Ep. 196 (Part 2 of 2) | n the twelfth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali guides us into the profound experience of pure being, which lies at the core of all mystical teachings. There are two nondual ways of experiencing the fullness of being, he explains. We can recognize we are infinite and boundless—as if we were the sky, but still experiencing this through our being—or, we can experience the oneness of being from the perspective of all manifestation: the mountain, the rocks, the molecules and atoms... “Wherever you go, physically or mentally, is pure being.” Hameed calls the first recognition “unity,” and the latter “oneness.”

Hameed clarifies the paradox of nothingness: “being and nothing are two ways of knowing the same thing; you can feel it as a fullness or you can feel it as an emptiness.” And he explains that being being and knowing being are the same thing, when knowing is understood in its deeper sense as gnosis. “Awakening is knowing our being or our awareness for what it is,” he says. Why is Hameed so uniquely articulate in talking about the experience of pure being? John asks him. This talk is an amazing teaching—visual and sensory, scientific and mathematical, deeply mystical and spiritual—Hameed comes at the subject of pure being from all angles. Recorded June 26, 2025.

“Practice is clearing the way, but whether awakening emerges or not is not up to you.”

• Why Hameed is so uniquely articulate talking about these experiences, and why some teachers don’t talk about these things (00:27)
• The nothingness side of pure presence (04:28)
• The spaciousness here appears different; it is non-Euclidean (07:44)
• Being and nothing are two ways of knowing the same thing; you can feel it as a fullness or you can feel it as an emptiness (09:22)
• What other traditions teach about emptiness (11:34)
• Awareness is pure beingness too (13:53)
• Awareness is an ontological reality; it is an “is-ness” we can recognize and it includes knowing (18:14)
• Being being is the same thing as knowing being; this is gnosis: knowing by being (20:23)
• Awakening is knowing our being or our awareness for what it is (23:44)
• Knowing and mind are fundamental, not just intellectual (25:52)
• Awakened awareness: realizing that awareness is the nature of everything (27:10)
• Awakening cannot be earned; it is a recognition, but there are obstacles in the way (29:37)
• We’ll get into knowing and reification next time (32:45)
• This teaching affirms you are a real being, and you are an expression of the being of God (33:55)

• A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), founder of The Ridhwan School, home of The Diamond Approach
• A. H. Almaas,