Customer Reviews

Inner Journey Home: The Soul's Realization of the Unity of Reality

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Gaining a deep understanding of the "soul" is a subtle process requiring both knowledge and practice, in addition to "time and circumstance," through which one absorbs the teaching and the experience(s) toward which those teachings are directed. Many writers have impressive insight into such knowledge (e.g., Wilber), and some have participated in aspects of the practice (e.g., Grof), but no contemporary writer has been able to fuse knowledge, practice, and interior experience into a corpus of work having such a unique clarity, depth, and eloquence appropriate to the contemporary Western audience as has Hameed Ali (literary name, A. H. Almaas). The reason for this is that no contemporary writer (with the exception of Idries Shah) has authoritatively addressed the nature and function of the subtle centers of the "lataif" or essential qualities (different from the "chakras"), and only Hameed's practice directly addresses the "activation of the lataif," which are the substance and expression of the mysterious "pearl" of the Soul. This knowledge and practice goes far beyond the rational and intellectual (e.g., 'philosophical') perspectives which can 'point to' these truths and cross-correlate them across world traditions but do not facilitate one's experiencing or 'tasting' them.

Discussion of such experience(s) requires a degree of "circular philosophizing" that is designed to show the reader how this knowledge resonates with what is in their cultural experience, such as orthodox psychology, German Existentialism, Sufism, Eastern religions, etc. (his Diamond Mind series), or how the practice resonates within the egos, minds, and souls of those who are attempting to "taste" their essential nature (his Diamond Heart series), and offers suggestions for how to pursue that practice (his Diamond Body series). Yes, one does indeed need a "frame of reference -- which is provided by Ali's other books," as is true with any authentic operative philosophy (Gnosis) designed to assist sentient beings (ordinary people) to begin to engage the full depth and essential nature of the Soul and situate that process within a larger Essential Reality that is indeed tangible and accessible to the soul. Hameed's work is not just another intellectual "philosophy" (and certainly doesn't deserve to be referred to as "semantic mush"), rather it is the current flowering of previously secluded Naqshbandi Sufi knowledge and practice related to the "activation of the lataif," arising out of 21st century Western soil carefully prepared by the decades of work by Idries Shah and others; this combined with the mature expression of the enneagram school of psychology and psycho-dynamic practice expressed in the lineage of Oscar Ichazo -- Claudio Naranjo -- Hameed Ali, another occasion where 1000 year-old esoteric Eastern knowledge and practice has emerged within the contemporary Western stream of cultural confluence.

I can concur (word-for-word, including the "30+ years") from personal experience with the previous reviewer¡¦s observation that participants with whom I have partaken of Hameed's Ridhwan school are "simply the most mature, developed, clean, clear, and simply HUMAN human beings I have ever known in the 30+ years I have been seeking out transcendental experience/ knowledge." For the most part they are serious and dedicated individuals who have been disillusioned, misled, or even "burned" by other paths or approaches and find the Diamond Work provides the substantive teaching and practice they have been seeking and previously not finding. Or they are simply people who have little experience of such "paths or approaches" but have been drawn, in one way or another, to this work, which they find necessary and appropriate for their personal development.

I have great respect for the work of Ken Wilber (have most of his books and have read half of them), and for the work of Stan Grof (have most of his works and have read or re-read most of them), and I would include the lesser known but equally sweeping, prodigious, and perhaps more comprehensive corpus of some 20 works by John G. Bennett, particularly his monumental 4-volume "integral" synthesis, _The Dynamic Universe_, but Hameed's work is of a different order, being the expression of a comprehensive philosophy, psychology, and teaching, honed over years of instrumental practice. In conclusion, I own more than 2000 volumes of "books," mostly on historical, cultural, scientific, philosophical, transpersonal, and transcendental topics, and, to put it simply, Hameed's books are on the "top shelf." I would encourage those seriously interested in self-knowledge and individual development to take the time to immerse themselves in Hameed's work and absorb its Essence.

This book requires serious attention!! In two ways: One, it requires the readers serious attention to truly grasp and appreciate the many revelations and discoveries contained within. Almaas is precise and finely discriminating in his use of language. At times in philosphical like language, at others in more psychological language the reader is rewarded by deep insight into her own nature and an enlivened curiosity to find out more. Two, the major themes: the nature, properties and liberation of the Human Soul, and the Unity of Reality, Being and the Soul is a vast subject which Almaas handles coherently and in depth. This book requires serious attention from interested seekers and scholars alike for it crosses many disciplinary boundaries, linking the spiritual with the psychological and the philosophical through the practice of open-ended inquiry that comes from the very root of the Western Tradition. Their are insights for practioners in both eastern and Western spiritual traditions here. This is Almaas' 11th book, and the best one yet.

I found this book to be profound and deeply rewarding. Almaas, precisely describes the Diamond Approach to self-realization, your true home, as it was experientially revealed to him. He also offers a rich and in-depth description of the view of reality held by many of the world's religions.
I have felt blessed by reading many other books by Almaas and other spiritual teachers. However, this book provided a comprehensive and scholarly understanding of the soul and its movement toward truth that gave me a long awaited sense of the overall experience of the inner journey, and spirituality in general. His writing seamlessly integrates spirituality and psychology to illuminate topics such as the soul and essence, living presence, human potential, liberating the soul, and divine love and light. One central thread of this book presents a clear picture of the non-duality of reality.
Almaas also discusses the stages of spiritual development and the psychological obstacles that are encountered in the journey to individuation and self-realization. He begins by presenting an understanding of the soul, or self, as it is for most human beings. And then he explains the soul's development to the dimension of the Absolute where the soul or self is "the transcendent summit of reality". He continues his description of spiritual development by explaining the journey of descent where the soul or self realizes its full potential as an expression of the absolute in the world.
I feel very inadequate in trying to describe the profundity of this book and it's impact on me. I have read parts of this book several times. Each time I read it I experience greater movement toward truth, the realization of the reality of who I am.

I have met about a dozen people from the Ridhwan group, and worked somewhat with four of their teachers, and attended an "on-ramp" experiential study group. The teacher is known by his students, and they are simply the most mature, developed, clean, clear, and simply HUMAN human beings I have ever known in the 30+ years I have been seeking out transcendental experience/knowlege.

After reading a number of his books, seeing him speak in person a number of times, and assessing his students, I an confident that he is indeed the Teacher of the Age, and very possibly the Renewer of Islam for this century. I do not say this lightly.

Remember that even the greatest masters who have ever lived, the prophets and their inheritors, were only able to liberate a few dozen at most from their followers. Shayhk Hamid is a man like you and I, but he has already freed more souls than most of these masters.

Readers unfamilir with his work may want to try his earlier book "Essence" as an introduction. If you have a serious interest in liberation, you cannot overlook these materials, in my opinion.

Under his pen name AH Almaas Hameed Ali has written some fifteen books by now. All of these are original and thorough explorations of the many facets of becoming more aware of who we essentially are. The Inner Journey home is the book that puts all his other contributions together. After reading this book, the overall framework of the journey to enlightenment has become much clearer to me, and I have all the other books where more detail is needed.
As Almaas is one of the few teachers who couples the insights of modern psychology with the wisdom of the ancient traditions there really is a lot of ground to be covered. Almaas does that in this book with amazing precision, with lucidity, and with deep internalized understanding. It's not easy describing that which is beyond concepts, but Almaas does an excellent job.
Because of its depth and width it is not an easy introduction to the spiritual path. It is a work book, that you put away over and over again to contemplate on how what is written resonates with your own experience.
I recommend this book to all those (and only those) who are seriously committed to self development on the spiritual path.

A.H. Almaas (Hameed Ali) has been one of my "teachers" for the past several years as I negotiated my way through his Diamond Approach works. His clear vision and faithful rendition of Sufi teachings in the context of Western depth psychology, are major intellectual and spiritual achievements.
I have found, from my own experience (anecdotal, of course) that his explanations of human psychological and spiritual development are accurate and relevant.
Inner Journey Home is written for those who have a good grounding in Almaas's prior work. Reading it should not be attempted without reading his works Essence and the Elixir of Enlightenment, Spacecruiser Inquiry, and the Diamond Heart series. I would also recommend Davis's The Diamond Approach as a good overview.
I plan to reread Inner Journey Home, because I am certain that I only grasped a portion of the wisdom it contains in my first reading. Even so, I recommend the work as a good resource for those contemplating the nature of the soul.

I have read most of Almaas' work and this is by far his masterpeice of spiritual discourse--providing an unfolding of understanding and transmission through the written word.

One of the oldest tasks of philosophy is to gain an understanding of what the "soul" is, and it's nature. Ever since Aristotle wrote the treatise we know as the "De Anima", philosophers have haggled over this question.

Hameed Ali (known here by his pen name A.H. Almaas) has now thrown his hat into this ancient ring, with mixed results. "The Inner Journey Home" purports to explain the nature of the soul and how it develops, yet gets lost in a tangled web of Sufism, German Existentialism, and orthodox psychology without ever really getting to the point. For 500 pages, Almaas goes off on tangents that could have been summed up in 20, endlessly repeating the same themes using different terminology. The reader quickly gets bogged down in distinctions and terms that make absolutely no sense without some frame of reference- which is provided by Ali's other books, to which he constantly refers. There are some interesting and unique points (such as his discussions of the archetypal "diamond vehicles"), yet these quickly get lost in the repetitive maze built by Almaas' circular philosophizing. Unlike similiar writers, like Ken Wilber, there really isn't much use for Almaas' philosophy- it's mostly Heideggerian navel-gazing. The most useful section of the book, in fact, are the appendixes, in which Almaas compares his developmental theory to that of Wilber, Washburn, and Grof, and also analyzes western, easter, and sufi concepts of the soul, as well as early childhood spiritual development.

Overall, while my opinion may be biased by the fact that I've never read any of Almaas' other works, I found his philosophy lacking in utility, repetetive, and incoherent, and his insights into the nature of the soul could be better summed up by Eckhart Tolle in a few sentences than Almaas manages in his entire book. If you want a coherent "integral" philosophy, Ken Wilber or Stanislav Grof are still the way to go.