Ep. 222 (Part 2 of 2) | A. H. Almaas’ teachings on spiritual love and the inner beloved are based on his own experience, he explains in Part 2 of the first dialogue in the Path of Love Series. “In this path, experience is almost everything,” he says. Spiritual experience created the Diamond Approach—it isn’t a philosophy. What makes Hameed’s path of love unique and different from other paths of love, like the Sufi and the bhakti paths? First off, it is the methodology: the practice of inquiry. Inquiry combines both mind and heart, Hameed explains. It adds a means of discernment that helps to keep the force of love from going astray on its own; it brings understanding to our experience, and shows us our obstacles. “[This path] has in it the sensibilities of modern mind and modern life and how to live it from the perspective of the heart.”

Another unique feature of A. H. Almaas’ path of love is how we experience drawing closer and closer to the inner beloved. Hameed describes the experience of approaching the inner beloved as a heartrending mixture of “sweetness, passion, ecstasy, drunkenness… many stages of melting, surrender, effulgence, fullness, radiance… all intertwined with yearning and pain and the feeling of being separate” from one’s heart’s true desire. With his customary concise eloquence, Hameed also answers several of the co-hosts’ questions: How does Hameed see contemporary society in the light of this vision of love? Does he think humanity will wake up? What is a fulfilled life? Hameed concludes by telling us that the question this path of love is designed to answer is, how do you live your life while also engaging in the way of the heart? Recorded December 11, 2025.

“The mind asks the questions, the heart finds the answers. The mind gets clear, the heart melts.“

1. The difference between Hameed’s approach and other paths of love is the methodology: inquiry (00:32)
2. Truth is a quality of the heart, not the mind; the heart knows truth, the mind doesn’t (05:43)
3. Spiritual experience created Hameed’s teaching—it isn’t a philosophy (09:08)
4. The union between inquiry and the force of love (11:19)
5. The heart is patterned by our history, especially our history of love (15:39)
6. Two common misunderstandings: attributing love to an external source, and believing there is only one manifestation of spirit (17:51)
7. Nearing the inner beloved, there are many stages of melting, surrender, passion, ecstasy, all intertwined with yearning and pain, the feeling of separation (18:49)
8. How does Hameed see contemporary society and its many discontents in the light of this vision of love? (20:53)
9. Is humanity going to wake up? (23:03)
10. What is a fulfilled life? (27:29)
11. On the path, the ego self becomes not just secondary—it’s gone (31:11)

Ep. 221 (Part 1 of 2) | Deep Transformation is excited to release the first episode in our new Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas, in honor and celebration of Hameed Ali’s latest book, The Inner Beloved. The series begins with Hameed sharing his motivation for writing all three of the books in his Love Trilogy (Love Unveiled, Nondual Love, The Inner Beloved), namely, when he realized his prior books had omitted to teach specifically about the role of love on the spiritual path. Love is the energy, the driving force toward union with our inner nature, Hameed explains, and it is love that dissolves the obstacles that remain towards the end of the path. It is the path of heart that gets you all the way.

Hameed orients us with an overview of the Diamond Approach’s experiential path of love, gifting us with some tremendous teachings on love as a prelude to delving deeply into his newest book, The Inner Beloved. When asked, What is the inner beloved? he responds, The beloved is not just love. Love serves the beloved, love is the way to the beloved. The inner beloved is what our deepest heart longs for. The path of the heart is painful at times, he continues, because we feel separate from what we yearn to become one with. At the end of the dialogue, Hameed shares that with his path of love teachings, he wants us to know there is a way to address our longing, our yearning. There is a way for it to complete itself, he assures us. Recorded December 11, 2025.

“The beloved is the deepest nondual truth you can experience.”

1. Introducing A. H. Almaas and his trilogy of books on love: Love Unveiled, Nondual Love, and The Inner Beloved (00:48)
2. Hameed’s motivation to write about love came when he realized his prior books had omitted teaching about the role of love on the spiritual path (04:27)
3. The first book in the trilogy, Love Unveiled, talks about 3 kinds of love important in human life and in spiritual practice (07:01)
4. The second book, Nondual Love, talks about the boundless dimension of universal love (09:05)
5. The third book, The Inner Beloved, is about the path of love—the movement toward our fundamental nature through the heart (10:59)
6. Roger points out that Hameed’s teachings on love go far beyond other spiritual teachings (12:20)
7. The beloved is not just love: love serves the beloved, love is the way to the beloved (13:35)
8. We all have 3 centers of operation: head, heart & belly—each one is a spiritual brain of its own (16:24)
9. Love is the most explicit motivator for the spiritual journey (18:08)
10. The Diamond Approach is not about being liberated or free from suffering, it’s about loving to know the truth (20:40)
11. The path of the heart is painful because we feel separate from what we yearn to become one with...

Ep. 220 (Part 2 of 2) | In part 2 of Sliding Towards Authoritarianism, Constitutional Law expert and Ethics professor Mark Fischler unpacks the significance of the extreme lack of civic understanding in the United States and, well informed about students’ cognitive abilities and mental health status nationwide, adds the precipitous drop in achievement scores and through-the-roof diagnoses of ADHD, autism, anxiety, and depression to the mix, concluding, “You begin to see why an authoritarian world requiring only simple actions and answers would be more attractive than a democratic world that requires complexity, conversation, and the ability to see the intrinsic worth of the person across from you… to collectively decide to honor democratic processes and the winner who was voted in.”

This is the challenge, Mark says: “Since everybody has a partial piece of the truth, we need to ask ourselves, am I curious enough to understand another’s partial piece of truth in order to enrich myself and help me understand that we are all in this together?” “We need to take up the fight for greater awareness that recognizes the good, the true, the beautiful, and the oneness of what is,” he continues. Despite all that Mark has shared with us regarding the current Administration’s dehumanizing, authoritarian tactics and other significant factors contributing to the deterioration of our democracy, when asked what gives him hope, Mark answers, “A lot of things!” The discussion ends in a hopeful place—grim realities balanced with inspiring trends, including the growing recognition around the world that we are all in this together in what is essentially one global village. Recorded December 4, 2025.

“To understand is to forgive.” – Dr. Michael Fischler

1. What the problem of pervasive civic ignorance signifies for our democracy (01:02)
2. Our susceptibility to authoritarian leaders is not surprising considering our ignorance of civil responsibility (04:53)
3. Future shock: people under stress regress psychologically, making it even easier for an authoritarian to take over (06:57)
4. There is more than one reason for our pervasive civic ignorance (09:08)
5. Using A.I. to fact-check what we see and hear (10:37)
6. Education: cognitive understanding in young people has plunged below lowest-level functioning thresholds (16:35)
7. Among students, autism, ADHD, anxiety & depression diagnoses are through the roof (18:03)
8. Because of people’s lack of achievement & lack of civic understanding, it makes sense that people are willing to let democracy go (19:40)
9. Cultivating a quest for truth is part of the solution (22:48)
10. A call to contemplative warriors to take up the fight for greater awareness that recognizes the good, the true, the beautiful—and the oneness of what is (25:35)