Vision Mound Magazine – Transcendence and The Seven Stages of Life


Volume 1 , Number 8

FEBRUARY 1978

Every Realm Must Be Transcended

The seven stages of life are not stages beginning with
birth and simply ending at death. Death is a process
relative to the gross physical body, which is ours at birth
and in the first stage of life. Thus, death may occur at any
time after birth, even long before the seven stages of life
are matured. If death occurs before the responsibility of
Sacrifice in the seventh stage, there is a temporary
interval of experience in subtler dimensions than the gross
physical, but then it is necessary for a new physical birth
to occur, and the continuation of the cycle of seven stages.
If the individual matures to the point of stable capacity
for ascent beyond the gross physical (in the fifth stage of
life), then it may not be necessary to be reborn into the
gross physical realm, but the body-being is awakened to born
experience in subtler realms. Even so, such realms must
themselves eventually be transcended, yielding the subtle
body-being to the prior Infinite in Sahaj Samadhi and Bhava
Samadhi. The human being enjoys the structural capacity to
Realize all seven stages in a single brief incarnation,
whereas birth into subtler realms implies levels of
consolation that require great periods of time or experience
in order to be transcended. Just so, the failure to become
fully responsible while alive implies countless future
lifetimes in the gross world struggling toward
happiness.