Suppose a Mountain has Gold:
An Introduction to The Diamond Approach
Saturday, February 1, 2025
9am-5:30pm CST
The calling to know oneself is a deeply personal movement that emerges from our heart. It is a call that ignites us and draws us towards inner work. Our path then becomes following this call to its source and this is the process we call self realization.
The Diamond Approach is a method for realizing the beautiful depth of our inner nature and learning to express that inner realization in our lives. It integrates psychological and spiritual understanding into one thread of living knowledge. The work is neither a form of therapy nor a transcendent path, but a teaching for coming to know and embody your true self.
The fundamental path and practice of the Diamond Approach is open-ended inquiry; a practice of radical acceptance, starting where we are, wherever we are, as a doorway to knowing the truth of who we are. Knowing the deeper truth of our nature opens to greater freedom, fulfillment and illumination. In this workshop we will explore and experience the qualities and orientation of open-ended inquiry.
“The truth is your very nature.” – A.H. Almaas, Founder of the Diamond Approach
The Diamond Approach has been taught to groups and individuals in the Midwest for nearly thirty years. This event will include presentations, practices, and time for questions, comments and discussion.
Previous experience with inner work not required.
This event will be taught by Diamond Approach teachers Jim Lockridge and Sheryl Lyndes Stowman.
Diamond Approach teachings are offered in an organic, deepening sequence for us to explore personally with others in groups. Alongside our central practice of inquiry, we use meditation, movement practices and breathwork to engage and explore our immediate experience. We learn from each other in these settings and are supported by the presence of fellow students.
Drawing on modern psychology and ancient spiritual wisdom, the central orientation of the Diamond Approach is “to be in the world but not of it”. We still wake up and handle our day-to-day responsibilities and joys and participate in the world through our work—as nurses, business owners, artists, teachers, parents, and in any number of roles—all the while remembering that we are ultimately reflections of something deeper.
The Diamond Approach, developed by Founder A.H. Almaas is a dynamic, evolving spiritual teaching that leads to openness, freedom, and realization of the many dimensions of our human potential—especially the amazing beauty of our inner nature.
Meet the Teachers
Jim Lockridge
Diamond Approach Teacher
Jim Lockridge is an ordained teacher of the Diamond Approach where he has been a student since 1998 and began working with students in 2012. He is a lifelong investigator of both the physical and spiritual worlds. Jim began his spiritual quest at age 14 when he first discovered Catholicism and soon became an altar boy. He was a research scientist for 40 years, an auto-mechanic, a floor waxer, army reservist, meditator, school bus driver, gardener, high-school summer teacher, father of 2 daughters, grandfather and lately, an expert popsicle developer. He currently lives in St. Paul with his lovely wife, Stephanie. Jim is passionate about teaching others how to investigate and reveal the truth of who they are.
Sheryl Lyndes Stowman, M. Div., she/her
Diamond Approach Teacher
Rev. Sheryl Lyndes Stowman has had a lifelong love of the mysterious and creative Presence we often call the Divine or True Nature. This brought her early in life into the Christian ministry and following a Christian contemplative path. She spent 33 years as a Clinical Pastoral Educator guiding ministers, religious leaders, chaplains and educators in personal and professional development. This is where she delved deeply into psychological understandings of personality and spiritual development. She also trained in spiritual guidance from an eco-feminist perspective. Drawn to the wisdom and integration of Diamond Approach 18 years ago, she has been an active student and currently is an ordained teacher-minister in the Midwest region of the US.