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The Pearl Beyond Price

The Pearl Beyond Price

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

 

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