Diamond Approach
Ottawa Montreal

“…Physical beauty is a very pale reflection of the beauty of Being, which is the nature of your soul. If you really recognize that the truth of who you are is so beautiful, so precious, so full of value, and so magnificent, you would devote the totality of your life to it. Everything in the universe, from beginning to end, is like dust compared to this magnificence, and every action and situation is expendable for this preciousness.”

A. H. Almaas

The Diamond Approach
Ottawa Montreal group….

Diamond Approach Ottawa Montreal began in 2019. The established group meets four times each year (three times online and one annual residential retreat at Manoir D’Youville, Montreal, Quebec). There are interim group meetings between retreats. Over 55 students attend from different Canadian provinces, the U.S. and Europe. While the teachings are presented in English, students are both Francophones and Anglophones. 

Diamond Approach Ottawa Montreal (2) is now inviting expressions of interest from new students who are sincerely interested in self-discovery and spiritual realization. We are currently offering a year of teachings to the public on the fundamentals of the DA practices and spiritual orientation. Using Diamond Inquiry, experiential exercises, meditation & body-based practices, we learn to recognize Presence–the luminous nature of our inner being.  This living path of timeless spiritual wisdom together with the clarity of modern psychological insight guides us inward towards our deepest truth. The newly forming group will meet online bi-monthly until enough have gathered to formally begin the Diamond Path teachings. At this point there will be an in-person retreat annually in Montreal, Quebec. New students will also meet one-on-one with a Diamond Approach teacher.

The Method

The Diamond Approach® founded by A.H. Almaas and Karen Johnson is a teaching dedicated to the discovery, development & preservation of the Human Essence.
It is a complete spiritual path that considers the totality of the human being. It differs from most other paths in that it recognizes the uniqueness of each individual soul and adapts itself to each person’s needs at the time.

Exploring our personal lives, we work with our conditioning to unveil various spiritual qualities of presence like love, clarity, compassion, peace, strength, will, truth and so on. Each aspect has a unique flavor and particular function for the human soul and the realization of its ground. This ground includes boundless love, universal consciousness, transparent awareness, profound emptiness, nonlocal truth-unities of many kinds.
Such an approach makes it possible to be a full human being in the world, involved in regular everyday activities, while grounded in the eternal spirit.
The Diamond Path is not therapy, it is a spiritual teaching.

The Diamond Approach® uses methods such as meditation, sensing, awareness practices, breathwork and movement to support the process of realizing the depth, beauty and richness of our True Nature.
Our primary practice is Diamond Inquiry™ which is the open and open-ended exploration of our immediate experience.

For a more in-depth description of the Diamond Approach® please visit www.ridhwan.org

Ways to engage

What to expect

Joining an ongoing group is the best way to engage fully with the path of the Diamond Approach. Students in ongoing groups meet regularly for retreats.
Retreats normally have two teaching segments each day, including meditation practice, group exercises between two, three or groups of five or six people, followed by a question and comments period.
Students also work in smaller process groups during retreats, as well as meeting one-to-one with a teacher. 
General schedule for DAOM2, all times ET.
Friday 2:00pm-5:00pm.
Saturday & Sunday 9:30am-12:30pm
then 2:00pm – 5:00pm.
(90 min. break for lunch).

Individual Work

Individual private sessions are available with a Diamond Approach teacher. In a private session, the student explores their direct experience of the moment in an embodied way. The teacher guides and facilitates the inquiry process, which often includes breath work and body-based practices.

Free 20 min introductory ‘mini-sessions’ are available.

Next steps

If you are interested in joining the new ongoing DAOM2 group, or engaging more deeply in the work, you can: 

New DAOM2 Group Events

New DAOM2 Group Events

Discovering the Diamond Approach-3
~ December 5, 6, 7, 2025

A new ongoing Diamond Approach group is now forming. This DIAMOND APPROACH OTTAWA MONTREAL 2 group will meet mainly on Zoom with one annual in-person retreat. These weekend retreats will introduce the foundational teachings of the Diamond Approach, including meditation, body-based practices, experiential exercises and Diamond Inquiry®.

Click image to view pdf

Teachers

Diamond Approach teachers are highly-trained practitioners with extensive seminary training, supervision, and continuing education. Their unique understanding of the development of the personal in a realized life is honed over years. Having learned to discriminate implicit aspects of Being as recognizable forms of consciousness and embodiment, they skillfully communicate how this contributes to, and informs, the human experience. Diamond Approach teachers guide students in personal inquiry based on open-ended, embodied engagement with their immediate experience, supported by a cultivated sense of presence.

Lisa Barrett-Merkx

Lisa has been a student of the Diamond Approach since 1989 and was ordained as a teacher for the Ridhwan School in 2005. She began the Diamond Approach Ottawa Montreal group in 2019 after 13 years as a supporting teacher in Hawaii, Canada and New Zealand, presenting teachings, leading small groups and working individually with students. Lisa is one of the lead teachers for the Ridhwan Academy Group, Diamond Heart United Kingdom, and also works with 2 international groups based in Germany. She was asked to serve on the original subcommittee of the leadership council for the Ridhwan School as liaison between the council and the teacher body. She also taught an integration group for the Ridhwan online DIVe program.

When not working with students in dedicated service of their evolution, Lisa enjoys simply being in her garden doing nothing.

Rob Merkx

Rob has been a student of the Diamond Approach since 1993 and was ordained as a teacher for the Ridhwan School in 2006. He is deeply engaged in the logos of the Diamond Approach. Rob has taught courses for the Diamond Approach Online program and the Ridhwan online DIVe training program. He teaches in the Diamond Approach Ottawa Montreal group and is a lead teacher for multiple international groups in Germany and the United Kingdom. He is also the Director of the first Dutch speaking Diamond Approach group in the Netherlands, including ongoing supervision of other European  teachers. Rob serves on the guiding council of the Ridhwan School. He is co-founder of the Rebalancing School for Bodywork and Body Awareness in the Netherlands and was its director for 25 years.

Milia Ahu

Milia Ahu has been a student of the Ridhwan Diamond Approach since 1981 and one of its teachers since 1990.  She currently teaches in Canada, Ireland, and California; formerly in Australia and Colorado. She also teaches two Integration groups in the online DIVe program.  Milia has been a facilitator of the Healing Arts since 1980 with a broad-spectrum orientation to human optimization. Milia has a deep appreciation of the uniqueness, beauty, and resiliency of the human soul.  She is dedicated to guide others as they embrace their true selves and cultivate a life of authenticity and fulfillment.

Padma Sylvie Roy

Padma has been studying directly with A.H. Almaas since 2002. Currently, she teaches the Diamond Approach in both French and English to individuals in Canada, the United States and Europe.  Padma is a supporting teacher of the Diamond Approach Ottawa Montreal group and also teaches in the French international section of the Diamond Approach as well as the online inquiry groups for the Ridhwan school in California. She has served on the board of Canadian Crossroad International (International cooperation programs) and L’Avenue (homeless shelter) both in Montreal, that aims to create a more equitable world by empowering individuals, organizations and communities through mutual learning, solidarity, and collective action.

Gil Shalit

Gil became involved with the Diamond Approach shortly after he landed in Boulder, Colorado to study Transpersonal Psychology at the Naropa Institute. It was his interest in the psychodynamics of spiritual transformation that drew him to the Diamond Approach. He has been a student of the Work since 1995 & a teacher since 2014. He also has a private practice in Boulder, CO where he supports the personal unfoldment of folks on their journeys (as psychotherapist, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, transpersonal guide etc) and has taught Somatic-centered trauma therapy, helping people integrate intense experiences that can serve as portals into greater freedom. For fun, he enjoys hiking the Rocky Mountains, playing guitar, salsa dancing, motorcycling & simply enjoying the simplicity of the Moment. 🙂

Sean Menzies

Originally from London, Ontario, Sean settled in Austria after living in various countries across Europe and joined the Ridhwan School in 2003. He received teacher ordination in 2021 after completing 12 years in the teacher training seminary. Currently, Sean works with private students and teaches a small monthly Diamond Approach group in his living room. The following link leads to his bio on the Ridhwan website. Living in Vienna, Austria, since 2000 with his life partner and two daughters—whom he loves immensely—Sean enjoys practicing Shaolin Chan (Qi Gong, Gong Fu, and Rou Quan) in his leisure time.

Contact Us
'Diamond Approach Ottawa Montreal'

~We respect your privacy and will never share your information~