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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XXII

The Three Teachings of the One Way

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 discipdnes s 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.