IV
God as the Creator, the Good, and the Real
Conventional religion originates in the consciousness that characterizes the earlier stages of life. Thus, it is ego-based and it serves the functional desire of the manifest or phenomenal self to be protected, nourished, pleasurized, and ultimately preserved.
The phenomenal self or egoic (self-centered) body-mind is the source of conventional religion as well as all of the other ordinary and extraordinary pursuits of born existence in the first six stages of life. Therefore, it is not God but the ego (perhaps gesturing conceptually toward God) that is the source and fundamental subject of popular religion as well as higher mysticism. Real spirituality, true religion, or Transcendental Occupation begins only when the egoic consciousness (with all of its mind, emotion, desire, and activity) is thoroughly understood and inherently transcended. For this reason, only the radical Teaching of the Wisdom of the seventh stage of life directly serves the process of actual God-Realization. All other forms of doctrine or instruction serve the purposes of the first six stages of life—all of which are founded on manifest egoity and conditional attention.
For further reading go to
