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What Is The Seventh Stage of
Life?
Adi Da Samraj
The seventh stage of human life is the stage of bodily
Translation, or Transfiguration of the total body-mind and
the atomic soul in the Infinite Radiance of the Living
God.
Seventh Stage (or Inherently Most Perfect, and
Self-Evidently Divine) Enlighenment Is Simply To Be
Inherently Most Perfectly (and Non-“Differently”) Awake To
My Inherently Perfect and Self-Existeing and Self-Radiant
Love-Blissful Self-Condition Of Conscious Light, and
(As Such) To Divinely Self-Recognize whatever
(Apparently,or conditionally) arises – and, Thus, To
Self-Recognize whatever (Apparently, or conditionally) aries
To Be Only Inherently Perfect, and
Self-Existing, and Self-Radiant Love-blissful Conscious
Light. To Self-Abide Thus – while Freely, “Naturally”, or
Non-Stategically Allowing whatever arises to arise (and
Neither Seeking, Nor Holding On To, Nor Avoiding whatever
arises as the body-mind or to the body-mind) –
Is To Inherently Transcend (or Shine Through, and Beyond)
whatever (Apparently, or conditionally) arises.
Sutra 62 – The Dawn Horse Testament
Simply Be
Most Perfectly
Awake
Self-Radiant Conscious Light
Recognize
Arising
to
Be Only
Conscious Light
“What is the seventh stage? It is simply that Disposition
in which your response to the Divine is complete. What are
the stages previous to that? They are just stages of less
than complete response, in which certain dimensions of your
existence are not yet in the responsive condition or
disposition, but which are somehow locked, contracted,
unopened. “
Adi Da Samraj, November 10, 1980
Consider the argument of this Teaching itself. It is
often a very subtle, very profound argument that requires
the real participation of attention to make its point. You
must awaken to the disposition that is the ultimate
consequence of this argument. Thus, none of the key words or
concepts of the traditions is an appropriate expression of
this Way that I Teach because these concepts do not describe
the actual Realization of the seventh stage. Having
considered the use of traditional terms, I sometimes use
them in my own language as ways of expressing what I want to
say in one context or another. But only radical
understanding expressed as enquiry and re-cognition is the
point of view of this Way.
It is easy to fall into the pattern of conventional
thinking that belongs to the fourth, fifth, and sixth stage
schools of the traditions and to feel, therefore, that the
radical considerations of the seventh stage are more or less
restatements of the point of view inherent in the fourth,
fifth, and sixth stages of life.
“It is only when God, or the Reality of the Radiant
Transcendental Being, cannot be denied or even
conventionally affirmed but only tacitly presumed (because
It is Obvious, no matter what is arising as experience) that
the body-mind abides already or priorly Free in
God-Communion. And only such tacit God-Communion, Realized
moment to moment, provides the Creative basis for truly
human growth, higher transformation, and ultimate
transcendence.”
But the point of view of the seventh stage is a radical
and unique point of view. If that point of view is then
brought to the conditions of the stages of life, as it is in
our Way, then it transforms the disposition at every stage
of life.
Once the Realization of the seventh stage is established,
there is natural and radical transcendence of the body-mind
through the undermining and ultimate dissolution of the
mechanism of attention.
The Radiant Transcendental Being is realized in the
seventh stage of life. The transcendental Self which was
realized in the sixth stage is no longer pitted against the
phenomenal world. The Self no longer seeks to remain
concentrated in the heart-root, exclusive of all objects.
The “eyes” of the heart open. The liberated “individual” now
Realizes everything to be a modification of the Radiant
Transcendental Being. The world is recognized as
continuously arising in the Ultimate Being, which is
coessential with the Self.
The seventh stage of life is the clear and final
fulfillment of the first six stages of life. Its Revelation
and Demonstration by My own Form, Presence, State, Work, and
Word are My unique Gift to all and All. However, within the
Great Tradition itself, there are some few literatures and
Realizers of the sixth stage type that express
philosophical, or insightful, but yet limited and
incomplete, intuitions that sympathetically foreshadow some
of the basic characteristics of the by Me Revealed and
Demonstrated seventh stage Realization.
In the seventh stage of life, there is simple (Most
Perfect and Most Prior) Inherence in the Condition and
Identity of Self-Existing and Self Radiant Being, Which is
unqualified Love-Bliss, Consciousness Itself, Transcendental
(and inherently Spiritual) Divine Being, That Which is
otherwise apparently modified in the form of all conditions,
but Which, once Realized, Is Itself Inherently Most Perfect
transcendence of all such modifications. No effort is
required for such transcendence in the seventh stage of
life. Rather, in the seventh stage of life, transcendence is
already the case, tacitly obvious, inherent in the
Transcendental (and inherently Spiritual) Divine
Self-Condition.
It is not that only those who are in the seventh stage
are enlightened. Those who are in the previous stages of
practice are at times entered into the disposition of
enlightenment and at other times they are not.
“what is called enlightenment, liberation, or God union
in its true sense, is profoundly unlike experience. Truth is
not an experience. It is not a particular state, and it
cannot be identified with a particular way of life, a
particular appearance”
They phase in that Realization, and their realization of
the Radiant Transcendental Consciousness is not Absolute. It
is covered over by one or another aspect of experiential
consciousness.
“But most of these events are forms of temporary
distraction. They are only intense experiences. And men want
to hold on to such things. They want to preserve or repeat
them throughout life, and look forward to the repetition of
them in heaven or after life. But Truth rests on no
experience whatsoever. It is not in itself an experience, it
cannot be held onto, it cannot be repeated, it cannot be
looked forward to, it cannot be lost, it cannot even be
recommended. It is an absolute obliteration of what we
commonly call “life.””
Only in the seventh stage of life is there absolutely
nothing between the devotee and the Radiant Transcendental
Consciousness, not even a thought, because the devotee is
that Consciousness. Thoughts and other phenomena arise as
modifications of That.
The seventh stage of life is the state in which
everything is recognizable in Truth. It is the condition of
Realization in which everything appears as Reality, whereas
in the first six stages of life everything appears as
unreality. The world is unreal in the first six stages of
life. It is Real in the seventh stage of life, but it is not
necessary. It is not binding. It is utterly, tacitly
recognizable in the Radiant Transcendental Being or Brahman.
It is an utterly free condition. It is the Real condition of
birth. From a certain point of view birth is a matter of
unreality, bondage, or suffering. In the first six stages of
life it seems to be merely that. In the seventh stage of
life, life is recognizable in Reality. Life is not seen as
something necessary, or something that in itself is Real.
Rather, life is transcended in bliss. It doesn’t have the
power to create the vision of unreality. In the seventh
stage of life we enjoy the siddhi or the power of the Vision
of Reality as a perpetual realization, which cannot be
destroyed by any feature of conditional existence.
It is not that only those who are in the seventh stage of
life are Enlightened. Those who are in the previous stages
of life are at times entered into that same disposition of
Enlightenment. But they phase in that Realization, and their
realization of the Radiant Transcendental Consciousness is
not Absolute. It is covered over by one or another aspect of
experiential consciousness. Only in the seventh stage of
life is there absolutely nothing between the devotee and the
Radiant Transcendental Consciousness, not even a thought,
because the devotee is that Consciousness. Thoughts and
other phenomena arise as modifications of That.
Previous to the seventh stage, you see, the individual is
more or less identified with the self, or the body-mind, in
one or another of its dimensions, perhaps in all of its
dimensions.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj: Attention itself is that
fracturing. The objects are representations of the results
of that fracturing, worked out in every possibility of
duality. Attention is the feeling of relatedness. Attention
is the fundamental gesture of self-contraction, or of the
torque that makes the prism, the refracting gesture that
displays the colored lights of pattern in their discreet
sectors, planes, or worlds.
Devotee: Beloved, it certainly couldn’t be the case that
is attention is inherently self-contracted, though, because
in the Native Condition that is not longer true.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj: Attention is inherently the
self-contraction. There must be a transformation of view.
Attention does not change. Rather, there is a transformation
of view. The right view of attention is not that of
attention itself. When attention is found in That Which Is
Always Already The Case, then attention is Recognized and is
not longer binding. But attention, in and of itself, just as
itself, is the self-contraction. it is not that attention is
vanished in the case of Realization. No. There is a
transformation of view with respect to attention. That
transformation of view is inherent in Ultimate, or Most
Perfect, Realization.
Thus, in the seventh stage of life, there is the
appearance of the function of attention, so it seems, in the
play of awareness associated with attention, but it is
inherently Recognized. It has not binding power, even though
it is just what it is.
The psycho-physical self-contraction, in the
ego-expressive sense, is, of course, transcended in the
seventh state of life, because eogity has been transcended
at the root. There is still a pattern of duality, but not a
pattern of self-contraction in the ego-sense of that pattern
being a field of bondage. Even so, attention is contraction
in the sense that attention is necessary for the
bipolarization of light to be the case.
So in the seventh stage of life you see no particular
mode or mood or attitude, physical or mental is the specific
sign or realization. That realization is constant,
perpetual. But the Heart has become responsible for the
body-mind. The body-mind naturally is surrendered to the
Heart, the true Heart or the Divine Person, and so there is
a natural Gracefulness to the devotee in that stage, when he
must respond very actively, very forcefully in the play of
course in general is capable of that. Fundamentally he is
like a person in deep meditation, while engaged in the
affair of life. Not you know all the time sort of woozy and
unresponsive. But clear and still, body and mind constantly
in every moment bowing to the Heart.
This seventh stage is also the stage in which all aspects
of the body-mind show their most profound signs of
transformation through the agency of the Divine Power. So
the seventh stage itself is proof that the right form of our
realization of existence is essentially a graceful one, and
those patterns with which we must become integrated that do
serve our health, our well being in the ordinary world are
essentially graceful and not violent. They are not passive
beyond activity, but they are not hyperactive or reactive.
So you all exercise but exercise in this way is not mere
exercise, it is actually a form of consideration of
activity. You study exercise, you study action, you study
the process in yourself whereby you act in the world by
engaging in conscious exercise, in the consideration of it.
In other words all of this conscious exercise that you
engage in twice a day is a kind of meditation, or sum yama
on action on the process of the body and emotion and
thinking. So that you may ultimately become responsible for
it.
The special nature of the seventh stage of life is that
it is not a consequence of the first six stages, but it is
their Truth. The disposition of the seventh stage of life is
a radical point of view that can be developed at any time,
at any point of any stage of life. Any traditional
occupation or any moment of existence is the sufficient
setting for the awakening of this radical point of view,
which must be the point of view of practice.
The significance of the seventh stage is that we are
transfigured in the perfect awakening of the heart, or
absolute responsibility for the sense of independent
existence, even as the body. We realize responsibility for
the subjective ego in the early stages of development, but
we become fully responsible for the body itself as the ego
or “soul” in the sixth stage of life, in the stage of
Self-realization, or Jnana Samadhi, which matures into Sahaj
Samadhi.4 In that freedom the whole body-being becomes a
sacrifice, and the body itself as ego is released into the
Infinite. This sacrifice leads to the ultimate translation
of the whole body- being into the Divine Radiance, beyond
all ordinary human destinies.
Non-conditional (or seventh stage) Sahaja Nirvikalpa
SamadhiThe Sanskrit term Nirvikalpa
Samadhi literally means meditative ecstasy
without form, or deep meditative concentration
(or absorption) in which there is no perception of form (or
defined experiential content). Sahaja is
Sanskrit for innate, or natural. Thus,
Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi means Innate
formless Samadhi. Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi is the
full demonstration of the Awakening in the seventh stage of
life (see Appendix 1, p. 101), and it is Non-conditional, or
not based on any conditions in the body-mind-complex.
This Samadhi, Demonstrated for the first time
through the Avataric Life of Adi Da Samraj, is not based on
any form of withdrawal from conditions and relations.
Rather, it is the most Sublime and Profound Demonstration of
Love-Bliss. In Avatar Adi Das Words, the world is
Divinely Self-
Recognized, or tacitly comprehended, as a
modification of the Conscious Light of Reality, and not
different from It. Everything
conditionaleverything material, everything subtle or
psychic, even attention itselfis Realized to Be
Conscious Light. Once truly Realized, seventh stage Sahaja
Nirvikalpa Samadhi is Just So, and that Freedom cannot be
lost.
In seventh stage Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the One and
Only (Transcendental, Inherently Spiritual, Inherently
Indivisible, Intrinsically egoless, Perfectly Acausal,
Perfectly Transcendental Spiritual, and Self-Evidently
Divine) Conscious Light Merely Self-AbidesAlways With
Open Eyes, Merely Present (or Self-Awakened, and
Self-Aware) As Itself.
His Divine Presence Ruchira Avatar Adi Da
Samraj
The Aletheon
Traditional Forms of Samadhi
There are also several traditional manifestations of
Samadhi discussed in this essay.
fifth stage conditional (or conditionally ascended, or
Fully Ascended) Nirvikalpa SamadhiThe Sanskrit term
Nirvikalpa Samadhi literally means
meditative ecstasy without form, or deep
meditative concentration (or absorption) in which there is
no perception of form (or defined experiential
content). Traditionally, this state is regarded to be
the final goal of the many schools of Yogic ascent whose
orientation to practice is that of the fifth stage of life.
Fifth stage conditional Nirvikalpa Samadhi is an isolated or
periodic (and, necessarily, temporary) Realization. In it,
attention ascends beyond all conditional manifestation into
the formless Matrix of Divine Vibration and Divine Light
Infinitely Above the world, the body, and the mind. It is
produced by manipulation of attention and of the body-mind,
and is (therefore) incapable of being maintained when
attention returns (as it inevitably does) to the states of
the body-mind. In the Reality-Way of Adidam, conditionally
ascended Nirvikalpa Samadhi is a possible, but not
necessary, experience.
In Atma Nadi Shakti Yoga, Avatar Adi Da
references the Event in His own Sadhana Years in
which He Experienced Nirvikalpa Samadhi in what
He describes as its Priorly Ascended forma
Unique Sign of His Divine Avataric Nature.
Savikalpa SamadhiThe Sanskrit term Savikalpa
Samadhi literally means meditative ecstasy with
form, or deep meditative concentration (or
absorption) in which form (or defined experiential content)
is still perceived. Avatar Adi Da indicates that there
are two basic forms of Savikalpa Samadhi. The first is
characterized by the various experiences produced by the
Spiritual ascent of energy and attention (into mystical
phenomena, visions, and other subtle sensory perceptions of
subtle psychic forms) and the various states of Yogic Bliss
(or Spirit-Intoxication).
The second (and highest) form of Savikalpa Samadhi is
called Cosmic Consciousness, or the
Vision of Cosmic Unity. This is an
isolated or periodic occurrence in which attention ascends,
uncharacteristically and spontaneously, to a state of
awareness wherein conditional existence is perceived as a
Unity in Divine Awareness. The experience of Cosmic
Consciousness is pursued as the ultimate goal of
certain mystical and Yogic paths. It depends upon
manipulation of attention and the body-mind, and it is
interpreted from the point of view of the
separate (body-based or mind-based) selfand,
therefore, it is not equivalent to Divine Enlightenment.
The (fifth stage) Yogic Process of the progressive inner
un-Veiling of the Pattern (or Structure) of the
cosmic domain is demonstrated (in the Siddha-Yoga, or
Shaktipat-Yoga, tradition of Kundalini Yoga) via the
progressive experiencing (or
re-experiencing, in reverse order, or from base
to crown) of the total pattern of all the structural forms
that comprise the hierarchically-composed
body-mind-self (or body-brain-self),
via a progressively body-mind-self-reflecting
(or body-brain-self-reflecting) display of inner
perceptual objects (or apparently
objectified phenomenal states, conditions, and
patterns of cosmic light).
That Process (of the inner perceptual
un-Veiling of the hierarchical structure,
pattern, and contents of the conditionally manifested
body-mind-self, or body-brain-self)
Cul-minates (or may Culminate, at least eventually) in the
vision (in occasional, or, otherwise, constant, Savikalpa
Samadhi) of the blue bindu (or the blue
pearl),* as well as various other
objectified inner lights (such as the red, the
white, and the black), or even the vision of the total
Cosmic Mandala (of many concentric rings of color, including
the central blue bindu, with its Brilliant White
Five-Pointed Star at the Center).
In any case, the possibly perceived abstract inner light
(or any bindu, or point, or Mandala,
or complex abstract vision, of inwardly perceived light) is
merely, and necessarily, a display of the functional
root-point of the brains perception of
conditionally manifested universal light (or merely cosmic
light) itself.
However, if the Great Process of (fifth stage)
un-Veiling is (Thus) Continued, the
objectified inner bindu-vision (and
Savikalpa Samadhi itself) is, in due course, transcended (in
Fully Ascended Nirvikalpa Samadhi)Such That there is
the Great Yogic Event of Penetration of (and
Into) the True (Intrinsically Formless,
Non-objective, and objectless)
Maha-Bindu, Infinitely Above the body, the
brain, and the mind.
That Great Yogic Event was, in fact and in Truth, What
Occurred (in the Priorly, rather than conditionally,
Established manner) in My Own Case, in My Room, immediately
after I was Blessed by Swami (Baba) Muktananda (of
Ganeshpuri) and Rang Avadhoot in the garden of Baba
Muktanandas Ganeshpuri Ashram, in 1968.*
The Great Yogic Event of Penetration of the
True Maha-Bindu, Which Occurred in My Own Case
in 1968, is (in Its Extraordinary Particulars) a Unique
Example (within the history of the Great Tradition) of
spontaneous complete (and Priorly Ascended)
Penetration of all the chakras (or centers, or
points, or structures) of the conditionally manifested
body-mind-self (or
body-brain-self)simultaneous with sudden
Priorly Ascended Nirvikalpa Samadhi (or immediate
Penetration to Beyond the total cosmic, and
psycho-physical, context of subject-object
relations).
The phenomenon of sudden (rather than progressive)
conditional Ascent is described, in the (fifth stage) Yogic
traditions, as the Greatest (and rarest) of the
Demonstrations of Yogic Ascentas compared to
progressive (or gradual) demonstrations (shown via stages of
inner ascent, via internal visions, lights, auditions, and
so on).
In My Unique Case, it was only subsequently (or always
thereafter, and even now) that the universal cosmic Pattern
(or Vertically perceptible Great cosmic Structure) and the
universally extended pattern (or Vertically perceptible
inner cosmic structure) of the body, the brain, and the mind
(and the Horizontal inner Primary structure, or the three
stations of the heart) were (and are) directly (and
systematically, and completely) un-Veiled (in a
constant spontaneous Displayboth apparently
Objective and Perfectly Subjectivewithin
My Divine Avataric Vision).
In the Event of Priorly Ascended Nirvikalpa Samadhi in
1968, the intrinsically limited nature of Fully Ascended
Nirvikalpa Samadhi as it has been conditionally Realized (as
the supreme goal of the fifth stage Yogic
traditions) became immediately clear to Me.
Directly after the Event of Priorly Ascended Nirvikalpa
Samadhi, I was tacitly aware that the Realization of
conditionally Ascended Nirvikalpa Samadhi (necessarily)
depended on the exercise (and on a unique, precise attitude
and arrangement) of the conditional apparatus (and
intrinsically hierarchical pattern) of the body, the brain,
and the mind (and of attention)and that, therefore,
that Realization was (yet) conditionally dependent (or
psycho-physically supported), and, necessarily (or in that
sense), limited (or, yet, only a temporary stage in the
progressive Process of un-Veiling), and,
therefore, non-Final.
That is to Say, it was inherently Obvious to Me that any
and all internal (or otherwise psycho-physical)
experiencing necessarily requires the exercise
(via attention) of the root-position (and the
conditionally arising psycho-physical apparatus) of
conditionally arising self-consciousness (or of
the separate and separative psycho-physical
ego-I).
I immediately Concluded thatunless the Process of
Realization could transcend the very structure and pattern
of ego-based experiencing and the very Structure
and Pattern of the conditionally manifested cosmos
itselfRealization would Itself (necessarily) be
limited (as in the case of conditionally Ascended Nirvikalpa
Samadhi) by the same subject-object (or
ego-versus-object) dichotomy that otherwise
characterizes even all ordinary (or non-mystical)
experience.
Even though, in the Event of Priorly Ascended Nirvikalpa
Samadhi (Which does not depend on any manipulation of
attention, or even any manipulation of all of the mechanics,
or physiology and psychology, of the
body-mind-self), the perception, conception, or
psycho-physical presumption of a separate self
was effortlessly transcendedthe subsequent return of
the apparent limitations and dependencies associated with
experiential conditionality suggested to Me an even Greater
Event or Process or Re-Awakening was yet Required, if there
Is to Be the Indivisibly Perfect Realization I Tacitly and
Brightly Always Already Knew to Be
The (One and Only) Case.
Therefore, I Persisted in My Divine Avataric
Submission-Processuntil the un-Veiling
became Inherently Most Perfect (or seventh stageand
Intrinsically egoless) Re-Awakening to Divine
Self-Realization, Inherently Beyond all phenomenal (or
conditional) dependencies (or supports), and Infinitely (and
Divinely) Transcending all phenomenal (or conditional)
bondage (or limitation).
In the seventh stage of life, the individual naturally
rests in the central and prior current of the body-mind,
from which all of the phenomena of experience precedes. The
cerebrospinal nervous system is the core of the body-mind
itself. However, the cerebrospinal nervous system is not our
ultimate identity, It is simply the central vehicle of the
body-mind, It is the vehicle of the Radiant Transcendental
Consciousness, which is All-Pervading or Transcendental in
nature, but also coincident, because it is All-Pervading,
with the body-mind.
We must realize the native current of the body-mind that
is prior to all of the superficial activities of the
autonomic nervous system or of our conventional psychical
and mental states. We must, in other words, be able to enter
into the Transcendental Consciousness itself, which is the
fundamental Condition of all existence, including the
Condition of the body-mind, and which is prior to all the
dimensions of unconsciousness and subconsciousness and even
super consciousness or objective mystical awareness. Only by
entering into that Radiant Transcendental Consciousness do
we realize ecstasy, or self-transcendence, or the
transcendence of the body-mind. Only by naturally existing
in that Divine or Transcendental Consciousness do we enjoy a
right relationship, a lawful and natural relationship, with
the body-mind and its relations.
Seventh Stage Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi, The Bright
Coincides with Spontaneous “Regeneration” Of The Original
“Pattern” Of Amrita Nadi
The “Regenerated” Amrita Nadi Is My Great Single
(One-and-Only) Form, Shown Via the Human body-mind In The
Case Of My Any (By-My-Avataric-Divine-Spiritual-Grace) Most
Perfectly Awakened Devotee.
It is in the seventh stage of life that the
Spirit-Current rises again in the “regeneration” of Amrita
Nadi, from the right side of the heart to the matrix above
the head. In this process, the body itself is infused with
the Divine Spirit-Current in the Circle of the body-mind.
Thus, the heart on the right remains always as the “foot” of
the “organ” of Divine Self-Realization that is “Amrita
Nadi”.
it is possible for My devotees to enter into the seventh
stage Samadhi. It doesnt happen automatically. It has
required My Intervention. It requires a particular form of
practice altogether, therefore; so it is by your Perfect
Non-Separation from Me, Non-Difference from Me, Most
Perfect, in other words your Realization of Me Most
Perfectly, your Realization of Me, not merely an internal
exploration.
by this Grace you receive, in utter Communion with Me
without difference, and continuous study of My Word,
conforming the body-mind to Me and yet standing Radiantly as
the Witness, the crisis that is the seventh stage Awakening
occurs. But it must be served by all these means because it
doesnt happen naturally
Therefore, The Way Of The Heart Tends To Progress In The
Likeness Of The “Great Path Of Return”, Until The Final
Crisis Of The Sixth Stage Of Life (Which Crisis Establishes
The Seventh Stage Of Life). My Purpose (or Heart-Work) Is
Not Only To Communicate Right Understanding Of the ego-“I”,
The Seven Stages Of Life, and The Practices and Signs
Naturally Associated With Each Of The Seven Stages Of Life,
but To “Radically” (or Most Directly) Introduce The Most
Ultimate (Divine, and Inherently Most Perfect) Possibility
Into That Entire Affair. Therefore, By Entering Into
Relationship With all conditionally Manifested beings, I
Call (and Work To Align) each and all To My Free
Heart-Baptism (and, By Means Of My Free Heart-Baptism, I
Attract each and all To My Very, and Inherently Perfect,
State).
The Right Side Of The Heart Is The Root, or The Base, or
The “Feet” Of Amrita Nadi. The Right Side Of The Heart Is
The Seat Of Divine Self-Realization Of The Consciousness Of
Conscious Light.
Only those who truly Awaken in the seventh stage of life
have fulfilled the Way of Life completely. They are
open-eyed and free, addicted neither to the negation of the
world (or the nihilistic emptiness of the body-mind) nor to
the distracted and troubled embrace of the world itself (or
interminable preoccupation with the numberless possibilities
of mere experience, high or low). Only such individuals have
Realized perfect Identity with the Transcendental Being (the
Eternal Self), or perfect Unity between the body-mind and
the All-Pervading and Transcendental Divine Radiance. Only
such individuals have finally transcended the structural
schism in the body-mind that divides experience into
mutually exclusive categories, such as high and low, self
and other, subjective and objective, mind and matter, life
and death, East and West. Only such individuals are fully,
finally, and perfectly established in that sacrifice of self
in which all subjectivity (or self-possessed inwardness of
mind and psyche) is already transcended in radical intuition
of Eternal Identity with the Transcendental Self (or Divine
Being), so that the Way has become simple, direct, and total
bodily surrender into the All-Pervading Radiance wherein the
world and the body-mind are always presently arising.
Therefore, only in the Fullness of the seventh stage of life
is Man transcended and also Transfigured by the Radiant
Divine Being. So be it.
Once fully Realized, the seventh stage of life becomes
the perpetually Enlightened foundation of existence, even
beyond death and in any future lifetimes. The gross
body-mind is progressively Transfigured in Divine Radiance,
and the subtle or higher mind becomes the vehicle of
Transformation, wherein that Radiance manifests
extraordinary powers and faculties (such as psychic and
healing capacities, genius, longevity, etc.) as spontaneous
expressions of Divine Self-Abiding. Ultimately, this
continuous God-Realization leads to Divine Translation, or
conversion of the individuated being beyond all phenomenal
appearances into the “Divine Domain” of Radiant
Life-Consciousness.
The seven stages of life thus mark the natural or
structurally inevitable evolutionary development of human
existence from ordinary egoic birth to the ultimate stages
of God-Realization.
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