Introduction

Inthe contemporary West we find ourselves in a world in which the soul or self,the world or cosmos, and Being or God, are understood to be separate aspects ofreality. They are so understood in two senses: first, in the scientific,religious, and philosophical discourses of the day, and second, in the actualexperience of the modern person. Regarding the latter, the actual experience,some part of the alienation of the self from Being, and the sense of being aseparate entity in a world of entities, is a result of ordinary egoicdevelopment. It has been argued in many places, however, that the alienationfrom the sense of Being or the divine is particularly prevalent andthoroughgoing in the modern Western world, and that it is due to the rational,scientific, and materialistic worldview that dominates in the modern West, inconjunction with the end of a more or less universally assumed context ofbelief in God. In this book we try to show that it is more accurately due to aworldview that not only separates the areas of self/soul, world/cosmos, andBeing/God, but almost universally does not question or investigate suchseparation in the spirit of truth that has been such an important part of ourcultural history.

Theorientation of this book moves toward a living understanding of the fundamentalunity of reality. We believe that it is possible to communicate a vision ofreality that heals the current prevalent dissociation of self, world, andBeing. We also understand that the alienation of the self from Being is asource of much suffering and hardship in the world, and hope to contribute toalleviating that suffering through this new understanding of the nature of thehuman being and the path to reclaiming our connection to Being. Our approach isnot a theoretical one based on an externally defined discovery of unity, as forinstance the whole-systems approach that is so significant and valuable in somecurrent scientific discussion. Although these discussions are important andresonant with our understanding (see appendix E), our discoveries come from asystematic investigation of the nature of reality starting with the directknowing of the nature of self or soul. This revelation inevitably leads, as isknown in all authentic spiritual and philosophical traditions, to anunderstanding of the nature of the cosmos and the nature of Being or the divine.

Thepresent book has two main elements: first, mainly in the first half of thebook, is a detailed discussion of the nature of the self or soul, whichunderstanding has developed in the course of several decades of systematicresearch and investigation of personal experience, the practice of traditionalspiritual methods, and research and application of modern psychologicalunderstanding. Our investigation has culminated in a largely originaldescription of the soul, involving a detailed description of the actualphenomenological nature of the soul as well as a description of how the soul'sdevelopment creates the structures that come to be known as the self. In theendnotes and appendixes, we connect this understanding with detailedcomparisons and references to modern and traditional notions of self and soul.

Thesecond element of this book, largely in the second half of the book, is asimple overview of the path of the soul's journey to the realization andembodiment of Being, as developed in the Diamond Approach, and again referencedto the best of our knowledge to various traditional and psychological sources.Here we explore the essence of the soul, her true nature, its aspects,dimensions, and integration into the soul. In the second half of the book, theexploration of the...