of future episodes of this podcast by contributing through Patreon.