Ep. 183 (Part 1 of 2) | In the tenth dialogue of the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, Hameed Ali addresses what co-host Roger Walsh calls perhaps Inner Journey Home’s most profound chapter of all, the chapter on True Nature, as well as subjects he writes about in his autobiographical fragment, Luminous Night’s Journey. In the second turning of the Diamond Approach teaching, we transition from exploring individual true nature to boundless true nature—the absolute, ground of all manifestation. Following the mystery of truth, you come to absolute truth, Hameed tells us, and you find a mystery that not only liberates but makes everything happen. Hameed describes the absolute as the radiant blackness before the light, its luminosity awareness, and relates how, in the absolute, the feeling of intimacy is palpable. Here, the soul recognizes “I am home.”

Hameed explains how being and nonbeing are integrated, and about how time and space emerge out of true nature. Every moment is a new creation, he says, not formed by the past or present, but new, instant to instant, from nonbeing to being. Hameed says the essence of freedom lies in the absolute, and that in these troubled and times, the important thing is to recognize “I am free” and ultimately indestructible, and to be ourselves, grounded by the truth of our inner nature. Towards the end of the conversation, co-host John Dupuy asks Hameed, “What motivates you? Why aren’t you simply hanging out being true nature?” Hameed laughs and responds, “I am.” Recorded April 10, 2025.

“In the absolute, everything dissolves; the absolute is the universal solvent.”

• Introducing the 10th dialogue in the A. H. Almaas Wisdom Series, focusing on The Inner Journey Home‘s chapter, True Nature (00:55)
• What is the phenomenological experience of presence? (02:07)
• The soul can feel like presence—but more often it is structured by our history and appears as our ego self (05:14)
• Presence is the true nature of everything: perfect, complete, totally blissful (06:24)
• Love of truth naturally appears in the heart along the inner journey (09:04)
• The concern with talking about true nature is if you describe it, people look for something that isn’t it (11:57)
• Hameed wrote Luminous Night’s Journey to elucidate the experience of the soul, the absolute, and how soul and absolute are integrated (13:48)
• In the second turning of the teaching, we transition from individual true nature to boundless true nature: the absolute, the ground of all manifestation (18:11)
• The visible and invisible, manifest and unmanifest (19:58)
• Everything happens not from present to future, but from nonbeing to being (21:04)
• Everything dissolves in the absolute: it is the universal solvent (21:41)
• The absolute is the luminous, radiant blackness before the light (24:57)
• In the absolute, the soul recognizes “I am home” (26:47)
• Looking into the absolute, there is nothing; looking away from it, you see the manifest (28:48)
• The concept and experience of cessation (30:44)
• Hameed’s distinction between consciousness and awareness (32:40)
• Awareness = luminosity + emptiness (34:25)
• Emptiness is not empty space, it’s being and nonbeing unified (36:39)

Ep. 182 (Part 2 of 2) | Robert Lawrence Kuhn, producer of the popular PBS series Closer to Truth, which explores consciousness, the mystery of existence, and related topics with an open-minded approach, recently authored a remarkable article: “A Landscape of Consciousness,” in which he surveyed over 200 theories about what consciousness is. Robert tells how he inhabited each theory for a few days while writing it up, and discovered that unlike with other fields of knowledge, a study of consciousness produces more theories the more we know, rather than narrowing the field down. He emphasizes we need to be expansive with our universe of understanding of what consciousness is, and realize that how we engage with the Big Questions of life depends upon our particular theory of consciousness.

Robert tells how the Big Questions, notably what is consciousness and why is there something rather than nothing, have called him all his life, leading him to create the Closer to Truth series, to explore these questions with the leading minds of our time. What Robert didn’t know to begin with, but marvels about now, is how the passion for delving into the most fundamental, existential questions we face as humans unifies people around the world, from every demographic, providing a unique and wonderful point of integration. This is a fascinating, warm, engaging conversation that draws us ever farther into an exploration of the mysteries of life, where we glimpse what lies at the core of humanity. Recorded April 17th, 2025.

“It’s not that we have too many theories of consciousness, it’s that we have one too few.”

• The challenge of putting these theories into a digestible form (00:54)
• Understanding our personal theories of consciousness as extensions of our worldview (03:14)
• Our own theories often evolve from materialism to panpsychism to idealism (07:11)
• How the title Closer to Truth for the PBS/YouTube series came about (11:59)
• It’s easier to entertain materialist or atheist theories in environments constructed by humans—exposed to the natural universe, you encounter awe, wonder, connection (14:04)
• The concept of awe and transcendence in art and how it reflects our nature of mind (16:16)
• What has exploring these theories of consciousness done to Robert? (17:59)
• The closer we look, the more we end up in bottomless mystery (23:36)
• How exploring the Big Questions unifies people—cutting across religion, race, culture (25:28)
• Acknowledging the limits of knowledge—epistemic humility—appreciating the mystery, and universality (29:54)
• The deeper your understanding goes, the richer your appreciation and awe (31:16)

• Robert Lawrence Kuhn, creator, producer, and host of the PBS series, Closer To Truth
• Robert Lawrence Kuhn, “A Landscape of Consciousness,”article in Progress in Biophysics & Molecular Biology, August 2024
• Paul Davies, quantum physicist, director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, “The universe is about something.”

Ep. 181 (Part 1 of 2) | Robert Lawrence Kuhn, producer of the popular PBS series Closer to Truth, which explores consciousness, the mystery of existence, and related topics with an open-minded approach, recently authored a remarkable article: “A Landscape of Consciousness,” in which he surveyed over 200 theories about what consciousness is. Robert tells how he inhabited each theory for a few days while writing it up, and discovered that unlike with other fields of knowledge, a study of consciousness produces more theories the more we know, rather than narrowing the field down. He emphasizes we need to be expansive with our universe of understanding of what consciousness is, and realize that how we engage with the Big Questions of life depends upon our particular theory of consciousness.

Robert tells how the Big Questions, notably what is consciousness and why is there something rather than nothing, have called him all his life, leading him to create the Closer to Truth series, to explore these questions with the leading minds of our time. What Robert didn’t know to begin with, but marvels about now, is how the passion for delving into the most fundamental, existential questions we face as humans unifies people around the world, from every demographic, providing a unique and wonderful point of integration. This is a fascinating, warm, engaging conversation that draws us ever farther into an exploration of the mysteries of life, where we glimpse what lies at the core of humanity. Recorded April 17th, 2025.

“Consciousness is perhaps the single most unifying question that humanity can explore.”

• Introducing Robert Lawrence Kuhn, author, public intellectual, producer of the PBS series Closer to Truth, which explores fundamental questions of existence (01:02)
• How did it feel to be writing “A Landscape of Consciousness,” a 175k-word article that surveys over 200 theories about what consciousness is (02:50)
• Now Robert is building a website with notated theories of consciousness that allows for theories to grow and change (11:33)
• Consciousness theories, unlike other fields of knowledge, grow the more we know (14:59)
• All the “big questions” are dependent on your theory of consciousness (18:57)
• Why is there something rather than nothing? What is consciousness? Two fundamental questions that have been with Robert all along (23:17)
• Nine levels of nothing and the deep nature of phenomenal consciousness (25:36)
• Why Robert didn’t include his own theory in his survey, and then did—in 71 words (26:58)
• What does the explosion of consciousness theories say about consciousness? (30:27)
• The self-referential paradox of understanding consciousness (35:04)
• How to structure and organize the amalgam of theories (37:08)
• Roughly half the theories went into materialism categories (39:02)
• Challenge theorists conclude we can never understand consciousness (41:03)
• Robert’s theory categories: materialism, non reductive physicalism, quantum, integrated information, panpsychism, monism, dualism, idealism, illusory, anomalies and altered states (42:18)
• What kind of knowledge do psychedelics and altered states offer? (49:20)

• Robert Lawrence Kuhn, creator, producer, and host of the PBS series, Closer To Truth
• Robert Lawrence Kuhn,...