The Pearl Beyond Price: Integration of Personality into Being: An Object Relations Approach

by A.H. Almaas

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.

Genres: Psychology, Spirituality, Philosophy

509 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2013

About the author

A.H. Almaas is the pen name of A. Hameed Ali, the creator of the Diamond Approach to Self Realization. The Diamond Approach is a contemporary teaching that developed within the context of awareness of both ancient spiritual teachings & modern depth psychological theories.

Reviews

[Eugene Pustoshkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very difficult book for me to read. First, it relates to the fact that psychological and spiritual realities that A. H. Almaas describes are, indeed, profound. It is a textbook of an entire psychospiritual journey towards Essence. I’ve gained many insights, and this book supported me on my own transformational journey through this entire year.

And, second, I cannot avoid the fact that the book is not well-written: in this particular volume the author is repetitive, while at times not being, from my limited point of view, as brilliant in his intellectual transmission as one could possibly be. This is only a shortcoming of the necessity to be a great writer—great psychologists and phenomenologists are not necessarily good writers. I will never be able to call Almaas a good writer based on this particular volume.

If you want to begin studying the Diamond Approach, it is obvious to me that this particular book is not the best place to start. It is more of an advanced manual to which you will be returning later on in your practice and transformation (I will likely return to many essential chapters and fragments of this book).

Given the current knowledge that I gained through studying Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory some of the formulations of the relation between the personal and the spiritual seem to be outdated; studying Wilber’s work and that of the great mystic-philosophers also makes it difficult for me to process through the spiritual metaphysics that Almaas abundantly brings forth in this early book of his.

As a post-metaphysical and a very well-written alternative—or, rather, supplementary—I recommend to check out Marc Gafni’s YOUR UNIQUE SELF, which is a brilliant and recently emerged teaching that elucidates some of the important dimensions of the Unique Self notion (which seems to be important in the light of the Diamond Approach’s teaching of Essential Self/Personal Essence).

It seems to me that, if you are looking for a book to begin to understand the Diamond Approach, then the Diamond Heart series would be a better starting point. Also, John Davis in his book THE DIAMOND APPROACH does a nice job of introducing some of the basic notions. I’ve also enjoyed Tami Simon’s interview of A. H. Almaas (which I first listened about six or seven years ago and then, more recently, re-listened).

The Diamond Approach is definitely a difficult-to-explore yet invaluable treasure of wisdom.

[Shashank · Rating 5 out of 5]

[this review was written on amazon initially in 2008]
This book attempts to show how the very human desire of flourishing in this world and the equally though rarer desire of transcending the limitations of this world are reconcilable. I've been intrigued by therapeutic psychology for a while and meditative/contemplative spiritual approaches as well. It became apparent how both were beneficial but also how different were their aims and purposes.

In this book Almaas shows how western psychological understanding of how our personalities are formed can be used to experience ourselves more directly and breakthrough into spiritual domains of exploration. For Almaas our personality is the false pear that can lead us to the pear beyond price (our "personalized" spiritual nature). We have a desire to be loved (false pearl) because spiritually we are love. Thus the defensive/compensatory nature of the personality also reflects intuitions of the truth. By carefully studying the personality we can potentially move beyond it if we have proper understanding and guidance. Whenever a certain part of our personality is challenged there is an opportunity to see through it and enter into a deeper and wider experience.

Excerpt from the text of a person working with Almass: "I experienced feelings of being scared and alive. I felt a sense of strength and identity of my own and a closeness and love towards my girlfriend. As a result I feel a fullness and warmth that is expensive, through my belly and chest. My feeling of loosing her does not seem to overwhelm me as before..."

For Almaas it is not enough to transcend limitations but we must bring realization down into every part of our being so it transforms us, thus personality is integrated with being, to make us more humanly present and alive.
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Edit from 2023: not sure why I picked that excerpt back then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Definitely plan on rereading many of Almaas books soon, might add a second review here later, could be interesting to see how and if my view of it is any different all these years later.


A.H. Almaas, Ranked (11/2/24)

1- The Point of Existence: Transformations of Narcissism in Self-Realization
2- Elements of the Real in Man (Diamond Heart, #1)
3- The Pearl Beyond Price: Integration of Personality into Being: An Object Relations Approach
4- Spacecruiser Inquiry (Diamond Body, #1)
5- Indestructible Innocence (Diamond Heart, #4)
6- Facets of Unity: The Enneagram of Holy Ideas
7- Being and the Meaning of Life (Diamond Heart, #3)
8- Inexhaustible Mystery (Diamond Heart, #5)
9 -Runaway Realization: Living a Life of Ceaseless Discovery
10- Nondual Love: Awakening to the Loving Nature of Reality
11- The Inner Journey Home: The Soul's Realization of the Unity of Reality
12- Essence With the Elixir of Enlightenment: The Diamond Approach to Inner Realization
13- Endless Enlightenment: The View of Totality in the Diamond Approach*
14- The Freedom to Be (Diamond Heart, #2)
15- Brilliancy: The Essence of Intelligence (Diamond Body, #2)
16- Love Unveiled: Discovering the Essence of the Awakened Heart
17- Work on the Supeego
18- The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers' Stone and the Secrets of Existence
19- The Power of Divine Eros: The Illuminating Force of Love in Everyday Life
20- Heart Dweller
21- Luminous Night's Journey: An Autobiographical Fragment
22- The Void: Inner Spaciousness and Ego Structure
23- Keys to the Enneagram: How to Unlock the Highest Potential of Every Personality Type
24- The Diamond Approach: A Path of Inner Discovery*
25- The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence

* audio programs
top 13 are in my favorites shelf, so more then 50% of these which is a crazy high average

[Niklas · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this a challenging read, especially for those not particularly versed in psychology, The pearl Beyond price has literally saved my life. It details how the human ego evolves (and therein lies the key to the egos dismantling). It goes deeply into the many phases of the mother/child bond and helped me understand my particular predicament and wounding. Take it at a slow pace--chew thoroughly and set yourself free.

[Fluencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be a cliche to call this book the most important book that someone can read. But this is one of the books that I know has changed my life. Readers of Almaas already know what his core teachings are. This book has a comprehensive overview of the theory and process of self realization. I have read many books on spirituality, from different traditions. There is nothing quite like this. Books on self realization lie on two poles: guides that are too simplified and lose their original meaning, and books that are too abstract in their meaning and do not provide much practical advice on how to go about things. There are some books that lie in the middle, balancing both theory and practice, this is one of those books. Almaas, as usual, draws from many different traditions, instead of one tradition alone.
Highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for books on spirituality.

[Miranda Acland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep, substantial, significant, fundamental, life changing. Not easy to read but unmissable.

[Jean-Paul Eberle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an indispensable resource in the much needed investigation on the link between two essential fields of thought for modern man, the spiritual and the psychological.

Why do these two realms not more readily meet in dialogue in the collective conscious? Why does the “Man of the Spirit” proclaim that, in order to further oneself along the path, one must abandon or eschew the projects or desires “Man of the World”? These apparent unresolvable dichotomies are addressed quite adeptly.

Almaas does an impeccable job in bringing the reader through a elegant resolution and synthesis of these two allegedly unresolvable worldviews (ego development and spiritual realization).

Combining the insights of object relations ego psychology with the world’s great spiritual wisdom traditions, ego is not only an invaluable asset along the path, it is a stepping stone towards its own self-sacrificing evolution into Personal Essence.

Ego psychology becomes a tool (a compass) for understanding the ego’s development, processes, and obstacles along the path towards personal and transpersonal development. Spirituality becomes the True North that this evolution must take.

I appreciate that Almaas references so thoroughly various psychological and spiritual thinkers, respectfully acknowledges their basic intelligence and potential limitations. For my own selfish purposes, I was happy to see references to Trungpa’s “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism,” Reich’s “The Function of the Orgasm,” and various ego psychologists such as Winnicott, Mahler, and Kernberg.

A valuable read. =)

[Peggy]

I will probably be referring to this book a lot in the future, and have not really finished it. it's pretty heavy plowing, and it presumes you know about object psychology. I could know more! I feel it has answered some of my questions about the development of Ego and that has been helpful understanding other material that makes reference to ego without really explaining it, or expanding on what it might be. If you are interested in integrating Psychology and spirituality you might like this. Not light reading, but i do find when I reread passages at a later date my mind has been digesting the material and it makes more sense to me , so kind of exciting if that's the way your head is growing.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambitious consideration of spiritual development through the lens of object relations theory. At the core is the resolution of ego development issues with spiritual practices that encourage ego transcendence. Not being that conversant in object relations made the book slow going, but the connections and insights are worthwhile. There is a bit too much jargon though that is not part of object relations theory--Personal Essence, Being, Citadel, and many, many more--most of which are so closely related that they were difficult for me to distinguish. All this makes the meaning of the book too inaccessible.