Deep Transformation

Ep. 231 (Part 2 of 2) | In Part 2 of Deep Transformation’s third dialogue in the Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas, Hameed Ali relates what happens on the path of return, after we have experienced dissolving into the radiance of the absolute. In following the path of heart (as opposed to the path of mind), we discover that in addition to pure emptiness, the absolute has (in its beingness aspect) a quality of consciousness that is pure intimacy. “The beloved is intimate with all things in the universe: intimate with people, with the rocks, with the stars… because its nature pervades everything.” Upon returning to the world, we find the universe has become the radiance of the beloved and ordinary life becomes full of love. That said, we may experience a great fear of losing our awakened realization, Hameed adds, which can further stir up old woundings which still need to be faced.
Back in the world, as the embodied beloved, do you feel compassion for other people’s suffering? co-host John Dupuy wonders. The extent of the compassion is almost unimaginable, Hameed answers. There is vast empathy for all the suffering in the world, and especially for the deep suffering underlying it all that is caused by people not knowing their inner truth. It is by giving the beloved the opportunity to appear and know itself as we live our lives that we love and serve the inner beloved, Hameed continues. He explains that awareness is the beloved witnessing its creation, and that the emptiness aspect of the beloved, emphasized in Buddhism and on the path of mind, brings a searing clarity to our experience. A beautiful conversation, in which co-host Roger Walsh remarks that the presence of the inner beloved seems to be increasingly reflected in these dialogues as they unfold. Perhaps you will feel it too. Recorded January 29, 2026.
“Regardless of what we think and feel, at our essence we are love.”
​Topics & Time Stamps – Part 2
The path of return: the fear of losing the beloved (00:34)
Old wounds come up bringing more fear; you have to welcome all the wounding (01:24)
Upon return, ordinary life becomes full of love—can this be translated into a scientific or mathematical theory? (02:26)
Service is giving the inner beloved the opportunity to appear & know itself (04:47)
The depth of compassion felt for the suffering of the world is almost unimaginable (06:50)
If you don’t work things out, you can’t live in this world as the deity (10:47)
The beloved is intimate with all things in the universe because its nature pervades everything (11:49)
The primal cavity: the deep wish to go into dark, black emptiness (15:39)
What is the relation between love and compassion? (19:36)
The heart is just there for the beloved—the throne of the beloved (22:15)
The more hatred and aggression, the more the disconnection (25:05)
Witnessing: awareness is the beloved witnessing its creation (26:48)
Realizing the emptiness: the radiance of the darkness is the essence of awareness (28:07)
The feeling tone of these dialogues increasingly reflects the presence of the inner beloved (29:50)
There is a lot more in the book The Inner Beloved, including conversations with Hameed’s students & exercises, that hasn’t been discussed (31:07)
At our essence we are love: moving towards heart is the inherent potential of humanity (32:23)

Resources & References – Part 2
A. H. Almaas, The Inner Beloved: The Heart’s Journey to Divine Unity
Previous Deep Transformation Path of Love dialogues: Entering the Path of Heart, Emptying the Heart of All that Obscures the Inner Beloved & Dissolving into Bliss
Ramakrishna, Hindu mystic
“I was a hidden treasure and wanted to be known” is the beginning of probably the most famous hadith qudsi or extra-Qur’anic Word of God
Longchenpa: A Guide For Readers (Shambhala)

Deep Transformation’s Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas
Deep Transformation’s Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas begins with an overview of Hameed Ali’s Love Trilogy — Love Unveiled, Nondual Love, and The Inner Beloved — to orient us on the spiritual path of love unique to Hameed Ali and the Diamond Approach, then delves into the profound and deeply touching topics Hameed addresses in his most recent book, The Inner Beloved, published in February 2026. Listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this extraordinary path of awakening. Also, if you are interested in taking a course on The Inner Beloved in the fall of 2026, you can register your interest here: https://da.pages.ontraport.net/inner-beloved-interest.
Special Diamond Approach Course Discount for Deep Transformation Listeners
If you are interested in taking a course offered by Diamond Approach Online, Hameed’s team at the Ridhwan School have offered a special 20% discount for Deep Transformation listeners. You can access the Course Catalog here: https://online.diamondapproach.org/catalog/. And enter the code DTP20 to receive your discount when you sign up.
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Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the essential nature of human experience and reality in general.
Hameed’s process of exploration led to the creation of the Ridhwan School and, with his colleague Karen Johnson, resulted in the founding and unfoldment of the Diamond Approach. He is the author of 20 books, including Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality, Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart, Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type, The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence, and more.
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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 230 (Part 1 of 2) | The third dialogue in the Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas opens with co-host Roger Walsh commenting that in reading Hameed’s most recent book, The Inner Beloved, he is struck by how different the Diamond Approach’s path of love is from those in other traditions. Hameed explains that, indeed, his path is different in that it addresses the sequence of events on the path of love systematically, using contemporary psychological language to describe the difficulties and barriers that arise, and further, that he includes not only obstacles that come up in the mind (concepts and beliefs), but emotional pain and woundings, abandonments and betrayals, which is something other traditions don’t often talk about. Why are our hearts not open? Because opening to such painful emotions is scary; our fear blocks us from opening to the vastness of divine love. The secret to moving forward on the path of love, Hameed says, is to love more intensely, more deeply. Love itself is the fuel that gets us through the obstacles to union with the inner beloved.
Hameed speaks of the “death wish” that happens along the path, referring to our desire to dissolve completely into the beloved. “The deep heart loves the prospect of melting away and being nothing, being annihilated, completely absorbed into the beloved,” he explains. The death wish is a common reference in other paths of love, too—the Buddha calls this annihilation of self “emptiness”—and interestingly, Freud recognized it as a universal human characteristic, calling it the nirvana principle. “A deep intuition resides in every human heart,” Hameed continues, “a need for unification with what we love.” This can be small things—chocolate ice cream, our cell phone—which are legitimate objects of love, but in the end, only the inner beloved calls. Once again, Hameed gifts us with an illuminating teaching about the path of love, our desire for nonbeing, the hidden essence of love, and the integration of all we have let go of that happens after we awaken—all coming directly from his own lived experience. Recorded January 29, 2026.
“It is inherent to the human being… the movement to dissolve into bliss, into the beloved.”
Topics & Time Stamps – Part 1
Introducing the 3rd dialogue in the Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas, where we continue to explore Hameed’s latest book, The Inner Beloved (00:41)
How Hameed’s path of love differs from other traditions (02:03)
One difference is Hameed addresses the sequence of events on the path of love systematically, using psychological language to describe the difficulties & barriers that arise (05:27)
On this path, obstacles are not just in the mind but include woundings that occur in relationships (08:09)
After union with the beloved comes integration; here is where the nondual connection between the beloved and the world comes in (09:52)
The state of desirelessness (10:36)
The death wish: the yearning to be completely absorbed into the beloved (11:58)
Freud called this deep, universal death wish in humans the nirvana principle (13:53)
Buddha called this annihilation of self “emptiness” (18:28)
The secret to moving the process along is to intensify our love (20:26)
A deep intuition resides in every human heart: a need for unification with what you love (22:46)
There is a kind of love where the yearning and wanting is just as ecstatic as loving itself—this is the hidden essence of love (26:45)
Why are some called to the path of love yet others keep grasping for more substitute gratification? (28:50)
There are 4 paths of yoga but the end is the same; the 4 suits of the tarot tell the stages of each yoga path (30:27)
Coming out of the divine “coma,” the whole world is ablaze with love (33:02)
The descent is not a loss of the realization, it is a further integration of what we have let go of (35:10)

Resources & References – Part 1
A. H. Almaas, The Inner Beloved: The Heart’s Journey to Divine Unity
Previous Deep Transformation Path of Love dialogues: Entering the Path of Heart & Emptying the Heart of All that Obscures the Inner Beloved
Plato’s Symposium
Freud’s nirvana principle was introduced in Beyond the Pleasure Principle
His Holiness the Dalai Lama & Thubten Chodron speak about the absence of inherent existence in Searching for the Self
Ken Wilber’s core text on substitute gratification is in The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development
The 4 paths of yoga: Karma, Bhakti, Raja and Jnana (Yoga Easy)
Mystical Origins of the Tarot by Paul Huson
St. John of the Cross writes about ascent in Ascent of Mount Carmel and descent in The Dark Night of the Soul

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Deep Transformation’s Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas
Deep Transformation’s Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas begins with an overview of Hameed Ali’s Love Trilogy — Love Unveiled, Nondual Love, and The Inner Beloved — to orient us on the spiritual path of love unique to Hameed Ali and the Diamond Approach, then delves into the profound and deeply touching topics Hameed addresses in his most recent book, The Inner Beloved, published in February 2026. Listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this extraordinary path of awakening. Also, if you are interested in taking a course on The Inner Beloved in the fall of 2026, you can register your interest here: https://da.pages.ontraport.net/inner-beloved-interest.
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Special Diamond Approach Course Discount for Deep Transformation Listeners
If you are interested in taking a course offered by Diamond Approach Online, Hameed’s team at the Ridhwan School have offered a special 20% discount for Deep Transformation listeners. You can access the Course Catalog here: https://online.diamondapproach.org/catalog/. And enter the code DTP20 to receive your discount when you sign...

Ep. 229 (Part 2 of 2) | In part 2 of our What is Real Greatness Series podcast with Margaret Cullen, author of Quiet Strength, Margaret continues to enlighten us about equanimity: its power, its wisdom, and its practice. She relates some of the history of equanimity—first considered a supreme virtue in Stoicism, then passed on to Sufism and Judaism—and explains that throughout time, equanimity (and humility) have always been an integral part of people who have made a true difference in the world. Margaret talks about how humor can break the spell of our trance (“when we lose equanimity, we get caught in a trance, believing in something that has us prisoner—humor breaks the spell”), and, in the spirit of “The Serenity Prayer” (“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference”), she encourages us to make peace with what we can realistically do and let the rest go.
While Part 1 of this dialogue focuses on the power of equanimity in relation to the big picture and what is going on now politically, in Part 2 Margaret looks at practicing equanimity in personal relationships and in our individual lives. She marvels at Thoreau’s equanimous approach to his own death, and shares that she has found forgiveness to be the most important equanimity tool in relationships. “We reclaim our wisdom when we say ‘I’m sorry,’” Margaret explains. Margaret’s deep and nuanced understanding of the power and practice of equanimity is inspiring and illuminating, and bringing this virtue to our attention as a pragmatic tool we can use is also incredibly timely, leaving us with a sense of hope and empowerment. Recorded January 14, 2026.
“What aids in my equanimity more than anything else is self-forgiveness.”
Topics & Time Stamps – Part 2
Welcome teacher, what am I supposed to be learning? (00:59)
How humor can break the spell that holds us prisoner (03:03)
The relationship between equanimity and peace (05:17)
The praise and blame algorithm has exponentially increased our reactivity (08:14)
Equanimity was a supreme virtue in Stoicism; the Stoics passed it on to the Sufis, who passed it on to Judaism (11:11)
Thoreau’s equanimous approach to death (12:24)
Nature’s effect on one’s equanimity (13:29)
Equanimity is an integral part of true change makers, also humility (14:27)
What practice would Margaret most recommend to cultivate equanimity? (17:19)
Making peace with what you can do and letting the rest go (21:03)
Practicing equanimity in relationships (22:13)
Using self-forgiveness as an equanimity tool (23:44)
In relationships, softening where we’re most triggered helps more than imposing ideals of how we should be (26:25)
One key flavor of equanimity is non-defensiveness (28:51)

Resources & References – Part 2
Margaret Cullen, Quiet Strength: Find Peace, Feel Alive, and Love Boundlessly Through the Power of Equanimity
Swami Beyondanda on the Deep Transformation podcast: Laugh Yourself Sane, Enlighten Up & Awaken to Cosmic Comic Consciousness
Maimonides introduced the concept of equanimity to Judaism
Stoicism, a philosophical movement & practical guide to living originating in ancient Greece
When asked about facing death, Thoreau said, “One world at a time.” Henrietta Christian Wright, American Men of Letters
Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga
Sufi teacher Habīb Boerger, “Rather than making the ego your boss, make it your personal assistant”
The Serenity Prayer (Reinhold Niebuhr’s original version)
Richard Davidson & Daniel Goleman, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body
Paul & Eve Ekman’s Cultivating Emotional Balance training

“We could not help contrasting the equanimity of Nature with the bustle and impatience of man. His words and actions presume always a crisis near at hand, but she is forever silent and unpretending.” – Henry David Thoreau
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Margaret Cullen, a Licensed Psychotherapist (MFT), has been at the cutting edge of translating contemplative trainings into universal and accessible formats in mainstream settings ranging from elite military to maximum security prisons. She was one of the first certified Teachers of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR); is the founder of Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance; and is co-developer of Compassion Cultivation Training at the Stanford School of Medicine (with Thupten Jinpa). Margaret also co-developed Mindfulness Based Attention Training for military spouses with neuroscientist Amishi Jha at the University of Miami, and is the founder of Compassion Corps, offering free compassion and mindfulness programs to under-resourced communities around the world. Margaret is a Fellow of the Mind & Life Institute.
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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 228 (Part 1 of 2) | In part 1 of our second What is Real Greatness Series podcast, Margaret Cullen, author of the newly published book Quiet Strength: Find Peace, Feel Alive, and Love Boundlessly Through the Power of Equanimity, explains there is far more power in the virtue of equanimity than we may have thought. Because equanimity is associated with non-reactivity, people often confuse it with a neutral sort of feeling, a dampener of emotions, when actually, equanimity allows us to expand our capacity to feel; it widens our tolerance and empowers us to be comfortable with change. “Equanimity is big enough to include our broken, despairing hearts,” Margaret says. “We can hold a vision of equanimity that is completely inclusive of the human experience.” Practicing equanimity allows us to deepen our love—for the world and for others—without becoming attached.
Margaret shares practical ways we can access equanimity—ways we can achieve conceptual clarity or a “wedge of spaciousness” when a moment has been hijacked by out-of-control emotions; how we can learn to turn directly and fully to what is arising in the moment; and how we can unhook from reactivity by not taking things too personally. “How can we respond heroically to the times we live in?” co-host John Dupuy asks. Margaret shares what she has learned teaching military units and special forces to cultivate equanimity—equanimity can save lives—and describes a compassion cultivation training program that has been established for police officers in California. Takeaways from this discussion may have important, powerful, timely effects on your life—and all of our lives; as John put it, “Never before have we had such a need for the medicine Margaret brings us.” Recorded January 14, 2026.
“How do we care about this world that is in so much trouble without feeling overwhelmed? The answer is equanimity.“
Topics & Time Stamps – Part 1
Introducing podcast #2 in our What is Real Greatness Series with Margaret Cullen, psychotherapist, meditation & compassion cultivation trainer, author of Quiet Strength: Find Peace, Feel Alive, and Love Boundlessly Through the Power of Equanimity (00:48)
What is equanimity and how did Margaret begin to experience it? (03:07)
Coming to understand we don’t have control over the happiness of our loved ones (07:27)
Finding a way to deepen our love without attachment (11:21)
How can we respond heroically to the times we live in? (13:21)
Equanimity is wisdom; wisdom is equanimity (17:16)
Equanimity is big enough to include our broken, despairing hearts—we can hold a vision of equanimity that is completely inclusive of the human experience (18:11)
Ways to access equanimity: perspective taking (22:12)
Remembering the reality of impermanence (26:18)
Unhooking from reactivity: Am I taking things too personally? (26:31)
Cultivating equanimity in the military can make a huge difference—it can save lives (30:55)
Compassion cultivation training program for police officers (32:51)
The reframing technique & the power of turning directly to what is arising in the moment (37:31)
Emotions are packed with important information for us; we gradually learn we can turn towards an emotion and survive it (38:28)
Studies show that when subjected to provocative stimuli, practiced meditators actually feel more than other people (40:03)

Resources & References – Part 1
Margaret Cullen, Quiet Strength: Find Peace, Feel Alive, and Love Boundlessly Through the Power of Equanimity
Margaret Cullen founded Compassion Corps, offering free compassion & mindfulness training to under-resourced communities around the world; co-developed Compassion Cultivation Training at Stanford University, and is a founding faculty of the Compassion Institute
Chögyam Trungpa, preeminent teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, founded Naropa University
Sharon Salzburg, co-founder of the Barre Insight Meditation Society
Dr. Dan Siegel’s window of tolerance is described in ​​The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are
Joseph Goldstein, co-founder of the Barre Insight Meditation Society, on Deep Transformation: Living on the Spiritual Edge
Amishi Jha & Elizabeth Stanley, pioneers of bringing mindfulness into the military
Courageous Heart, compassion cultivation training program for police officers in California
Chief Ryan Johansen & former officer Chris Orrey on Deep Transformation: Enlightened Ways to Make Policing Work For Everyone
Paul & Eve Ekman’s Cultivating Emotional Balance training
Richard Davidson & Daniel Goleman, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body
James Baraz on the Deep Transformation podcast: Awakening Joy

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Margaret Cullen, a Licensed Psychotherapist (MFT), has been at the cutting edge of translating contemplative trainings into universal and accessible formats in mainstream settings ranging from elite military to maximum security prisons. She was one of the first certified Teachers of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR); is the founder of Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance; and is co-developer of Compassion Cultivation Training at the Stanford School of Medicine (with Thupten Jinpa). Margaret also co-developed Mindfulness Based Attention Training for military spouses with neuroscientist Amishi Jha at the University of Miami, and is the founder of Compassion Corps, offering free compassion and mindfulness programs to under-resourced communities around the world. Margaret is a Fellow of the Mind & Life Institute.
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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell

Ep. 227 (Part 2 of 2) | In Part 2 of Deep Transformation’s second Path of Love Series dialogue, A. H. Almaas explains that the inner beloved is at work in our hearts, pulling us irresistibly nearer as we venture forward on the path of love. The force comes and pulls us, he says, melts us and overwhelms us—sometimes with wounding and sometimes with ecstasy. Our great love for the inner beloved ultimately dissolves our attachments to other, smaller beloveds, which can be big things—family, friends, teachers—or little things: ice cream, cake, our favorite movie star. But our heart isn’t going to be happy until it meets the beloved face to face, Hameed assures us. Then, after emptying our heart, when we finally behold the inner beloved, love becomes the nature of the whole universe. Now our relationships are expressions of the inner beloved, and we find we love everything.
What makes the Diamond Approach’s path of love unique is that it uses love and inquiry combined to penetrate the obstacles that arise along the path. Thus, obstacles are not only burnt away through sheer devotion but also understood and recognized for what they are. Hameed also explains the difference between spiritual poverty of the soul and mystical poverty of the heart, between realization of the absolute via the path of mind versus the path of love, that nonduality is an outer expression of the inner beloved, and describes his own astonishing experience of “thunder and lightning in the heart” on this path. Towards the end of the conversation, Hameed reminds us that when we feel love, that is the beginning. Take the love itself rather than the object of the love, he says, and let it get bigger, let it get deeper, see where it takes you. Recorded January 8, 2026.
“The beloved is the source of love and what loves everything.”
Topics & Time Stamps – Part 2
The path of love also has many joys and rewards (00:30)
The experience of the absolute on this path is distinctly about love (02:41)
The Diamond Approach’s inquiry practice allows us to understand the obstacles that arise (05:11)
Relationship can be a path on its own, but it’s not the same as the path of love, where outer relationships are disengaged from (09:30)
Mystical poverty: when the heart has nothing left in it, only the inner beloved (12:53)
The inner beloved is a jealous lover (13:44)
When we finally behold the inner beloved, we find we love everything (14:18)
Hameed’s experience of thunder & lightning in the heart (15:23)
The inner beloved is the source of love, the source of the universe (17:10)
Nonduality is an outer expression of the inner beloved (17:40)
Love has a magnetic component to it; the inner beloved wants to be one with us (21:19)
Mystical poverty is a relinquishment of all competing loves; love is what melts the attachments (23:46)
Mystical poverty of the soul is not the same as mystical poverty of the heart (25:40)
We need to remember the mystery of the inner beloved (28:05)
The soul is an experiential lens for perceiving inner truth (28:52)
When we feel love, that’s the beginning; let it get bigger, let it get deeper, see where it takes you (30:22)
Love is the most powerful force in the spiritual universe (30:44)

For fans of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, the Wisdom Series, based on Hameed’s book The Inner Journey Home, will be continued later this spring.
Resources & References – Part 2
A. H. Almaas, The Inner Beloved: The Heart’s Journey to Divine Unity
Poet Longchenpa only rarely talks about love and beauty, Finding Rest in the Nature of the Mind
Ramakrishna, Hindu mystic devoted to Kali
Advaita Vedanta
A Course in Miracles, a path which focuses on relationships
St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night of the Soul

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Deep Transformation’s Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas
Deep Transformation’s Path of Love Series with A. H. Almaas begins with an overview of Hameed Ali’s Love Trilogy — Love Unveiled, Nondual Love, and The Inner Beloved — to orient us on the spiritual path of love unique to Hameed Ali and the Diamond Approach, then delves into the profound and deeply touching topics Hameed addresses in his most recent book, The Inner Beloved, published in February 2026. Listeners may want to get a copy of this book, to study and follow along on this extraordinary path of awakening. Also, if you are interested in taking a course on The Inner Beloved in the fall of 2026, you can register your interest here: https://da.pages.ontraport.net/inner-beloved-interest.
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Special Diamond Approach Course Discount for Deep Transformation Listeners
If you are interested in taking a course offered by Diamond Approach Online, Hameed’s team at the Ridhwan School have offered a special 20% discount for Deep Transformation listeners. You can access the Course Catalog here: https://online.diamondapproach.org/catalog/. And enter the code DTP20 to receive your discount when you sign up.
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Hameed Ali (A. H. Almaas) was born in Kuwait in 1944. At the age of eighteen, he moved to the U.S. to study at the University of California in Berkeley. Hameed was working on his Ph.D. in physics when he reached a turning point in his life and destiny that led him to inquire into the psychological and spiritual aspects of human nature rather than the physical nature of the universe. He left the academic world to pursue an in-depth journey of inner discovery, applying his scientific precision and discipline to personal, experiential research. This included study with different teachers in different modalities, extensive reading, and continuous study of his own consciousness in an effort to understand the...