Introduction > The Uniqueness of Adi Da's Transcendental Spiritual Offering

The Uniqueness of Adi Da's
Transcendental Spiritual Offering

Chris Tong, Ph.D.


Adi Da

"Transcendental Spiritual" is a principal phrase used by Adi Da to indicate the uniqueness of the Revelation, Realization, and Way available in His Company, distinguishing it from Ways that are Spiritual (but not Transcendental) and Ways that are Transcendental (but not Spiritual).


Spiritual

These days, the word "spiritual" is used casually to refer to almost anything from great sex to a walk on the beach. In contrast, Adi Da uses "Spiritual" in a very specific sense. A process is "Spiritual" if it involves a tangible, Grace-Given Spiritual Transmission that pervades the body-mind. The source of such a Spiritual Transmission is generally a Spiritual Transmission Master. Such Spiritual Force is conducted in "the Circle of conductivity" (right).

"Fourth stage" Spiritual practices are associated with the descent of Spiritual Force down the frontal line of the body. References to "Grace" or "shaktipat" in the esoteric traditions are often pointers to this descending Force.

Traditional Christian image of
the "descent of the Holy Spirit"

"Fifth stage" Spiritual practices are associated with the ascent of Spiritual Force up the spinal line of the body. The ultimate Realization associated with the traditional Spiritual practices is fifth stage conditional Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the ascent to perfect communion with the Matrix of Light infinitely above the head.

 

One dark night,
By the secret ladder I took flight,
— Ah, the sheer Grace! —
Cloaked by darkness, I scaled the height,
My house at last
at peace and quiet. . .

Lost to myself and yet remaining,
Inclined so only the Beloved I spy,
All has ceased, all rests,
Even my cares, even I;
Lost among the lilies, there I die.

St. John of the Cross, "Dark Night"
portrayal of Kundalini energy rising
in the spine and above the head
(Hindu traditions)
  
mystical communion with God
(Christian traditions).
The poem could easily be describing the picture on the left!

Adi Da summarizes the traditional Spiritual practices in His book, The Pneumaton ("The Book of Spirit").
The Pneumaton


Transcendental

A process is "self-transcending" if it is associated with transcendence of some aspect of the body-mind-self complex. Different practices are associated with different forms and degrees of self-transcendence.

Generally all of us appearing here are identified with the physical body. Some self-transcending practices enable one to stand as the subtle body (or "mind"), transcending the physical body. Some enable one to stand as the causal body (or "self"), transcending both the physical body and the subtle body.

Some practices — the Transcendentalist practices — allow one to stand as Consciousness Itself (in the Realization known as "Jnana Samadhi": "Jnana" is Sanskrit for "Knowledge" or "Knowing"), prior to the entire body-mind-self complex, and prior to the world. (All apparently separate "beings" and "things" arise in Consciousness Itself, as modifications of Consciousness Itself.) In terms of esoteric human anatomy, that Realization is associated with the right side of heart.

The Transcendentalist practices and Realizations are associated with what Adi Da calls the sixth stage of life.

The Identity Realized:
The Realization of the Self
in Advaita Vedanta
The State Realized:
The Realization of Nirvana
in Buddhism

Adi Da summarizes these Transcendentalist practices in His book, The Gnosticon ("The Book of Knowledge").
The Gnosticon


Transcendental Spiritual

The Spiritual traditions and the Transcendentalist traditions each realize part of Reality, to the exclusion of the rest of Reality: the Spiritual traditions enable perfect Communion with Light, but without the Realization of Consciousness; the Transcendental traditions enable perfect Identification with Consciousness, but without the Realization of Light.

Adi Da's seventh stage Realization is that of Conscious Light — the simultaneous Realization of both Consciousness and Light ("Shiva" and "Shakti"): one is identified with Consciousness Itself, but one also recognizes all things and beings as a modification of Consciousness Itself. Thus Adi Da refers to this Realization as "Transcendental Spiritual".

In terms of esoteric anatomy, the Realizer is simultaneously associated with the right side of the heart (the location where Consciousness is associated with the body) and the Matrix of Light infinitely above the head; the radiant, S-shaped, esoteric channel known as Atma Nadi (see right), that links the right side of the heart with the Matrix of Light above has been awakened and regenerated.


I Am Prior to conditional existence, but totally Effective within it.

The "Regenerated" (or Original, Divine, True, and Real) Atma Nadi Is the Non-conditional and Perfectly Acausal Divine Means Where-In, Where-By, Where-Of, and Where-As I Have Come to here.

My Divine Avataric Work is in the Context of Totality.

My Circle of Divine Transcendental Spiritual "Conductivity" is the Circle of the entire conditional (or cosmic) domain.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The Aletheon

Adi Da's seventh stage, Transcendental Spiritual Realization and Revelation is unique in the history of the world's religious and spiritual traditions. Adi Da makes clear that it cannot be "attained" by one whose Realization is less than seventh stage. The seventh stage Realization — the Most Perfect Realization of the Divine — requires an incarnation of the Divine to make it available to those who have not yet Realized it. Because of Adi Da's incarnation here, the seventh stage Realization is now Realizable by all, through the practice of the Reality-Way of Adidam.


The Great Process comes about when the Divine Intervenes, Appears, Incarnates, Blesses, Teaches the understanding and the transcending of ego — such that the direct Divine Blessing may be received and the Great Divine Yoga may be entered into. This is What I Do.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj

The Reality-Way of Adidam is not a means or a method or technique for seeking the Divine. It is the Reality-Way that is based on the Divine Revelation from the beginning. That is its unique characteristic.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, October 18, 2006

Adi Da summarizes the seventh stage Realization and Way in His book, The Aletheon ("The Book of Truth").
The Aletheon

My Spoken and Written Address relative to the ego's search, or the "great path of return", has occupied Me since the beginning of My Divine Avataric Teaching-Work. That Address has now Culminated in My Summary Revelation-Word — Given herein, in The Aletheon.

In My Aletheon-Word, I Comprehensively Communicate the Fundamental and Unique Characteristics of the only-by-Me Revealed and Given seventh stage (and "Radical", or Always "At-the-Root") Reality-Way of Adidam Ruchiradam.

Those Fundamental and Unique Characteristics totally Distinguish the Divinely Avatarically Revealed and Given "Radical" Reality-Way of Adidam Ruchiradam from all conventional approaches and all traditional paths.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Atma Nadi Shakti Yoga"
Part VII, The Aletheon


Summary: The Forms of God-Realization


In the past, the Divine has apparently Appeared. Apparently — therefore conditionally, merely. People have had all kinds of experiences, visions, visitations, and on and on and on. In the ordinary sense, many of these things could be called "Divine". But not from the seventh stage "Point of View", not from the Ultimate "Point of View". It is not correct to say, then, to people involved in the traditions, that there have been no God-Realizers, no Divine experiences. They would react to such a statement, and it is also not true. If you are making such statements, you must be careful to describe the point of view from which you are saying this and not say it in some hypercritical sense with any bad intentions or just make blanket statements that other people would react to.

It is simply that in the greatest sense, in the Ultimate sense, all those Realizations are incomplete — good, but incomplete.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj
"Your Heart Must Be Moved" (Heart Conversion Series)

All the great Realizations of the esoteric traditions are associated with some form of God-Realization.

The Spiritual traditions Realize God as Light.

Adi Da summarizes the traditional Spiritual practices in His book, The Pneumaton ("The Book of Spirit").

The Pneumaton

The Transcendentalist traditions Realize God As Consciousness (or "Self").

Adi Da summarizes these Transcendentalist practices in His book, The Gnosticon ("The Book of Knowledge").

The Gnosticon

The Transcendental Spiritual tradition of Adidam Realizes God as Conscious Light.

Adi Da summarizes the seventh stage Realization and Way in His book, The Aletheon ("The Book of Truth").

The Aletheon

For more about the seven stages of life, click here.


More Resources Exploring the Uniqueness of the Offering of Adidam

  • The Seven Stages of Life — Adi Da's framework for organizing all the world's religious and spiritual traditions, and accounting for the unique seventh stage offering of Adidam.

  • Adi Da as First, Last, and Only Seventh Stage Adept — Shortly after His Re-Awakening in September, 1970, Adi Da began a decades-long consideration (concluded finally in 1993) about whether there had been any other seventh stage Realizers among all the great Spiritual Masters throughout history. In this article, we lay out Adi Da's search for a historical precedent. This consideration would first lead Him to a greatly clarified set of criteria for assessing whether the teaching and life story of a great Realizer or Master indicated that they were in the seventh stage of life. Ultimately, it led Him to conclude that He was in fact the first such Realizer; and further, that He was the first, last, and only seventh stage Adept.

  • A Brief Biography of Adi Da — This biography tells a unique story: the incarnation of the Divine in human form, and how that unfolded over the course of a human life.
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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