The Mystery of Being: A. H. Almaas Interviewed on Buddha at the Gas Pump

What does it mean to experience spiritual realization, not just as an idea or a fleeting state, but as a living, embodied truth? In this episode of Buddha at the Gas Pump, A. H. Almaas (pen name for Hameed Ali), reflects on the immediacy and subtlety of spiritual perception. He explores the nature of being, identity, and reality, illuminating how our ordinary experiences, when refined through inquiry and presence, can open into vast and precise realizations of formlessness, unity, and emptiness. Scroll down to view video and summary of highlights.

Summary 

Almaas shares how the essence of being reveals itself, not through ideas or philosophy, but through a living, visceral encounter that transforms the mind, body, and heart.              

Spiritual experience, he explains, becomes clear only when both the mind and body are refined enough to receive it. Just as a gem must be cut and polished to reveal its brilliance, our capacity for perception must be trained to become precise. Through spiritual practice, the experience of being can become so transparent and finely tuned that it shines through without distortion—no filters, no ego overlays, just the luminous presence of what is. 

Almaas describes how, over time, realization shifts from a separate state of transcendence into a fully integrated way of being. The vastness of presence becomes a living, breathing reality that flows through every moment, thought, and interaction. Whether it’s the stillness of meditation or the simple joy of listening to music, the sense of a separate self can vanish, leaving only presence itself. 

Almaas shares that he is sometimes only Hameed, sometimes only Being, and often both. But perhaps most profoundly, he expresses that he doesn’t need to be either one. Realization, in his view, is freedom—the freedom to be everything and nothing, to exist beyond any fixed identity. This freedom is not philosophical but deeply experiential. 

Almaas also touches on the non-local nature of Being: a condition where time, space, and separation dissolve. From this view, all that exists is the dynamism of intelligent presence, manifesting all phenomena within itself. There is no "other," no distance, no one outside the flow of this ungraspable mystery. Even emptiness is not a lack, but rather a fullness so subtle and inclusive, it contains everything. 

The conversation offers a powerful glimpse into the Diamond Approach's multidimensional view of realization. It is not simply about transcending life, but about fully embodying truth in our human experience.