Radical Transcendentalism and the Introduction of Advaitayana Buddhism
Da Free John (Adi Da Samraj) - 1982

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Table of Contents

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XIII

Worldliness, Selfishness, and Transcendence

The primary practical concerns of the Emanationist tradition are associated with the not-self (or the relations and conditions of the self). Because of its original or base orientation toward the Source of all emanations, the Emanationist tradition is primarily concerned either with (1) the acquiring of desirable conditions from the Divine Source or (2) the abandonment and transcendence of all relations and conditions for or in the Divine Source. The Emanationist schools of the first three stages of life are associated with the first of these two orientations—the magical and moral improvement of the relations and conditions of the self, or all that comes to the self from the Divine Source. The Emanationist schools of the fourth and fifth stages of life are concerned with the progressive abandonment of grosser relations and conditions of self for (or in order to attain) the Divine Source. In that case, the Divine Source is conceived to be eternally located above all non-eternal conditions and relations, but the Realization of the Divine Source does not require the dissolution or transcendence of either the eternal part of the self or any of the possible eternal relations and conditions of the eternal self. In contrast to the "idealism" of the Emanationist schools of the first five stages of life, the Emanationist (or Advaitist) schools of the sixth stage of life are concerned with the direct transcendence of all relations and conditions (and thus, ultimately, the conditional self itself) in the Divine Source (conceived to be the Transcendental Self behind the self and the not-self).

In contrast to the basic practical orientation of the Emanationist tradition, the non-Emanationist tradition (epitomized in the schools of Buddhism) is associated with concerns relative to the self. The non-Emanationist tradition is not based on the "idealism" of communion with the Source of self and not-self, but it is based on a "realistic" criticism of the self as the cause of association with the not-self. Therefore, its primary practical concerns are not associated either with improving the not-self (or the conditions and relations of the self) or with returning the self to a state of absorption in the Source of self and not-self. Rather, its primary practical concerns are associated with the transcendence of the conditional self.

Because of these basic differences in the original orientations toward life and the possibility of ultimate or Transcendental Realization, the practical concerns of the Advaitist and the Buddhist schools can be characterized in terms of two distinct and separate attitudes. The Advaitist schools are, as a practical matter, concerned to avoid worldliness, or attachment to all the forms or mechanics of not-self (and so the ultimate Emanationist discipline is the Advaitist discipline of inversion upon the essence of self). And the Buddhist schools are, as a practical matter, concerned to avoid selfishness, or attachment to all the forms or mechanics of self (and so the primary Buddhist discipline involves renunciation of self-centeredness).

The Way of the Heart is not founded on the worldly or other-worldly "idealism of Source" that characterizes the Emanationist tradition. Therefore, it is free of the overt and obsessive concerns for self-improvement (or improvement of the conditions and relations of self) that characterize conventional religious desire and effort in the first three stages of life. Likewise, it is free of the fourth to sixth stage taboos against worldliness (or full participation in the total functional life that characterizes the human psycho-physical personality).

The Way of the Heart is, like the traditional schools of Buddhism, founded on a criticism of the self (although not in the terms of conventional "realism"). Therefore, it is associated with direct self-transcendence (rather than with self-fulfillment, self-transformation, or self-inherence). Even so, since it is founded on moment to moment understanding and transcendence of self as contraction, rather than on the "realistic" Buddhist method of strategic self-dissolution and strategic dissolution of self-centeredness, it is free of the conventional and often fetishistic taboos against selfishness and "selfness", or existence as the phenomenal self.

The Way of the Heart is the direct Way of the inherent transcendence of self and not-self. It is associated with both self-transcendence and Realization of the Transcendental (and thus Acausal) Source, Self, Reality, or Condition of all forms of conditional existence. And its primary practical discipline is the free (or non-problematic) observation, understanding, and transcendence of the act of self-contraction and all of its limiting power and effect.