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:
A
single, hardbound book in a slipcase (limited edition).
The
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.
In
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.
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 couldnt 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 Spiritual 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 Spiritual 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 Spiritual 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 Da-sein (Being, incarnated in the world).
The
Truth About God
In
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.
