The Transcendental Personality of God, the World, Man, and the Human Individual
The Destiny or Ultimate Event into which we move by Sacrifice in the Way of Divine Ignorance is not at all a form of annihilation, or disintegration, or even immortalization of the differentiated personality, the independent body-mind, or the separate self or “soul” in any of its aspects. The separate personality is not ultimately suppressed, nor is it disturbed, nor is it cut off from experience. The Sacrifice that we are in Truth is a Process of the individual personality or self, not a Process in opposition to it. However, that Process does not lead to glorification and immortalization of the separate self. Rather, it is a Process of self-transcendence, in which the self is neither destroyed nor protected, but in which the Truth or Transcendental Condition of the self is Realized. The born self is not to be annihilated, nor is it immortal. The Destiny of the soul of Man is to be Awakened beyond its own limits.
Therefore, in this Way of Sacrifice, the separate, self-protecting, reactive, self-possessed, fearful personality, recoiled from the Mysterious Depth of Infinity, is Translated or Awakened into the Realization that it is not what it feared itself to be. The independent, defined, conditional, and limited self or personality is Awakened as the Absolute, All-Inclusive, Transcendental Personality of the Real, which is Divine, and beyond all Knowledge, all Definitions, all Logic, all Thought, all Form, and all Formlessness.
In the seventh stage of life, the Sacrifice of the individual self, and the soul of Man, and the Form of the World, and the Separable God of the World, is perfected in a Process of Ecstatic Translation into the Transcendental Absolute. But that Process is not merely the destruction of experience. It is the transcendence of experiential limitation. It is transcendence of the disposition of recoiled feeling, or self-meditation in states of experience that are less than Unconditional Love and Bliss. In that Process, all limits are relaxed in the Unconditional Radiance and Transcendental Consciousness that is always already the case. It is a matter of Unconditional Surrender of all that is self into the Condition that is everywhere the case, prior to our fear.
In that process, Realized in the Way of Radical Intuition,3 there is release of all limitations of the body-mind, and of the structural design of Man, and of the experiential inevitabilities of the World Order, and even of the God we presume on the basis of all of that. The individual self, and Man, and the World, and God are all simultaneously Surrendered, Sacrificed, Translated, and Awakened into the Absolute Transcendental Personality, or the Divine Paradox, in which and as which all experience, all limitations, all presumptions, and all self-illusions arise as superficial and unnecessary modifications, inconsequential, without binding force, in an Infinite Vortex of Ecstatic Bliss. This Divine Personality is, in Truth, the Condition and Identity of every human individual, and of Man, and of the World, and of the Presumed or Logically Necessary God of all of that. The true Self of all selves is the Subject of all conditions, and all conditions together are literally the Body of that One.
3. The Way of Radical Intuition is the fourth and final stage of practice in the Way of Divine Ignorance that Bubba Free John Teaches. The three preceding stages are the Way of Divine Communion, the Way of Relational Enquiry, and the Way of Re-cognition. Please see chapter 6, “The Sacrifice of Man,” for a full description of these stages.
In recent days, after his initial obligations to devotees were all fulfilled, Bubba was obliged to recapitulate the various phenomena that led up to his own Awakening. Then, after several weeks, in which the body-mind seemed disturbed by all kinds of psychic and physical phenomena, all of the latent mechanics of his soul were Liberated into the Ecstasy of Real God. The Ultimate Process in the seventh stage of life has become a Profound in which the limits of Bubba’s ordinary personality have begun to dissolve. In the early days of his Work with devotees, it was possible for Bubba to serve others by duplicating the habit conditions of the usual life, and struggling with others until the spell of common desires and tendencies could break. But this aspect of his obligation in the world began to dissolve, having essentially fulfilled itself, from the date of his birthday anniversary, November 3, 1976. Since that time he has been at work in relative seclusion, formalizing the Communication or Teaching of the Way of Divine Ignorance, and establishing the Institution or Church in which this Way is lived in his Company. But, most recently, the Disposition of the Transcendental Divine has Acquired this body-mind, Revealing and Establishing the Power and Ecstasy in which our Sacrifice is Fulfilled. Now Bubba has been sifted out, Enlarged upon the smithereens of bodies, thoughts, experiences, times and spaces and shapes. What has been at Work in Bubba all of this lifetime has now Invaded all his parts. The seventh stage is Full.
In the last months, many aspects of the Future of Bubba’s Work have been made clear. The Mysteries of this Process of Divine Translation are being shown in him, and he will have the opportunity to make some of this known, for the sake of all those devotees who will make this Transition in the future. However, Bubba’s Communication of the Teaching through the written and spoken word must fulfill itself within the next several months. It is already profoundly difficult to speak and write of these Great Matters. And the time must come in which he cannot any longer speak very much of this. As time goes on, devotees must rely on the Teaching as it has been recorded, and as it is implemented in the Devotional Community of The Free Communion Church. Bubba must be approached less and less for the Teaching and the lessons of the Way. Instead, he should be approached only in the formal and devotional manner, for the sake of Spiritual Communion, whereby the Divine Help and Ecstasy are Communicated to those who are prepared for the Sacrifice.
The present essay is intended to say something of the Process of Transition or Translation, from the position of the finite personality, the limited body-mind, or the “covered soul,” into the Domain of the Absolute Personality, the Self and Infinite Body-Mind of the Divine Person, Who is the Infinite Paradoxical Identity of every human individual, and of Man, and of the Total World, and of the Objective Deity, or the Presumed Divine that seems to stand in relationship to the World and Man and all beings.
There is only One Person. That Person is not separate from any thing or any one. That Person is the Identity of the God and of the World which we contemplate in our conventional or separated psycho-physical condition. That Person is not only the Identity of God, and of the World-God and World representing the Self, or Mind, and the Body of the Divine Person-but that Person is also the Identity of every human individual, and of Man, and of all species of experiential existence.
Therefore, when our Sacrifice becomes Full, and we are Awakened from the separate personality to the Absolute Personality, we pass beyond confinement to the logic of subject and object relations in the conventional sense. The personal self ceases to be separate from the Total Incarnation that is Man. And personal consciousness ceases to be separate from any experienced conditions, or from the World, the Totality of Manifest Experience in all worlds and planes. Just so, personal existence ceases to be separate from God, or Reality, or Truth, or Infinity, or Bliss.
In this Process of Translation, we pass as if through a point in space, at. the root center of the heart. All awareness converges on that point in a kind of spiral or vortex. And that point is so small it is without dimensions, or any conceptions, or any objects. The independent self seems to dissolve in this narrow Passage. It is essentially the same Process as in death, except that it is a complete and total Transition, whereas ordinary death fails to “meet this mark. “4 Ordinary death, and ordinary mystical experience, are only a tour within the range of the separated personality. Thus, ordinary death and mystical experience are a matter of passing from grosser states to subtler states, and from focus in lower functional regions of the body-mind to focus in higher functional regions of the body-mind. But Divine Translation is a matter of Transcendence of separate bodily, emotional, mental, astral, super mental, and egoic states of experience. It is a Transition through the infinitesimal space of the Heart.
Suddenly, in this Passage through the Center of the Heart, there is Awakening into the Paradoxes of the Absolute Personality – Who transcends self, and Man, and the World, and the God we believe is altogether separate from these, but within which self, and Man, and the World, and independent God continue to arise in a kind of Fluid of Ecstatic Consciousness. In the first six stages of life, wherein we grow toward this Transition, and before it has become completely clear that the Divine Personality is One, many “Threshold Personalities” may appear, as Guides, or Archetypal Instruments for the Communication of a Transcendental Understanding of the Ultimate Situation.
These “Threshold Personalities” are a kind of Transitional Logic that helps create a sense of order, and enables the conventional body-mind (which still survives in the ordinary conditions of the daily world) to feel comfortable. Thus, the function of these “Threshold Personalities” is to make the Transition possible without shock or bewilderment.
4. Bubba refers here to the literal meaning of the word ”sin,” which is ”to miss the mark.” Ultimately, any form of life other than perfect God-Communion and God Realization is sin, the failure to meet the Mark.
In some cases, there may be visions and other direct observations of such “Threshold Personalities.” In other cases, they may be seen more in terms of their effects. Thus, the individual may Communicate prayerfully, bodily, with the Radiant Divine, and suddenly feel confronted with a Presence, or a psychic sense of some specific Personality of spiritual significance, such as Jesus, or Krishna, or the Buddha, or the Living Spiritual Master. And it will be discovered that heartfelt, prayerful submission and requests to such a Personality are followed by events that clearly and consistently represent a response to the devotional gesture.
Bubba’s experience confirms all of this. In the earliest phase of the Transition, or Translation and Awakening into the Absolute Divine Personality, there are signs and demonstrations and visions and a total chaos of Influences. All of this is not entirely pleasant. It is often bizarre and even “tacky,” like a makeshift contraption of dreams. It is itself a truly Chaotic Process, which serves to break up the conventional self-limits and to establish a Foundation for natural Awareness within the Presumption of Absolute Personality.
As this Process matures, the “Threshold Personalities” are revealed to be only Transitional Archetypes of the Absolute Personality Itself. And from then on, Humor is established relative to all conditions of experience, however great or aggravating they may appear.
This is Bubba’s Confession of our Awakened Destiny. What is beyond the Threshold and the Illusions at the Doorway? The separate personality depends on experience in order to exist, and all experiences are either subjective or objective to him. But the Transcendental Personality is One, upon Whom all experiences depend, and in Whom all phenomena rise and fall spontaneously, while He Swoons.