Diamond Approach Africa is the first ongoing Diamond Approach group in Africa, based on the teachings of AH Almaas. After running for three years, we are now inviting new students to join, as we begin a new stage in our journey with the Diamond Approach. We will be entering some of the deeper teachings of this profound path that have never been made available in Africa before. They address profound aspects of what it is to be a human being living in the world.
Many people may experience a conflict between the wordly life of families, jobs and society, and transcendent or otherworldy spirituality, on the meditation cushion, in prayer, or on the yoga mat. Some think that only one seems important or matters. But life in the world without the depth of our true nature is often empty and superficial. And spirituality without the embodiment in our personal lives seems empty in a different way. The Diamond Approach offers a way for our deepest spiritual nature to live a fully human, personal life: to be the depth of what we are, living our lives more fully than we could ever have imagined.
This is possible through its unique inclusion of psychological knowledge and understanding, with deep spiritual realisation. The Diamond Approach is not a religion and is open to people of all religious affiliation or persuasion including atheist and agnostic.
In the next few years, certified Diamond Approach teachers Dominic and Sarala will lead the group on a deep journey into this territory of the transcendent human being that lives a personal life – the personal essence. What is it to be a person of presence, rather than the person of history, reactions and conditioning? We have found this teaching to profoundly impact our own lives the lives of our students. So we are inviting new students to join our group for this rare possibility of engaging such a rich and transformative journey.
DAAfrica welcomes participants from across Africa or with a deep personal connection to Africa. We have five long weekends a year, some in-person in Cape Town or Joburg (with zoom participation possible), and some only on Zoom. Members must attend all weekends or catch them up via recordings afterwards, and also do small groups and private sessions with a teacher through the year. New members will also be guided through reviewing some of the material from the past three years.
“The understanding is not mental or intellectual comprehension but a direct awareness and experience of oneself that is insightful and clear. It opens the door to a profound and intimate relationship with what it means to be a human being.”
– A.H. Almaas, Spacecruiser Inquiry, page 10
Here is Nolitha Tsengiwe, a psychologist and meditation teacher, talking about the incredible freedom that she is discovering through the practice of inquiry and the Diamond Approach that allows her to open to so much more of fullness of human experience.
We’ve launched a series of videos of Diamond Approach Africa members sharing their experience of inquiry, the Diamond Approach and the group. Janine Ahlers, a Director of the Centre for Coaching and senior lecturer at the UCT Graduate School of Business talks about what makes this Diamond Approach Africa group special.
Our first weekend of the 2023 progam begins with a profound exploration of our trust in life and in being.
How much are you able to relax into yourself and into your life and to trust that you’ll be OK? And how can you really let go and let yourself be – and be yourself – if there isn’t trust that things are fundamentally okay, and that whatever happens is appropriate? Without this trust, you are constantly scared and tense, having to control or manage yourself, others or your circumstances because you don’t trust you’ll be OK otherwise.
Date 31 March 02 April 2023
Location In-Person in Cape Town or online through Zoom
Tuition Fees R4950 / R3950 / R2850 sliding scale for SA residents (board and lodging booked separately)
This kind of trust, doesn’t mean trusting that things will go the way you want, or that people will always act in a good way – that would be a rather naive view. It is a deeper, more basic trust than that. It is the trust that however things go, whether good or bad, you can be with it, and that whatever is needed will emerge from within you to deal with the situation. You can relax because you know in a very deep way that if you need strength, then your strength will come. If you need tenderness and compassion, then that will emerge. If love is needed, then that will arise. And if intelligence is needed, then that will be there.
Your very being-ness, your true nature, the qualities of your human nature, will spontaneously provide whatever is optimal in each and every specific situation and moment of your life, and in your inner journey. And if something else seems to be coming forward, some barrier or issue, then you know and trust that that issue is precisely the thing that you need to be with and to explore for things to unfold in the optimal way.
This kind of trust is extremely rare. Many people might have occasional glimpses of it, but far more often we are controlling our lives and our situations because in a very deep way we do not trust that what we need will be available.
The disconnection from naturally being, and the inherent trust that being naturally engenders is rooted in our early holding environment where we learned in a deep way we cannot trust reality to hold us. Our exploration will not be only theoretical or intellectual, but a very profound, personal, deeply intimate, and experiential journey toward this deep way our essential presence manifests.
“I myself can recommend the Diamond Approach as probably the most balanced of the widely available spiritual psychologies/therapies.”
– Ken Wilber
The February 2023 retreat will be in-person at Benvenuto in Kelland, Johannesburg.
The March 2023 retreats will be in-person at Schoenstatt, Constantia, Cape Town.
We are intending September 2023 to also be at Schoenstatt, but this is subject to confirmation closer to the time.
Dom’s book Diving in the Inner Ocean is the essential practical guide to inquiry – the primary practice of the Diamond Approach.
John Davis’s book The Diamond Approach: An Introduction to the Teachings of AH Almaas gives a broad overview of the whole approach.
Review or Register to Access Past weekends.
Once you are registered, scroll down to the lesson titles below and click each title for the zoom links or recordings. How much are you able to relax into yourself and into your life and to trust that you’ll be OK? And how can you really let go and let yourself be, if there isn’t trust […]
This is the fourteenth weekend of the DASA Group.
This is the thirteenth weekend of the DASA Group.
This is the twelfth weekend of the DASA Group.
This is the eleventh weekend of the DASA Group.
This is the tenth weekend of the DASA Group.
This is the ninth weekend of the DASA Group.
This is the eighth weekend of the DASA Group.
DASA 2021 07 - Yellow 2
This is the sixth course of the DASA Group.
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