Way of every individual soul, whereby we may each realize our own Nature, the Transcendental Self, or Free and eternal soul, whose Destiny it is to return into the Divine Condition from which we have believed ourselves separated by the illusions of born existence.

Whatever may be the case in this matter, the Cultic Christian interpretation of Jesus is itself nothing more than an exclusivist view, which is no longer historically or spiritually tenable. The world is now in a highly communicated state, wherein all Cults stand face to face, unable to justify the view of exclusive Revelation. The Testimony of Truth has been clearly made in the form of many great lives. Whether or not Jesus lived, many others have performed the Service of the Revelation of God. Whatever Jesus may have Taught, many others have clearly Taught. It is no longer a question of whether or not we accept the Cult of Jesus, but whether we will at all accept the Truth and the Way of Life in God.

The Truth and its Way have been Taught and Demonstrated by many great individuals, and it is this Truth and its Way that must again become the foundation of human culture-or else we will all suffer and become the spoils of future Cultic Wars and Secular Wars, all of which are revolutions invented by the body-mind of Man, and which have nothing to do with the Truth of God. My own Work is to reestablish the Way in Truth and make it plain. I Teach and Demonstrate and Awaken the ancient Truth, Life, and Way, and by the same ancient Means, as an Agent of the same One Who is the Ancient One, the Mystery of all Cults, and the Principle of our Salvation.

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Jesus and the Ancient Mystery Tradition

The New Testament is a reflection of a broad mystery tradition, with Jesus as its primary Mystery Symbol. The tradition is both exoteric and esoteric. We may presume there are real historical characters somewhere intertwined with the religious and esoteric parables-but the true center is not a man, Jesus, but Man, or every individual, and his Sacrifice to the Divine Person, or God. The historical Jesus, if we may presume he existed, was a student, an initiate, and then an Adept in a school or broad tradition of esoteric mysteries and mystical techniques. John the Baptist was apparently his principal Teacher. But "Jesus" is not merely the name of an individual. "Jesus" is the name of a complex school or mystery tradition, a key person in that tradition, the Symbol of Man in that tradition, and the Symbol of the Divine Person in that tradition. Apollonius of Tyana was a known participant in that broad tradition, and the Biblical figures of "Jesus, " ... Paul, " "John the Baptist," and the ''Apostle John" may all bear aspects of the person and Teaching of Apollonius, as well as others-including historical figures who also were known by these Biblical names.

The "Shroud of Turin," along with all the other forms of traditional evidence, points toward a real person. But the collective evidence also just as clearly points toward mystery schools and a much more complex background than is generally assumed by the modern Cult of Jesus. Christianity is, therefore, not a "pure" tradition by any means. But we cannot expect a popular religious tradition to represent a pure and sufficient source of direct Spiritual Influence. Only living Adepts can serve as a Witness to others of the pure, direct, and simple Truth of God and our Way in God. Only such Adepts can serve as a pure Instrument of the Awakening Power of God. Therefore, let us not demand of the ancient religions that they replace the Living God and the Awakened Servants of God. Let every man appreciate the moral and religious Teachings that do shine in the ancient books, and then let each one go on to practice his own Sacrifice in Good Company.

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THE FREE SOUL TRANSCENDS ALL PHENOMENA

"That inner Self, as the primeval Spirit, eternal, ever effulgent, full and infinite Bliss, single, indivisible, whole and living, shines in everyone as the witnessing awareness. That Self in its splendor, shining in the cavity of the heart as the subtle, pervasive yet unmanifest ether, illumines this universe like the sun. It is aware of the modifications of the mind and ego, of the actions of the body, sense organs and life-breath. It takes their form as fire does that of a heated ball of iron; yet it undergoes no change in doing so. This Self is neither born nor dies, it neither grows nor decays, nor does it suffer any change. When a pot is broken the space inside it is not, and similarly when the body dies the Self in it remains eternal. " (The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, edited by Arthur Osborne (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1972], p. 139)

"Jivatman [the Individual Self and Paramatman [the Divine Self are both so subtle that they cannot be seen by normal vision; they are hidden in the cave of the innermost heart chamber and they are without beginning or end... thus the conscious principles abide in the heart Jivatman, who is subtle and minute, and Ishwara, God, the great who is omnipresent. These are hidden in the treasure-chest of the heart.... " (Swami Yogeshwaranand Saraswati, Science of Soul, p. 13)

The anatomical transformations of the body and brain in the earlier or progressive stages of the Way of Divine Ignorance are transitional moments in the soul's emergence into Perfect Freedom. The Way itself is the radical Awakening of the soul. The progress of that Awakening begins from the first moment of true "hearing" and culminates in Eternal Translation of the "covered" soul into the Self of God. At every stage of the Way of Divine Ignorance, the soul is constantly transcending all phenomena via the conscious process, but only when the soul renounces its secret inward place in the heart and "opens its eyes" in God-Realization does it perfectly Realize its inherent freedom from all impingement by the Realm of Nature, the universe of objects, Heavenly and Earthly. Therefore, the ultimate state of practice is the Way of Radical Intuition, the Way of Translation into the Self and Eternal Life of God.

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Every Realm Must Be Transcended

The seven stages of life are not stages beginning with birth and simply ending at death. Death is a process relative to the gross physical body, which is ours at birth and in the first stage of life. Thus, death may occur at any time after birth, even long before the seven stages of life are matured. If death occurs before the responsibility of Sacrifice in the seventh stage, there is a temporary interval of experience in subtler dimensions than the gross physical, but then it is necessary for a new physical birth to occur, and the continuation of the cycle of seven stages. If the individual matures to the point of stable capacity for ascent beyond the gross physical (in the fifth stage of life), then it may not be necessary to be reborn into the gross physical realm, but the bodily being is awakened to born experience in subtler realms. Even so, such realms must themselves eventually be transcended, yielding the subtle bodily being to the prior Infinite in Whole Body Enlightenment and Divine Translation. The human being enjoys the structural capacity to Realize all seven stages in a single brief incarnation, whereas birth into subtler realms implies levels of consolation that require great periods of time or experience in order to be transcended. Just so, the failure to become fully responsible while alive implies countless future lifetimes in the gross world struggling toward happiness.

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The Liberation of the Soul

The individual self or "soul" (or the Conscious Life-Light of the nervous system and the entire extended body) Radiates or Expands from a fixed position in the region of the heart, in association with the upper middle section of the central nerve of the spinal column. The qualities of the soul, in its bondage to the body-mind, are expressed as the entire nervous system and body-mind. Just so, the soul in itself, prior to the body-mind, is the epitome of the nervous system. It is a "seed" or "spark" of Radiance, an atom of Original Light, located in the region of the nervous system associated with the heart core.

The soul is the witnessing consciousness of the body-mind, prior to the "I" of self, reference. It is eternally independent of the body-mind, and yet it shares the characteristics or tendencies of the body-mind by virtue of proximity and false identification with the body-mind.

Self-Realization, in the form in which it is Awakened in the Way of Re-cognition, is the Intuition of the independence or prior Freedom of the soul, the conscious, self-contained Life-Light that Radiates in the heart of the psycho-physical being. In the case of such Self-Realization, the soul Intuits that it is temporarily but not necessarily associated with the body-mind, and that it is not identical to the body-mind. Therefore, the Free soul, intuiting its Identity with the Transcendental Self, determines to abide in its own prior, exclusive State of inherent Bliss and Unqualified Consciousness.

In the Way of Radical Intuition, the Self-Realized soul, already Awakened to the exclusive Intuition of the true Self, Awakens beyond its self-confinement and Realizes its Identity with the Great Soul, the Divine Person, the Transcendental Nature and Condition of the soul in all of its states. This occurs when the soul Realizes that its Condition is not the one of either exclusive independence from or identification with the experiential body-mind.

Rather, the Condition of the soul, or the essential and eternal Self, is the one of Transcendence of the body-mind, all experience, and all possible conditions in manifestation, past or future. Thus, the Disposition of the soul is no longer that of the indulgence of phenomena, nor that of the exclusion of phenomena, but the one of Transcendence of phenomena. It is the Disposition of Transcendental Inherence, Ecstasy, or Absorption in the Paradox of God, no matter what arises, and even if nothing arises. The Unqualified Self is, by virtue of this Disposition, Expanded or Translated into the Domain or Condition of the Infinite, Transcendental, or Divine Self and Person. Such is Freedom, Happiness, and Bliss, wherein the "eyes" of the soul remain eternally opened to Infinity, rather than eternally closed, or inverted toward the inwardness of self-containment.

The embodied soul, Awake to its Identity with the Infinitely Expanded Self, the Self without recoil, Conscious in Its Prior and Ecstatic Transcendence of all phenomena, high and low, mental and physical, is, Paradoxically, both in Eternal Relationship with God and Eternally Identical to God, Who is the Absolute, All-Pervading, All-Inclusive, and also Transcendental, Eternal Person, unknowable by mind and untouchable by any body. In the Way of Radical Intuition, the soul, as Unqualified Self, literally Expands to Infinity. The Radiance of the Self is freely expressed via the central line of the nervous system and the spine. The Spiral Current between the heart and the crown Enlightens the brain. The Free Self, or the Liberated Heart, freely Illuminates the entire bodily being. The Awakened Heart is the Sun of the body. As It Expands in Divine Awakening, or Transcendental Absorption, the body becomes Full. But that Radiance continues to Expand beyond the bodily limits, Dissolving the cognition of limits. Such is the Process whereby Divine Translation occurs.

Yogis or Mystics in the fifth stage of life direct the differentiated attention and Radiant Life of the soul inward and upward. The Life-Current and attention are focused in the brain core, and from that position (the station of the conscious mind) the subtle or higher mental phenomena are viewed, in the general direction of the crown of the body. (This is the reverse of the mental tendency of ordinary men and women in the subhuman stages of adaptation, who chronically direct the differentiated attention and Radiant Life of the soul outward and downward, from the position of the brain core, but toward the lower vital organs and outlets.) In the ascending yogic manner, the atomic soul, still deluded by identification with psycho-physical phenomena, attempts to shoot upwards from its latent or bound and fixed position in the center of the body and the world. Thus, it seeks to pass upwards, toward the crown of the body, and, ultimately, to exit, via the "brahmarandhra," associated either with the notch or hole in the top and slightly to the rear of the skull, or else with the fontanelle, the larger surface of the skull, analogous to the corona radiata of the brain. The soul thus released enters the "Sky of Mind," the Cosmic Blue. (In fact, the brahmarandhra, which is the same as the sahasrar, cannot be penetrated by the acts of attention. The "Sky of Mind" is simply the subtle mind in the realms of experience contacted via the brain core, or ajna chakra. Only the dissolution of attention in the heart permits the Life-Current to pass beyond the limits of the body-mind via the brahmarandhra and the body-mind as a whole. Therefore, Divine Translation may only occur in the seventh stage of life.)

Mystical or yogic liberation of the soul from the body is not Perfect Liberation of the soul. It is simply the projection of the soul, via the subtle, upward, mental and supermental mechanisms of attention, into the scheme of cosmic experience that is subtler than the realm of Earth. (Just as conventional exploitation of gross experience, below the heart, is simply projection of the soul into the scheme of cosmic experience that is native to the realm of Earth.) But Liberation in Truth is a matter of total release of all conditions of the soul, both subtle and gross (above and below) and causal (or proximate to the heart and soul).

Therefore, the Way of Divine Ignorance proceeds beyond the fifth stage of life, to the sixth stage, wherein the soul, conventionally expressed as forms of experience in the realms above and below the heart, is released of all forms of attention, or self-modification, and it is reestablished in its own prior and Unqualified State. It is a matter of intuitive penetration of the Root of conditional self-consciousness, or the conventional "ego" of the psycho-physical personality, epitomized at the heart.

But such is also only a partial or temporary phase in the ultimate Liberation and Translation of the limited or atomic soul into the Great and Universal Soul. Therefore, in the seventh stage of life, and in the mature phase of the Way of Radical Intuition, the Divine Destiny Absorbs the Self, the Pure White Light of the soul in its Transcendence of both Heaven (or the Blue Effulgence of Mind) and Earth (or the Golden or Reddish Yellow Light-Energy of the Realm of Physical Elements).

The Free soul, or Unqualified Self, is Perfectly Liberated only in its Expansion and Translation beyond the presumed limits of cosmic experience, or the subjective psycho-physical modifications of contracted Consciousness. Therefore, such Expansion and Translation does not occur through exclusive Ascent into the Sky of Mind, nor through exclusive Descent into the Earth of Physical Existence. Neither is it Realized through exclusive inversion of the soul into its own Root, the Core of static Consciousness. Rather, it is a matter of Ecstatic Absorption, beyond separated self-limits, beyond mental limits and bodily limits. It is a matter of Surrender or Sacrifice of the heart, the soul, prior to the conditions or modifications that are encountered above and below. Therefore, in that Sacrifice, the Self Radiates as Love, to Infinity, in all directions, Absorbed in the Revelation of the Absolute Personality of God, Who is in Transcendental Relationship to all manifest souls, and the Absolute Self of God, Who is the Transcendental Identity of all souls in their Transcendence of the Realm of Nature.

The atomic soul, or Free Self, is eternally Unmoved, in fixed Association with the Infinite or Universal Divine Soul, within which every atomic or manifest soul appears. Liberation of the soul is Self-Realization, or release from the necessity of psycho-physical phenomena. But such Liberation is Ultimately a matter of the Perfect Sacrifice of the soul, which is Love, Radiant to Infinity, or Transcendental Absorption in the Condition of the Divine Person.

Therefore, it is not a matter of Ascent or Descent-whether of the soul, or its internal attention, or its Life-Force. Rather, it is, first of all, a matter of the Self-Realization of the soul, prior to all attention to phenomena that appear in conditional association with It. Then, it is a matter of the Sacrifice of the exclusive disposition of that Self-through ''open-eyed" Transcendence of Heaven and Earth and all other conditional Realms, high and low.

Awaken to this Intuition of our Destiny! While alive, we must mature by stages of adaptation and self-transcendence, and thus enter into the Ecstatic Performance of God-Love, the Disposition of the seventh stage of life, wherein the Free Self Transcends all possible experiences, or modifications of Itself. Then, until death, or until Translation beyond all noticing, we must engage in Transcendental Absorption, or the Love-Sacrifice of the Heart, the Unqualified Self or Free soul, into the Divine Person, Who is the Universal Self or Soul, and Whose Body-Mind Includes all worlds and beings, Pervades all worlds and beings, and Transcends all worlds and beings. When the Heart is thus Broken in Love, Absorbed in the Paradoxes of Transcendence, the Self passes beyond Man and the Cosmic World of temporary conditions, and into the Eternal Domain of the "Me" of God. So be it.

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The Process of Liberation, Founded in Transcendental Awakening, or Whole Body Enlightenment

The present body in which you are appearing is not made

for its own sake-in order to be fulfilled. It is the effect of unnecessary causes, and it can never be fulfilled, since it necessarily comes to an end. It can only be sacrificed and transcended. Sacrifice and self-transcendence are the Way of Truth.

What is the cause of embodiment? It is the mind. The mind is the subtle or inner subjective personality, made of all of the acquired tendencies of attention, or urges toward experiences of all kinds. These tendencies and urges are the results of the proximity of the soul, or the Eternal Core of the body-mind, and the Realm of Nature, or Change.

Through casual association with subtle states, the soul becomes distracted, and differentiates itself from its Eternal Condition. Such differentiation is the act of attention itself. Differentiated and differentiating attention is the fundamental structure of mind. Once it arises, the soul is projected into an Infinite Spiral of causes and effects, leading high and low within the structures of possibility.

Therefore, the subjective being acquires tendencies of attention through irresponsible experience. And that process is without beginning or end. It is an Eternal Bewilderment, a Prison of Fascination and Doubt.

We are Free only if we become responsibly established in Remembrance, Communion, and Reawakening in relation to the Divine and Eternal Reality, the very Condition of the embodied soul and all experiential phenomena. It is a matter of Transcendental Awakening to the Truth, and of self-transcending Love-Communion with the Divine Person, the true Self, Radiant, All-Pervading, and Eternally Free of all limitations.

Once we are Awakened, or Enlightened in our disposition, and thereby entered into Love-Communion with the Divine Person, then we begin to grow again and to mature in love and self-transcendence. And, in that Process, the subjective urges dissolve in the heart. Attention gradually and suddenly surrenders into its heart-root, and the causes of our mysterious and self-possessed embodiment become clear.

Therefore, the devotee becomes a Perfect Sacrifice at last. He is not motivated to abandon the World. Rather, he is Absorbed in the Divine. This Absorption establishes him in a natural disposition of self-transcendence, or freedom from experiential urges. In this manner, the conventional motive of self-fulfillment and exploitation of born existence dissolves in Wisdom, or the native mood of transcendence of the motive of experiential attention and self-differentiation.

In this Way, the mind dissolves in Bliss, thus relieving the body of its necessity. The motives that caused the present embodiment, and which would cause future embodiments, are yielded, with the gesture of attention itself, into the motiveless Heart, the Eternal Domain or Radiant Condition of God.

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Only the Awakened Soul Is Free of the Mind and All Desires for Experience

The mind pervades the living body. The mind, or the psyche, prior to thought, is the cause of embodiment. The mind is independent of the living body, and survives its death.

But the mind and the living body are both Pervaded by the Radiance of the soul, the same Radiance that is All-Pervading. Both mind and body are only modifications of the Radiant Life of the World.

The mind is the link between the soul and its embodiment. The mind is attention, moving within the structures of possibility, via the Current of Life that Pervades the living body, flowing in the spinal line. The mind appears to control the body, but it is simply that attention can move up and down within the levels of the Bodily Current of Life. Therefore, ultimately, Life controls both the body and the mind. Eternal Life is senior to the body-mind. When body and mind are submitted to Life, all desires and motions are Transcended in Bliss.

The mind cannot be defeated. It can only be Transcended. All efforts to control the mind fail to Dissolve its motion. The mind is motion. It is the motion of attention. The mind is always subject to its objects. It may move up or down within the spectrum of the body-mind, or within the structures of possibility, but it is forever associated with the objects of desire-the distractions that are the causes or motives of attention.

Therefore, the Way of Divine Ignorance is the Way of the Transcendence of the body-mind and all possibilities, high and low. Its Essential Process is not the one of the suppression of mind (or desire, or attention), nor of the exploitation of mind (in relation either to subtle or gross objects). Its Essential Process is the one of natural Transcendence, which is Realized through Awakening to the Disposition of the soul in its native Freedom, or Perfect Surrender to the Eternal Condition of the Radiant Self.

When the soul is Awake, in Love-Communion with the Living God, there is natural Transcendence of the body-mind and all desires, all motives of attention. The mind is not resisted, nor is it exploited. It is simply re-cognized, or known again in Truth, in every moment of its arising.

Therefore, the Free soul does not struggle with the psycho-physical powers of Nature. The Free soul simply Abides in Love-Communion with the Living God, and in that Disposition there is no force of implication, or desire, in any condition that arises. Objects come and go, high and low, but the mind is no longer created by the soul. Attention does not spring up. The soul simply Abides in its Eternal Condition, prior to attention, or mind. Thus, when there is the exhaustion of those objects or states that are now set in motion, as a result of previous mental or psychic causes, there are no further subjective causes to produce experience. Then embodiment ceases.

First the mind must die. Attention must be Dissolved in the Heart. Only then does embodiment cease. It is not a matter of strategically separating the inner soul, or the mind, from the body, by means of the efforts of attention. Rather, since the subjective part is senior and causal in relation to all desire and all action, it is only when the independent self Dissolves in the Heart that the acts of attention cease to bind. Only then is mind Transcended and Dissolved. Only then is there the Destiny of Freedom, Bliss, and Love.

The soul in the heart is linked to the living body by the mind, associated with the brain. When the Eternal Disposition of the Free soul is Awake, then self is not differentiated, attention is not generated, and experiential embodiment is not created. Therefore, Awaken. Commune with the Living God under all conditions, via every function, every relationship, and every kind of action. In this manner Transcend desire, the movements of attention, the urges of the mind, the causes of experience and embodiment in the various dimensions of possibility. Be the Sacrifice of the body-mind through constant Love-Communion with the Living God. And always only serve that One, in the form of all relationships, as long as any conditions arise.

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The Soul Is Not Free in Heaven or on Earth

In reaction to the stressful mortality of human experience, we begin to desire and seek an alternative state, a change of form, and place, and circumstance. Everyone does this, by one method or another, until Enlightenment.

Some do it by exploitation of the possibilities of the gross physical body-through food, sex, control of others, acquisition of goods, and so forth. Others do it by exploitation of the ordinary psyche and mind-through the consolations of abstract thought, and belief in future lifetimes in glamorous worlds beyond.

But others actually strive to attain the experience of an alternative, expanded, and glamorized state, even while the present lifetime persists. Such are psychics, mystics, and yogis-individuals who exploit the possibility of fully conscious experience independent of the limitations of the gross physical body.

Indeed, this method for solving the dilemma of mortality is universally associated with religious and spiritual Ecstasy. However, this technique is simply a conventional and ultimately futile strategy of the un-Enlightened self, the covered soul.

The body-mind is an illusory modification or covering of the native Radiance of the soul. When viewed from the point of view of the body-mind, the soul has its locus in the heart, or the "causal" root of the manifest being. But the soul is ultimately One with the Living God, and, from the point of view of the Free soul, or the true Heart, the body-mind itself arises within the soul, as a superficial, unnecessary, and infinitesimal disturbance or modification of Itself.

The soul Radiates from the heart, and it appears in a single form, which is the psycho-physical entity, or body-mind. But that form is actually a dynamic composite of two dimensions of manifest existence. The inner, subjective dimension is the subtle part. It is the psyche, or mind, high and low. The outer, formal dimension is the gross part. It is the living body.

The subtle or mental being includes everything that is the psyche, and it excludes everything that is merely a matter of thinking and sensing, which depend on the gross physical body and brain. This "inner man" is the astral personality, which continues to migrate in the planes of experience after the death of the gross physical body. For this reason, the astral personality is popularly conceived to be the soul-since it survives bodily death.

However, the soul is not merely subtler than the gross body. It transcends the gross body. Indeed, it transcends the entire experiential being, or body-mind. The soul exists Prior to experience. It does not migrate. It Abides Eternally in Love-Communion with the Living Divine, the Radiant Person, the true Self.

We must understand the motives and strategies we create or inherit in the conventional world of human experience and suffering. Therefore, we must Abide in the Disposition of the Free soul, Transcending all experiential phenomena, and yet neither excluding nor clinging to any kind of experience. In Love-Communion with the Living Divine, the Disposition of the Free soul is always Awake. Thus, the Free soul is utterly and always already Free of self-possessed reaction to the World. The Free soul is inherently Free of the motivated strategies of escape from the limitations of the World by exploitation of either the gross and outward or the subtle and inward parts of Man.

The soul cannot and does not ascend above the physical, nor does it truly survive the death of the physical body. The soul is not truly born. It is only deluded by association with the differentiated phenomena of manifest experience, which arise and change and disappear within the All-Pervading Current of Radiance, or Universal Life. Therefore, until the soul Awakens to its true Condition, which is Ecstatic Inherence in the Living and Eternal Divine, it suffers and seeks within the dynamic or two-sided Realm of manifest experience.

The usual man or woman, not yet Awakened to the Disposition of the Free soul, exploits the possibilities of experience and belief that pertain to the gross physical dimension of the living body and its relations. The uncommon or extraordinary man or woman, likewise unconscious of the Free Disposition of the soul, exploits the possibilities of experience that may be attained through ascent of attention, into the subtler dimensions of the psyche, which may be contacted via concentration in the Bodily Life-Current above the brows.

But the soul cannot rise. The soul is simply Awake in Eternal Bliss. Only attention, or the mind, can rise. If attention can be distracted from the regions of the gross physical body and its functions and environments, then it may be directed into the regions of the subtle mind, or the astral body and its environments. But the subtle astral body and its experiences are simply an alternative dimension of complex experience. The Disposition of the Free soul does not reign in the subtle worlds. Rather, only the disposition of the mind pertains there. The subtle realms are transitory planes of desire and experience and birth and change and death. They are not Eternal Experience. They are only distractions that delude the soul and prevent its Ecstatic Awakening in the Self of Love.

Therefore, conventional mystical practices, strategies of yogic ascent, out-of-body travels, magical and prayerful schemes of fulfillment, and the like are no more to be associated with Enlightenment and God-Communion than are the forms of experience gotten by exploiting the gross physical body. The Truth is not Realized by the ascent of attention into the subtle dimension of psyche, or mind. Nor is It Realized by the descent of attention into the gross dimension of the present body. The Truth is Realized only in Awakening to the native and Eternal Disposition of the Free soul, which is Ecstatic Love-Communion with All-Pervading Radiance and Transcendental Consciousness (or Ignorance), the Person and Condition of the Living God.

In this Awakening, and in this Communion, the conditions of the experiential body-mind are naturally Transcended. There is no need for any strategy of fulfillment or escape of the Free soul. The Free soul is always already Free, or in Transcendental relationship to the phenomena of experience. Therefore, the true devotee simply Abides in Love-Communion with the Living God, in the Company and according to the Instructions of the Spiritual Master. He does not embrace the strategic methods of worldly consolation and fulfillment, nor of otherworldly contemplation and fulfillment. He simply allows all actions to develop on the basis of Love-Communion with the Divine, and he engages all such actions naturally and spontaneously, as forms of present Love-Communion with the Living God.

Such devotees simply Abide in the Eternal Disposition of the soul, while the conventions of the body-mind arise and pass in a natural order. In this manner, the internal motives toward experience gradually dissolve and become obsolete, and no new motives are created by distraction and reaction in the play of experience. Thus, the "inner man" eventually dies, just as the gross body dies. The subjective being is not exploited as a means of ascent into subtler conditions of experience. It is released of all reactive and motivating stresses that are based on unconsciousness of the Disposition of the Free soul.

The true devotee does not strive toward Heaven. Nor does he reinforce his tendency toward Earth and the lower dimensions of elemental experience. From his Awakened point of view, the present lifetime is only a temporary Purgatory, wherein the soul is Translated into its Free and Eternal Destiny. But, through Love-

Communion with the Divine Person, even this Purgatory becomes a Field of Love, wherein the Awakened soul Shines. The Liberated inner being Radiates beyond the confining heart, where mind and body meet, and It Stands Present in the Form of God.

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How the Free Soul Escapes in God

The Free soul does not Expand by becoming larger itself, but by surrender into the Great Soul, which is already Infinite. That is, the soul does not increase itself, but it loses itself. It is an atomic Event, a fusion of the atom and the Whole in an Infinite Brightness of Exploded Bliss. Does the soul escape through the fontanelle, or the "brahmarandhra," even in this case? Does the atom in the heart climb to the crown and Dissolve into Space?

The polarization of the body and of the self-limiting energy encasing the soul does indeed become a profound gesture, toe to crown, bottom to top. As such, the primary circuit appears to be that between the heart and the crown. But attention and self-contraction constantly dissolve in Brightness, or Bliss. And body and mind and all specific forces that surround and define the soul by experience dissolve also in that Process. In the Event of Translation, there is no mind or form to be reckoned.

In any case, even though the soul's Original or Primal Position is at the heart, the body and mind do not truly surround or stand outside the heart. The parts of the body-mind do not, truly understood, lie below and above the soul, as they do below and above the physical heart. Rather, the body-mind is identical to or one with the soul-a modification or superficial appearance of the soul. The Free soul is the Condition of the body-mind. The body-mind, or "I," is not the Condition of the soul, the Self.

Therefore, truly, the body-mind arises within the soul, the atom, which is prior to space, time, size, shape, and all relations.

The soul is expressed as the body-mind. The soul is manifest or Radiant as the nervous system and the Current of the body-mind. The tendency of attention to ascend or descend within the Current of Life and within the structure of the body-mind is a process of apparent motion within the soul itself, in its superficiality and self-possession. Therefore, in the Ultimate Liberation or Translation of the atomic soul into the Great Soul (or of the "Atman" into the "Paramatman"), the soul does not rise in the body. How can it rise above itself by going to the crown if the entire body, including the crown, is already within itself and identical to itself?

Therefore, the Translation of the soul may coincide with outer or apparent phenomena that represent extraordinary bodily and mental changes-so that the body appears Full of Bliss, Life, and Light, and the attention seems to press upwards to the crown, and the body may even vanish, all of a sudden. But, truly, the soul does not move. The Event should not be regarded as a spatial event, such as a movement from the heart to the crown. Rather, it is an Event that Transcends space-time and the physics of phenomenal existence. It is the Event of the soul's Transcendence of the illusions of space-time, and the illusion that it is interior or subjective to space-time and the body-mind. The Liberated soul does not ride, and all noticing is lost in the Swoon of Celebration.

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The Original Brightness

The soul, the atomic Conscious Life-Light that Radiates from the heart region of the body, pervades the entire body and enlivens it. Actually, the soul is eternal and unchanging, by virtue of its eternal inherence in the Universal Soul and Life-Radiance of God. Therefore, the soul is only temporarily, and without ultimate necessity, associated with particular psycho-physical states-the result of tendencies acquired through past associations with conditional states, or states of experience that are less than Perfect Contemplation of the Divine Condition.

For this reason, the soul, which is Pure Consciousness and Eternal Life, identifies with the "I," the self-reference of the psycho-physical being. And the embodied or self-limited existence of the soul thus becomes a struggle of experience, and possible growth, by virtue of fixed and automatic association with the born body-mind.

The structure of the manifest, mortal, and always changing body-mind is demonstrated as a range of functional possibility extended between two extremes-the higher brain and the lower body. This range between extremes or polar opposites corresponds to the subtler energy structure that envelops the soul in its association with the phenomenal realms. Thus, both the soul in its subtle energy field and the extended or Radiated body-mind that expresses the soul and its energy field are structured in a bipolar form, with subtler processes apparent above, and grosser processes apparent below.

The Light of God and the Light of the soul are One. It is Perfect Radiance, or White Brightness. All manifest forms are parts of a universe or total spectrum of modifications or solidification's of the range of possibility inherent in Original Light, or Radiance. Thus, the soul in its casing of spectral energies is expressed as a range of colors, from red and golden yellow at its lowest point or pole to violet and blue at its highest point or pole. The highest point is polarized positive and the lowest point is polarized negative.

Just so, the body-mind itself is a programmed extension of the spectrum of the soul in its association with phenomenal possibilities. The lower functional order, toward red, or below the heart, is the realm of the gross and negative pole of experience. And the higher functional order, toward blue and violet, or above the heart, is the realm of the subtle and positive pole of experience.

Therefore, whenever we are active and learning or indulging self in the phenomena of the extended body-mind, we are actually meditating on the spectral energy field that surrounds the soul in the heart.

Ordinary individuals, adapted only in the subhuman range below the heart, are in fixed association with the lower vibratory spectrum of the soul in manifestation. And more extraordinary individuals, who are adapted in the higher human range above the heart, are in fixed association with the higher vibratory spectrum of the soul in manifestation. Therefore, all beings who are attached to the ranges of possible experience that extend below and above the heart are simply deluded by the self-meditative field of energy that surrounds and envelops the soul in the Universal Play of conditional experience.

Salvation, Liberation, and Translation into the Eternal Domain of God is a matter of intuitive "disillusionment,'' or penetration of the self-limiting field of associations by which the atomic soul is acquiring the automatic destinies of conditional experience. Thus, first of all, it is a matter of Awakening from the pattern of psycho-physical extension, or automatic association with phenomena above, below, and outside the heart and soul.

The Process of such "disillusionment" involves a series of stages of adaptation, or growth into inspection, insight, and responsibility relative to the full spectrum of psycho-physical experience-or the whole and entire body-mind. This is the occupation of devotees in the first five stages of life. (In the Way of Divine Ignorance, these stages correspond to the original preparations and subsequent practice in the first three stages of the total Way-that is, the Way of Divine Communion, the Way of Relational Enquiry, and the Way of Re-cognition.)

In the sixth stage of life, the illusions of experience above and below, or by extension into the associative energy field of the soul, are dissolved in intuitive Realization of the soul in its prior or disassociated Condition. Thus, in the sixth stage of life, the extended attention of the psycho-physical being is re-cognized or undermined in Self-Realization, or intuitive Awakening of the heart, or soul, in its prior, Unqualified State-which is pure Consciousness, or Unobstructed Bliss. (This stage of life corresponds to the third and ultimate phase of the Way of Re-cognition.)

However, the soul that is inverted or enclosed within itself may be free of association with the spectrum of phenomena, high and low, but it is yet deluded by its own exclusiveness-or the avoidance of relational association in order to Abide in Bliss. Therefore, ultimately, the "eyes" of the atomic soul are opened to God, or the Universal Soul. In that Process the soul Awakens, prior to all phenomena, to the Transcendental Bliss of the Divine Person or All-Soul, the true Self.

Just as the spectrum of experiential phenomena is unnecessary and essentially individuated or separated from the atomic soul, the atomic soul itself is individuated or separated from the All-Soul. Therefore, the soul must Awaken to responsibility for the spectrum of its own experience, and it ultimately does this by Transcending both experiential phenomena and its own isolation, through Sacrifice, or Love-Communion with the Absolute Person or Universal Soul of God.

Just as the spectral colors that surround the soul in its associative play are actually a display of the parts of its own or native White Light, the Divine Soul is Original White Light. All phenomena are thus a Play of the Original Light, or Unqualified Bliss, of God. And all souls, or all living beings (human or otherwise), are points or atoms of the Original Light or Radiant Bright Consciousness of God.

Therefore, in the seventh stage of life, and in the maturity of the Way of Divine Ignorance, the Awakened Self, or Free soul, yields both its independence from God and its dependence on phenomena. The Free soul Transcends all phenomena (while neither including nor excluding any condition) and is Translated into the Bliss of the Original Person and Domain, Radiant as Love, prior to all knowledge, all experience, and all qualifications of Eternal Brightness.

May all beings be Liberated from the struggle with experience and come to rest in Love, through Blissful Communion with the Radiant Brightness of the Eternal One.

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Nature, the Self, and God

There is the Infinite Realm of Nature, or Energy in Motion, called Prakriti, Maha Shakti, and the Mother Power. There is the Free soul, called the Atman, or the Self, and which is associated with the display of all possible phenomena in the Realm of Nature. The soul tends, by mere association or experience, to become deluded and attached to experiential phenomena, and thus to view the Mother Realm of psycho-physical events as necessary and native to itself. The deluded soul thus considers the Infinite Realm of Nature to be its Condition, and also imagines the psycho-physical form, or body-mind, to be its necessary and essential form.

But the Ultimate Reality, or the Condition of the Infinite Realm of Nature and of every individual soul, is the Transcendental Divine Person, the Maha Purusha, Whose Self or Great Soul is the Identity of every atomic soul, and Whose Body-Mind both includes and transcends the Infinite Realm of Nature, or the Mother Power.

The Divine Person is the Eternal Master, in Eternal Embrace with the Mother Power, the Vehicle of souls in manifestation - His Servant or Consort, His own Body-Mind. And every soul, likewise, must resort only to the Mastery-Unity, Singleness, and Onliness of the Divine Person-or else the Mother Power is Maya, the Widow, the Woman without a Husband, the Power of Illusion and Suffering, whereby souls forget the Self, or the Purity of Conscious Identity with God.

When the soul is Awakened to its Free Condition, Self-Realized, it tends at first to dwell in itself, avoiding the Display of the Mother Power, or the Play of experience. But such a motive is self-defeating, since it does not display the native Freedom or natural Transcendence that characterizes the true Self. Therefore, the Awakening of the soul in Truth, or in Perfect Sacrifice to the Divine Person, involves both Self-Realization and open-eyed Transcendence of the Infinite Realm of Nature, or Change. The Self-Realized soul, thus Awakened, makes no fundamental effort either to include and retain or to exclude and prevent any condition of experience. The Free soul is Transfigured in Ecstatic Love, Absorbed in the Infinite and Transcendental Person of God. Such a Devotee is Free, Awake, Identical to Bliss, Unmoved, Absorbed, and Suddenly Vanished in the One Whose Mystery is Everywhere Revealed.

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The Living God and the "Void" of Self-Realization

There appears to be an irreducible conflict or disagreement between Buddhism and the other great traditions of India. The Buddhists teach that the soul is not a permanent entity, whereas the other traditions generally teach that the soul is immortal or eternal.

Actually, this conflict is a matter of language, or the mental paradoxes that lead toward the Ultimate Intuition, beyond or prior to separated self-consciousness. Both views are correct, since each view considers the soul in terms of only one of its two aspects - either bound or Free.

The Buddhist view considers the soul in its born association with phenomena-"covered," or separate from the Absolute. Souls in the play of manifestation are constantly changing. They appear and disappear. Therefore, they are not permanent, since they are mutable. Only the prior Reality, or Nirvanic Bliss, is eternal or Free.

But what the Buddhists regard as the unchanging Absolute, or the Free Nirvanic Condition, is itself the soul. It is the soul Awake, prior to its coverings, or its binding and separative associations with the Realm of Nature. It is the Self.

The traditions other than Buddhism teach that the soul is eternal or immortal, because they presume the soul as Self, prior to Nature, or the endless and beginningless cycle of birth and death, wherein souls are effectively mortal. Indeed, it is the apparent separateness and mortality of the soul that all traditions, including Buddhism, seek to transcend through intuition and the practices of transformation.

The more significant disagreement between Buddhism and many of the other traditions is in the matter of the description of the Ultimate Condition of Transcendence. The Buddhists seem only to consider the Realm of Nature and the appearance of souls. And they teach a Way of'Transcendence of the soul-illusion and the Nature-illusion. That is, they teach the Way in which we may Transcend change. Apparently, such is also the essence of the teaching in certain other traditions-as in the case of the monistic school of Advaita Vedanta.¹²

But in Reality there is more than changing Nature and changing souls. And there is a greater Realization than the self-contained Nirvanic Transcendence that characterizes exclusive SelfRealization. The Great Bliss, the Most Excellent Nirvana, the Ultimate Transcendence, is in the Awakening to the Paradox that is prior to the Void in which Nature and the "covered" soul are philosophically transcended.

That Paradox is the Divine Person, the Eternal and Living God, Who indeed Transcends the Play of changes and every separate soul. That One also Includes and Pervades the Play of changes, the Motion of Nature. And that same One is the Identity or Self that every soul Realizes to be its true Condition.

Therefore, Ultimate Liberation is the Awakening of the soul to its Eternal Condition-which neither excludes nor includes the Play of Nature and the apparent independence of souls, but which always already Transcends all changes. Such Liberation is Nirvana without strategic exclusion of Nature, and without annihilation of the Free soul. And it is God-Realization without Theistic Fantasies, and without the mechanical view of souls that are inherently, or in their eternal Disposition, separate from the Self of God. If it is Truth that is Glorified in a religious or spiritual tradition, this View must somehow be expressed therein.

The Ultimate Condition is a Paradox, ultimately requiring either paradoxical language or Blissful Silence. Truly, the soul Awakened in God finds that it is One with God and yet still existing in a Play of experiential and Transcendental relationship with God. How can there be any reasonableness to either rational speech or irrational speech? Only the Language of Ecstasy will do.

Therefore, I have at times said there is no such thing as a beingbecause Self-Realization is the Realization of undifferentiated Transcendence. And I have also said there is only God, to Whom all souls are Ecstatically and Eternally related, and to the Domain of Whom all souls are Destined to return. All of this is Truth. Can you see why even right Instruction is Paradox? Reasonable and irrational descriptions, without paradoxes, and without the ultimate Paradox of eternal Unity and eternal Relationship, are necessary only for those who are self-possessed and who refuse to practice the Way. Now that you have listened to me, you must practice. To do otherwise, even though you have been given this Revelation, is to resume the tired effort of repetition, the dullness and the vagaries of the usual man.

12. The most radical school of the later philosophical traditions of Hinduism, "Advaita" means "non-duality"; "Vedanta" is the end ("anta") or culmination of the Vedas, which are the most ancient Scriptures of the Hindus. The school of Advaita Vedanta was founded by the famous sage Sri Shankara around A.D. 800. The essential point of view of this school is that there is only one Reality, ot tw. All multiplicity is an illusion or superimposition on the one Reality, which is identical to the fundamental Consciousness of all beings.