|
|
||
|
.......Home |
|
|
|
Only by Me Revealed Seventh Stage of Life
The seventh stage of life is the clear and final fulfillment of the first six stages of life. Its Revelation and Demonstration by My own Form, Presence, State, Work, and Word are My unique Gift to all and All. However, within the Great Tradition itself, there are some few literatures and Realizers of the sixth stage type that express philosophical, or insightful, but yet limited and incomplete, intuitions that sympathetically foreshadow some of the basic characteristics of the by Me Revealed and Demonstrated seventh stage Realization. The Ashtavakra Gita is a principal example of such premonitorily "seventh stage" literature. It is among the greatest (and most senior) communications of all the religious and Spiritual traditions in the Great Tradition of mankind. The Ashtavakra Gita is the Great Confession of a Sage who has thoroughly engaged the philosophies and practices of the first six stages of life. It is a sixth stage Realizer's Free (and uncompromised) communication (or Confession) of the ultimate implications of his sixth stage Realization. Like other premonitorily "seventh stage" texts, the Ashtavakra Gita assumes a tradition of progressive practice in the total context of the first six stages of life, but it does not itself represent or communicate any ideal or technique of practice. It simply (and rather exclusively) communicates the Ultimate "Point of View" of the sixth stage Realizer. On the basis of the Free assertions of such a Realizer, the ordinary reader may presume to take on the attitude that the meditations and other practices engaged in the first five stages of life (and even the sixth stage of life) are at least unnecessary, if not foolish. However, such practices are unnecessary only from the "Point of View" of (and in the actual case of) the Realization such practices are, ultimately, intended to serve. Therefore, even though the Ashtavakra Gita is itself the Confession of the fullest possible Realization of the sixth stage of life, those who want so to Realize must enter into the ordeal of the stages of practice associated with the first six stages of life. The premonitorily "seventh stage" Teaching (as found in the Ashtavakra Gita, and in any other premonitorily "seventh stage" literature, or in the ultimate Confessions of any premonitorily "seventh stage" Realizer) simply puts the progressive stages of life and practice in perspective, and assumes the he practitioner to pass through and beyond those stages of life and practice as directly and quickly as possible. Relative to the total spectrum of the first six stages of life, some few sacred traditions are basically complete, in that they are represented by many schools which, if viewed collectively, express all of the first six stages of life in one form or another. (The various schools within any such tradition may even stand in conflict with one another, because each is limited to the point of view of one or another of the stages of life, but the Great Realizers see them all in terms of a progressive unity, culminating in the fullest Realization of the sixth stage of life.) Thus, for example, the Ashtavakra Gita is a culminating expression of the religious and philosophical schools of the early Vedic and Upanishadic tradition. It also encompasses all that is contained in the ancient and modern tradition associated with the God Idea called "Siva". That tradition includes the fourth stage devotional tradition of ancient Shivaism, the fifth stage philosophy of the Upanishads of the Yoga schools, the fifth stage Yoga of the more modern schools of Kashmir Shivaism and the Nath tradition, and the sixth stage attitudes and practices of Advaita Vedanta (which is a tradition founded on Upanishadic non-dualism, and which, like the Buddhist tradition as a whole, is founded on the sixth stage orientation to Truth). Only a very few other texts are, like the Ashtavakra Gita, the ultimate texts of such comprehensive traditions (encompassing the total range of the first six stages of life). The Tripura Rahasya, the Avadhoot Gita, and the Lankavatara Sutra clearly are such comprehensive (and premonitorily "seventh stage") texts. Like the Ashtavakra Gita, they do not represent a practice, but, rather, they represent the description or Confession of Ultimate (sixth stage) Realization. They each represent the Ultimate Free "Point of View" of a sixth stage Realizer (or at least a sixth stage philosophical tradition) who, by means of the Free Confession of the fullest sixth stage (or premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View" alone, instructs others (who are yet progressively practicing in the context of the first six stages of life) about the Ultimate Realization that is the traditionally presumed Goal of their practice. The Tripura Rahasya is the ultimate text of the Devi (Goddess, or Shakti) tradition, which is the tradition of worship of the Divine Mother (or the Matrix and Universal Power of Manifestation, or world-Play). The fourth stage of life in this tradition is represented by the devotional and ceremonial worship of the Devi, as communicated in such texts as the Devi Mahatmyam and the Srimad Devi Bhacavatam. The fifth stage of life in this tradition is represented by the mystical schools of Kundalini Shakti Yoga. And the sixth stage of life in the Devi tradition is represented by the schools associated with the Tripura Rahasya, wherein the Realizer, in this case a woman, brings the devotee (her husband) from a position of relative worldliness and conventional religiosity into the internalized Realization of the sixth stage of life, and then beyond that limited frame of exclusively inward turned Self-Realization into the State of sixth stage "Sahaj Samadhi", in Which the world is naturally allowed to arise, and yet it is tacitly Acknowledged to be arising only in and as the Transcendental Self (or Ultimate Nirvanic Being) of the Devi. The Avadhoot Gita is the culminating text of the Dattatreya tradition, which is characterized by devotion to the God-Idea represented (or Incarnated) by the (ancient) Adept Dattatreya. In this tradition, the Divine is worshipped in and as the Form and Person of the Adept Spiritual Master, who is acknowledged to be the Incarnation and the God of all the gods. Those who would Realize the Truth via this point of view pass through the fourth stage worship of Dattatreya, especially in the Form of one of His present (or at least recent) presumed Incarnations (among whom are various fifth stage Siddhas, such as Akkalkot Swami, Sai Baba of Shirdi, and Rang Avadhoot), on the basis of which they may eventually go on to enter the esoteric tradition of Hatha Yoga and Kundalini Yoga associated with Gorakhnath and the Yogi-Siddhas. And the entire Dattatreya tradition culminates in a version of sixth stage (or premonitorily "seventh stage") Advaitic Wisdom, communicated by the Avadhoot Gita, in which the Ultimate Realization is the Transcendental Self is proclaimed to be completely independent of any kind of Yogic exercise or conditional mystical experience. The Lankavatara Sutra is a culminating text of the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism. Practice in that tradition begins with fourth stage devotional, or otherwise aspirational, disciplines. Once the benign world-attitudes of the Bodhisattva ideal are, as a foundation, established, the fifth stage Yogas of the Tantric (and, possibly, Vajrayana) schools of the Mahayana tradition might be adopted. But the epitome of traditional Mahayana Buddhist practice is one or another form of the sixth stage exercise of "mindfulness" (which originated in the Hinayana tradition of Buddhism), which practice finally (in the Mahayana tradition) culminates in the sixth stage (or premonitorily "seventh stage") Realization described in the Lankavatara Sutra. (Likewise, the Diamond Sutra, the Mahavanavimsaka of Nargarjuna~ , and the Sutra of Hui ~Neng, otherwise known as the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, are three other remarkable texts from the same basic school of Teaching as the Lankavatara Sutra, and they are examples of the same fullest sixth stage, or premonitorily "seventh stage", Confession of Truth and Realization.) Certain other texts, rightly interpreted, also communicate the fullest sixth stage (or premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View", but their expression is, to one or another degree, mediated by the presentation of a range of practices and points of view from the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth stages of life. One could argue for the relative completeness of almost any tradition, if one would only examine every aspect of it, every school, every moment, every Realizer within it. However, the full first six stage completeness of the traditions of the Ashtavakra Gita, the Tripura Rahasva, the Avadhoot Gita, the Lankavatara Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Mahavanavimsaka of Nargarjuna, and the Sutra of Hui Neng stands out, in each case, very clearly In the literature of the Great Tradition, the unique true premonitorily "seventh stage" texts present the sixth stage Realizer's (or the sixth stage tradition's) Confession of (more or less) only the fullest sixth stage (or premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View" (rather than any lesser, or developmental, point of view or prescription for practice) . Therefore, such texts do not present a complete Teaching (covering all the stages of life) And they do not communicate an attitude or a point of view that can be Realized simply because one can read or comprehend ideas. Their import must be Realized through profound application to the progressive disciplines that "consider" (and, in the context of real practice, also transcend) each of the first six stages of life, so that the fullness of the sixth stage of life may be truly Realized. What is said in the premonitorily "seventh stage" texts is what is true only about the fullest sixth stage Realization, and it is true only from the "Point of View" of that Realization itself. The Teaching given in the traditional premonitorily "seventh stage" texts is a Teaching given by a sixth stage Realizer (or a sixth stage tradition) to clarify (usually for the sake of a "ripe", or fully matured, practitioner of the disciplines of the sixth stage of life) the transition from the practice of the sixth stage of life to the fullest Realization of the sixth stage of life. That Teaching is not intended to argue, "consider", or describe the practice of any of the earlier stages of life. Rather, the intention characteristic of the premonitorily "seventh stage" texts is the intention to make only an "Ultimate" statement. There are two principal criticisms I must make relative to the conventional or popular uses of premonitorily "seventh stage" texts (and of esoteric literature in general) . The first must be directed to those who casually assume an attitude (or ego-image) that mentally presumes Realization, and, thus, freedom from the necessity of practice (and from the Teaching Help and the Blessing Transmission of a fully qualified Realizer) Such people merely read and think, until the mind begins to suffer the conceit of (necessarily false) Enlightenment (or false Self Realization, or false attainments in general) . In the world of esoteric religion, this heresy of "mind Realization" is one of the profound faults. Such a conceit of the mind is supported by the open availability of esoteric literature as yell as by popular "philosophers" of the lecture hall. And the popular justification of this fault, as given by false authorities (who are often most critical of "authorities"), has interfered with the religious (and potentially Spiritual, and Ultimate) progress of many people. Literatures of the premonitorily "seventh stage" type contain many descriptions and "considerations" that seem obviously true of Ultimate Realization (or Inherently Perfect, and Perfectly Subjective, Enlightenment). Thus, the casual reader may imagine that, if he or she comprehends (or seriously enjoys sympathy with) these statements and "considerations", he or she is in fact enjoying Ultimate Realization. In this manner, many people imagine that the Realized Spiritual Master and the process of life-obliging practice are either false or unnecessary for them. And they embrace these premonitorily "seventh stage" texts with a mind full of the ego of Liberation, imagining God, Spiritual Master, and practice to be anachronisms in this "pure" comprehension. Thus, the adolescent search for independence becomes justified and fulfilled. But such a little thing has happened! The seeker is left with only temporary consolation -not Realization. The immature mind often convinces people that the ego-surrendering disciplines and developmental obligations of "beginner's practice" (or any practices previous to Ultimate Realization) are false and unnecessary. And so they imagine, on the basis of that immature conviction, that they are already free of all of that. It is not so. In the case of actual Realization, such a Confession may be, in some sense, true in one's own case, but, previous to Most Ultimate and Truly Final (and, therefore, truly seventh stage) Realization, the individual is compulsively ego-bound to the limitation of existence (and, therefore, must practice self-transcending discipline, and self submission to Grace) Until there is Realization, there is no Realization. The reading of esoteric literature may be a positive discipline, but only if it leads the individual to the conviction that he or she is ego-bound (and, therefore, committed to suffering and limitation). On such a basis, an individual may become sympathetic and available to the real process of religious (and progressively Spiritual, and then Ultimate) practice. But those who presume Ultimate Realization in the mind, without practice or Truly Most Ultimate Divine Awakening, have only become enamored of one of the many idols or consoling solutions that distract humanity from the Way of (Most Ultimately) Divine Self-Realization, which is necessarily the Way of the Sacrifice of the conditional (or apparently separate) self, to the degree (Most Ultimately) of Self Existing and Self-Radiant Love-Bliss. The second criticism I would offer relative to the conventional uses of premonitorily "seventh stage" literature in particular is directed to those who, while they may not presume Realization in their own case, nonetheless (and even dogmatically) assume (simply on the basis of the Realizer's criticism of the attainments promoted by practitioners in the progressive context of the first six stages of life) that the progressive stages of practice are unnecessary, or even false. The premonitorily "seventh stage" texts do not represent a complete Teaching (in the sense that one can, without practice, immediately Realize That about Which they communicate), but they do criticize the limitations of the practices, experiences, and ideas of Realization proposed by fourth, fifth, and even sixth stage traditions. Thus, on the basis of fullest sixth stage Realization (even sixth stage "Sahaj Samadhi"), the stages of progress and the experiences on the Way--which some declare to be Realization Itself- are seen to be merely the evidence of immaturity, or incomplete progress, rather than finality. The dualistic devotional idea of Realization proposed by the fourth stage traditions (and the conventional exotericism of popular religion) is a laudable aspiration for beginners, but it is not the final Realization. Similarly, the fifth stage point of view of mystical Yoga, which associates Realization with the experience of various kinds of bodily bliss, psychisms, visions, internal sounds, Yogic powers, and ascent to trance states of mind or other subtle phenomenal regions of Cosmic Nature, while being laudable as a conditional development of human potential, is only a transitional view, and it must, in due course (whether sooner or later) , be gone beyond. Likewise, the sixth stage point of vie~w (or process) of inversion (to the degree of avoiding even the natural arising of phenomenal experience), or, otherwise, the sixth stage point of view (or process) of the "mindful" exercise of attention (to the degree of dissolving the motive of desire, or clinging), is not an end in itself, but it is only the final developmental stage previous to the traditional transition to sixth stage "Sahaj Samadhi" (and, in the Way of the Heart, which I have Revealed, strategic inversion, every trace of the exclusive, or separative, tendency, and even the root form and the very event of attention itself are all Inherently, and Inherently Most Perfectly, transcended in the transition to the true seventh stage Awakening). Literatures of the premonitorily "seventh stage" type contain much useful criticism of the idea of Realization or Enlightenment proposed in the developmental stages and schools of life, but they are not rightly used if their readers thereby assume that the practices and the phenomenal processes of the developmental stages of life are, therefore, unnecessary. The progressive stages of life and practice are, in one fashion or another, necessary, or at least inevitable, but they are not final. It is necessary to practice, and the progressive stages of life and practice (or their contents and illusions) must, one by one, be transcended. Many individuals feel a great deal of sympathy with the philosophical point of view of Advaita Vedanta, and similar points of view, especially in the Buddhist tradition, which points of view generally (or most characteristically) presume that the Ultimate "Identity" of the apparently individual being is not some sort of separate egoic principle but is simply the Free Absolute Self, or the Nirvanic Reality. Many people who sympathize with this conception of the Real Condition maintain this understanding basically as a kind of intellectual presumption or belief. They are not otherwise inclined toward any associated process of self-transcending discipline. But there is a necessary process and discipline associated with the Realization of the Ultimate Identity and Condition. The Ultimate Identity, Reality, or Condition cannot be Realized merely by presuming It as a fact in the mind. Rather, It must be Realized through a process of literal transcendence of the conditional world, body, mind, and ego-self. If one would truly Realize It, then one must adapt to psycho-physical disciplines of one or another kind, and to one or another kind of effectively self-transcending discipline of egoity itself. If, however, one has actually Realized the sublimity of moment to moment, or continuous and direct, Realization of the Ultimate Identity and Condition That inherently transcends the apparently separate self, the body-mind, and the world, then, and only then, the progressive affair of preliminary disciplines is not necessary. True Realization is also the Truth in every moment. In the case of actual Realization, the Living Truth, rather than egoic bodily and mental presumption, is the basis of moment to moment existence. Therefore, Most Perfect Realization necessarily Liberates the apparently separate being into an Inherently Perfect Equation with the Absolute. If the Way of progressive (and, Ultimately, Most Perfect) Realization is really, rightly, truly, and consistently practiced, the body-mind will, ultimately (in due course), exist without egoic concern, and ordinary actions and obligations will (based on the operative pattern and impulse established and, thereafter, generated by previous practice) be spontaneously performed, until death (or, in the final context of the true seventh stage Demonstration, Translation into the Perfectly Subjective Domain of Transcendental, and inherently Spiritual, Divine Being). The Ashtavakra Gita is one of the rare traditional texts representing (at least in basic outline) the fullest sixth stage (and the premonitorily "seventh stage") Confession of Realization that has, traditionally, been the ultimate (or final) fulfillment of religious and Spiritual culture. And it presumes that Free Enlightenment or Ultimate God-Realization is indeed approachable through the progressive practice and, ultimately, the transcendence of the progressive practice recommended by the tradition to which it belongs. Therefore, Ashtavakra would not fail to criticize the nonsensical view that denies the original necessity and usefulness at the progressive stages of practice and recommends instead the conceit of Enlightenment without practice. Ashtavakra would agree that, for those who have not yet Realized the Truth Perfectly, the ordeal of practice is the inevitable and only option. But he would also disagree with the false or premature claims of advocates of dualistic religion, mystical Yoga, and ascetical world-nihilism. He would say that their presumed Realization is not yet Perfect, and their practice is only a stage in the progressive transition to Ultimate Realization. Traditions, and tradition-based individuals, that speak from the point of view of one or another of the first six stages of life generally conceive of life in some problematic form. On the basis of a particular problem-conception, they tend to interpret the experiential and conceptual phenomena that tend to accompany (or even mechanically result from) the practice at their stage of life to be a solution that must be regarded as Ultimate Salvation, Liberation, Realization, or Enlightenment. For this reason, the conception of existence as a problem to be solved is one of the fundamental impediments associated with the Great Tradition as a whole. In the long history of the Great Tradition, both ordinary and extraordinary attainments that are less than the Realization of the seventh stage of life have, in every time and place, been conceived to be Ultimate Salvation, Liberation, Realization, or Enlightenment, the Ultimate Goal or Fulfillment of life. And, in the case of most human beings, Happiness tends always to be associated with some (conditional or merely psycho-physical) state that is an experiential alternative to the present one. Truly, extraordinary states of body and mind may be attained via the psycho-physical exercise of the ego self in the various developmental stages of life, but Happiness Itself, or Most Perfect God-Realization, or Truly Most Ultimate Enlightenment is not identical to such attainments. Indeed, Happiness (Itself) is superior to all conditional attainments and always already most prior to all problems. Happiness (Itself) is the fundamental Realization of the seventh stage of life, in Which the conventions of conditional experience and conditional knowledge have been Most Perfectly understood and Most Perfectly transcended. Happiness (Itself) is a matter of native transcendence of the limits imposed on Very Existence. It is not a matter of conventional Salvation or lesser Realization. It is not to be attained apart from the present. It is simply a matter of transcending the problem, the search, and all the limitations of conditional knowledge and conditional experience that one superimposes on the present. Thus, Happiness (Itself) is a Free exercise, or a matter of Freedom Itself. That is to say, Happiness (Itself) is not merely the Goal of life. It is the Very (or Truly Ultimate, and Inherently Perfect) Essence, Substance, Context, Condition, and Identity of life. Because the Awakening to the seventh stage "Point of View" requires a unique development (and fulfillment) of the sixth stage of life as its immediate prerequisite, the unique traditional literatures that premonitorily suggest something of the seventh stage "Point of View" (from the "Point of View" of sixth stage Realization) have come only from the traditions of Vedantic (or Upanishadic) Advaitism (or non-dualism) and from the traditions of Mahayana Buddhism. One could study the literature of the Great Tradition and find many literary sources (even outside the traditions of Vedantic, or Upanishadic, Advaitism and the traditions of Mahayana Buddhism) that sometimes (either seemingly or in fact) communicate the fullest sixth stage (and even the premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of view", as well as the point of view of any number of the other stages of life, but the texts that communicate the fullest sixth stage (or premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View" without (in general) otherwise either assuming or instructionally addressing the point(s) of view of any of the other stages of life are rare The fundamental principle in the traditional communication of the fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View" (as a literate or verbal argument) is the inherent and prior transcendence of (or Freedom from) the discriminative faculty of mind (or the function that distinguishes opposites, and even establishes a preference for one or the other within a pair of presumed opposites, such as positive and negative, pleasure and pain, purity and impurity, good and bad, and so on) . This principle marks an important difference between such communications and the developmental communications of the progressive stages of life and practice. This is because the traditions and practices otherwise associated with the first six stages of life are profoundly involved with the human capacity to make use of the discriminative faculty of mind. The discriminative faculty of mind is, in some traditions, called "vijnanamayakosha", and the "fourth sheath". It is also the seat of the will. The real beginning of the potential process of advanced and ultimate human development is the awakening of the fourth sheath (or intelligence) as the will, and, therefore, as simple intelligence to command the lower three sheaths (or the lesser mental, and the etheric, and the gross physical aspects) of the human being. As the developmental (and, eventually, Spiritual) process advances from the earlier to the later stages of life, the capacity to make use of this faculty and capability increases. Thus, as maturity develops by stages, more free energy, more free attention, and more free intelligence become available. The earliest part of the effective discipline associated with the progressive stages of life is a matter of rightly willed (or intentional and intelligent) surrender of the physical, emotional, and mental being to God, Truth, or (Un conditional) Reality Itself. Once a foundation of practice is stably built via that exercise, the discriminative intelligence, the basic will of the apparently individual being, begins to play an even more prominent and a more obviously central role, and it is exercised more independently. In that case, the discriminative faculty of mind, the capacity of intelligence to understand and transcend limitations , is intensively exercised, and discrimination becomes the dominant form of the practice. Such practice is less involved in the willful commanding of the lower three sheaths, and it is more simply involved in observing, understanding, and transcending them. Therefore, significant maturity (and effectiveness) in practice truly begins only when the equanimity of the lower three sheaths (or the physical, emotional, and mental aspects of the apparently individual being) is maintained with relative ease, so that intelligence (itself) functions more freely. The exercise of discriminative intelligence (or of the intelligent will), which observes, understands, and transcends the conditions of the lower three sheaths of the body-mind, dominates the practice in the fourth stage of life and the fifth stage of life, although somewhat different experiential and conceptual (or mental) objects characterize the fourth and the fifth stages of life respectively, and these objects differentiate the fourth stage of life and the fifth stage of life from one another. Stated most simply, in the fourth stage of life the grosser objects of the outer personality are observed and transcended, and in the fifth stage of life the more subtle objects are observed and transcended. In the sixth stage of life, the faculty of discriminative intelligence continues to be exercised, but on the basis of an even greater freedom, a fundamental freedom, from the limitations of the conditional personality (or the seeking ego). Thus, traditionally, the required qualifications for practice in the sixth stage of life include dispassion, or freedom from the binding inclination toward the achievement of conditional objects and conditional states (whether in this world or in the worlds to come) . By the time a person enters the sixth stage of life, the developmental process must show the evidence of a certain basic maturity, in which the physical, emotional, and mental being is basically at rest, not overtly interfering with the free exercise of intelligence, and easily abiding in a state of equanimity. Therefore, in the truly established sixth stage of life, the intelligent will is not particularly involved with the foundation effort of controlling the functional personality. In the true sixth stage of life, the discriminative intelligence is moving beyond itself, and it is in this stage of life that the fourth sheath (or the functional process of discriminative intelligence) is, as a matter of intentional practice, to be directly transcended. In the sixth stage of life, the discriminative faculty: of Being (the Source, the Root-Consciousness, from Which attention springs, and in Which the objects of perception and conception arise, change, and disappear). The Ultimate Root of the sheaths of conditionally manifested individuality is Transcendental, inherently Spiritual, necessarily Divine, unqualified, not individuated, not discriminated. It is Very Being, Consciousness Itself, pure Bliss, rather than the modification of Bliss that is anandamayakosha (the fifth sheath, the sheath of conditional bliss, which is the root of egoity, and which must be transcended if the Great Transition to the seventh stage of life is to be made). Therefore, the sixth stage of life is the final stage of the progressive counter-egoic action of submitting the conditionally manifested being to its Perfectly Subjective Source-Condition. In the seventh stage of life, the fourth and the fifth sheaths are transcended Most Perfectly--not just moved beyond, but Most Perfectly, and Most Priorly, and Inherently, or Always Already, transcended. All the sheaths of personality (or of conditionally manifested individuality) have, in the Realization of the seventh stage of life, been Most Perfectly transcended (and, thus, they are no longer combined with the "Point of View" of Being Itself, and they are no longer taken into account relative to the matter of Realization Itself). Just so, in the seventh stage of life, the progressive process of Realizing (which is the practice of discrimination, and then the practice of transcending discrimination) has fallen away, because it is no longer necessary. Because they are themselves functional expressions of the individuated being (or the self-contraction), both the power of discriminative mind and the power of will are Inherently (and Inherently Most Perfectly) transcended in the seventh stage Disposition. In the seventh stage of life, there is simple (Most Perfect and Most Prior) Inherence in the Condition and Identity of Self-Existing and Self Radiant Being, Which is unqualified Love-Bliss, Consciousness Itself, Transcendental (and inherently Spiritual) Divine Being, That Which is otherwise apparently modified in the form of all conditions, but Which, once Realized, Is Itself Inherently Most Perfect transcendence of all such modifications. No effort is required for such transcendence in the seventh stage of life. Rather, in the seventh stage of life, transcendence is already the case, tacitly obvious, inherent in the Transcendental (and inherently Spiritual) Divine Self-Condition. The traditional premonitorily "seventh stage" texts are advanced sixth stage literatures that express a few philosophical conceptions, or yet limited and incomplete intuitions, that sympathetically resemble the characteristic seventh stage Disposition (in and of Itself), and thus somehow foreshadow (rather than directly reflect, or directly express) the Truly Most Ultimate (or Transcendental, inherently Spiritual, and necessarily Divine) "Point of View". Such texts communicate a "Point of View" in which discriminative intelligence and the effects of discriminative mind are completely discounted, and even made fun of, along with the practices that belong to the developmental stages of life and practice. However, none of the traditional texts otherwise communicate the truly and wholly seventh stage "Point of View" and Sign, not mixed with or otherwise limited by sixth stage limitations. And they never communicate the full developmental and Yogic details of the progressive seventh stage Demonstration. Nor do they ever indicate (or otherwise Demonstrate) the potential Most Ultimate (or Final) Sign of Demonstration that characterizes the seventh stage of life (Which End Sign Is Divine Translation). Therefore, it is only by My own Work and Word that the truly seventh stage Revelation and Demonstration has Appeared, to Complete the Great Tradition of mankind. This special class of premonitorily "seventh stage" traditional literature must be rightly understood, and the by Me Revealed seventh stage "Point of View" Itself must serve that understanding. Otherwise, the fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View" expressed in various traditional literatures can possibly mislead the ordinary reader to presume that there is no value in meditative practices and Spiritual discipline, but that one should merely act indiscriminately (as, at least sometimes, it seems some Realizers do). Of course, neither undisciplined nor un Enlightened "Freedom" is the import of the premonitorily "seventh stage" texts. It is simply that, from the fully Realized sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View", everything previously practiced now seems useless and unnecessary (and, therefore, from the "Point of View" of the Realizer, even, in some sense, ridiculous). When that fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") Disposition is communicated by Itself, without "consideration" of the preparatory and progressive preliminaries that preceded it, everything that is usually presumed to belong to the religious (or would-be Enlightened or God Realized) life is made to seem as if it is useless, worthless. Such is not factually true, but to say it is true is a characteristic expression of the attitude of Humor and Freedom that is, in one manner or another, generally typical of the sixth stage Realizers (or traditions of Realization) that show premonitory sympathies with the seventh stage of life. As I have indicated, there are only a few traditional texts that are uniquely (or more or less exclusively) devoted to the expression (or Confession) of the fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View". One of them is the Ashtavakra Gita, which arose from the ancient Vedic and Upanishadic tradition, as well as from the Saivite tradition in its non-dualistic (or Advaitic) stage. The other such texts I have indicated include the Avadhoot Gita, which is from the Dattatreya tradition, the Tripura Rahasya, from the Devi tradition, and the Lankavatara Sutra, from the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism. And, along with the Lankavatara Sutra, I have included the Diamond Sutra, the Mahavanavimsaka of Nargarjuna, and the Sutra of Hui Neng, because they represent the same general (Mahayana Buddhist) tradition and the same (fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View" as the Lankavatara Sutra. There may be other such traditional texts. However, I have "considered" numerous other traditional texts that might be added to the list of fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", literatures, and I have as yet found no other texts that completely fulfill the requirements of a uniquely (or more or less exclusively) expressed fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", text. Other than the few unique texts I have indicated, there are literatures that, sometimes, or in a general (or less concentrated and exclusive) manner, express the fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View". There are many literatures that contain portions or fractions that communicate something of the fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View". But, in general, those other literatures are devoted to Teaching people how to Realize the sixth stage Awakening, and, therefore, they contain a great deal of Teaching about the discriminative exercise (and the progressive developmental approach to Realization) Clearly, the Sri Devikalottara Agama is a communication based on the fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View", but its contents are otherwise devoted to telling someone how to Realize the fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") Disposition. Like the few uniquely expressive premonitorily "seventh stage" texts, the Sri Devikalottara Agama "makes little" of the earlier stages of life and practice, but it is nevertheless devoted to telling the reader how to become Enlightened. Therefore, even though the Sri Devikalottara Agama clearly belongs to the tradition of fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", Wisdom, one cannot equate it with texts such as the Ashtavakra Gita, because, although the Sri Devikalottara Agama recommends the transcendence of the discriminative mind, it also speaks much about how to go about transcending it. In fact, the Sri Devikalottara Agama concentrates on instructing the reader about the specific practice and process of transcending the discriminative mind, and, therefore, it is largely a discourse on sixth stage discipline. I also "considered" adding something by Ramana Maharshi to the list of uniquely expressive fullest sixth stage (and "seventh stage") texts perhaps the Sri Ramana Gita. But, again, even though the Sri Ramana Gita clearly contains the fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View", it answers the questions of an aspirant who wants to know how to Realize It. Thus, the Sri Ramana Gita is basically devoted to addressing the point(s) of view of the progressive stages of life and practice. It seemed that the Ribhu Gita might naturally belong to the category of more or less exclusively fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", texts, but it is full of "Abide as this, abide as that." It is a discourse on how to Realize, and it presents instructions relative to use of the discriminative faculty. Therefore, even though it is based on the fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", Wisdom, the Ribhu Gita is primarily a general sixth stage instructional text. The Yoga Vasishtha is also a great text in the fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", tradition, but its extensive "consideration" of the "how" and the "why" rather than the pure "Is" of Realization also qualifies it as a general instructional text, rather than, more or less exclusively, a Confession of Ultimate Realization. Such texts as the Sri Devikalottara Agama, the Sri Ramana Gita, the Ribhu Gita, and the Yoga Vasishtha are great (and, in the general sense, fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage") literatures, but they do not belong in the special category of texts that are uniquely (and, thus, primarily, or more or less exclusively) devoted to the Confession of the fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") "Point of View". It is a characteristic of the seven texts that I have indicated to be of the more or less exclusively fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", type that, after one has read one of them, one has no idea how to Realize What the text was all the time talking about. Thus, uniquely fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") literature is a kind of catch-22 literature. That is to say, it is made clear that the Truth is in utter transcendence of discriminative mind, but, in order to Realize transcendence of discriminative mind, one must already have Realized transcendence of discriminative mind! Any approach one might make to the transcendence of discriminative mind is itself the exercise of discriminative mind, and, therefore, it is inadequate (and even, it may seem, futile). Basically, the principal argument in each of the more or less exclusively fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", texts is that anything you want to do to Realize the Ultimate Position is the exercise of the discriminative mind, and that is precisely what is wrong with you--you are exercising the discriminative mind. This paradox is what the Sutra of Hui Neng is always talking about, and what the Diamond Sutra, the Mahayanavimsaka of Nargarjuna, and the Lankavatara Sutra are always talking about. The Message of the uniquely fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", texts is always about the inherent limitations of the discriminative mind, and about the errors and fallacies that develop on its basis. Thus, the Ashtavakra Gita says, over and over again, that the fact of doing this and that in order to Realize, or wanting to Realize this and that state or result--all these exercises are foolishness. The Ashtavakra Gita says, again and again, there is simply the Very (and Most Prior) Self- and the Very (and Most Prior) Self is what you must be Identified with. Just so, the Avadhoot Gita has a very similar quality to the Ashtavakra Gita. And the Tripura Rahasya, like the Sutra of Hui Neng, shows a fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") Realizer (or tradition of Realization) Teaching and criticizing and urging someone toward the Ultimate "Point of View", in Which Realization of the Very (and Most Prior) Self-Condition is (in the fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", manner) allowed to coincide with the natural arising of perceptual and conceptual phenomena. Some people may expect that, based on My description (and the descriptions otherwise contained in the traditional fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", literatures), the seventh stage of life must involve some sort of fallback to the conditionally manifested world. In fact, a great deal of ill "considered" scholarly literature strives to interpret Ultimate Wisdom as some sort of return to the conventional involvement with samsara (or the conventionally perceived and conceived world) . It is true that, in the seventh stage Awakening, the Very (and Most Prior) Self, or the Unconditional (and necessarily Divine) Reality, or (to use a traditional technical term) the "Nirvanic" Self-Condition, is not discriminated from objects, or from conditionally manifested existence, or from the world of the body-mind, or from the body-mind itself, or (to use a traditional term) from "samsara". Rather, "samsara" (or the conditionally manifested world, the conditionally manifested body-mind, and all conditionally manifested relations) is tacitly and inherently (and Inherently Most Perfectly, and Divinely) Recognized to be nothing but a transparent, or merely apparent, and unnecessary, and inherently non-binding, modification of the Self-Existing and Self Radiant Divine (and "Nirvanic") Self-Condition. Therefore, what is characteristic of the seventh stage of life is the (Divine) Recognizability of "samsara", not the return (or reversion, or fallback) to "samsara". The discriminative faculty of mind, but not Enlightenment Itself, is transcended in the transition to the seventh stage of life. Realization is Perfected (or Realized to be Inherently Most Perfect) in the Awakening to the seventh stage of life. Some fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") Realizers have a kind of "Crazy" aspect. They behave in an unconventional manner, as a Sign of their transcendence of the discriminative mind (which is otherwise always differentiating between what is Spiritual and what is not, what is "Nirvana" and what is "samsara", what is interior and what is exterior, what is mind and what is body, what is subtle and what is gross, and so on). Just as the unique fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") literature is, in its most typical attitude, Playfully and Humorously Free of all the conditional approaches of the earlier stages of life and practice, the biographies of such Realizers (of sixth stage "Sahaj Samadhi") very often describe "Crazy Wisdom". Thus, by their behavior, such individuals may refuse to take seriously the conventions, the rules, the disciplines, the point(s) of view, or any of the practices and philosophies of the earlier stages of life. Of course the transcendence of all of that is what God-Realization (or Truth Realization, or Reality-Realization) is, ultimately, all about! But the fullest sixth stage, and premonitorily "seventh stage", and even "Crazy", Realizers have not thereby ceased to be, according to their stage of life, either Enlightened or Spiritually True. The fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") Realizers must be understood, but they cannot truly be understood from any ordinary point of view. They can be valued within a context or a tradition that values Ultimate Wisdom, but no one can truly and fully come to understand a fullest sixth stage (and premonitorily "seventh stage") Realizer without, at least to the same degree, transcending the egoic self in the process. In the Play of the "Crazy" Realizer with devotees, devotees are confounded, but, truly, they are not dissuaded from their necessary discipline--rather, they are Attracted toward its Ultimate Fulfillment. (And this is most especially, and most profoundly, the case in My own, and uniquely seventh stage, "Crazy" Work with devotees.) The seventh, or Truly Most Ultimate (and Inherently Most Perfect), stage of life is characterized by a unique Disposition, but one not heretofore (even based on the premonitorily "seventh stage" evidence in the Great Tradition) understood as such in studies of traditional literature. No systematic approach to the traditions has heretofore ever been communicated based on the stages of life as I have Revealed and Demonstrated them to be. Of course, there has been much scholarly examination of the philosophical, religious, and Spiritual traditions, but the seven-stage structure I have Revealed and Demonstrated has not been understood to be the connecting basis of all of it, and the seventh stage Disposition has not been understood to be the Truly Most Ultimate (and Inherently Most Perfect) stage of life, nor even a unique, distinct phase of Spiritual life, nor the distinct subject of a unique premonitory literature. Therefore, I have Revealed and Demonstrated the detailed and complete pattern of all seven of the stages of life, including, above all, the unique seventh stage of life. My Word of Revelation and Instruction is the Fulfillment and the Completion of the Wisdom of the Great Tradition of mankind, even projected upon (or informing, and properly aligning) each and all of the first six stages of life, and all the conditions of ordinary people, even people who have no esoteric (or even in any sense truly religious) tradition. Even all My Teaching and Blessing Work is a Play with ordinary people, and even with all beings, for I am Moved to all by Heart, Awake. And, in that Play, I have Revealed the complete Process of even the seventh stage of life, even in all its esoteric Yogic and Spiritual details, whereas the traditional fullest sixth stage (and only premonitorily "seventh stage") texts have only suggested (without yet and Most Perfectly Realizing and Demonstrating) only some of the most general or rudimentary characteristics of the seventh stage of life. Truly Most Ultimate (and Inherently Most Perfect) Realization requires the Truly Most Ultimate Fulfillment and the Inherently Most Perfect Completion of life lived as a true and most profound Ordeal of self-transcendence. And That Truly Most Ultimate (and Inherently Most Perfect) Realization is seventh stage (Transcendental, inherently Spiritual, and necessarily Divine) Enlightenment. Such Enlightenment (or seventh stage Realization) transcends all the limitations and conventions of the discriminating (or self contracting) mind (which conceives of independent categories, such as separate self, separate other, separate world, separate God, separate Truth, separate Reality, separate Nirvana, separate samsara, separate body, separate suffering, separate practice, separate meditation, separate thoughts, and separate Liberation or Realization). However, Inherently Most Perfect Enlightenment is not Itself merely freedom from the discriminating mind. Rather, it is Realization of the inherently unspeakable Real Condition of conditional self and conditional world. The Way of the Heart, which is the Way of practice and of Realization Given by Me for the sake of all who will be My devotees, is the Way that is, from the beginning, based on the seventh stage Wisdom Revealed and Demonstrated by Me (in Person, at Work, and via My Word of Revelation and Instruction). My Revelatory and Instructive Word also includes critical commentaries on the Great Tradition of mankind--because the Way of the Heart presumes the entire Great Tradition of mankind as its background (or traditional foundation and inheritance). However, My devotees are not followers (or practitioners) of the Great Tradition (or any part, or parts, of the Great Tradition) itself. They simply have an affinity for the Great Tradition, based on their comprehensive study and real practice of the by Me Revealed Way of the Heart, and served by their right (critical and appreciative) understanding of the One and Entire Great Tradition (on which foundation the Way of the Heart has now appeared) . Therefore, the affinity My devotees have for the Great Tradition of mankind is an exemplary affinity, which, because of their sympathetic response to My own Sign and Disposition, is also characterized by universal tolerance and universal goodwill. May even all who study My Revelatory and Instructive Word relative to the One and Entire Great Tradition of mankind be Served by My every Word (and by a truly sympathetic response to My Sign and Disposition) to manifest such right (critical and appreciative) understanding, and such true (universal) tolerance, and such true (universal) goodwill.
|
|
|
