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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XIX

Transcending the Hierarchy of Errors

The tradition of ascetical or Nirvanic Transcendentalism is a path of seeking based on a problem. This tradition is epitomized by Theravada or Hinayana Buddhism. By means of ascetical effort (founded on an intelligent appreciation of the negative and non-necessary status of conditional existence) the Transcendental Condition is pursued as a future attainment necessarily associated with the non-arising of all conditional states of self or its objects. Thus, such Nirvana comes to be the basis for the definition of Enlightenment (or the Realization of Reality), and this is an error.

The tradition of Advaitic (non-dual) or subjective Transcendentalism, epitomized by the Upanishadic or Vedantic nondualism of Sri Shankara, is free of the problem-basis of the conventionally ascetical path. It is not fundamentally a path based on a negative evaluation of conditional existence (and a methodical attempt to destroy the mechanism of its arising). Rather, it is a path based primarily on most positive evaluation of the unconditional Reality, which is, as a matter of practice, located directly as the essential awareness behind the various functional mechanics of the subject-self. Thus, the method of the path is one of constant resort to identification with that essential awareness. If this is done, conditional states are simply and naturally dropped from attention. Whereas in the ascetical path there must be a completely successful dropping of all such conditions before Nirvanic Enlightenment can be attained, in the Advaitic path Enlightenment is equivalent to simple identification with the fundamental awareness (and the dropping of conditional motives or states is a secondary expression of that very Enlightenment). However, exclusive subjectivism (or the identification of Enlightenment with awareness in the specific locus of the conditional self and qualified by the specific exclusion of objects) is a fundamental error of this path.

The Way of the Heart can certainly be felt to bear an affinity with the great traditions of Buddhism and Advaitism (although my life and Teaching developed spontaneously, without any significant or guiding influence from those traditions). However, I have, in my own Teaching consideration, found those traditions to contain certain limiting errors, and those errors are fundamental tendencies that belong to the sixth stage of life.

Those who live on the basis of the limits represented by the first three stages of life tend to suffer from the error of reductionism, or the tendency to conceive of existence in exclusively materialistic and terrestrial (or elemental and lower functional) terms. And those who live on the higher basis of the limits represented by the fourth and fifth stages of life tend to suffer from the error of misplaced ultimacy, or the tendency to regard the phenomenal attainments of the higher functional or cosmic scale as Reality or Truth. In turn, those who live on the basis of the limits represented by the sixth stage of life tend to suffer either from the error of nihilistic or radically ascetical realism (the problem-based effort to bring an end to conditional experience and functional subjectivity as a pre-condition for and a definition of Enlightenment or Reality) or subjective idealism (the exclusive identification of Reality with the eternal subjectawareness independent of objects).

The Way of the Heart is considered in terms that transcend the traditional errors, which are simply expressions of the errors inherent in the structures of the various stages of life previous to the seventh. Therefore, the ultimate (or seventh stage) consideration of the Way is specifically free of the limits or errors of the sixth stage of life. It is for this reason that 1 have entered into a thorough consideration of Buddhism and Advaitism.

In the seventh stage of life, Sahaj Samadhi ultimately becomes Bhava Samadhi. Bhava Samadhi, in my usage of the term, is equivalent to Nirvana. But Enlightenment, or Transcendental Realization of Truth or Reality, is prior to Bhava Samadhi (or Nirvana). If there is true Enlightenment (or Sahaj Samadhi) then Bhava Samadhi (or Nirvana Samadhi) will eventually and inevitably be the case. Considered in this manner, the Way is free of the problem-basis of all negative or "realistic" reactions to phenomenal existence, and the Way is inherently free of association with conventionally ascetical programs.

The Way of the Heart is developed on the basis of understanding the whole process and context of the phenomenal or conditional self. Therefore, the Way of Radical Understanding bears an affinity to the "realist" traditions (such as are epitomized by the various schools of Buddhism). However, the Way of Radical Understanding is not an ascetical path, focused on a strategic program of functional self-negation. Rather, it is a Way focused on the self-transcendence inherent in real understanding, and that self-transcendence is the moment or Context in which the Transcendental Reality is priorly Realized (even in the apparent context of conditional existence). This does not mean that discipline, renunciation, and Nirvanic Transcendence are not also characteristic of this Way. Rather, they appear on the basis of prior understanding and Awakening rather than as means for achieving such Enlightenment or Awakening.

The Way of Radical Understanding is thus free of the nihilistic error of ascetical realism, even though it is aligned to a realistic disposition (expressed via constant understanding and transcendence of the self-contraction).

The Way of Radical Understanding can also be said to bear an affinity with the "idealist" traditions (epitomized by the schools of Advaita Vedanta and such Sages as Ramana Maharshi). This is clear, since the Way is founded on self-transcending understanding, or re-cognition of self in the Transcendental Reality. However, the Way of Radical Understanding is not bound to the strategically subjectivist orientation of traditional Advaitism. The essential self-consciousness (or "atman") must be re-cognized or transcended as a focus of attention just as much as any other objects, high or low in the scale of perception or conception. The mechanism of attention itself must be recognized, and this ultimately requires the transcendence' of attention not only to objects but also to the subject-consciousness (or the locus of awareness internal to the conditional or functional self, or the body-mind-self).

In the course of the development of spiritual maturity in the Way of the Heart, individuals may encounter, pass through, and only then fully transcend the mechanics and motives of the various stages of life previous to the seventh. But ultimately there is steady establishment in the Enlightened disposition of the seventh stage of life. In that disposition, the errors of elemental reductionism, misplaced ultimacy, ascetical realism, and idealistic subjectivism are inherently transcended. Therefore, in the seventh stage of life the Way of the Heart is practiced in its fullest or ultimate and most radical sense. In that case, all conditions of self and its objects are tacitly or directly recognized in the Transcendental Condition, Identity, Consciousness, or Radiant Being in which they are apparently and mechanically or spontaneously arising. That Transcendental Reality or Consciousness is not merely inside the subject self. It is not Realized via interiorization in the self but in direct recognition of the self.

Therefore, the Realization is inherently free of the sixth stage error of subjective idealism. Likewise, all conditions or objects of the functional self are recognized in that same Reality or Consciousness. That Reality or Consciousness is neither inside nor outside the functional self. It is not located via any "point of view," or on the basis of any reference to the conditional self. It is Realized Itself, directly, as and by Itself. It is the Transcendental Self or Real Consciousness. Even the Substantial Energy or Objective Matrix of all objects is recognized in the Transcendental Self. The world, the body, the mind, the Light above the head, and the self-knot in the right side of the heart are all recognized in the Boundless and Centerless Heart, the Radiant Self, the Transcendental Reality or Divine Consciousness. Therefore, in the seventh stage of life, the Transcendental Self is Radiant in the form and actions of the conditional self and world, but all conditions are recognized in the Self (which is the same Transcendental Reality or Consciousness Realized in Bhava Samadhi, or the Nirvanic Realization associated with the non-noticing or non-arising of conditional or subject-object phenomena. Thus, the conditional self and world are without necessity or binding power, and at last they become utterly transparent in that Radiant Consciousness, the Infinite Domain of Love-Bliss.