How did you find the Diamond Approach?
A friend of mine told me about a new spiritual teaching. He had met teachers of the Diamond Approach in Maui; in 1991 we started together in the first European Diamond Approach Group. I was a body-oriented psychotherapist and my deep wish had been to find an integration between spirituality and psychology. I had been practicing in the Sufi tradition and with the teachings of Alice Bailey and had been in India several times visiting masters, chanting, and participating in intensive meditation retreats, but something was still missing in me. Real transformation of the ego structure had not happened through these teachings—the roots of the personality came back after some time. In the Ridhwan work I liked the teachers and I deeply appreciated the groundedness and inclusiveness.
When you first started, what was your greatest challenge?
It took me some time to relax deeply within my soul and not fix myself. I had spiritual superego and in the beginning my orientation was more to transcendence. I had resistance to feel the woundings of my childhood, but unexpectedly these wounds were the doorways to true nature.
What has kept you engaged with the Diamond Approach teachings?
I felt how deeply my life changed to more simplicity, lightness, depth, and joy. I loved the teachings and understood more about rejection and the transformative power of love. The search ended and my life was unfolding in unexpected ways.
What aspect of the teaching is most alive in you right now?
The freedom to be anything and nothing—the richness of life itself in the ordinary living.
What has been the most surprising discovery for you?
Radical allowance of all that is, the richness of humanity, and how we are all connected in deep ways.
What advice/encouragement would you offer to someone "on the fence" about attending an intro event?
Be open minded and feel how your heart and body resonates with the teaching and the teachers.
If you could have one wish for humankind, what would it be?
Waking up to our true potential, tolerance and acceptance, and freedom to be.
Gisela Bast has been a student of the Diamond Approach for 26 years and has served as a teacher in the school since 2012. She works as a private teacher and assists in various European groups in Germany, Italy, and Sweden. She has had a private practice since 1985 in Berlin, Germany, specializing in homeopathy and body-oriented trauma therapy. She loves dancing Argentine tango. She will be part of a teaching team for the Diamond Approach Weekends in Deutschland, Hamburg, Group (DAWID).