In this book Almaas demonstrates that healthy ego development is part of the continuum of spiritual development. He also establishes the possibility of attaining inner realization and developing our essential being—"the pearl beyond price"—in the context of living a normal human life.
The work that you have in your hands is quite extraordinary in that it unfolds a comprehensive theory of personality grounded in a dimension of Being beyond our normal understandings of ego and identity. For here a knowledge of the spiritual path of transformation appears within, and is conjoined to, the modern context of western psychological process. Anyone with knowledge of the sacred psychologies at the heart of the world’s religious traditions will immediately recognize the significance of this major work by A. H. Almaas.
Our usual notion of “psychology” is being expanded through Almaas’ deeper spiritual perspective, namely, his understanding of the essential nature of the human being. This work is the first comprehensive account of the relationship of this dimension, the spiritual ground of the individual, to the empirical findings of developmental psychology. The structural theories of contemporary psychotherapy are reviewed and framed within this deeper context, and this gives us a whole new perspective in which to appreciate the value and limitations of the state of the art on contemporary psychology.
Available at Shambhala Publications or most book retailers.
"The work that you have in your hands is quite extraordinary in that it unfolds a comprehensive theory of personality grounded in a dimension of Being beyond our normal understandings of ego and identity. For here a knowledge of the spiritual path of transformation appears within, and is conjoined to, the modern context of western psychological process. Anyone with knowledge of the sacred psychologies at the heart of the world's religious traditions will immediately recognize the significance of this major work by A. H. Almaas. " —Larry Spiro, Ph.D.
"A masterpiece of integration of both the spiritual and psychotherapeutic traditions, which is essential material for anyone concerned with helping others to develop a deeper sense of personhood or to liberate themselves from the repetition-compulsion to suffer that defines the neurotic condition. " —David Boadella
Contents
BOOK ONE: The Nature of the Pearl Beyond Price
Part I The Personal Essence
Chapter 1 The Man of Spirit and the Man of the World
Chapter 2 Being and Ego
Part II The Discovery of the Personal Essence
Chapter 3 Autonomy
Chapter 4 Beingness
Chapter 5 The Personal Element
Chapter 6 Contact
Part III The Essential Person
Chapter 7 Personal Essence and the Man of the World
Chapter 8 Personal Essence in Legends and Fairy Tales
Chapter 9 Personal Essence and the Man of Spirit
Chapter 10 Personal Essence in Spiritual Traditions
Part IV Personal Essence and Ego Development
Chapter 11 Maturity, Ego and Personal Essence
– Maturity and the Secondary Autonomy of Ego
– Identification and Defense
Chapter 12 Being and Functioning
– Integration and Absorption of Experience
Chapter 13 Personal Essence and Object Relations Theory
Chapter 14 The Metabolism of Experience
Chapter 15 Personal Essence and Ego Functions
BOOK TWO: The Realization of the Pearl Beyond Price
Part I Inner Evolution
Chapter 16 Enlightenment
Chapter 17 The Diamond Approach
Part II Personal Essence and the Process of Separation-Individuation
Chapter 18 Separation
Chapter 19 Merging
Chapter 20 Negative Merging
Chapter 21 Identity
Chapter 22 Personalization
Chapter 23 Rapprochement
Chapter 24 Autonomic Regulation
– The Will Essence
Part III Personal Essence and Essential Aspects
Chapter 25 The Mother Aspects of Essence
Chapter 26 The Father Aspects of Essence
BOOK THREE: The Development of the Pearl Beyond Price
Part I Identity: Ego versus Being
Chapter 27 The Personalization of Essence
Chapter 28 The Actualization of Being
– Cultural Values
Part II The Objective Dimensions of Essence
Chapter 29 Being and Ego Deficiency
Chapter 30 Origins of Ego Deficiency
Chapter 31 Resolution of Ego Deficiency
Chapter 32 The Complete Person
Chapter 33 Personal Essence and Ego Boundaries
Chapter 34 Aloneness
Part III The Formless Dimensions of Being
Chapter 35 The Impersonal versus the Personal
Chapter 36 Cosmic Consciousness and Individuation
– Universal Love and Ego Identity
Chapter 37 Oneness and the Person
– Transcendence and Embodiment
Chapter 38 Nonconceptual Reality and Functioning
– Absence
– The Nameless
– The Absolute
Part IV Universal Man
Chapter 39 The Diamond Pearl
Chapter 40 Epilogue