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)