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The Aletheon

The Aletheon

This section contains the following subsections:

  1. Introduction to The Aletheon
  2. Excerpts from The Aletheon
  3. Table Of Contents for The Aletheon
  4. Adi Da's Earlier Writings and The Aletheon
  5. More About the Etymology of "Aletheon"


1. Introduction to The Aletheon


The first page Adi Da wrote for The Aletheon
(September 24, 2006)

During the final two years of a lifetime that had been utterly devoted to the Communication, Revelation, and Realization of Truth, Avatar Adi Da created His supreme Scripture — The Aletheon — a book of oceanic depth and magnitude. Month after month, Avatar Adi Da sustained a vast flow of spontaneous writing — moved by His indefatigable Impulse to "say everything" to everyone. Avatar Adi Da eventually chose to name this book The Aletheon (pronounced “a-LAY-thee-on”). The title was based on an ancient Greek word for "Truth" ("Aletheia").[1] Thus, on the simplest level, this book is "the Truth Book". The Aletheon is one of Adi Da's "Five Principal Books of Comprehensive Address".

Together, The Aletheon, The Gnosticon, and The Pneumaton comprehensively cover the wisdom and practices associated with the advanced stages of life (fourth through seventh stages):

  • In its simplest sense, "The Aletheon" ("The Book of Truth") is a comprehensive description of the Divine Nature of Reality, the seventh stage Way of Adidam, and Adi Da's Divine Incarnation here which (when He is recognized as the Divine by Revelation) makes the seventh stage Way possible.

  • "The Gnosticon" means "The Book of Knowledge". In The Gnosticon, Avatar Adi Da examines the Transcendentalist Teachings (Teachings about the nature of Consciousness) of the Great Sages — associated with the sixth stage of life — in light of His own Revelation of the Transcendental Spiritual Reality-Way of Adidam.

  • "The Pneumaton" means "The Book of Spirit" (or "Book Of The Divine Spirit-Breath"). The Pneumaton examines the Teachings associated with the fourth and fifth stages of life (particularly as exemplified by the traditions of Christianity and Hinduism), in light of Adi Da's own Revelation of the Transcendental Spiritual Reality-Way of Adidam. The Pneumaton includes His rendering of the essential Spiritual import of the New Testament Gospels.

 

Adi Da editing The Aletheon

The Divine Avatar's work on The Aletheon ended on the very day of His Divine Mahasamadhi. On November 19, 2008, He said that He felt His writing of The Aletheon had come to completion. After that, He never again raised a pencil to write more for the book — except on the morning of November 27, when He called for the title page of The Aletheon and finalized the wording on that page, thereby forever bringing to a close His final great writing-labor of love.

This final and greatest Instruction by Avatar Adi Da spans over 2300 pages, and is published in two editions:

An eight-volume boxed paperback set. Recommended for ease of study, includes an attractive slipcover.

September 2009 edition

order here

 

A single, hardbound book in a slipcase (limited edition).

September 2009 edition

order here

 


2. Excerpts from The Aletheon

You can read excerpts from The Aletheon here:

  • Adi DaThe Truth About God — The Parental "God" of childish "religion" cannot be proven to exist — because that One does not exist. The struggle to prove the existence of such a One is a false struggle. It is an expression of the common disease, the "problem"-consciousness of threatened egoity. This does not mean that you should become like scientific materialists, and, atheistically, throw away everything about the Reality-Process of (Self-Evidently Divine) Reality Itself. Much of what is conventionally called "religion" should be thrown away, based on a very intelligent "consideration" — because it is just a form of humanly invented consolation for rather childish egos. However, there is much more to Reality Itself than what is contained in these childish propositions. It is That Which Is, Beyond these childish propositions, that I Call you to "consider" — in the form of My Own Teaching-Argument, and also in the evidence of the Great Tradition of humankind (or the total global inheritance of human culture).

  • The Truth About Human Life — There must be a transition from childhood to maturity. That transition is commonly acknowledged as a stage in the psycho-physical development of the human being. It is called "adolescence". Like childhood, this stage also tends to be prolonged indefinitely — and, indeed, perhaps the majority of "civilized" human beings are occupied with the concerns of this transition most of their lives. . . . There is a mature, real, and true phase of human life. Real and true human maturity is free of all childish things and free of all that is attained, acquired, and made in the adolescent adventures of conventional life. . . . In the maturity of human life, the "world" is not abandoned, nor is it lived as the scene of adolescent theatre, the adventure in dilemma. "God-Apart" occupies the child, and "separate self" occupies the adolescent — and both child and adolescent see the "world" only in terms of their own distinct limiting principle (or characteristic form of suffering). . . . But, in the mature human being, the "world" — or the totality of all arising ("subjective" and "objective", high and low), not as an exclusive "reality" but in Truth — is primary. In the mature individual, the "world" is (potentially) apprehended as a modification of the Single, Indivisible, Absolute, Non-separate Reality — implying no "separate self" and no "outside God". For such a one, the Absolute Reality and the "world" are not "different".

  • The Truth About Religion — Conventional "religion" fails to turn people to the Realization of That to Which it points — and, therefore, conventional "religion" is inherently false. That is a "radical" message — but it is the fundamental message that is relevant to the issues of "religion" in present-time. The "ecumenical" message is not "It". Going Beyond "religion" — to That to Which "religion" points — is essential. . . . Rightly used, exoteric "religion" is something like a "picture book" for leading people to mature human understanding. However, if exoteric "religion" is not used in that manner, it becomes a "something" in and of itself. In that case, "religion" becomes false cultism, in one form or another — shoring up its own imagery, and reinforcing its "authority" and control over people within the domain of institutionalized lies. In the form of such ego-based cultism, "religion" does terrible harm to everyone. . . . Right "religious" practice is simply a Call to the Divine Condition That Is Reality Itself. That is What right "religious" practice is about. That is What right "religious" practice is for. And That is the Only Truth in right "religious" practice. Indeed, the Divine Condition That Is Reality Itself is the Only Truth in life altogether. Everything else is mummery, everything else is false. The Divine is not false. However, human beings are, by tendency, false — and, therefore, they must be served to be rightened. If the word "religion" is to be used at all, that process of rightening is the purpose of true right "religious" practice. Right "religious" practice turns people from separate "self" (or egoity, or the habit of "Narcissus", and the life of mere ideas) to Reality Itself, through a process of the Real transcending of egoity and comprehensive rightening of life. If "religion" does not do that, then it is merely part of the unspeakable "self"-deludedness of humankind, with its terrible present-time and potential results.

  • The Truth About Science — Although the scientific "method" of enquiry may serve as a means of analytical "knowledge", it utterly fails as a right and true form of moment to moment relationship to conditional things and beings, and to the totality of existence. . . .If science is allowed to become the standard of relationship itself, the natural process of human participation — even non-verbally, or non-conceptually, and even egolessly — in the always spontaneously arising "play" of existence is retarded, suppressed, and even destroyed. The scientific "method" is, fundamentally, an exercise of the verbal mind in relation to events occurring within, or (otherwise) events perceived via, the autonomic nervous system. As such, the scientific "method" is only a very partial development of the potential of the total body-mind to perceive and "experience". Furthermore, by its very nature, the scientific "method" requires a stark and strategic conceptual separation between the observer and the observed. When this exercise becomes the primary mode of one's relationship to things (and to all "experience", and even to existence itself), its effect is separative — and a kind of warfare (or opposition) develops between the human being and all its relations. Thus, science — which is the practical and conceptual exercise of "point of view" — becomes the hard-driven technology of personal and collective egoity.


3. Table Of Contents for The Aletheon

The Aletheon is divided into seven Volumes.[1] Spread across these volumes are twenty-seven numbered Parts, along with three unnumbered Parts (First Word, Prologue, and Last Word).

  • Volume One (First Word, Prologue, and Parts 1 through 5) opens with Bhagavan Adi Da's Self-Disclosing Statements — relative to Who He Is and What the Purpose of His Word Is, in First Word, Prologue, and Part One. In Parts Two, Three, Four, and Five, Bhagavan presents His fundamental Arguments relative to conventional religion versus the true esoteric process, the primacy of devotion, the seven stages of life, and Alpha/Omega.

  • Volume Two (Parts 6, 7, and 8) presents Bhagavan's "overview" Statements about and Definitions of the Reality-Way of Adidam — including the essential Essay "Atma Nadi Shakti Yoga", which He very significantly expanded since its publication as a separate book.

  • Volume Three (Parts 9 and 10) includes Bhagavan's more extended and detailed Statements about the Reality-Way of Adidam — including fundamental summary Statements relative to devotion, right life, and "Perfect Knowledge".

  • Volume Four (Parts 11, 12, and 13) includes two essential Texts relating to the beginnings of the Transcendental Spiritual process — Part Eleven: "The Teaching Manual of Perfect Summaries" (together with the related readings in Part Twelve) and Part Thirteen: "Hridaya Rosary".

  • Volume Five (Part 14) is devoted entirely to Part Fourteen: "Perfect Philosophy". At the time that the book Perfect Philosophy was published, there were 20 Essays in this Part of The Aletheon. In the time following that publication, Bhagavan Adi Da added a further 29 Essays to this Part, so that there are now 49 Essays altogether.

  • Volume Six (Parts 15, 16, 17, and 18) contains many of Bhagavan's most fundamental and ecstatic Communications about the "Perfect Practice" of Adidam — "The Lion Sutra" in Part Fifteen, three Talks on the "Perfect Practice" in Part Sixteen, four readings on the seventh stage Realization in Part Seventeen, and four readings on the seventh stage Demonstration in Part Eighteen.

  • Volume Seven (Parts 19 through 27, and Last Word), the concluding volume of The Aletheon, includes a completely astounding series of Self-Confessional Divine Statements by Bhagavan Adi Da — including all the Essays recently published in The Boundless Self-Confession, and a great many more.

For a more detailed Table Of Contents, click here.



4. Adi Da's Earlier Writings and The Aletheon

Adi Da has written many extraordinary and comprehensive books before The Aletheon — most notably, The Dawn Horse Testament, which remains the single, most comprehensive description of the Way of Adidam. The early years of Avatar Adi Da's active Teaching-Work had been an astounding demonstration of His willingness to submit Himself to ordinary egos, and to work by reflecting egos to themselves. What is unique about The Aletheon is that it was written after the Ruchira Dham Event (April, 2000) — Adi Da wrote it while in the final stage of the seventh stage of life: Divine Translation. Thus, the Viewpoint expressed in The Aletheon is extraordinarily pure and different from His earlier Writings. He had utterly relinquished His previous mode of Self-Submission, and made only His own purest Communication of Truth.


Adi DaIn some sense, I — As I Am — First Appeared here in the year 2000. In some sense, I — As I Am Was only "on the way" to here before the Ruchira Dham Event..... A Profound Process Began, Which has Been Unfolding since That Great Event of Yogic Death.... The Happenings That have Occurred since the Divine Avataric Event at Ruchira Dham Hermitage Are All ‘Outer’ Signs of the Divine Avataric Process That Is the Direct Self-Revelation of My Divine Self-Nature, Self-Condition, and Self-State.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj
The Boundless Self-Confession


My Divine Avataric Self-Revelation-Word Became a completely different kind of Utterance. Most essentially, My Divine Avataric Self-Revelation-Word has Become The Aletheon.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj


The Aletheon is not merely a Book of Teachings. Yes, It is Teachings, but It is a Self-Revelation of My Own Person and State. So The Aletheon is of Me, As Me, about Me — and Is Me.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj


Many readers will also find The Aletheon to be much more accessible in the manner of its writing — making it more suitable for interested public than "graduate level" texts like The Dawn Horse Testament (which require significant schooling in Adi Da's technical language to reap the greatest benefits). Here is what one reader of The Aletheon writes:


Reading The Aletheon in its entirety is pure ego-dissolving intimacy with Bhagavan Adi Da Samraj. I distinctly felt how immersion in this Text is direct Communion with Him, in His Room. Each day of study was an ordeal and ecstasy of conformity to His Pattern — He simply Requires the subordination of the “I”-“other” paradigm, I couldn’t bring “me” into the conversation! And I discovered how depthful participation in His Aletheon-Transmission actually prepared the nervous system to fully receive the Divine Self-Confession of Reality Itself, Appearing as Bhagavan Adi Da.



Adi Da working on The Aletheon in Glass Pear
(February 18, 2007)


Adi Da working on The Aletheon in Glass Pear
(February 18, 2007)


The page Adi Da is editing in the above photo
(February 18, 2007)


Adi Da's essay, "I Say This", Part 27, The Aletheon



5. More About the Etymology of "Aletheon"

The literal meaning (from the Greek) of the word "Aletheon" is "unforgetting" or "unconcealment". In Greek mythology, Lethe ("forgetfulness" or "concealment") is the name of the river in Hades whose waters, when drunk, would produce forgetfulness. (For those Greeks believing in reincarnation, the River Lethe was a metaphor for our inability to remember past lives.) Thus, A-letheon literally signifies a process of un-forgetting or un-concealing. As Adi Da has described it since His earliest teachings, Truth is "that which is always already the case". But what is always already the case is not at all obvious to the ego, that process which dissociates from the Real. In addition to a Source that Reveals the Truth (Adi Da Himself), a process of un-concealment is necessary (to counter, and finally undo and dissolve, the ego and all its limited points of view). The Aletheon comprehensively lays out the Revelation of Truth (and Adi Da as its Source), the nature of egoity (which hides the Truth), and the counter-egoic Way that undoes that which is hiding the Truth.

The ancient Greeks used the word aletheia to refer to "truth" in a very specific sense: with the philosophical understanding that (a) the truth is not necessarily obvious; and (b) the truth is not found as the result of accomplishing a goal and bringing about a new state of affairs, but as a process of uncovering something that is already present.[2]

The twentieth-century philosopher, Martin Heidegger (in his seminal work, Being and Time), restored the usage of the word, aletheia, to prominence in Western philosophy. He criticized the last two millennia of Western philosophy (from Plato on) for having degraded the notion of truth, reducing "truth" to mere factuality ("the sky is blue" is true, "the moon is made of green cheese" is not true), and losing any association with a notion of ultimate truth (associated with a process of revelation and unconcealment). Heidegger wrote extensively about the importance of a process of unconcealment (aletheia) that would reveal the truth to a Dasein, one who cares about discovering the true nature of his being.[2]

Heidegger was a philosopher, not a Realizer; he could conceive of a process of unconcealment, but could not fully elaborate or engage it (to completion) himself. In contrast, Adi Da, as a fully Awakened Realizer, is in a position to write a book, The Aletheon, giving every last detail of a process for completely unconcealing the truth. As a Revealer, Adi Da is also in a position to provide a process of un-concealment of the Truth through direct Revelation of the Truth, coupled with increasing understanding and transcendence of the ego (the process concealing the Truth in every moment). And Adi Da is in a position to provide the means (the Way of Adidam) for all human beings to engage that process of un-concealment of the Truth, being the perfectly authentic Dasein (Being, incarnated in the world).


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FOOTNOTES
1. The eight volumes of the paperback set are these seven volumes, plus an eighth volume containing a biography of Adi Da.
 
2. See Annotated Bibliography on the Concept of Truth in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy for an excellent exposition — particularly, the sections Aletheia in the Ancient Greek Thought. General Introduction, and Martin Heidegger on Truth (Aletheia) as Unconcealment.


Quotations from and/or photographs of Avatar Adi Da Samraj used by permission of the copyright owner:
© Copyrighted materials used with the permission of The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd, as trustee for The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam. All rights reserved. None of these materials may be disseminated or otherwise used for any non-personal purpose without the prior agreement of the copyright owner. ADIDAM is a trademark of The Avataric Samrajya of Adidam Pty Ltd, as Trustee for the Avataric Samrajya of Adidam.

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