Five Possible Points of View (or Points of View)

Beezone note: This following is an adaptation from Adi Da Samraj’s original essay:
The Five Possible Orientations (or Points of View).

There are (basically) only five possible orientations (or points of view), each built upon (or Out-Growing, or transcending) the one immediately previous to itself:

I. “CONVENTIONAL MONISM” – The First Three Stages of Life.

Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry. Accordingly, some philosophers may hold that the universe is one rather than dualistic or pluralistic. Monisms may be theologically syncretic by proposing that there is one God who has many manifestations in the diverse religious traditions.

The World (or Cosmic Nature) is all there is, and it is a “material” Unity, also expressed as the individual body-mind (which is itself a material unity). And this point of view accounts for all lesser or gross (or materialistic, body-based, and necessarily mortal) orientations or searches in the (always struggling, and never truly, or finally, fulfilled) context of the first three stages of life in the human domain. – Adi Da Samraj

The following is an example of how this point of view is expressed in the body. This is from The Enlightenment of the Whole Body pp. 475-494, unfortunately the link can not be given as it is copyrighted

“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.” – Adi Da Samraj

II. “CONVENTIONAL DUALISM” – Fourth and Fifth Stage Point of View

The World (or even the Totality of Existence) is made up of a number of principal pairs. Most typically, the first of these principal pairs is God and the world (with God sometimes called, and otherwise commonly conceived as “Purushottama”, combining both “Purusha” or “Being” and “Consciousness”, and also “Prakriti”, or “Creativity” and “Creative Energy”, or “Creator-Energy”). (Siva and Shakti).

The second (or next) possible orientation (or “disposition”) may be called “Conventional Dualism”. According to this “disposition”, the “world” (or even the Totality of Existence) is made up of a number of principal pairs (whether simply natural or, somehow otherwise, hierarchical). Most typically, the first of these principal pairs is the hierarchically conceived pair of “God” and the “world”-with “God” commonly (and even popularly) conceived as combining both “Being” (and “Consciousness”) and “Creative Energy” (or “Creator-Energy”). And the other principal (and, most typically, hierarchically conceived) pairs include “God” and the “soul” (or the psyche, or the subtle personality), and also the “soul” and the “world”, and also the mind (or the psyche, or the “soul”) and the body. Each half of each hierarchically conceived pair (or even each natural pair) is (according to this “disposition”) related to (and interrelated with) the other half of the pair, but (paradoxically, and especially in the case of hierarchically conceived pairs) each half of each pair is also utterly “different” than (or even inherently separate from) the other half of the pair. And the obligatory “Goal” of each presumed lesser (or dependent) half of each hierarchically related pair is to submit to (and, eventually, even to ascend to) the greater (or higher) half of the pair. Therefore, from this “disposition”, the “soul” (and even the total “world”) must submit to (and, eventually, ascend to) “God” (or “God”-Realization). Likewise, the body must submit (or be submitted) to the mind (or the psyche, or the “soul”). Indeed, all that which (in the human being) is “of the world” must, according to the hierarchical conception, submit (or be submitted) to (and, in turn, be relinquished by) the “soul”, which must itself (in turn, and by submitting to “God”, and to the Urge to “God”-Realization) eventually and progressively ascend to “God”. And this total process is, indeed, the total process characteristically (and traditionally) associated with the fourth and the fifth stages of life, and such great fourth and fifth stage popular (or exoteric, and, otherwise, esoteric) traditions as have appeared in (or among) the forms of Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and (in their own unique manner) in (or among) the forms of Taoism, and (also uniquely) even in (or among) some forms of Buddhism. – Adi Da Samraj

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 15. The Yoga of the Supreme Person

The Blessed Lord said: There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down and whose leaves are the Vedic hymns. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas.

And the other principal pairs include God and the “soul” (or the psyche, or the subtle personality) and also the “soul” and the world, and also the mind (or the psyche, or the “soul”) and the body.

From this point of view, the “soul” must submit to (and eventually and progressively ascend to) God (or God-Realization). Likewise, the body must submit (or be submitted) to the mind (or the psyche, or the “soul”). Indeed, all that which (in the human being) is “of the world” must submit (or be submitted) to (and, in turn, be relinquished by) the “soul”, which must itself (in turn, and by submitting to God, and to the Urge to God-Realization) eventually and progressively to God. – Adi Da Samraj

III. “PRIMARY DUALISM” – Fifth and Sixth Stage Point of View

The third (and next) possible orientation (or “disposition”) may be called “Primary Dualism”. According to this “disposition”, the Totality of Existence is an apparent combination of only two Primary Realities. These Primary Realities are traditionally (within the cultural sphere of India) called “Purusha” (or Non-conditional, and, As Such, Inherently Perfect, and Perfectly and Necessarily Subjective, “Being” and “Consciousness”) and “Prakriti” (or “Objective Energy”, Which, modified, appears as the body, the mind, all “objects”, and all “others”). From this “disposition”, this “Primary Duality” must, first of all, be understood (by observation and intuition) to be actual (or Really So). Then Purusha (or the conscious “self”, which-according to the characteristic, and paradoxical, traditional “disposition” of “Primary Dualism”-Is, Ultimately, a Perfectly Subjective, or Non-conditional, but also specific, independent, and individual, “self”) must separate itself (basically, by willful ascetical discipline) from Prakriti (or the body, the mind, all their “objects”, and all “others”). And this “disposition” and process-which seeks to be released from the body-mind-complex, or from the illusory need to eternalize the body, the mind, or the entire body-mind-complex-is the first possible “disposition” and process traditionally associated with the sixth stage of life (and such great sixth stage traditions as have appeared within Jainism, and the ancient philosophical tradition of Samkhya). Adi Da Samraj

IV. “SECONDARY NON-DUALISM” (or “SECONDARY ABSOLUTE MONISM“) – Buddhism is a good example of this point of view.

The fourth (and next to last) possible orientation (or “disposition”) may be called “Secondary Non-Dualism” (or “Secondary Absolute Monism”). According to this “disposition”, there is no inherently independent and separate (or separable) Purusha (either as an Eternal, and Non-conditional, individual “Self” or, accord-ing to some proponents, As Absolute Being Itself, or Absolute Consciousness Itself), but the Totality of Existence is only Prakriti (conditionally appearing as a beginningless and endless continuum of “causes” and “effects”, or, in effect, modifications of Prakriti, or of Energy Itself). Therefore, according to this “disposition”, Energy Itself appears (and must be so observed) only as ephemeral (and observable, or “objective”) changes, preceded and followed by equally ephemeral (and equally observable, or “objective”) changes, until (by the process of observation, insight, and “self”-pacification) the Inherent (or Original, or Nirvanic) State of Energy Itself is Realized. However, there is an Ultimate Paradox necessarily associated with this orientation (or “disposition”) and process-for, if the Realization of the Original (or Nirvanic) State of Energy Itself is, in fact, achieved, how can That Realization be differentiated from (or, otherwise, be presumed to Be other than, or not Identical to) Absolute Consciousness Itself? In any case, this “disposition” and process-which seeks to be released from both the illusory need to eternalize the conditional “self” and the equally illusory need to annihilate the conditional “self”, and which “point of view” and process may, therefore, follow upon (or, otherwise, supersede) the “disposition” and process of “Primary Dualism”-is the second possible “disposition” and process traditionally associated with the sixth stage of life (and such great sixth stage schools as have appeared within the traditions of Buddhism, and also within the tradition of Taoism).

Adi Da Samraj

V. “ULTIMATE NON-DUALISM” (or “PRIMARY ABSOLUTE MONISM” – Absolutism – Representing the Sixth Stage (often confused with Seventh Stage)

The fifth (and final) possible orientation (or “disposition”) may be called “Ultimate Non-Dualism” (or “Primary Absolute Monism”). According to this “disposition”, there is (in Truth) no Prakriti (or separate and independent “Objective Energy”, or any separate and independent body, mind, “object”, or “other” at all), but the Totality of Existence is only the One and Absolute Purusha (or Self-Existing and Self-Radiant Consciousness Itself). From this “disposition”, this “Ultimate Absolute” (or this Non-conditional-and, As Such, Inherently Perfect, and Perfectly Subjective-Reality) must, first of all, be understood (and directly intuited) to be actual (or Really So), and then Perfectly (or Utterly) Affirmed (By direct Self-Identification with Consciousness Itself). This “disposition” and process-which may follow upon (or be “uncovered” by) the “disposition” and process of “Secondary Non-Dualism”, and which may even immediately follow upon (or be “uncovered” by) the “disposition” and process of “Primary Dualism”-is the third (and final, and Principal) possible “disposition” and process traditionally (and inherently) associated with the sixth stage of life (and such great sixth stage schools as have appeared in the form of the traditions of Advaitism, and also, secondarily, or with less directness, within the schools of some varieties of Buddhism, especially within the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions, and, but with even less directness, within some of the schools of Taoism).

Read more:

The Gnosticon – The Five Possible Points of View

and

The Seventh Stage ‘Point of View’