5-Part Series: The Journeys Ascent & Descent, and the View of Totality
Sharing the Journey
When I reflect on my spiritual journey of 55+ years, the language of ascent and descent has always resonated with me. The Diamond Approach® describes the journey of ascent—a rising movement of the soul through increasingly subtle layers of Being—followed by the journey of descent, where what has been realized is lived out in the ordinary world. It is not simply a mystical metaphor; it feels like a map of how life unfolds when we surrender to truth.
In the journey of ascent, the soul sheds layers of identity and conditioning. Essence is discovered in its many qualities, then integrated into the soul’s life. Diamond Vehicles arise, each revealing new wisdom, until awareness begins to open into the boundless dimensions of Being—love, presence, pure awareness, nonconceptual reality—culminating in the Absolute, the silent depth of all experience. To touch this summit is to encounter what cannot be surpassed, a reality so simple it erases all distinctions.
And yet, paradoxically, this very summit is a doorway. What feels like completion reveals itself as the beginning of something else: the descent. The journey of descent is not a fall, but an embodiment. It is the Absolute, and the wisdom of all the boundless dimensions, flowing back into the particulars of human life. It is not exile from the Beloved but the Beloved living as form—love cooking dinner, emptiness paying bills, presence listening to a friend. The descent is the maturation of realization, what Ibn ‘Arabi called baqâ, “remaining with God,” after union.
Other traditions have glimpsed this pattern. In Sufism, Ibn ‘Arabi spoke of the ascent into the divine and the descent back into creation for the sake of service. Neoplatonism envisioned the emanation from the One into Nous and the Soul, followed by the Soul’s return. Each point to the same truth: transcendence is not the end of the story, but its midpoint. The real fruit is when transcendence and immanence reveal themselves as inseparable.
This upcoming series will follow these movements as they unfold in the Diamond Approach:
- The Journey of Ascent: Climbing the Ladder of Reality
- The Apex of Ascent: The Absolute as Summit and Threshold
- The Journey of Descent: From Transcendence to Immanence
- The Boundless Dimensions: Five Facets of True Nature
- Beyond Ascent and Descent: The View of Totality
Together, they sketch a vision of realization that is not about escape, but about becoming more fully human—transparent to the mystery and intimate with life.
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John Harper is a Diamond Approach® teacher, Enneagram guide, and student of human development whose work bridges psychology, spirituality, and deep experiential inquiry. His newest book, Nurturing Essence: A Compass for Essential Parenting, invites parents to rediscover the soul beneath behavior. He is also the author of The Enneagram World of the Child: Nurturing Resilience and Self-Compassion in Early Life and Good Vibrations: Primordial Sounds of Existence, available on Amazon.