THE COMPLETING DISCOURSES OF THE 25-YEAR REVELATION
The Fundamental Structure of Existence
The Dimensions of Cosmic Appearance and the
“Dimensionless” Divine Domain
July 23, 1995
Adi Da Samraj
Conclusion of the 1995 Gathering Chronicle, April-August,
1995. Only edition
DEVOTEE: You have described how the right side of the
heart corresponds to the pace-maker of the physical
heart.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: It has an association with it, yes. The
left side or region of the heart is associated with the
gross body. The middle station of the heart is associated
with the three parts of the subtle body. The right side of
the heart is associated with the causal body. Each of these
regions of the heart has references to the physical body.
The right side has an association with the sino-atrial node,
or pacemaker. But it is just an association. That is the
gross sign associated with the right side of the heart. That
is not the definition of the right side of the heart.
The right side of the heart is associated with the deep
principle of the ego, the deep subjectivity of egoity. It is
the root of attention and the feeling of relatedness or
“difference”. That is the causal body or causal subjectivity
of egoity. Beyond that, in the Perfectly Subjective Depth
beyond the causal knot, is the Domain to be Realized. It is
Perfectly Subjective, not objective. Attention cannot reach
to It. Only when attention is transcended is there entry
into that Domain. But because the process of Awakening
to that Domain is associated with the transcendence of the
causal knot, I say that the right side of the heart is also
associated with the Realization of the Divine
Self-Condition. So all that being said, what is your
question?
DEVOTEE: So is it appropriate to assign a special status
to the sino-atrial node as an object because the heart is
arising in Consciousness?
ADI DA SAMRAJ: The sino-atrial node is part of the
physical body. It can be noticed as such. That is not
Realization of the Heart Itself. It is simply a physical
reference. When there is the feeling of relatedness, there
is a sensation that can be noticed in the right side of the
heart. And it is in that same region where the sino-atrial
node appears in the physical body. You can point to that
node itself, but that is not the Realization of the heart on
the right. You can point to the middle of your chestbone,
you can feel emotions there and so on. But neither of these
references is actually entrance into the subtle domain of
mind and so on.
So one can point to the physical reference of the Great
Domain of the Heart. It is appropriate enough to do so. But
it is not the same as Realizing the Heart. So what is the
question?
DEVOTEE: Materialists see the brain as the seat of
Consciousness, which is an objective error. So we should
understand that the physical sino-atrial node is not the
seat of Consciousness any more so than the brain?
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes. The brain is an apparent gross
mechanism, associated with certain functions of body and
mind. That does not mean that all the depths of those
functions can be reduced to the brain. When you enter into
the real Process of Consciousness and from that point of
view investigate phenomena at every level, then you see the
play of cosmic reality and can Realize the Ultimate Reality.
If you divorce yourself from Consciousness and just look at
gross things, perceived from the bodily point of view, you
cannot understand anything. You can just manipulate concepts
and apparent “thingness”, but you do not really understand,
and you only see a fraction, even of conditional reality. If
you just look at the brain from outside as a gross thing,
what can you figure out or even notice about mind? You have
to function as the brain and examine it and all the
processes associated with it, and in doing so you will enter
into fields beyond the brain.
There is a doorway in the brain associated with the
subtle field of potential experience in the cosmic domain.
It is possible to enter that doorway and go beyond the brain
into the fields of the subtle body beyond the gross brain or
the gross body. When such experiences actually occur, the
questions are answered. The illusion of the identification
with the gross body and brain is immediately dissolved as
soon as you go through and beyond the brain.
If some gross-minded personality has no such experience,
then he or she simply does not know about it. He or she is
ignorant, bereft of experience. Such people may want to
declare that the human being is nothing but the material
process. Then he or she is simply ignorant. Such people
simply do not know. They may presume to be authorities, but
they are ignorant. It is possible to examine the physical
brain and find out all kinds of things about it and how it
relates to various functions that human beings manifest in
the context of the gross body, but that is not the end of
Truth. It is just an examination of the physical. If you
want to know whether there is anything beyond the physical,
then you have to find out and you have to be willing to
enter into the investigation whereby you find out. If you
are not willing to do that, then you are content to be
ignorant or to make propositions based on limited
experience.
DEVOTEE: Is it because of the doorway in the brain that
the brain has been viewed as the seat of Consciousness by
materialists?
ADI DA SAMRAJ: They have come to that conclusion because
they have the materialistic point of view. So they
physically examine the brain and see how it relates to
function. The brain is a part of the gross body. It is the
subtle body that is animating the brain. The functions are
in the subtle body. The energy in the gross body is the
energy of the etheric body, which is the grossest dimension,
shall we say, of the subtle body. It is the energy of the
nervous system. It energizes the nervous system. Likewise,
the functions of mind-intelligence, will, all the rest of
it-are in the higher two dimensions of the subtle body. So
it is the subtle body that functions through the gross
body.
The brain is associated with the functions of mind, or
the higher aspects of the subtle body. And the nervous
system in the extended body is associated with the etheric.
The gross brain animates the subtle functions of
intelligence and mind altogether, but also limits them. Not
everything in the domain of the subtle body gets through
into the gross physical. The brain cuts it off or limits
what can be experienced. It is only when there is higher
development, Spiritual development, psychic development, and
so on, that the subtle body is able to appear more fully,
through the physical brain and into the domain of the gross
body-mind. Such developments can occur, through total
psycho-physical purification and Yogic practice and Yogic
Transmission. But apart from that kind of growth, the gross
body-being a kind of lump, without intelligence-limits the
faculties. But scientists do not know about this, because
they are concerned only with the gross body and want to deny
everything else. Well, that is an example of how the gross
brain and body limit the exercise of intelligence.
DEVOTEE: Is the experience of going beyond the doorway in
the brain more likely to occur in the fifth stage of life or
at an earlier point in practice?
ADI DA SAMRAJ: It is a specific part of the process in
the fifth stage of life. Experiences of it, in one form or
another, could occur at any time, depending upon the
characteristics of the individual, and so on. Full
penetration of the Ajna Door leads to fifth stage
conditional Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Less than full penetration
can lead beyond the gross domain and into forms within the
subtle planes. So it is the phenomena of ascent – and that
is specific to the fifth stage of life. But as I said,
experiences of a subtle nature, even going beyond the
physical, could, in principle, occur at any time.
DEVOTEE: Is that the process whereby the deeper
personality governs the gross personality?
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes. The deeper personality is the subtle
being. The gross body is made by mothers and fathers in
gross form. The deeper personality associated with that form
is simply the subtle personality, the reincarnating vehicle.
It, so to speak, “chooses” the gross body for its
incarnation – but more by virtue of an affinity than an act
of will. At least, that is in general the case. But it is
not merely an affinity with that gross body itself, but even
a affinity with all of its associations. Both the positive
and the negative aspects of the subtle personality govern
that affinity.
So it is not merely that the subtle personality looks for
some body and circumstance that it likes and then floats
down into it. It is a karmic affinity with the total
circumstance and potential of a particular gross body. And,
in general, it is even a rather unconscious affinity.
What I am saying about the subtle body, or bodies, and
the relation between that and the gross body, I am saying to
you from My direct experience. Also, there is a vast
collective experience of such things. Thousands upon
thousands of individuals throughout history have
corroborated what I am saying to you about this matter. So
it is not merely a philosophical matter. It is not just an
alternative proposition to materialism, as if it is just
another way of thinking, and it may or may not be true. No,
it is clearly true. It is based on real experience,
thoroughly investigated, and not merely entertained by
fools. The most highly developed of beings who have ever
lived on earth have confirmed all of this.
Of course, this particular matter is not about Ultimate
Truth, or Realization. It is about how the cosmic domain
works. It works from within outward – from the subtle toward
the gross. What is appearing here, in other words, as gross
forms and so on, and gross functions, is an expression of
what is subtler. The actual functions of the human being
exist on a subtler level, and function from there into the
gross.
The gross physical body is simply an instrument to
implement subtle forces and functions in a gross display.
There is much talk in the modern era about evolution. The
dominant theories about it all have be invented by
materialists. They look at gross objectivity-gross forms,
gross patterns, and theorize how forms have appeared and
changed based on gross interaction. But the actual source of
forms and change is in the subtle domain-the domain that is
invisible from the gross point of view. All forms and
changes arise in a unity, and they come from the subtle
plane.
There are also exchanges at the gross level which
sometimes can modify forms to one degree or another. But the
actual source of the changes and modifications, as well as
the forms themselves, is at the subtle level. And so it is
throughout the entire gross universe or cosmos. The true
source of it, all of it, is subtle. It is in a deeper
dimension and shows itself grossly.
The “big bang”, for instance, is essentially what could
be called a gross phenomenon. The real origin of the cosmic
domain is at the subtle level. The “big bang” can be
accounted for by certain objective measurements, but its
source is subtle, not perceived from the gross point of
view. So the “big bang”, even though it has some relevance
to the understanding of the gross patterning of the cosmos,
is not the truth of it.
All of the grossly apparent cosmic domain, then, is
merely a sign of what is subtler. There is a profoundly
Intelligent Radiance, or Force, Appearing as every thing. It
is supremely Intelligent, because It is Whole and the Source
of all. The subtle is also cosmic, and not the Ultimate
Truth. But it is the source of the patterning of the
gross.
Look in this world of appearances, then – flowers
manifest shapes and colors and scents that specifically
attract certain kinds of insects and so on, so that flower
reproduction can occur. There are some unique flowering
plants in which there are extraordinary shapes. In one case
I am recollecting there is a shape on a particular flower
that looks like an insect. It is exactly in the form of the
kind of insect that that plant wants to attract. So the
insect comes on to the flower, it goes through a process of
mating with this insect – like prominence on the plant. Now
how do you think a plant was able to do that? How does a
plant know what color it is? It does not see. How does it
know what insect to attract? Or what color it likes? Or what
scent it likes? Or what it look like? So it could
manufacture a bug – like appearance that looks exactly like
the insect. These kinds of thing have nothing to do with
some sort of gross interaction.
The source is subtle, in the domain of the mechanism of
subtle intelligence and energy. And it is not that the
flower appears and then starts inventing an appearance for
the sake of the insect. By the time it got around to looking
like an insect, the plant would become obsolete because it
would not have been able to reproduce itself. So essentially
everything arises simultaneously – the plants, the bugs,
everything. It is a suddenness. And whatever changes do
occur over time, because of gross influences or whatever,
and the timings of time and change, all this springs from
the subtle.
The Divine Truth is Prior to all of that – all that
making, all that subtle and gross interchange. It is all
arising in the Domain of Consciousness. And that is the
Domain to be Realized. The subtle can be said to be what I
mean by the term “subconscious”. It is a vast domain, not
merely something in the personal mind. One must go through
and beyond the subtle domain, transcend the causal, and
Realize the Divine Condition.
It is not even necessary to investigate the totality of
the subtle. All that is necessary for the transition to the
“Perfect Practice” is to be given the Divine Transmission of
the Spirit-Power in which the gross and the subtle and the
causal are arising. This is My Hridaya-Shakti. It replaces
the “great path of return” that has been a characteristic of
the Great Tradition. By virtue of My Blessing, the ordeal of
the path of return-gross into the subtle into the causal,
has been profoundly transformed and much of it made
obsolete. I have made possible an essentially direct
transition to Ultimate practice – not merely in the sixth
stage sense, but fully in the seventh stage sense.
If you insist, you could practice this Way in the context
of every stage. But it is possible to establish the
foundation of true hearing and seeing, and establish a
fundamental maturity in the context of the basic fourth
stage of life, and from there, by virtue of My Blessing, to
be drawn directly into the “Perfect Practice”, without
having to perform or endure the Path of Return through the
advanced fourth stage of life and the fifth stage of life.
That tour is the subtle-body tour. And it is not necessary,
as long as there is a fundamental foundation and then a link
to My Blessing which draws you directly to Me through the
“Perfect Practice”-to the “Perfect Practice” and through it
to Me, Most Perfectly.
DEVOTEE: It seems that the brain does not have any senior
function in the body, just as the “big bang” and all the
measurements thereof do not have any senior function in the
creation of the cosmic domain.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, in the merely functional sense, as
part of the gross body, obviously the brain has the senior
function. But it does not have seniority over the body
altogether. The subtle body does.
DEVOTEE: Is the process whereby the flower and the insect
arise simultaneously a sign of the Intelligence of the
Divine Person?
ADI DA SAMRAJ: It is an intelligence within the cosmic
domain. You did not grow your nose, did you? Likewise, a
flower does not make itself red. And your nose, along with
the breathing apparatus and all the rest associated with it,
coincides exactly with the breathable fluid or gas called
the “air”, and so on. They arose simultaneously. If the nose
appeared first and there were no air, there would not be
time to evolve. The nose and everything attached to it would
drop dead. They have to arise simultaneously. So with the
bug and the flower, or the elephant and the water hole, or
the stomach and the grasses and herbs. All gave to occur
together.
So it is not that there is some intelligence in mere
separate forms, and so on. The Intelligence is Prior. And
that Intelligence is associated with a Unity. All
particularities arise spontaneously there, with it, and
simultaneous with one another, therefore. So it is not that
a flower appears on its own and then has to evolve, after
figuring out what bugs it needs to attract. It is also like
the “Which came first?” paradox-the chicken or the egg? It
is a paradox to the mind of thingness. Right understanding
is associated with the mind that thinks in terms of
unity.
DEVOTEE: So just as the right side of the heart has a
physical correspondence in the pacemaker, is Amrita Nadi the
senior structure of the body-mind?
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Of course. Amrita Nadi has structural
associations with the physical body, but also with the
subtle body. It has associations with structures in it. And
it is also a paradox that expresses the relationship between
the Divine Domain and the cosmic domain. It is an
incomprehensible relationship, and, ultimately, it is not a
relationship at all. There is only One.
So the Conscious Realization, seventh stage, that is
associated with Amrita Nadi, is the Realization of the
Divine Domain, not merely the realization of a nadi in the
body. But the Realization is expressed through that nadi in
the subtle and gross planes.
The head of Amrita Nadi is the cosmic Star. The root of
Amrita Nadi is the Divine Domain. The Circle in the human
body-mind is the expression, or sign, of the Cosmic
Mandala.
DEVOTEE: Is the “Regeneration” of Amrita Nadi in the
seventh stage of life a change in all planes-gross, subtle,
and causal?
ADI DA SAMRAJ: It is not a change at all. It is simply a
Manifestation of the Mystery and Paradox of Divine
Self-Realization. It is not associated, itself, with
conditional changes, though it is associated with the cosmic
domain in the appearance sense. There may be changes shown
in the case of the incarnate Realizer – psycho-physical
changes, and so on, associated with the seventh stage
Demonstration.
DEVOTEE: Is there something at the Transcendental level
that creates changes in the subtle that then affects the
gross?
ADI DA SAMRAJ: No. The subtle domain is a vast unity. All
changes within the subtle and the gross are accounted for in
that complex. The Transcendental is Beyond, just as the
Witness is Beyond. And the Divine is Beyond. So you have no
excuse to be attached to all of this, based on thinking the
Divine is making it.
Just as Reality is not objective, but is Consciousness
Itself, Self-Existing and Self-Radiant, the Divine is not
the Maker of objects. The Divine is That in Which all things
apparently arise – non-binding, un-necessary. The cosmic
domain is one with the Divine Domain in the most paradoxical
sense. The Divine is the “Brightness” of Consciousness
Itself. The Divine Pervades the conditional domain, but not
as the Maker-simply as the Source, the Radiance in all.
From this description it can be said, then, that the
apparent relation between the Divine, or the Divine Domain,
and the cosmic domain is one of Love-Bliss and Compassion.
It is the relationship between Guru and devotee. The Divine
is properly understood as Guru, Liberator, Compassionate
Force – not Maker, but liberator.
The theological traditions view the Divine as Maker, or
“Creator”. This is based on the illusions of egoity,
identification with the body and “things”. Already
identified thus, with the body and cosmic appearances, human
beings often conceive of the Divine as Maker, or “Creator”.
This is the extension of the magical consciousness of egos –
the interest the ego has in surviving bodily. In that
magical consciousness, some of the force and capacity of the
subtle domain is exploited and then effects follow. This
magical consciousness is the source of original religion,
wherein changes in the gross domain that served the general
well-being and survival of body-based beings are made by
resort to the subtle.
And as time went on, this shamanistic magical
consciousness and religion became the theological religions.
It was a concept of a single Deity above all – above all the
deities and powers in the subtle domain. But That One was
still appealed to magically and conceived in terms of the
magical ego-consciousness. So in the theological religions
the Divine is appealed to for the sake of changes in the
lives of gross, embodied egos. So it is a gross, embodied
ego that conceives of the Divine as “Creator”, or Maker.
The Divine is not that, in fact. The Divine is
Beyond-Beyond the gross, the subtle, and the causal. The
apparent association between the Divine, or the
Self-Conscious, Self-Existing, and Self-Radiant Divine
Domain and the cosmic domain, and every thing and every one
apparently within it – that apparent relation is not the one
of Maker and object. The True Divine cannot be appealed to
for changes, is not the Source of changes – not the Source
in the sense of being Maker. The Divine is the Source only
in the sense of being Most Prior, That of which every thing
that arises in the cosmic domain is a merely apparent
modification. All causes are within the causal, and subtle,
and gross domains – or fields of the cosmic domain. The
Divine Stands Prior, but in a Mystery of association. The
Source is always Pervading the cosmic domain.
So the relation between the Divine and the cosmic domain,
and everything within it, and all personalities within it,
is not that of Maker, or “Creator”, in relation to apparent
effects – but is the apparent relation between conditional
things and beings and That Which Is One and all-Pervading.
The Divine is Steady Presence, therefore, Present as
Love-Bliss, Compassion, and Liberating Force. This is
epitomized in the Guru-devotee relationship.
Some may appeal to the Divine prayerfully and so on, and
observe that effects follow, or changes follow. That is not
because the Divine answers the prayers in the “creating”
sense. It is through the reach towards the Divine, through
the subtle – the source of the actual changes. The true
reach to the Divine, then, is only through self-surrender,
self-forgetting, and self-transcending, ultimately to the
point of Most Perfect Identification with Me.
In that case there is no appealing for changes based on
egoic body-identification. Rather, there is relinquishment
of such identification, even a relinquishment of all
association with the cosmic domain. That process is true
religion. What is commonly called “religion” is a social
exercise in the gross plane of human egoity, or, otherwise,
an exercise that exploits the subtle domain-perhaps for
changes in the gross plane or the gross body, or otherwise,
for the sake of having subtle experiences in subtle planes,
and so on. All kinds of “God-language” may be associated
with such enterprises, but they are not about Realization of
the Divine. They are about seeking changes in the cosmic
domain for the sake of the ego.
True religion, then, is the process of Divine
Realization, the process of Realizing the Divine
Self-Condition Itself, for its own sake, by transcending the
conditional personality and the conditional, or cosmic,
domain itself. That is the Way of the Heart.
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