Gautama's principal and most concrete image of born existence was that of fire or heat. His philosophical conceptions are feeling-conceptions (rather than merely intellectual or verbal-mental conceptions). His philosophy has its concrete basis in a profound feeling-sensitivity to the status of born existence. He felt that born existence (or every form of psycho-physical process) is literally on fire. That fire is the concrete feeling-context of all desire. And desire, in Gautama's view, is the prime mover or creative cause of all forms of motion, effect, thought, experience, birth, self, and death.

Gautama's entire philosophy is devoted to convincing us of the existence of this fire and motivating us to put it out. Therefore, his Argument is first of all devoted to waking us up to the fact that we are on fire (much as one would try to call someone's attention to the fact that a burning coal had fallen into his or her clothing). His first effort is devoted to the establishment of the conviction in his hearers that they are on fire—which is to say that born existence is inherently painful, burning, or driven by desire.

Gautama's second great effort is devoted to those who have heard his "Fire Sermon" 1 —or who are attentive to their actual condition and who are thus convinced that they are on fire. Therefore, the second great aspect of Gautama's Argument is the description of the Way (or Method) whereby this fire can be quenched. And that Way is associated with another principal concrete image. It is the image of coolness, or a cooling air that ultimately blows out the fire. That coolness is the central meaning of "Nirvana" in Gautama's philosophy. And the Way of Gautama's Buddhism is simply a practical effort to cool (or truly understand) and finally quench (or transcend) the fire that is born exstence.

In Gautama's view, born existence is on fire, but the fire is not necessary, and it can be cooled (or relieved) and ultimately quenched (or transcended). The fire is originally ignited and also continually reignited by desire (or a motion and a departure from an original tranquility, which is Transcendental Bliss). Therefore, the fire can be cooled and eventually snuffed out by simply cancelling the ignition or initiation of self (or all the kinds of independent and individuated psycho-physical states).

Gautama's Method for cooling the fire took the form of a number of instructive arguments and techniques. The state of the individual would determine which instructive argument would seem convincing and, therefore, which technique would be applied in practice.

The lesser "hearers" would devote themselves primarily to conservative personal and moral disciplines. But such disciplines are not sufficient for ultimate quenching, since they are themselves ego-based and desire-based (and would thus cause the practice to be perpetual rather than temporary and finally conclusive). Personal and moral disciplines are generally necessary aspects of the daily practice of serious practitioners, and they do indeed have a "cooling" effect, but they are only a beginner's practice, or a rudimentary aspect of the general practice. The cooling effect produced by disciplines and absorptive meditations eventually becomes desirable for its own sake, and the enjoyment of it reinforces the bondage to self (and the illusion that the self is not on fire). Therefore, there is an ultimate form of practice in Gautama's Way (and in any true form of the Transcendentalist Way). That practice transcends the egoic body-mind, its desires, its states, and its attainments. And that ultimate form of practice required (and still requires) ultimate or most radical "hearing" or understanding of the principal Argument of the Teaching. Therefore, only those who achieved great maturity on the basis of the original disciplines, or who were otherwise naturally equipped with a profoundly free intelligence (or with energy and attention free of the profound burdens of gross and also subtle personality limitations) could understand Gautama's more radical instructive arguments and so practice his more radical technique of quenching.

Gautama's most radical instructive argument is simply that the born ego (or psycho-physical self) is an utterly and entirely painful and unnecessary process. Those who could "hear" this argument would not be moved merely to improve or gradually to purify themselves. They would be utterly and directly Awakened to a free disposition, unconcerned with born existence. And the Awakened Way (or natural process that transcends all motivated and self-based techniques) they would be moved to practice would follow inevitably and naturally from this original understanding and dispassionate freedom from all the implications and states of apparent or born existence. That Way is Samadhi Itself, or native Abidance in the Transcendental (or Nirvanic) Condition that becomes Obvious when attention is no longer fixed upon conditional motives and states. It is Sahaj Samadhi, the Native Condition (prior to desire, fire, and cooling), in which there is utter indifference to the body-mind and its states and relations, but in which there is also profound Awakeness to the Transcendental or Nirvanic Condition.

Gautama's Teaching developed spontaneously from his own Samadhi. (Such is also the case with my own Teaching and the Teaching of all Great Adepts.) His Great Argument is not merely a call to discipline, or to blow cool breaths on the fire of self. Such is only a lesser aspect of his Teaching—or that part that first attracts the gross personality. Gautama's Great Argument is basically a call to Samadhi, or Nirvana Itself, which is Oblivious to the born self and all conditional possibilities, but Awake to the Inherent Bliss of the Transcendental Reality (or That which is Obvious in the Samadhi of utter self-transcendence).

I do not Argue the Way on a basis that depends on negative images or on the problem-categories of conventional self-awareness. Nor is practice of the Way of the Heart limited to self-discipline and the search for meditative or mystical absorptions of attention, since the pursuit of such means or ends for their own sake is self-based, inherently Narcissistic, and bereft of real understanding. I call for direct or radical understanding of self in every moment. Those who "hear" me most profoundly understand that the self (and thus the entire process of conditional attention) is only and entirely an unnecessary contraction. And this understanding (or most subtle meditation) ultimately allows That in which the contraction is always occurring to be Self-Revealed as the Obvious. Sahaj Samadhi is simply Awakeness to That which is Obvious when all forms of conditional or egoic attention are recognized as unnecessary instants of self-contraction (or separation from the prior or Transcendental Condition and into an illusion of limitations). And such Samadhi is beyond all forms of meditation (since meditation is an act of conditional or egoic attention in relation to one or another kind of object or Object). Therefore, my own Way, like the Way of Gautama, is a call to the Samadhi (or free conscious Realization) of the Real, which is Transcendental, beyond all differences, and thus beyond all descriptions.

Gautama's Teaching developed as a consideration outside the traditional and popular culture of his time. Gautama and his Teaching were part of the anti-Vedic and non-Vedic "underground" of India, twenty-five hundred years ago. (The traditions of Jainism and Samkhya also developed in that same milieu.) Therefore, the most characteristic features of Gautama's Teaching represent trends of consideration that are the polar opposites of the even more ancient traditional conceptions of Vedic culture.

As I have already indicated, the ancient Vedic tradition of India was, like the traditions that appeared everywhere in the ancient world, a development of the basic or most primitive "philosophical" consciousness of mankind. That "philosophy" (or primitive psychology) is best represented by the concept of "animism." And animism is the basis of all primitive religious and spiritual "technology" or craft—which technology or craft is generally called "shamanism." 2 The root-idea that developed from the primitive animistic and shamanistic culture was that of the Divine Emanation of the living world of events and beings (all of which are conceived to be inhabited and controlled by an invisible "spirit-force" or life-force, which is conceived either to be individuated as specific and independent entities or else to be all-pervading as an Ultimate Entity). And this primitive religious and spiritual culture is the origin of all forms of polytheism, monotheism, ritual cultism, magical practice, yogic mysticism, and so forth.

This great Emanationist tradition is associated with a number of primary ideas that describe existence in the Emanated worlds, but the principal idea is that of sacrifice. The Emanationist culture of practice and the Emanationist world-view are founded on an elaborate conception of life as a ritual sacrifice. Sacrifice is conceived to be the single principle that describes the origin and the structure of the world, the individual, the society, and all the forms of action whereby each part or individual is related to the whole and to every other part or individual. Likewise, in the Emanationist view, sacrifice is the logic of all action on the part of human individuals, gods, and the ultimate God. And sacrifice is the principal means whereby happiness (or "salvation") is attained.

To be sure, all of the separate cultures of the ancient world developed unique cultural features, and as they developed through time, each cult or tradition developed its own language of sophisticated philosophy and theology. But all of the ancient systems were basically founded on the same animistic base. All conceived of Nature and the individual as being inhabited and controlled by invisible being (the "soul" in the individual and, in the case of monotheism, the "Great Soul" or God of Nature) and invisible forces (the individual's life-energy, the spirit-entities that pervaded all space, the "gods" or powers that controlled the natural world, and, in the case of monotheism, the One God-Spirit that pervaded or ultimately controlled all beings and all of Nature). The ancient Emanationist cultures generally conceived of the world as the product of sacrifice (on the part of God or gods). And, likewise, it was presumed that, since individual or creaturely existence was produced by the sacrifice of God or the gods, every creature is under obligation to fulfill the Law of sacrifice if it is to achieve and maintain a happy state in this world and the next. Therefore, the basis of all traditional cultures of the ancient world was the systematic description and performance of all kinds of ritualized sacrifices (whereby the connection was constantly reestablished between individuals and society, and between individuals, or collections of individuals, and the invisible forces or beings that controlled and affected them).

In the cultures of pluralistic animism and polytheism, the system was devoted to establishing magical, religious, moral, and mystical relations with (and, ultimately, control over) all kinds of individuated entities and powers in the realm of Nature. And in monotheistic cultures the system was devoted to establishing magical, religious, moral, and mystical relations with (and, ultimately, control over) the One Ultimate Entity and Power in or above the realm of Nature. In either case, there were complex rituals of personal and social behavior, magical or ceremonial activity, psychological and internal mystical disciplines, and a whole range of associated psycho-physical states or experiences that were the "rewards" or effects of right action (or right sacrifice). And if we understand all of this (which means that we must first be free of the provincial mind of our limited dogma or tradition) it is clear that there is no ultimate or absolute difference between the national traditions of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and all of the shamanistic tribal religions of the ancient and the modern world. All of the Emanationist systems are variations on the one idea of sacrifice as the means of participatory relationship between individuals, groups, societies, energies, or powers—and between all of these and the Ultimate Energy or Power or Being.

The Vedic tradition was simply the systematic cultural system of ritual action (or sacrifice) in the setting of ancient India. It was devoted to maintaining the orderly process of ritual sacrifices at every level of individual existence, the society as a whole, and in all the hierarchical planes of existence in and beyond the realm of Nature. And that sacrificial system was, like the sacrificial systems in all other animistic, shamanistic, and Emanationist traditions, founded on one basic exercise. It was the ritual of transforming and "sending up" an offering through submission of the offering to fire.

The essence of ritual sacrifice is, therefore, most concretely summarized and contained in the image of fire. Just as Gautama's (and, in general, the non-Emanationist's) principal and most concrete image of born existence was that of fire or heat, the principal and most concrete Vedic (and, in general, Emanationist) image of born existence was also that of fire or heat. But the two traditions (Emanationist and non-Emanationist) stand, at least in argument, in stark opposition and contrast to one another.

"Gautama's fire" is not the same as the "Vedic fire." Gautama's philosophy was specifically intended to represent an abandonment of the Emanationist views of immortal soul, ultimate God (or Reality as Cause), and life as a ritual bond of necessary sacrifices (all of which were intended to produce one or another result for the pleasure or benefit of the ego). Gautama's fundamental resistance to the Vedic system was not primarily based on a revulsion to priestcraft and ceremonial rituals of sacrifice. What he opposed most fundamentally was the conception of life (or born existence) as a necessary state to be reinforced and continued for the sake of its own continuation and experiential fulfillment. He did not believe there could be any final experiential fulfillment in the conditional realm of Nature, but he did firmly believe that conditional existence in any "born" or manifest form is inherently painful, deluded, self-possessed, fruitless, and unnecessary. Therefore, for Gautama (and for all non-Emanationists or ascetical philosophers) born existence is indeed on "fire" with the causative motion of desire, and that fire should, therefore, be controlled, quenched, and transcended as the means for transcending born existence itself.

By contrast, the Vedic Emanationist philosophers conceived of born existence as the product of Divine Causation, and thus born existence was presumed to be basically necessary, good, and capable of both temporal and ultimate fulfillment. The Vedic Emanationists (along with all other Emanationists) basically conceived of individuated existence as an effect of Divine Causation rather than of merely phenomenal and mechanical causation. They did, however, presume that self-possessed existence (rather than simple created individuation) was the essence of delusion, pain, and negative destiny. Therefore, the Emanationist cultural systems are all based on primary Law—the Law of sacrifice—which is the means whereby individuated existence is to be constantly purified, directed beyond itself, related to beings and powers (or Being and Power) beyond itself, and thus made to cause (or attract to itself) all kinds of pleasurable fulfillment and happy destiny (in this world and in the world or worlds or futures after death).

The non-Emanationist view, exemplified by Gautama's conception of fire, conceives of born existence as a negative or unnecessary and non-ultimate condition. Therefore, that view considers the human being to be on fire (and thus to be in need of cooling, quenching, and the ultimate transcendence of born existence itself). But the Emanationist view, exemplified by the Vedic conception of fire, conceives of born existence as a positive condition, or a condition that can both fulfill and transcend itself (not by bringing itself to an end, but by always releasing and gomg beyond its present state of limitations, and thus always moving into a higher plane in the scale of manifest existence). Transformation of self (rather than dissolution of self) seems to be the reasonable goal in the Emanationist view, because of the basic presumption that individuated existence is caused by (or inheres in) immortal and omnipotent forces, or even Caused by an ultimate Divine Being or Transcendental Reality. Therefore, that view considers the human being to be a fire-bearer, a kind of priest, who can always go beyond present limitations to future pleasures and fulfillments (either in the human world or in higher worlds) if he or she will conform to the law of sacrifice (and thus use the principle of fire to positively transform his or her existence).

Of course, the Vedic or Emanationist conception of fire does presume that born existence can fail to realize happiness. There is even the idea that human birth is auspicious only because it is capable of changing itself into a higher form via sacrifice (whereas in itself it is merely mortal and low in the scale of Nature). Therefore, the Emanationist idea of life carries with it the implication that one must practice the techniques of sacrifice (ritually, magically, religiously, morally, or mystically) as a great and profound effort of Wisdom if there is to be any hope of positively and ultimately transforming one's state of existence. Just as Gautama's Way requires ascetical success in order to achieve self-dissolution, the Emanationist Way requires magical and mystical success in order to achieve self-transformation. And each Way has its inherent and characteristic or unique doublebinds and loopholes that serve as traps for all those who are not yet Awake.

All of the concepts and practices of philosophy, religion, and spirituality in the first five stages of life are expressions of the Emanationist logic (except for the materialistic philosophies that are produced when human beings fail to grow beyond the rudimentary mentality of the first three stages of life). Therefore, all of traditional religion and mysticism in the first five stages of life is based upon the Emanationist idea of sacrifice as the primary means of world-creation and of happiness (or "salvation" from negative destinies). And, for this reason, the primary and most concrete image of all such traditions is that of fire. The Vedic "psychology of fire" is simply one great example of human culture based on these presumptions.

Fire is method (or a means of transformation) in the "idealist" or Emanationist schools, just as fire is the primary characteristic of suffering (or that which is to be released or overcome) in the non-Emanationist or sixth stage "realist" schools (such as that of Gautama). In the Emanationist schools of the first five stages of life (and even in the Emanationist schools of the sixth stage of life—such as those of Upanishadic Advaitism) the basic concrete metaphors for the process of sacrifice come from the ancient ritual use of fire in the making of ceremonial sacrifices. Fire (or heat) originally served as a method for transforming various sacrificed articles (or beings) via the process of cooking. It was through cooking in fire that gross sacrifices were transformed into subtle elements that could rise up and be visibly transported through the air to the subtle powers and beings (and gods or God) that were presumed to reside in the air. And whereas Gautama conceived of practice of the Way as the blowing of a cool breath on the fire of desire (in order finally to quench it), the Vedic tradition conceived of practice as a kind of bellows, or the blowing of air on heated coals to increase the intensity of the flame and its height of ascent, and so make the sacrifice more profound, total, and quick.

The gross ceremonial practices of fire sacrifice were only the lowest or most exoteric form of Emanationist culture. Such practices (and their priesthood) were intended to serve the lower class of humanity (or those not yet grown beyond the first three stages of life). And the same traditions that were devoted to exoteric ceremonialism and incantatory magic were also the bearers of exoteric teachings relative to the moral sacrifice of self. Thus, we can see both ceremonial (or magical) and moral exotericism in all the great ancient traditions (including Judaism and Vedic Hinduism).

The moral exotericism of the Emanationist schools was actually a sophisticated philosophical development of the original fire-culture of animistic shamanism. In that view, the individual self (or soul) was itself conceived to be the subject to be sacrificed (and thus transformed and returned to its original state of purity and subtlety, capable of rising to its natural home in the "air," or the Heaven above the Earth, beyond the daemonic spirits that were presumed to inhabit the lesser airy regions). The method of self-sacrifice was also that of transformation through fire. The "fire" in that case was self-transcending moral activity in relation to all others and to the society as a whole. Such action was conceived to produce "friction" between the self-centered motion of self and the other-directed motion of self, thus producing a kind of useful stress or "heat" that would purify the self-essence or soul of its gross desires and habits of mind, emotion, and body. And it was this tribal system of moral exotericism (which provided a religious basis for human maturity in the terms of the first three stages of life) that provided the primary basis for the later national religious movements of the Emanationist traditions—such as Christianity and Islam (wherein the ceremonial and magical culture of literal elemental fire sacrifices was no longer to be a central occupation of the practice).

Just so, the Emanationist culture of sacrificial fire also extended into the esoteric domains of the fourth and fifth stages of life. In the fourth and fifth stage cultures, the individual ego or soul continues to be the subject to be sacrificed and transformed and sent upwards. In the fourth stage mode, the focus of practice includes the moral exotericism of self-transcending service or love of others, but it goes beyond the realm of human relations that are embraced for their own sake. The fourth stage "fire" or "heat" of practice is centered on the constant loving Remembrance of God (the One Being above all) or, in pluralistic cultures, constant loving remembrance of invisible creative powers and beings of all kinds (all of which are generally conceived in terms of some kind of ultimate unity). Thus, in the esoteric frame of the fourth stage of life, the desires to fulfill the personal and social possibilities of this world are either made secondary to or entirely abandoned for the purposes of Heaven or the heavens or the Divine in Itself. And in the esotericism of the fifth stage of life this process is extended to the fullest degree, so that the "fire-sacrifice" of self becomes a matter of the application of all kinds of mystical (or technical psycho-physical) means for permanently ascending beyond this world to the heavens or Heaven or Divine Being above the plane of gross Nature. Those mystical means develop the heat (or "tapas") of self-discipline to such a degree that an internal fire (or intensification of energy in the nervous system) develops in the lower or vital region of the body and rises up to the higher brain centers, producing the peculiar physical and psychic effects associated with mystical experience.

The "realist" point of view of Gautama's Buddhism is generally applied to an ascetical Way of practice that seeks to quench (or uncause) desire and bring an end to the causation of conditional selfhood in all its forms and planes. This sixth stage "realistic" method stands in contrast to that of the exoteric and esoteric traditions of the first five stages of life—all of which seek to transform desire (rather that quench it altogether) and to purify and transform and raise up the self or soul (rather than bring it to an end or uncreate it) toward a superior destiny in higher worlds, heavens, Heaven, or in a state of ascended contemplative self-forgetting or absorption in the Divine Being (conceived to be above, at the head of all causes and effects). Therefore, this difference between the traditional ideal of transformation of self rather than the more radical ideal of the cessation of the conditional self is the principal difference between Gautama's "fire" of "realism" and the Vedic "fire" of "idealism."

However, a sixth stage tradition also appeared within the fold of Emanationism. Its primary representatives are the schools of Upanishadic Advaitism and Advaita Vedanta. That tradition based its philosophy and practice on the foundation of the Emanationist design of the cosmos (descending and ascending in hierarchical planes, between relative subtlety and relative grossness). And it also based itself on the idea of self as an inherently undying (and thus immortal) and even unborn (and thus eternal or, ultimately, Transcendental Reality or Being). The sixth stage schools of Emanationist "idealism" simply extended the process of self-sacrifice (or the fiery "tapes" of self-transcendence) beyond the terrestrial and cosmic modes (where results were attained either low or high in the scale of Nature) into the Transcendental sphere of Awakening. Thus, the traditional Advaitist method is not devoted to the purification and transformation of the self-essence into a subtle form that can rise mystically (or in the afterdeath state) into the regions above. Rather, traditional Advaitism engaged the self (or the "I") in a more radical process of surrender into (or Identification with) the Transcendental Ground of Original and Acausal Consciousness, Being, and Bliss (prior to all categories of mind and conditional form).

The Emanationist view of "fire" is finally epitomized in the sixth stage Advaitist tradition (where self goes beyond transformation to Realize its ultimate Identity by sacrificing itself to the Transcendental Self behind the mechanics of the body-mind). And the non-Emanationist view of "fire" (as pain, or as the very self that is to be transcended) is epitomized in the sixth stage Buddhist tradition. It should be clear once again how Advaitism and Buddhism simply represent two sides of the same coin (or two versions of approach to the same ultimate or seventh stage Transcendental Realization). Both the Advaitist and original Buddhist conceptions of "fire" are associated with the purpose of ultimate and final transcendence of the conditional self (and its apparent states of knowledge and experience). The Buddhist practice, which seeks to cool the "fire" to the point of cessation, does in effect amount to a form of what the Emanationists call "tapes," or the "heat" (or concentrated effort) of self-transforming and self-transcending practice. And the Advaitist practice (which is grown upon the base of all the Emanationist rituals and yogas of transformation of self through application to the method of "fire-sacrifice") actually seeks to bring an end to the illusion or illusory necessity and independence of the conditional self. (Therefore, from the Advaitist point of view, just as much as from the original Buddhist point of view, the "fire" of desires and the conditional self are to be utterly transcended.) But it is in the Awakening of Free Transcendental Realization (or the seventh stage of life) that all the schools and traditions and progressive stages of life transcend their self-based limitations (and their conceptions of Reality or Truth as the Goal of practice rather than the Condition of the present moment).

Gautama's "fire" is a concrete conception that epitomizes the final step in the sixth-stage process of progressive self-transcendence in the Way of the "realists." And the Vedic "fire" is a concrete conception that epitomizes all of the steps (including the final step) in the six-stage process of progressive self-transcendence in the Way of the "idealists." "Transcendental Fire" is a concrete conception that epitomizes That which is finally Realized in the seventh stage of life by all who practice to the point of "Siddhi" or Completeness. And this image of "Transcendental Fire" is, therefore, the most basic concrete representation of the orientation of the Way of the Heart.

The Emanationists (or "idealists") and the non-Emanationists (or "realists") have traditionally considered their Ways in terms of the two basic conventional views of fire: either as cause (or an effective and creative tool of transformation) or as effect (the uncomfortable and apparently destructive heat of burning). In earlier essays I have also indicated how the two conventions (of "idealism" and "realism") also viewed the subjects of consciousness and light (or energy) from two basic but opposite points of view (either as source and cause or as phenomenon and effect). Likewise, the two traditions have considered the subject of "dharmas" (or all the causes of effects) from two basic but opposite points of view.

The Emanationist "idealists" are generally interested in "dharmas" in the sense of causes—or methods or techniques or programs of action that can produce desirable effects. Such "dharmas" include all kinds of ritual action, social action, belief, knowledge, mystical yoga, Transcendental philosophy, and so forth. Therefore, for the "idealist," "fire" (or the "fire-sacrifice") is a "dharma," or a traditionally prescribed technique of self-transformation and self-transcendence.

The non-Emanationist "realists" are generally interested in "dharmas" in the sense of effects (which may function as the causes of subsequent effects, but which have no ultimate status beyond the mechanical cause and effect process of phenomenal existence). Such "dharmas" include all of the elements or basic constituents of composite or phenomenal existence. Therefore, for the "realist," "fire" is a "dharma"—a quality or conditional element of born existence.

For the "idealist," "dharmas" are to be defined, enumerated, and practiced until their results are achieved. And for the "realist," "dharmas" are to be simply observed, understood, and ultimately overcome (in the acausal disposition of Enlightenment).

Even so, both "idealists" and "realists" are ultimately and equally concerned with "Dharma," or the "Dharma," which means the Way and the Truth of the Way—the ultimate Way or Process or Nature—of Transcendental Realization. Therefore, in their sixth stage modes (or in any of the modes of the first six stages of life) the "idealists" and the "realists" (and the Advaitins and the Buddhists) tend to associate their minds with rather opposite views of the same subjects. But both traditions are equally oriented and ultimately concerned with the "Transcendental Dharma," or the ultimate Way and Truth of the Perfected, Completed, or seventh stage of life. And, therefore, the seventh stage Adepts of all traditions Confess, in basically identical terms, the Realization of "Transcendental Fire."

"Transcendental Fire" is the "Dharma." The Ways of progressing toward Its Realization may differ in terms of conventions of mind and effort, but That which is ultimately Realized in the Event of utter self-transcendence is One, Transcendental, Radiant, Free, and beyond or prior to all limitations on Happiness.

The Way by which such Realization is either progressively or directly approached is traditionally considered to be the "Dharma" in all traditions. But in fact all practices that are means of approaching Realization are representations of a consciousness that belongs to the first six stages of life, and, therefore, all such "Dharmas" (or Ways) are actually only "dharmas" (or lesser techniques or "fires," associated with the pain or "fire" of egoity). Even so, such "dharmas" have their utility in the context of the stages of life in the traditional setting. And all the basic traditional "dharmas" or schools of technique can be seen to correspond to the various orientations of the stages of life in a naturally progressive pattern.

The first three stages of life are associated with the gross consciousness and terrestrial fulfillment of human beings. The "dharmas" of the first three stages include "Puja Yoga" (or self-sacrifice and participation in the Divine Sacrifice of world-creation and world-salvation, via ceremonial worship and magical prayer) and "Karma Yoga" (or self-sacrifice via "moral" or social and other-directed action). Both "idealistic" and "realistic" traditions maintain such beginner's "dharmas" (although they may call them by different names), and even such beginner's practices are at least implicitly devoted toward unity with and ultimate Realization of the Transcendental Reality, Condition, or Being.

The fourth stage of life is associated with the "dharma" of self-transcending love, trust (or faith), and surrender in direct relation to the Transcendental or Divine Being (or even to lesser entities or powers that are lower than "Heaven" in the scale of Nature, but which may act as intermediaries between Earth, or Man, and Heaven, or God). The most common name for this method of approach is "Bhakti Yoga," or the practice of continuous and concentrated self-devotion via heartfelt feeling-attention to the Ultimate Reality or Person, generally imaged in the form of God-Ideas, God-Names, and cultic Images, or the spiritually transformed person of an Adept (who is presumed to be transparent to the Divine or Transcendental Being). This "dharma" is grounded in the terrestrial ego, but it matures and gradually ascends into the cosmic scale.

The fifth stage of life is the basic stage of ascent into the cosmic domain above and beyond the material or lower elemental planes of Nature. It is the stage of life that represents the limit of fulfillment by conventional mystical means. The "dharmas" of this stage include all of the technical yogas of mystical ascent via progressvely subtler techniques of psycho-physical self-sacrifice. And the results include the various conditional "samadhis" attainable during human embodiment (such as the visionary "savikalpa samadhi" and the ascended or conventional and conditional form of "nirvikalpa samadhi," which is associated vth the transcendence of all mental forms or images). The "dharmas" of this stage include all kinds of yogic techniques, such as "Hatha Yoga" (in its complete classical form), "Kundalini Yoga," the mystical form of "Kriya Yoga," "Mantra Yoga," "Nada Yoga" (or "Shabd Yoga"), "Tantra Yoga" in all its forms, and the "Six Yogas of Naropa."

The sixth stage of life is the last of the progressive stages previous to Transcendental Awakening. It is the basic stage in which the transition is made from terrestrial and cosmic conceptions of the Divine or Real Being to conceptions of the Ultimate as the Transcendental Reality and Condition and Identity of all apparent beings and conditions. And the process of self-sacrifice is thus transformed from an effort that serves the development of knowledge and experience in the planes of the psycho-physical personality to a direct effort of utter self-transcendence. The principal traditional "dharmas" of this stage of life are the "Jnana Yoga" of the Emanationist or "idealist" tradition of Advaitism and what I call the "Buddhi Yoga" of the non-Emanationist or "realist" tradition of Buddhism.

All of the "dharmas" or methods or yogas of the first six stages of life are basically techniques of self-transcendence. As the stages progress toward the sixth, the functional level of the human being that provides the base for the exercise moves progressively from the grossest (physical or elemental) to subtler (emotional, then psychic) and finally to the most essential (or egoic essence). And the plane of awareness in which the goal or effect of the exercise is sought moves in a like manner, from the terrestrial (or gross) to the cosmic (or subtle) and finally to the Transcendental. But all of these efforts of self-sacrifice are basically involved in one process and effect: the transcendence of conditional attention (or of self, mind, body, and the relations of these) in the Condition that is their Ultimate Source. In other words, all of the "dharmas" are essentially forms of mind-control.

There is an old traditional text that summarizes all the stages of progression of the "dharmas" or practices that lead toward Transcendental Awakening. It is the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali. His system, which reflects the ancient system of techniques that progressively move toward the Realization that characterizes the seventh stage of life, is called "Ashtanga Yoga," or the "dharma" of eight stages. Those eight practicing stages can be seen as the progressive phases of the first six stages of life (although all of the phases are to one or another degree incorporated into the yoga of each stage of life). The "yamas" and the "niyamas" include all the basic things to do and not to do that constitute the original practical, moral, and ethical base of the first three stages of life as well as the religious and devotional base of the fourth stage of life. The practices of "asana" (or body-control), "pranayama" (or control of nerve-force and emotion via discipline of the breath), "pratyahara" (or control of sensory desires and outer-directed or sensory awareness), and "dharana" (or concentration of attention in a selected object) are the basics of self-control and mind-control in the fourth stage of life and the ground of the subtler techniques of the fifth stage of life. "Dhyana" (or meditative absorption in one or another object, high or low in the scale of possibilities) is the essence of maturity in the fourth stage of life and the basic practice in the fifth stage of life. And "samadhi" (or self-forgetting trance-absorption of attention in an object or condition) is the goal of the fifth stage of life. Just so, "samadhi," as a direct process or exercise that transcends the absorptive mystical techniques of the earlier steps in the "Ashtanga Yoga," is the essence of practice in the sixth stage of life. Beyond that, "Samadhi," or Awakening to the Transcendental Condition beyond the conditional context of the psycho-physical exercise of self (or attention), is the final goal of the sixth stage of life. And such "Samadhi" is the prior or already Realized basis of the seventh stage of life, so that "Samyama" (which is a capability associated with the mastery of all of the eight limbs of the yoga, and which ultimately involves tacit "recognition" or inherent transcendence of all phenomenal conditions) is the natural or inherent and spontaneous process in the seventh stage of life. (Whereas "samyama," in the conventional yogic sense of the demonstration of uncommon psycho-physical powers, is either an ordinary expression of success in the fifth stage of life or, at best, a secondary expression of Free Radiance in the seventh stage of life.) 3

The six progressive stages of life are finally fulfilled in the seventh stage of life. All of the "dharmas" or yogas of progressive practice are forms of self-transcending mind-control that are finally fulfilled in the transcendence of conditional attention (or self-based awareness) in the Realization of Perfect Identification with the Love-Bliss of Radiant Transcendental or Divine Being. And that Realization, that Love-Bliss, that Radiant Transcendental (or Nirvanic) Identity or Being or Condition is the "Transcendental Fire."

The Way of the Heart is the radical or seventh stage process of understanding, or prior transcendence of the self-contraction in the Radiant Transcendental or Divine Being. But I address my Argument to all kinds of individuals, most of whom are suffering the most benighted predicaments of egoic failure in the first three stages of life. Therefore, those who consider my Argument are invited toward the ultimate practice via a progressive process of preparation, purification, and growth, wherein energy and attention are at least gradually released for the ultimate practice. That progressive process (or "yoga of consideration of the Way") is related to the various stages and forms of experiential attention that characterize the first six stages of life—but those forms of attention or experience that characterize the first six stages of life are constantly considered in a manner that gradually weakens and finally overcomes the compulsive tendency to associate with them.

Those who are just beginning this "yoga of consideration" generally take on the practices and disciplines of the "Way of Divine Communion," which is a yoga of devotion to the Transcendental Divine that overcomes the neurotic complications of the first three stages of life and establishes equanimity via the ecstatic disposition of the fourth stage of life.

Those who become more mature through the "Way of Divine Communion" then begin to practice the "Way of Relational Enquiry," which represents the beginning of a more direct exercise of the point of view of understanding.

The "Way of Relational Enquiry" eventually develops into non-verbal re-cognition (or knowing again) and transcendence of the forms of self-contraction, and so the "Way of Re-cognition" begins. The "Way of Re-cognition" initially develops as self-transcending consideration of all of the features of the first five stages of life. And when that consideration achieves maturity, a form of instruction is given that considers or re-cognizes and directly transcends the mechanics of the sixth stage of life.

Finally, the disposition of the seventh stage of life Awakens, and the ultimate practice, or the "Way of Radical Intuition" begins.

The practice founded in the radically intuitive Awakened disposition of the seventh stage of life is the "Yoga of Transcendental Fire." In the seventh stage of life, there is no strategic effort to make attention ascend in the scale of Nature, but neither is there any strategic effort to separate attention from objects. There is no strategic effort to suppress or to exploit the self or the not-self. There is no strategic effort to fulfill the self or to achieve any particular plane of the not-self. Rather, self and not-self are simply understood and inherently transcended in the Blissful Reality. The practice is to Abide naturally in the Condition of prior Identification with the Radiant Love-Bliss of Transcendental or Divine Being and, on that basis, to recognize whatever arises to be only a transparent, unnecessary, and non-binding modification of the Transcendental Condition. In this manner attention is naturally transcended in Transcendental Consciousness (Self, or Being), and the body-mind and its objects (high or low in the scale of Nature) are naturally Transfigured, Transformed, and ultimately Outshined through the recognition of their perfect inherence in a state of unqualified Identification with the Self-Radiance or Love-Bliss of the Transcendental Being. Therefore, both self (or attention) and not-self (or the objects of attention) are tacitly recognized and inherently transcended in the seventh stage disposition.

In every moment of recognition of self and not-self in the seventh stage of life, the body-mind is spontaneously released into a state of Identification with the "Transcendental Fire," Self-Radiance, or Love-Bliss of Divine Being. This process Transfigures and Transforms the body-mind, and it may, therefore, be associated with the movement of living energy in the body, toward (or to and from) the crown of the head (as in the fifth stage yogas). As long as there are objects arising to attention, the living energy is stationed at one or another functional level of the body-mind, or in one or another plane of the hierarchical scheme of Nature. But the process in the seventh stage of life is one in which attention (or self) and living energy (or objects and states) are recognized and transcended in the Transcendental Condition (which is eternally prior to all of the structures of the Realm of Nature). Therefore, energies may move, but the movement of attention is transcended via Identification with its Transcendental Source, and all moving energies are themselves finally Outshined in that same Source-Identity or Transcendental Condition.

In the seventh stage of life, all conditions of self and not-self are merely effective Reminders of the Transcendental Condition, and so they are transcended in the instant of their arising. Even so, they may continue to arise (although in an utterly "recognizable" form), and, in that case, the seventh stage of life is expressed in the form of "Sahaj Samadhi" (or Realization in the midst of conditions). But recognition of all events in the "Transcendental Fire" of Divine Being at least gradually (but inevitably) becomes the Outshining of self and Nature (or the radical transcendence of all conditional "noticing," all motions of conditional attention, or all appearances of self and/or not-self). Such is Bhava Samadhi, Nirvana Samadhi, or the ultimate (non-dependent or unconditional) form of Nirvikalpa Samadhi (which is utterly beyond all mental modifications as well as all association with the ascending-descending mechanics of the nervous system, or embodied attention in the planes of Nature).

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Footnotes

1. See Mahavagga I.21.

2. This reading of the relation between animism and shamanism differs markedly from the interpretation given, for instance, by Mircea Eliade, who regards the two as exclusive of one another. However, this anti-evolutionistic interpretation is due to Eliade's overevaluation of the significance of the shamanistic motif of the soul's ascent (which he does not consder in "emanationist" terms).

3. In the Yoga Sutra (III.4) of Patanjali the term samyama "constraint" refers to the practice of concentration, meditation, and samadhi upon one and the same object.

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