THE ALETHEON – Adi Da Samraj

“The Dogmas of Social Morality Versus The Esoteric
Spiritual Teaching That Is At The Origin of Traditional
Religions (sections 3 – 4) (pages 66 – 75)” From THE
ALETHEON (Final Ruchira-Sannyasin-Order-Authorized Edition)
–

Author(s):

The Dogmas of Social Morality Versus The Esoteric
Spiritual Teaching

That Is At The Origin of Traditional Religions

3.

If you are truly Transcendentally Spiritually Awakened,
then you intrinsically transcend the (apparently separate)
ego-“self” and the (apparently
“objective”) “world”—in every
moment. Even if the machine of the body-mind-complex is
active in one or another manner—as it inevitably is,
because it is born in the frame of space and time—no
action need bind you in any manner whatsoever, if you will
rightly understand the nature of the
body-mind-“self” and the “world”, and if
you will practice life on the basis of that right
understanding.

This is the logic of the teaching of Jesus of Galilee,
and (indeed) the logic of the teaching of all the great
Spiritual Adepts. The great Spiritual Adepts do not come
into the “world” merely to guarantee social order,
nor can their teachings rightly be reduced to a social
gospel. The teachings of Jesus of Galilee are not reducible
to the “Ten Commandments” and some sort of
socially positive emotion that is called
“love”.

The conception of “works”—or performing
action for the sake of becoming holy, “sinless”,
deserving of heaven after death, happiness, fullness,
success while alive—is discussed in the “New
Testament”, just as it is discussed in the Bhagavad
Gita and other traditional scriptures. If you understand the
esotericism represented by such figures as Jesus and Krishna
(or by the essential teaching communicated by the texts in
which such figures are the principal characters), you will
see that no traditional scripture recommends the way of the
social-personality-for-its-own-sake. In other words, no true
traditional scripture is a merely social gospel, or a gospel
that (ultimately) is merely a justification for a positive
social personality whose “salvation” lies in
“works”, or the cultivation of positive behaviors.
In fact, the traditional scriptures (such as the “New
Testament” and the Bhagavad Gita) all teach the
transcending of bondage to “works”, the
transcending of the necessity (and the “effects”)
of all ordinary action.

The society of the Jews at the time of Jesus of Galilee
was “officially” based on exoteric
“religious” laws. The Mosaic law, or the “Ten
Commandments”, was preeminent—but there were also
all kinds of other laws—including laws of the temple,
as well as many and various forms of conventional
“religious” belief and social morality that were
propagated by the various sects among the Jews. The Judaic
laws were, first of all, forms of intentional action, or
“causes” that produced culturally acceptable
“effects”. You were instructed about actions that
were appropriate for you in your station—actions that
would produce positive results. These became the laws, the
conventions of social morality, the behavioral rules and the
systems of behavior and action and idealism that were
associated with each of the social classes (or states of
life, birth, and social status).

Jesus of Galilee was teaching Jewish people, in the
context of a society founded on the observance of a sacred
system of laws. In that social context, it was assumed that,
in general, people were going to act according to the laws
or conventions of behavior that were communicated in the
sacred culture. However, the great Spiritual teachers have
always called people to notice that the laws of sacred
culture tend to be misused and misapplied—becoming
(thereby) the basis for bondage rather than Divine
Realization, and the basis for unhappiness and seeking
rather than Spiritual Happiness and Freedom. Thus, the
“New Testament” does not merely teach the Mosaic
laws, or even a new and summary principle of social morality
that could be called “love”. In other words, the
“New Testament” is not merely teaching social
morality, via the idea of “love” as a general
social concept. Nor is the “New Testament”
teaching the Law of love-in-this-“world” for the
sake of this “world” merely. Rather, the “New
Testament”—at least in its underlying original
contents—is primarily teaching the esoteric Spiritual
Mystery of the “Kingdom of God” (or the
“Divine domain”).

The fundamental teaching of Jesus of Galilee is about how
to enter, in every present moment, into the Spiritual
Condition of the Divine Reality, Which Is the
Source-Condition (or Matrix) of conditional “self”
and conditional Nature—and such that there is the
inherent transcending of all “sin” (or all
separation from the Divine Spiritual Condition of Reality
Itself, or all bondage to mere “causes” and
“effects”). Thus, the esoteric “method”
(or the Way of “right life”, rather than the
corporate social and altogether exoteric
“religion”) that is the underlying practice
recommended in the “New Testament”
Gospels—and in all true scripture—is the release
of all clinging to separate “self” and
“world”, and the relinquishment of all seeking for
results of any kind, by means of a total bodily and lifetime
submission to the “Spirit” (or “Pneuma”,
or “Breath”)4 That Is the Divine Reality. Jesus
taught that, on the basis of always present
“self”-surrender into “Spirit-Breathing”
Spiritual Communion with the Divine Itself (or the Spiritual
Reality-Condition That Is Inherently Divine), you should
live as if you have been completely forgiven, and as if
there are no binding necessities or unhappy obligations, and
as if no “sin” is effective in your life.

Thus, the fundamental principle underlying the “New
Testament” tradition is an esoteric principle. That
principle is the always-present transcending of conditional
“self” and conditional “world” via
ego-surrendering Spiritual Communion with the Divine
Self-Nature, Self-Condition, and Self-State of Reality
Itself. Most of the insti-tutional overlay of communication
in the “New Testament” is exoteric—socially
oriented toward the “world” of public laws, the
“world” of ordinary purposive action, and the
“world” of commonplace relations. Yet, if you
examine the gospel stories, you will find evidence, here and
there, of the underlying esotericism that is the
“root”-teaching of Jesus of Galilee.

Perhaps the primary example (or demonstration) of the
esoteric activity of Jesus of Galilee is the conversation
between Jesus and Nicodemus (in chapter three of the
“Gospel of John”). I will quote this passage to
you, from the translation in The Jerusalem Bible:

There was one of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a
leading Jew, who came to Jesus by night . . .5

In other words, Nicodemus came secretly. He did not want
to be observed—because the “official
religion”, like the State, is interested in exoteric
matters, which do not “stimulate” the populace,
and which do not (by any “distracting” means)
deter ordinary people from being merely socially positive
personalities. Nicodemus could have gotten in trouble for
coming to Jesus, who was associated with a message other
than the established dogma, for coming to hear a mysterious
message from a man who was doing mysterious things.

Nicodemus . . . came to Jesus by night and said,
“Rabbi,”—which is another word for
“teacher”, or “Guru”, in that
setting—“we know that you are a teacher who comes
from God; for no one could perform the signs that you do
unless God were with him.” Jesus answered:

“I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born from
above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said, “How can a grown man be born? Can he
go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
Jesus replied:

“I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born
through water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
God: what is born of the flesh is flesh; what is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised when I say: You must
be born from above. The wind blows wherever it pleases; you
hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or
where it is going. That is how it is with all who are born
of the Spirit.”6

This quotation is one of the principal summaries of
Jesus’ fundamental “point of view”. Jesus of
Galilee tells Nicodemus the “secret teaching”, the
teaching one could hear from Jesus only in secret, the
esoteric teaching—not merely the public message that
encourages everyone to be a more positive social character.
Nicodemus is receiving the “secret teaching” from
Jesus, the teaching for the “inner circle”.

What is the secret teaching about? It is about the
Mystery of the “Kingdom of God” (or the
“Divine domain”)—and the “Kingdom of
God” is esoterically interpreted to mean a
transformation of the individual from existence in the
“flesh” (or as an ego possessed by the
conventional purposes of this “world”) to
existence in and as the Living, Eternal, and Free
Transcendental Divine Spirit.

The idea of the “Kingdom of God” already
existed in Israel before the reported time of Jesus of
Galilee—but it was commonly conceived in terms of a
“worldly” destiny, and identified with a
“religious”, social, and political State
corporation, primarily made up of the righteous believers
among the Jews. The Kingdom was to be created in this
“world” by the “God” of the Jews through
a messiah, a Divine messenger, who would come into the
“world” and conquer all of the enemies of Israel
and establish Israel in peace and fullness, wherein all of
the laws again produce pleasurable and good results.

Jesus of Galilee was reportedly teaching in a time when
this ideal, this prophecy of the “Kingdom of God”,
was already present. In the passage from the “New
Testament” that I just quoted, Jesus is teaching a
person from the temple, Nicodemus, who is well aware of the
prophecies of the “Kingdom of God”. Jesus is
saying that the “Kingdom of God”, or the
“Divine domain”, is not of this “world”.
It is not externally evident in this “world”, and
it is not to come in this “world”—except,
perhaps, as a natural expression of the Spiritual Awakening
of humankind as a whole. The “Kingdom of God” is a
Mystery about being “born”—or
Awakened—into a state of Oneness with the Divine
Spirit-Breath. You can be born again in the Spirit, even
though you have already been born in the flesh. And that
which is born (or Awakened) in the Spirit is Spirit
Itself.

Thus, the esoteric teaching of Jesus of Galilee is that
you must become the Divine Spirit-Breath. In other words,
you must become That Which Is Divine. You must enter into
the Domain, the Condition, the “Kingdom”, of the
Divine—in this present moment. That is the process, the
Mystery, whereby a person can Realize the Truth that Jesus
came to teach. He did not teach about a “worldly”
kingdom that he would establish as a political messiah,
either now or in the future. Jesus is not coming again in
order to be the political messiah—he did not come the
first time in order to be a political messiah! The teaching
of Jesus is specifically about the transcending of that
expectation. Jesus taught about the “Kingdom of
God” as an esoteric Spiritual Mystery, not as a
convention of “worldly” seeking.

Now, it is true that, if everyone did Spiritually enter
into the “Kingdom of God”, then, as time went on,
as history developed, the Divine Spirit would be more and
more effective—and, eventually, perhaps something like
a non-utopian Divine Kingdom on Earth might appear. That
possibility is, indeed, latent in such instruction.
Nevertheless, Jesus’ “point of view” is
definitely that such a Kingdom will not come about by any
means other than a right life of Spiritual Communion with
the Divine Condition of Reality. Jesus is not merely coming
again to take over this failed “world” that
refuses to be “born” in the Spirit. The Spirit
cannot take over from outside. The Spirit is effective in
this “world” only through the esoteric process of
Spiritual Communion—not through mere belief, but
through worship of the Divine in Spirit, worship of the
Divine in Truth, until the “flesh” (or the
conditional ego-“self” and its “world”)
is utterly transcended in Spiritual Fullness.

Jesus of Galilee was saying that the “Kingdom of
God” is Realizable—but not through social laws of
any kind, and not through any transformation or perfection
of conventional behaviors. In any case (as Jesus taught),
the purpose of the “Kingdom of God” does not
relate to this “world”. Rather, the “Kingdom
of God” is the Spiritual State of Utter Unity, or
Eternally Prior Oneness, with the Divine. “And”,
Jesus is saying, “that Condition is Realizable now,
even under the rotten conditions here in
Israel”—or at any other time, and in any other
place. Such Realization is a matter of Awakening in
Spiritual terms. In other words, instead of clinging to
behavioral laws, beliefs, rituals, expectations, and
“worldly” inclinations, instead of depending on
the “effects” that you can create or that any
“God”-idea can create in terms of ordinary human
possibility, cling to the Spiritual Divine—always
presently. Enter into the Spiritual Divine, and Realize the
Spiritual Divine.

In the passage that I just quoted, Jesus of Galilee is
clearly communicating something about the Nature of the
Divine. For Jesus, the Divine is not the abstract “God
of our fathers”, the “God” of rote belief in
the temple. For Jesus, the Divine Spiritual Condition of
Reality is the Divine Source-Condition (or “One True
God”) of the fathers (or the ancestors)—not the
“God”-idea particular to any particular historical
time, but the Ever-Living Reality That Is Divine. The Living
Divine Is the Spirit-Breath of Reality. The Living Divine
Pervades the “world” and all beings As the
Spirit-Breath. Therefore, Spirit-Breath Re-Union with the
Living (or Inherently Spiritual) Divine Is the “Kingdom
of God”.

In another passage, Jesus of Galilee says that the
“Kingdom of God” is not outside you but within
you7—in other words, inherent in every moment of
existence. Thus, the “Kingdom of God” is inherent
in this moment of existence. The “Kingdom of God”
is not to be sought by any strategic means, not to be sought
outside yourself, not to be conceived as
“missing”, or “elsewhere” in time and
space. The “Kingdom of God” is a Principle. The
Spiritual Divine Condition Is—Itself—the
“Kingdom of God”.

Thus, Jesus of Galilee is saying: Abandon all
conventional principles and cling to the Spiritual
Divine—and, thus and thereby, transcend all separation
from the Divine Condition of Reality.

4.

In Jesus’ teaching, the Divine Law is stated in
contrast to the merely social (and political) laws. It is
not a new social law that Jesus of Galilee is teaching, but
the Law, the Divine Law. He is recommending not the law of
love as opposed to the Mosaic law, but the Law of
Spirit-birth.

Conventional Spirituality, even in its esoteric forms, is
often oriented to the way of works (or right actions),
because works can include not only social works but also
works that are performed in private and that produce results
which could be regarded to be positive from a conventionally
Spiritual “point of view”. Mysticism, for
instance, depends upon such action. In the Hindu tradition,
for example, forms of Yoga (such as Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga,
Raja Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, and Jnana Yoga8) are
traditionally conceived in these same conventional
terms—as actions that produce results. Thus, since the
most ancient days, all over the Earth, there has existed
this tradition of action, the way of works, the way of
action as a kind of magical activity.

In the traditions of the way of works, action is
conceived as something that always produces
results—and, therefore, it is recommended that one
perform only those actions that produce “good”
results. In contrast to the conventional way (or
“magical method”) of works (or
“causative” action), however, stands the true
esoteric way that has been indicated and pointed to by all
the great Spiritual Adepts. The great Spiritual Adepts are
traditionally associated with all kinds of lore about their
origin, and many models of the universe were reflected in
the stories of how a great Spiritual Adept appears and how
he or she relates to the Divine Condition of Reality.
Structures of the universe—with much
“aboveness” and “belowness” and
“middleness”, and many
“planes”—have always been part of the
esoteric traditions. The great Spiritual Adepts are
typically presumed to have “come down” from the
highest point in the scale of things into this
“lower” plane, to bring the esoteric teaching down
from on high, and, thus, into the middle and lower
“worlds”.

Whatever the model of the universe in the context of
which any Spiritual Adept is conceived to arise in the human
plane, the teaching of the great Spiritual Adepts (whether
historical or legendary) always speaks in contrast to the
conventional “wisdom” (or popular culture), and
(therefore) in contrast to the way of social morality for
its own sake, or the conventional way (or “magical
method”) of action-leading-to-results.

Jesus of Galilee taught people about the all-embracing
principle of love as the right and essential motivation
behind all social laws—yet, ultimately (and more or
less in secret), he was teaching people about the Spiritual
“Kingdom”, or Freedom through Spiritual
Realization of the Divine Condition (or Spirit-Breath) of
Reality. The teaching of the “New Testament” could
be summarized as: “Repent from ‘sin’.”
That is to say, understand and renounce all forms of
“self”-enacted separation from the Divine
Condition of Reality and be established in the “Kingdom
of God”, or the Divine Source-Condition That Is the
Spiritual Divine. Renounce “sinful” (or ego-bound
and ego-binding) actions, let all actions be performed in
surrender to the Divine Condition of Reality, and (thus)
fulfill the Law of Inherence in the Spiritual Divine.

“Religious” law is conventionally (or
exoterically) conceived in terms of various rules and
conventions of social morality. Thus, the “New
Testament” teaching has been interpreted and reduced to
mean “Repent—or be sorry for, and turn
from—your ‘illegal’ and inappropriate social
behaviors!” On a more profound level, the “New
Testament” summarizes all forms of social morality via
the primary law of love (or non-exclusiveness). Thus, the
teaching of the “New Testament” has also been
interpreted to say “Repent of all acts that are not
based on love, and perform all kinds of acts of love, or
‘self’-sacrificial, social, and relational
action.”

In the “religious” fictions of the “New
Testament” Gospels,9 Jesus of Galilee is made to preach
about the laws of social behavior, and he is critical, even
angrily critical, of the tradition of laws that were extant
in his time—systems of behavior that were so complex
that an ordinary person could not help but regard himself or
herself to be a “sinner”. In the “New
Testament” Gospels, Jesus frequently criticizes the
“pharisees”, who (along with all the other
“religious officials” of the time of Jesus) made
the laws (or behavioral principles) whereby one might enter
the (socially “objectified”) “Kingdom of
God”, and who (the text supposes) made the laws so
complicated that neither the pharisees themselves nor the
people they taught could ever “enter the Kingdom”.
Jesus was very much involved, apparently, in criticizing
this over-complicated, “fleshy” conception, this
non-Spiritual conception, of the laws.

Jesus of Galilee summarized his idea of the moral law of
behavior many times. Sometimes, it is said, Jesus just
pointed to the summaries from the “Old Testament”
tradition: “Love God with your entire being, and love
your neighbor as if your neighbor were not other than
yourself.” In other words, always surrender to the
Divine—and do not be exclusively
“self”-serving in your social behaviors. Do not,
in any negative (or non-Spiritual) sense, discriminate the
apparent individual “self” from any apparent
“other”.

This more exoteric (or social-behavior) teaching of Jesus
was not a new teaching. This social teaching was already
basic to the teaching tradition of conventional Judaism.
Jesus of Galilee simply emphasized this teaching, in a
social and cultural setting where the simplicity of that
“point of view” had, under the weight of the
“official religious” and political conditions of
the times, been lost (or, at least, become very much
diminished in practice).

However, nothing like the esoteric moral teaching of
Jesus of Galilee was fundamental (or even, in general,
known) to the “official” Judaism of his time.
Jesus’ esoteric version of the “moral law” is
stated thus: “See everyone in and as and by means of
the Spirit-Breath. Relate ‘self’-sacrificially (or
in an ego-transcending manner) to others, and, altogether,
live the life of love that spontaneously emerges from a
heart immersed in the Spiritual practice of Breathing the
Divine Spirit-Breath.” Through such teaching, Jesus
introduced concepts from a broader cultural
base—including Hellenistic and even Eastern influences.
That same esoteric teaching appears not only in the
undercurrent of the “New Testament”, but also in
the communications of all the great Spiritual Adepts
throughout history. That esoteric teaching is about Divine
Spiritual Communion and always-present Freedom from
unhappiness.

The rather exoteric moral teaching of Jesus of Galilee is
of a universal nature: “Be selfless—do not confine
yourself to the commitment to separate ‘self’,
such that you are always acting to serve yourself.”
Thus, Jesus of Galilee can be understood to have been
saying, “As action, be love.” That is to say, do
not act on the basis of separate “self” and
desire-for-the-results-of-action. Act selflessly, on the
basis of love of the Divine, or commitment to the Divine,
and to all beings in the Divine.

However, the esoteric (or Spiritual) teaching of Jesus of
Galilee is not about love as mere social morality, nor as a
Yoga generated for its own sake or for the sake of
conventional results. The esoteric teaching of Jesus was
about the Spiritual Principle, which is, inevitably, also
expressed as love in the inevitable life of action. The
esoteric teaching of Jesus was the teaching of the
“Kingdom of God” as a Spiritual Mystery, rather
than the conventional teaching of the “Kingdom of
God” as a “worldly” change—and the
esoteric teaching of Jesus was not about the idea of
“God” as a kind of powerful warrior (or
“War-God”) who is, eventually, to dominate the
“world”, but, rather, the “God” of Jesus
is the Spirit-Breath That Liberates the heart by means of
psycho-physically-enacted Divine Communion.

Those who regarded Jesus of Galilee as a messiah-figure
expected him to be a political warrior. However, Jesus of
Galilee specifically criticized the exoteric expectations
regarding the “Kingdom of God”, and he worked to
replace that exoteric understanding of the “Kingdom of
God” and the “messiah” and the Divine Itself
with an esoteric (or truly Spiritual) understanding. The
esoteric teaching of Jesus is about the “Kingdom of
God” as the moment to moment event of being born (or
Awakened) in and (thus) As the Divine Spirit-Breath.

The teaching and disposition of Jesus of Galilee can be
summarized as follows: The Way is to Awaken in the Spiritual
Divine—in each and every moment. The Way is to Awaken
not only in but (also) As the Spiritual Divine—and
(thus) to be Free and Happy.

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