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#2006 -
The following excerpt from Nirvanasara
addresses the nature of attentional processes to realize
Truth, according to Advaita (inquiry -- Who am I?), Buddhism
(mindfulness), and Da Free John's Advaitayana Buddhism
(relatedness - Avoiding relationship?).
The Three Teachings of the
Da Free John
There are three principal Transcendentalist
(or sixth to seventh stage) Teachings: Realist Buddhism (or
Realist Transcendentalism), Idealist Advaitism (or Idealist
Transcendentalism), and Advaitayana Buddhism (or Radical
Transcendentalism).
The Buddhist Teaching of Realism is
epitomized in the considerations of Gautama, and the Realization
based on that Teaching is epitomized in texts such as the
Lankavatara Stra and the Sixth Patriarch's Altar Sutra. In this
view, manifest existence, seen in itself, is regarded to be
unnecessary suffering. The Way is to inspect every aspect of
self, mind, body, and the world and see that every part is
conditional, temporary, limited, and merely the result or effect
of other conditional, temporary, and limited motions or events.
When this inspection has become most profound, then it is obvious
that no part of self, mind, body, or the world is anything but a
form of conditional motion—an effect of previous motions and
a cause of motions that will follow it. Therefore, it becomes
obvious that Happiness is not in the form of any part of self,
mind, body, or the world—or any form of effect or cause. The
Truth is Transcendental (prior to effect and cause), and the
Realization of Truth is a matter of Awakening to the acausal (or
Nirvanic) Condition on the basis of first inspecting and
transcending attachment (and conceptual confinement) to all forms
of cause (or desire, or motivation, or motion) and all forms of
effect (or self, mind, body, or world).
The Advaitist Teaching of Idealism is
epitomized in the considerations of the Yoga Vasishtha and the
philosophers Gaudapada and Shankara, and the Realization based on
that Teaching is epitomized in the Confessions of Adepts such as
Ashtavakra and Ramana Maharshi. In this view, manifest existence,
seen in itself, is regarded to be an unnecessary illusion. The
Way is not merely to turn attention away from the world, the
body, the mind, and the self, but to turn or invert it toward the
Transcendental Self or Consciousness in which the thought of self
(or "I"), all other thoughts, and the experiential
conception of the body and the world are arising. If this is done
most profoundly, then the illusory independence of the phenomenal
self, mind, body, and world will vanish in the Bliss of
Unconditional Being. Therefore, it becomes finally obvious that
self, mind, body, and world are not in any sense or to any degree
independent from the Transcendental Self-Source, and it also
becomes obvious that self, mind, body, and world have no
necessity or binding power when viewed in the context of the
Transcendental Self. The Truth is the Transcendental
Self-Reality, and the Realization of Truth is a matter of
Awakening to the Original or Natural and Native State of
Identification with that Self-Reality on the basis of the
inversion (or conversion) of attention into its noumenous Ground.
The Teaching of Advaitayana Buddhism (or
Radical Transcendentalism) and the demonstration of its Way of
Realization have their origin and epitome in my own Teaching
Work. In this view, manifest existence is not a problem to be
solved or escaped, but it is simply to be always already
understood (and thus natively and naturally transcended, but not
strategically avoided or egoically embraced). The Way is to
observe that all problems and all seeking for solutions arise on
the basis of self-contraction (or the Narcissistic effort that is
the ego). Therefore, it is a matter of constantly observing,
re-cognizing (or knowing again), and transcending this
self-contraction (which is chronically manifested as the
avoidance of relationship in the midst of all the kinds of
psycho-physical relations).
When this process of understanding has
become most profound, the relations, activities, and states of
body and mind will have all been observed and felt beyond, so
that only the most primary evidence of the self-contraction
remains in view. That of relatedness. Therefore, the ultimate
exercise, by which a natural transition is made to the seventh
stage of life, is to recognize the sense of relatedness itself
(which is the primal cognition or root-event of conditional
existence, on the basis of which both the separate self and its
apparently independent objects of all kinds are subsequently and
simultaneously conceived and differentiated). The sense of
relatedness is itself to be recognized as contraction, directly,
free of any strategic resort to introversion upon the self or to
extroversion, beyond direct cognition of the sense of relatedness
itself, into the wandering of attention in the differentiated
field of objects. When this ultimate form of re-cognition is most
profound, the Consciousness in which self, mind, body, world, or
all forms of contracrion are arising stands forth as the Obvious
Reality, and Its Status as the Divine or Transcendental Identity
and Condition of self and notself is also inherently Obvious.
Since Reality, or the Real Condition, is necessarily That which
is always already the case, prior to all subsequent acts that
cause It to appear other than It is, the re-cognition of all such
acts, or of the primary action that is the root-constant of all
such acts, necessarily and naturally or inevitably Reveals That
as the Obvious. That which is ultimately Obvious is the
ultimately Real. And the Obvious, prior to all forms of
contraction, and prior to the cognition of separate self, its
objects, or the primary sense of relatedness, is unqualified
consciousness, or Radiant Transcendental Being.
In the view of Advaitayana Buddhism, the
Truth is Radiant Transcendental Being, Consciousness, Love-Bliss,
or Happiness, and all arising conditions are transparent, or
merely apparent, unnecessary, and non-binding modifications of
That. Realization of That is a matter of the inspection,
re-cognition, and inherent transcendence of the self-contraction,
which is conventionally perceived via the dual sense of separate
self and the otherness of all conditions that confront the self,
but which is singly or most basically evident in the sense of
relatedness itself (prior to the conventional distinctions and
elaborations of the play between self and not-self).
All three of these most basic and unique
Transcendentalist Teachings ultimately involve a practice and a
Realization that goes beyond or transcends the world, the body,
the mind, and the separate or egoic self. But there is no such
transcendence until there is in fact such transcendence.
Therefore, until the Way becomes most profound, practice is
inevitably associated with various disciplines of the body-mind
and attention. But the purpose of such disciplines is always
secondary or supportive to the ultimate consideration, or the
practice and process in consciousness. Therefore, the basic
purpose of the supportive disciplines is to release energy and
attention from the bind of egoic habituation, so that the
conscious process may become most profound.
The traditions of Buddhist Realism and
Advaitist Idealism are the two Great Schools coming out of the
two primary ancient streams of consideration—or the
"realistic" and "idealistic" traditions of
philosophy. Buddhist Realism is a Transcendentalist philosophy
that founds its Argument on the language of "realism,"
and that language is specifically intended as a criticism of the
speculative metaphysical and "eternalistic" views of
the tradition of subjective "idealism." Even so, the
Way of Buddhist Realism eventually leads to a Realization that
transcends all of the conventions and structures (or
"dharmas") of "realism" (all of which are,
from the beginning, regarded as unnecessary suffering). In
contrast to the tradition of Buddhist Realism, Advaitist Idealism
is a Transcendentalist philosophy that founds its Argument on the
language of subjective "idealism" and that language is
specifically intended as a criticism of the
"nihilistic" tendencies of the "realist"
position. Even so, the Way of Advaitist Idealism eventually leads
to a Realization that transcends the Narcissistic or
world-excluding subjectivism of conventional
"idealism." Advaitayana Buddhism, which is only now
appearing, epitomizes the Transcendental tradition as a whole,
but the language of its Argument transcends the conventional
limitations of both "realism" and "idealism,"
so that, from the beginning, its Way transcends the orientations
of the two ancient attitudes of Realist Buddhism is the Way that
Realizes the Transcendental Truth beyond the not-self (or all
phenomenal conditions—all of which, including the ego, bear
the characteristic of not-self or no-self).
Idealist Advaitism is the Way that Realizes
the Transcendental Truth beyond the self (and thus also beyond
all that is notself, or all the insentient phenomenal relations
of the conscious phenomenal self—all of which relations bear
the illusory appearance of independence from the conscious self).
Advaitayana Buddhism is the Way that
Realizes the Transcendental Truth beyond (or prior to) the
primary sense or cognition of relatedness, which is the single
basis or prior and original sign of the subsequent and
simultaneously arising pair of opposites—the self and the
not-self. Both the self and the not-self are simply apparent (and
apparently different or opposite) aspects of the same unnecessary
contraction from the Condition of Radiant Transcendental Being,
and neither of them is directly and finally transcended unless
the conventionally unconscious or uninspected contraction is
directly inspected in the form of the primary sense of
relatedness.
The Transcendental Truth realized via each
of these three principal Ways is the same. The Way that is chosen
depends, apart from the karma or accident of mere cultural
proximity, on the quality or kind of intelligence that moves the
individual. And the Way of Advaitayana Buddhism (or Radical
Transcendentalism) is the epitome or ultimate fulfillment and
single form of the two separate Ways conceived according to the
logical opposites of Buddhist Realism and Advaitist Idealism.
In the following piece, Da Free John, or
whatever his name was by then, offers that "the only
reason Christianity ever became associated with the myth (or
tradition) of blood sacrifice was that the stark
"reality" (and circumstance) of Jesus' death required
some kind of archetypal (or psychically significant)
justification. However, by his own Teaching during life, Jesus
effectively denied such Significance to his death."
Blood Sacrifice and the Death of
Jesus
(an excerpt from The Basket of Tolerance ( 1991 )
by
The Ruchira Buddha,
Avatar Adi Da Samraj
The idea that Jesus' death was a universally
effective blood sacrifice (now either magically re-enacted in the
"Mass" or otherwise memorialized in the Eucharistic
ritual of bread/body and wine/blood) depends upon ideas that
belong to the ancient "primitive" and popular culture
of ritual magic (commonly referred to as "shamanism")
and its traditional ritual blood sacrifice of animals (and even
human beings). In shamanistic cultures (and all the cultures of
ritual sacrifice, all of which developed from the
"primitive" base that we may, for the sake of
simplicity, refer to by the general term "shamanism"),
prayers are offered Up (either to God or to various deities in
the "air", or in the space between "Heaven"
and Earth). The participants in such cultures believe that
prayers cannot ascend unless they are carried up by
"mana", or the life-force of freshly sacrificed animals
(or even humans). That is to say, from such a point of view,
every time a prayer (or request) is offered Up, it must be
"delivered" by the released (and naturally ascending)
energy of a blood sacrifice, or else it will not
"arrive". Likewise, the "mana". (or
blood-energy) sent Up with a prayer functions as a kind of
"self-addressed envelope", to convey the resultant
blessing (or the prayer's "answer") back to the sender.
Such ideas were common to both the old
ritual religion of
Thus, Jesus was "officially"
interpreted to be a human sacrifice that grants everyone the
"Mana", for effective prayer (or direct access to the
"Heavenly" Blessings of God). It is obvious that most
people living in modern post-industrial societies would not claim
it is necessary to kill animals (or humans) in order to provide
an energy-vehicle (to and from God) for prayer-requests.
Therefore, it must be asked, in a non-shamanistic culture (or a
culture that has lost all sense of either the necessity or the
meaning of the process of ritual sacrifice), what is the
"meaning" of the death of Jesus? Without the
shamanistic mind, or the ritual "idea", the death of
Jesus can no longer be understood as a sacrifice at all (whether
effective or ineffective), and his death is, therefore, simply a
death.
However, modern societies have also traveled
a long distance in the direction of Spiritual blindness (or the
simultaneous abandonment of both Spiritual Enlightenment and
archaic, or otherwise "superstitious", beliefs and
techniques) in the quest for ordinary knowledge and both mental
and technical (or physical) superiority and power over the
natural world. Therefore, a little recovery of real Spiritual
understanding will also necessarily re-Awaken something of the
higher dimension of the human faculties that were (or are)
activated by the ancient and traditional shamanistic mind.
Indeed, Jesus himself Taught a Way that
represents both a higher evolution of the shamanistic point of
view and a denial of both the validity and the necessity of any
kind of blood sacrifice. As reported in the fourth chapter of the
"Gospel" of "John", Jesus said: "The
time is coming, indeed, it is already here, when all true
worshippers will worship the Father (or God) In Spirit (or
Spiritually) and In Truth (or without falsehood and deception),
for such are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God Is
Spirit, and, therefore, those who worship the Father must do so
In Spirit and In Truth (or As Truth requires).''! Jesus Taught
that God Is Spirit (or "Mana") and that true worship of
God is identical to prayer (and, specifically, prayer In Spirit).
That is to say, true worship is always associated with the prayer
of Divine Communion (or Communion with God In Spirit), and such
prayer is necessarily a Spiritual exercise.
The ancient word for "spirit" (in
the common Greek language of Jesus' day) is "pneuma",
which means "breath". Therefore, in true prayer, the
Divine Spirit ("Pneuma., or "Mana") is breathed
(and, ultimately, identified with) by the individual, and if
there is correct Spirit-breathing (or psycho-physical
identification with the Divine Power), prayer is inherently
effective.
Jesus certainly Taught inherently effective
(or Spiritual) prayer. He apparently Taught higher esoteric
prayer (or the fourth to fifth stage prayer of mystical ascent)
as well as the basic esoteric prayer of heart-reception of the
descending Spirit-Power, "Mana", or Blessing of God).
And such prayer is the sign of a cultural point of view based on
Spirit religion (or advanced, or esoteric, shamanism, rather than
lower shamanistic, or exoteric and even "pagan", blood
sacrifices). Therefore, Jesus himself Taught a Way that
specifically denies both the necessity and the value of blood
sacrifices.
How, then, can a church be rightly
established (in the name of Jesus) that bases itself on the idea
that Jesus is the ultimate blood sacrifice? Jesus Taught a Way
that has not been understood by his own (exoteric) church (just
as exoteric Christianity has not understood, or has forgotten,
the significance of its "Resurrection" and
"Ascension" myths).
Jesus proclaimed a Way for all that required
no blood sacrifice (not even his own), but only the true
"Mana" of Spiritually Inspired prayer (or devotional
and mystical Communion with the All-Pervading and Eternally
Living Divine Spirit). Jesus' death by crucifixion was either
murder or misfortune, but it was not a Cosmically Significant
ritual blood sacrifice. Indeed, the only reason Christianity ever
became associated with the myth (or tradition) of blood sacrifice
was that the stark "reality" (and circumstance) of
Jesus' death required some kind of archetypal (or psychically
significant) justification. However, by his own Teaching during
life, Jesus effectively denied such Significance to his death.
Therefore, he stands together with all other True Spirit-Masters,
affirming that it is not the death-sacrifice of any Spirit-Master
that is needed by (or is in any sense useful to) mankind.
The only useful (and needed, or necesary)
"sacrifice" of a Spirit-Master is his or her
Love-Surrender to the Spiritual (and, ultimately, Transcendental)
Divine, and his or her subsequent Love-Gift (of Teaching,
Spiritual Demonstration, and Spirit-Quickening Blessing) to
devotees (and the total world). Therefore, it is a
Spirit-Master's Spiritual Realization and subsequent Teaching
Work and Spiritual Work (rather than his or her mere death) that
are needed (and must be used) by mankind. And all true
Spirit-Masters, in all times and places, have made this
"sacrifice" and performed this Service for their
devotees and the total world.
Adi Da Love-Ananda Samraj has Given ten
questions for pondering of His Arguments relative to the root of
the self-contraction and the Mystery of Existence. His devotees
may ask these questions of themselves in formal meditation or in
daily life.
The Ten Fundamental Questions
"What Am 'I' Always Doing ?"
"Avoiding Relationship ?"
"Who or What Is Always The Case
(Before 'I' Do Anything At All) ? or
"Who, What, and Where Is
The Inherent Feeling Of Being or Existence Itself ?"
"Am 'I' The One Who Is 'Living' (Animating or Manifesting)
me (the body-mind) Now ? "
"Who Is 'Living' me Now ?"
"How Do 'I' Relate To The One Who 'Lives' me ?"
"Do 'I' know What any one or any thing Is ? or
(in relation to any particular being, thing, condition, or event
that arises)
"What Is it ?"
"Who, What, and Where Is Inherent Love-Bliss, or Happiness
Itself ?"
"Who, What, and Where Is Consciousness Itself ?"
"What Will 'I' Do If 'I' Love
Adi Da Love-Ananda Samraj (or replace with Guru of
your choice) ?