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The Pearl Beyond Price: Integration of Personality into Being: An Object Relations Approach (Diamond Mind Series, No. 2)

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Almaas has succeded in explicating and integrating contemporary object relations theory with transpersonal development. He has articulated the development of the ego and then its transcendence in a compelling, coherent discourse. This book is of tremendous value for anyone interested in a serious inquiry into the development/realization of the Self that does not ignore the important contribution of object-relations theory to self development.

The founders of NLP, following Korzybski, reminded us that "the map is not the territory." Almaas speaks of the territory - the vastness and profundity of out Being - as one who lives there. He also has produced yet another superb map, with very precise descriptions of the challenges, the obtacles, the meaning of the signs along the way, and a more workable way than we have ever had of actually geting there.

If you have enough appreciation of Almaas' work, you will move through this book with a deep understanding of how to actualize our full human potential in this lifetime. What makes this particular book stand out most, is how the personal aspect of our soul, or our "Pearl" draws one into realizing and actualizing that we CAN live a life of spiritual integrity and still function more optimally in our society, here and now. Albeit with much devotion, hard work, and psychological/emotional pain (and eventual healing toward wholeness), as Almaas points out numerous times throughout most of his books. Like most worthwhile undertakings in life, this takes hard work and requires much more than just reading and achieving an intellectual understanding, although this is the way for most of us, and is of much value, it is only the tip of the inner journey ice burg.

This book attempts to show how the very human desire of flourishing in this world and the equally though rarer desire of transcending the limitations of this world are reconcilable. I've been intrigued by therapeutic psychology for a while (at present I'm getting my Ph.D. in clinical psychology) and meditative/contemplative spiritual approaches as well. It became apparent how both were beneficial but also how different were their aims and purposes.

In this book Almaas shows how western psychological understating of how our personalities are formed can be used to experience ourselves more directly and breakthrough into spiritual domains of exploration. For almaas our personality is the false pear that can lead us to the pear beyond price (our "personalized" spiritual nature). We have a desire to be loved (false pearl) because spiritually we are love. Thus the defensive/compensatory nature of the personality also reflects intuitions of the truth. By carefully studying the personality we can potentially move beyond it if we have proper understanding and guidance. Whenever a certain part of our personality is challenged there is an opportunity to see through it and enter into a deeper and wider experience.

Excerpt from the text of a person working with almass: "I experienced feelings of being scared and alive. I felt a sense of strength and identity of my own and a closeness and love towards my girlfriend. As a result I feel a fullness and warmth that is expensive, through my belly and chest. My feeling of loosing her does not seem to overwhelm me as before..."

For almaas it is not enough to transcend limitations but we must bring realization down into every part of our being so it transforms us, thus personality is integrated with being, to make us more humanly present and alive.

This book addresses the critical illusion that external wealth is all there is to seek in life. Almaas uses depth psychology to reveal the most important facts of existence: a human being is a treasure; the treasure has always been there. Reading Almaas requires an entrance exam, however, in order to appreciate his psychological knowledge, its application, and the metaphorical brilliance of Middle Eastern mythology.