Non-Dual · International (groups in 30+ countries)
The teacher pathway of the Diamond Approach, a contemporary path of self-realization developed by A.H. Almaas (Hameed Ali). Combines meditation, inquiry, and depth psychology. Senior teachers mentor candidates over many years through the Ridhwan School curriculum.
The Diamond Approach is a contemporary path of self-realization developed by A.H. Almaas, the pen name of Hameed Ali, beginning in the late 1970s. Almaas combined contemplative inquiry, meditation, and depth psychology drawing on object relations and self psychology into a sustained methodology for working with what he calls Essence, the immediate experiential dimension of being. The Ridhwan School is the institutional vehicle for the teaching, with active groups in roughly thirty countries and an extensive published corpus including The Pearl Beyond Price, The Unfolding Now, and the multi-volume Diamond Heart series. The teacher pathway in the Ridhwan School is a long-term mentored apprenticeship. Practitioners begin as students in their local Ridhwan group, engaging in weekly group inquiry and individual sessions with their assigned teacher. Sustained students may eventually be invited into teacher training, which in the Diamond Approach context means the multi-year preparation to become an Ordained Teacher of the school. The pathway typically takes many years and is at the discretion of the school's leadership rather than open by application. The distinctive feature of the Diamond Approach is its synthesis of contemplative practice with depth psychological inquiry. Sessions and group work involve sustained inquiry into present experience that engages the practitioner's psychological history, the structure of self, and the gradual unfolding of essential states the school maps in detail. Teachers are trained to work with both the contemplative dimension and the psychological dimension simultaneously, which differentiates the Ridhwan School from teaching lineages that focus more narrowly on contemplative awareness without explicit psychological work. The pathway is paid throughout. Group fees, individual sessions with teachers, and teacher training itself carry costs, although scholarships exist. Ordained Teachers earn income from their teaching practice; the school is structured as a working professional pathway rather than a donation-based or volunteer model. The credential is recognized within the international Ridhwan community and within wider non-dual and depth-psychology circles.
Formation moves through a sequence of work that the Ridhwan School has developed over decades. Foundational study covers Almaas's published corpus on inquiry, essence, and the structure of self. Topics include the various essential states the school maps including strength, will, compassion, joy, peace, value, and many others; the personality structures that obscure direct experience of these states; the methodology of inquiry that opens experience to the deeper dimensions; and the practical integration of essential awareness into daily life. The teacher pathway adds substantial study of the school's developmental theory, the methodology of leading group inquiry, the dynamics of the teacher-student relationship in the Diamond Approach context, and the ethics and practice of the Ordained Teacher role. Reading is extensive and includes Almaas's full published corpus alongside selected depth psychology and contemplative sources.
Students engage weekly group meetings, regular individual sessions with their assigned teacher, retreats with senior teachers, and substantial personal practice and study. Teacher candidates additionally engage extended training cohorts run by the school's senior teaching faculty. Cohorts typically run for several years and combine residential intensives, ongoing study, supervised practice, and continuing individual work with senior teachers. Authorization as an Ordained Teacher comes from the school's leadership when the pathway is complete, which typically takes a decade or more from initial student status.
Ordained Teachers run their own Diamond Approach groups, see individual students, and serve in the wider Ridhwan School teaching community. The credential is recognized within the international Ridhwan community and within wider non-dual and depth-psychology circles. Teachers earn income from their teaching practice. The role does not authorize clinical psychotherapy; clinicians who hold separate licensure use the Diamond Approach methodology within their existing clinical scope.
Candidates need years of work as students of the school, including weekly group participation and individual sessions with an assigned teacher. The pathway is not open by application; students are invited into teacher training when senior teachers recognize readiness. There is no required academic credential, though many teachers come from therapy, depth psychology, or other professional backgrounds.
The Diamond Approach sits within the wider non-dual teaching field but distinguishes itself through explicit integration of depth psychology. Adyashanti's Open Gate Sangha, the work of Rupert Spira, and the lineage of Mooji are more strictly contemplative; the Diamond Approach holds that contemplative awakening is incomplete without parallel work on the psychological structure of self. Within the depth psychology field, the methodology is unusual in framing psychological inquiry as inseparable from contemplative practice. For practitioners drawn specifically to the synthesis Almaas has developed, the Ridhwan School is the home pathway.
| Location | International (groups in 30+ countries) |
| Country | United States |
| Tradition | Non-Dual |
| Format | In-person, Hybrid |
| Duration | Multi-year |
| Estimated cost | Varies |
| Accreditation | Ridhwan School Ordained Teacher |