The Fundamental Structure of Existence

By this time it was clear that Beloved Adi Da was both rounding out and hastening the Completion of His “Considerations”. On August 11, He informed the Adidam Sukhadam editors that The Adi Da Samraj Upanishad – then a collection of Wisdom-Essays on the Spiritual Principles and practices of the Way of the Heart-should be considerably expanded to fully elaborate the entire spectrum of His Wisdom-Teaching, while also describing His Complete Divine Self-Revelation. Beloved AdiDa noted that the title of the Text includes the traditional term “Upanishad”, meaning “sitting nearby, or at the side of[the Guru for the sake of sacred Instruction]”, and that this suggests that the Text should appropriately include not only essays, but significant and summary Discourses as well. He suggested that the editors “consider” any of His Discourses since January 11, 1986 (the initiating Event of His Divine Emergence), but that the new inclusions would primarily come out of this gathering period.

Thus, Beloved Adi Da made use of the phone gathering incidents to summarize and clarify many aspects of His Teaching and Revelation. Often speaking to devotees until well past dawn, Beloved Adi Da Revealed the most profoundly esoteric Secrets regarding the ultimate stages of life and practice, especially the seventh. He also commented extensively on “the fundamental structure that underlies all appearances”- the structure that accounts for the gross, subtle, and causal dimensions of conditional existence and their relationship to the human body-mind and the mechanisms of attention. Other principal themes during these gatherings included the “grid of attention” and its relationship to Consciousness, the “Perfect Practice”, and the distinctions between Beloved Adi Da’s seventh stage Realization and the sixth stage Realization of Ramana Maharshi.

In the following three excerptsf rom these gatherings, Beloved Adi Da specifically addresses the subtle and causal dimensions and their relationship both to appearances within the gross domain and to the anatomical structure of the human body-mind, the “grid” of attention, and the relationship between the state of deep sleep, the causal dimension, and Ultimate Divine Self-Realization.

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The Dimensions of Cosmic Appearance and the”Dimensionless” Divine Domain

July 23, 1995

DEVOTEE: You have described how the right side of the heart corresponds to the pacemaker 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 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 ont he 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 grossbody-being a kind of lump, without intelligence-limits thefaculties. 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 coraborated 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, and 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 looks like? So it could manufacture a bug-like appearance that looks exactly like the insect. These kinds of things 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 simultaneously 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 CosmicMandala.

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 ConsciousnessItself, 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 notas 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, CompassionateForce – 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 everything and everyone 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 beingMaker. 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, Preset 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 thepoint 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 DivineRealization, the process of Realizing the DivineSelf-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.