Welcome! I'm happy that you've decided to find a teacher to support you on your journey. Please read on and, while you do, I invite you to check in with yourself if and how what you're reading resonates with you. If it feels right, or if you have questions, then please reach out. Let's have a conversation!
Love your journey,
kind regards,
Willem
Where to begin?
First and foremost, I've learned there is another dimension to me, an inner world I never imagined before my spiritual journey began. Likewise, there are other dimensions to Reality, similarly unknown to me before. To know myself beyond my personality is magical, mind-blowing, mysterious and wonderful. To have come into my body, opened my heart, clarified my mind, have all been nothing but miraculous. The gratitude for finding this Path never ends and constantly deepens. The blessings keep pouring.
Who knew you could repair the relationship with your parents and siblings - without them having to change or do anything? Who knew you could rediscover your forgotten heart and learn to feel again, expansively and deeply? Who knew the pleasures, the confidence, the aliveness, the intuition that deeply sensing the body can bring? The depth of real human contact, the sizzling brightness of mind, the excitement of the pelvis, the peaceful, silent mystery of the Soul's depth? The fire, kindness, power, will, joy, curiosity, truth, relaxation, confidence, satisfaction, pleasure and meaning that are our birthright? The divine love, boundless presence, pure awareness and unfathomable mystery that pervade and birth everything?
Words only scratch the surface of the blessings the Diamond Approach has helped me experience and, in an ongoing journey of discovery and practice, integrate into my daily living. And while counting my own blessings, what is more natural than wanting to help others receive theirs?
As a teacher, I support you in your process of inquiry and personal discovery, unfoldment and development. Inquiry comes in many forms, discovering what lives in our mind, heart and body through conversation and questions, breath work and movement, and silence.
Every teacher brings not only their knowledge of and training in the Diamond Approach, but also their own Soul's uniqueness, including their life experiences. I find that students often find it supportive when they realize I can relate to some of their personal journey from my own experience.
I was born and raised working-class in rural the Netherlands, have lived in the US for half my life working as an academic cancer researcher and biotech executive, and am a gay man married to an incredible man who walks the Diamond Path with me. I find that these and other life experiences at times help me relate more deeply to my students as they explore their own unique Soul and life situation.
It was incredibly exciting for me to find a real spiritual path that did not ask me to embrace religious dogmas, that was grounded in Western thinking, that did not present me with read-made answers, yet could result in profound personal transformation.
I remember reading "Facets of Unity" and saying to myself: "This Almaas guy has actually personally experienced every word in the entire book!" I then met a few people from the Texas Gulf Coast Diamond Approach group and they checked out as normal, sane, kind, interesting people. They didn't need to do any convincing for me to sign up to the group right away, and after my first retreat I knew I had found my tribe, my teaching and my teachers.
The Diamond Approach is a comprehensive, deep, powerful path to discover, develop, and express in the world Who and What you really are. It is not therapy, although some of the results may be therapeutic. The impact of the work you do through this approach has the potential to transform every area of your life and living. I personally find the work to be demanding, exciting, joyful and satisying, and as your teacher I assist and guide you each step of the way.