The Integration of Psyche and Spirit: Volume I: the Structural Model

© 2002 by Burton Daniels

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Contents

PREFACE

BEYOND SELF PSYCHOLOGY

Introduction

The Self System

Psychic Structure

Psychic Apparatus

Conclusion

Introduction

The Apex Paradox

Embedded Replications

Reciprocal Inversion

Conclusion

BEYOND S/SELF PSYCHOLOGY

Introduction

S/self and the Dual-Domain

The Linearity Argument

The Return of the Repressed

Conclusion

Introduction

S/self and the Divine Domain

The Illusion of Relatedness

Radical Non-Dualism

Conclusion

EPILOGUE

REFERENCES

RLIIN??

When there is no EGO in religion—

does it stop making sense to you?

In loving praise and worship of the Ruchira Avatar, Adi Da Samraj, without Whom these essays would not—and could not—have been made. Avatar Adi Da is the ultimate Source, Inspiration, and Revelation of all the material contained herein.

Beloved Lord, Adi Da Samraj, You are the Living Divine incarnated in human form, here to Awaken all beings to What isonly their own True Form and State. Your incomprehensible Compassion, born out of Love-Bliss, fills me with gratitude and appreciation. I bow at Your Feet, in praise and worship of Your incomparable Sacrifice and immaculate Wisdom. You are the Liberator and True Heart-Master and Divine World-

Teacher, come to Attract all beings to the One and Only Real God. I love You deeply, my Beloved Guru. May all beings know the exquisite Joy and Delight of Your Presence, and behold You freely without reservation, and know the inexplicable Bright Mystery that You now openly Reveal to all.

PREFACE

In the ego-drama of experienced duality, ail is a little play, of twos—within the larger Play, of Two. The Mummery of life-and-world-and-death is a constant Melodrama—made of opposites and contraries. And life is always self-and-other—in a Growling!pit.

The countless pairs are not Recognized, As Is, by the always ego-I—in its waking, dreaming, and sleeping, here. The oblivious little play of twos—never exactly Founders, in their One. Forever—there is only she or he or it or that, and the always-remaining I. The I and the other—forever waiting, for the One-and-Only One. The One That Always Already Is—Infinitely Expanded, Beyond the persistent point of ego-I. Beyond the egg of attention, and its Klik-Klak visions of eternal difference.

—Avatar Adi Da (1999c)

The intent of these essays is to further the development of a new genre of psychology: integral psychology. In a sense, the fundamental purpose of this genre has always been the objective of psychology: to account for every aspect of psychic functioning within a single theoretical framework. At least, such has always been the objective of psychoanalysis—certainly while in the hands of its originator, Sigmund Freud, at any rate. However, his success has met with decidedly mixed results. Indeed, since then few theorists in psychology have even attempted to integrate the multifarious elements of the human psyche into a single, comprehensive system of theory. In fact, at times, the profession of psychology almost seems set against such a reconciliation.

Psychoanalysis and cognitive-developmentalism have both made powerful contributions toward an understanding of psychological phenomena…. Yet these understandings are essentially stranded from each other intellectually and professionally.. While it can be pretended that this division of labor is an appropriate consequence of the separate tasks to which each theory is best suited, the fact remains that no whole theory of personal functioning will be possible in the absence of some higher order psychology in which to integrate the wisdom of each. Lacking such a metapsychology, both academic research and clinical practice are less than they might be. (Kegan, 1982, p. 14)

Therefore, such a reconciliation is the intent of this work. What follows is a comprehensive, integral theory of psychology. In a sense, these essays could be thought of as the culmination of Freud’s life-work. This integral theory will be presented in three volumes overall: The Structural Model, The Developmental Model, and The Clinical Model. In these volumes, the main principles and tenets of integral psychology will be presented by not only integrating the various schools of psychology, but also by integrating this disparate amalgam with the auspices of spiritual revelation. Obviously, such an integration will take psychology beyond the limits of presently existing conventions, indeed, extending the scope of theory until it aligns with accounts of the psyche presented by spiritual adepts. And it is precisely here that the difficulty in integrating psychology and spirituality is most readily seen. Most psychologists would like to avoid the matter entirely.

In fact, strictly speaking, the only theorists to even attempt a truly integral theory since Freud have been Jung (1964, 1971), Washburn (1995), and Wilber (1995, 2000a), whose significant contributions will be detailed throughout these essays.¹ However, their efforts all have significant drawbacks. Wilber probably sums it up best: Of course people can differ about the details of such a [theory], and [it] is not intended to be cast in stone. It is presented here as a reasonable summary that helps carry the present discussion(1997b, p. 73). In other words, as befits any true pioneer, the efforts of these theorists are incipient endeavors, intended primarily to get the ball rolling. Like every other pioneer laboring to penetrate into an uncharted wilderness, their observations and conclusions have painted the broad strokes. It is left to the settlers to come in later and fill in the details.

These essays begin with the work of Freud and his many diverse followers within psychoanalysis. At first glance, given Freud’s suspicious attitude toward religion, a reconciliation between psychoanalysis and spirituality might seem an unlikely possibility. Indeed, it might even seem as if bringing together irreconcilable partners. However, a number of factors make this conclusion untenable. For example, no psychologist has done more to welcome spirituality into the profession of psychology than Jung. Yet, it is sometimes overlooked that Jung was actually a psychoanalyst. In this respect, the relationship between Freud and Jung is surprisingly like that which existed between Moses and Jesus—in that Jesus was a Jew. Indeed, even more to the point, Jesus had not come to replace Judaism. Rather, he had come to fulfill it. Had his death not been so untimely—and, more significantly, humanity’s loss so great—perhaps it would have been he who promulgated the Christian faith, and not simply those who were his followers.

At this point, some would say that Judaism and Christianity are beyond reconciliation, but it was not always so. Nonetheless, the wedge driven between them has proven to be resilient—as can also be said of Freud and Jung. Yet, this is somewhat surprising, for they have far more in common than in opposition. For example, each shared an unwavering commitment to the two cornerstones of psychoanalysis: the ego and the unconscious. Indeed, each made these two concepts foundational aspects of their respective schools of thought, albeit in decidedly different ways. In fact, the real difference between them is really nothing more than how they split up the territory of the psyche, with each emphasizing a different aspect: sexuality or spirituality. Had they each not chosen to emphasize merely their half, things might have worked out far better between them.

As it was, they couldn’t quite overcome their differences, which could be put this way: Adler (1929, 1939) and Jung (1971) were among the first prominent analysts to split with Freud, largely because they felt, to use Jung’s phrasing, that Freud viewed the brain ‘as an appendage to the genital glands’ (Weston, 1990, p. 25). In the end, this reductionism proved to be too much for Freud’s inner circle and, one after the other, they abandoned their allegiance to him and embarked on their own careers, strewing a plethora of theories in their wake. Unfortunately, this has only served to produce an effect within professional psychology not unlike that of the infamous diaspora recorded in the Bible: the Tower of Babel.

Jung’s interest in spirituality has not escaped its own excess and provincialism. Indeed, similar to Freud’s over-reliance on sexuality, the situation for Jung could be put like this:

Jung’s work obviously has legitimacy, but it concerns the lesser domain of human growth. It is not really about religion in the highest sense, or spirituality. It is about the psyche.. He did not really understand the process that goes beyond the psyche and its contents. He did not understand the spiritual process, or the higher stages of life, although he often commented on them. Not being a practitioner of the spiritual process, but rather being an investigator of the psyche’s contents, he did not really understand what he was talking about…. He did not understand the higher astral dimension or the ultimate Spiritual Dimension, although he was becoming sympathetic to them. He felt something about them, but he did not quite know how to instruct people about these dimensions. (Adi Da, 1984, p. 319)

Obviously, this limitation would greatly constrict one’s ability to comment with authority. Unfortunately, however, such has often been the case in the profession of psychology—an over-reliance on concepts either familiar or preferential to the theorist, while excluding the rest. A well known tale about several blind men states that, when encountering an elephant, each concluded the animal was something far removed from what it really was because they made their assessments exclusively on the basis of the particular part of the animal they happened to encounter. A version of the tale goes like this: One blind man felt the elephant’s ear and, thinking it was a flap of canvas, proclaimed the animal to be a tent. Another pressed against the elephant’s side and, thinking he had encountered a wall, insisted that the animal was a barn. Meanwhile, another gripped the elephant’s leg and, thinking it to be a tree, claimed they were in a forest. As is probably obvious, a similar confusion is taking place within professional psychology.

Although specialization has significantly increased the expertise of the various schools of psychology, ultimately, it has only served to muddy the water for the field overall. Each school has ended up working its own side of the street—rather than sharing the street. As a result, each ends up working against the other, seeing colleagues as if competitors, if not enemies outright. Obviously, this is not a workable arrangement. Further, it is not enough that some of the facts fit a particular area of theory. In integral psychology, all of the facts must be accommodated—inevery aspect of the theory. Clearly, this represents an extraordinarily high standard for the field.

However, the real difficulty in attempting to integrate such diverse and disparate theories is not simply that each is a truncated vision of reality but, rather, something far more insidious than this. Precisely because there is a reality that each school is unaware of, that reality continues to persist in being—requiring each school to somehow account for it. But, precisely because each school specifically excludes that aspect of reality, each one must devise an essentially distorted version in order to account for it. Consequently, the elephant story doesn’t quite capture the way things really are in professional psychology. Indeed, it represents something of an improvement over the actual state of affairs.

The situation could be more accurately put this way: Imagine a house with no doors or stairs. Each room is a self-contained and self-sustaining environment. Further, people live in these rooms. For example, kitchen people live in the kitchen, bathroom people live in the bathroom, and bedroom people live in the bedroom. There are even basement people living in the basement and attic people living in the attic. They are spread all throughout the house, each focused on the interests and concerns of their immediate environment—but with no established access between them. However, there are windows, through which they can look outside if they want to—or else crawl in and out of, if they deem it necessary to interact with those in the other rooms.

Now imagine that each room has been jerry-rigged somehow to accommodate the needs of its people that would otherwise be handled by the other rooms. For example, at night, the kitchen people turn the kitchen table over to sleep on a mattress that is affixed underneath. The bathroom people all gather around the sink for their meals. In fact, the bedroom people have fashioned a commode in the closet with which to relieve themselves. Further, the basement people can have guests over only if they are willing to meet behind the furnace. And so on. Each group must distort—perhaps even corrupt—the particular functioning of its room to accommodate the functions that would otherwise be provided by the other rooms.

Now imagine a house with doors and stairs. These people have free access to every room in the house—indeed, even the attic. They eat in the kitchen, relieve themselves in the bathroom, and sleep and have sex in the bedroom. They even visit with their guests in the living-room and do their laundry in the basement. Further, and more to the point, their rooms are unencumbered by demands to accommodate the needs of other rooms. The kitchen table does not need to be cleared off at night and flipped over in order for the occupants to sleep. And no unsavory odors permeate the bedroom from the closet. All is as it should be—that is to say, as it was designed to be. There are no different people in this house. There just are people, living out their lives in the way they were intended.

Such is the nature of integral psychology. The essential contribution of integral psychology is this: it provides the interface between all other theories, the overarching framework within which they can each be included. It is the infrastructure overall. In developing integral psychology, all the obfuscating adaptations of any given theory must be eliminated, precisely so that every other aspect of the theory can operate properly. Therefore, putting all the pieces of the puzzle together is not merely a matter of seeing the big picture and putting each piece in its proper place. One must also reconfigure the shapes that are presently obscuring the picture, so that they will fit together properly. Clearly, developing an integral theory is no easy matter.

One of the difficulties is that many find this characterization of the profession offensive and disturbing, perhaps even false or unfair. Nonetheless, such a characterization is not without precedence (e.g., Kuhn, 1996). Indeed, ironically enough, denial is precisely the defense so thoroughly documented within psychology. Consequently, reconciling Freud and Jung is the perfect place to start, not only because they are the founding patriarchs of professional psychology, but because their affiliation should never have been problematic in the first place. In fact, there is nothing whatsoever irreconcilable about sexuality and spirituality.

More to the point, there are at least two good reasons why a reconciliation between psychoanalysis and spiritual revelation should start with Freud and Jung:

1. Freud’s psychoanalysis has always been secretly, and at heart, a religion—specifically, the metaphysics of Judeo-Christian monotheism.

2. Jung’s psychoanalysis has always been explicitly, and at heart, a religion—specifically, the mythology of polytheism the world over.

Just as Freud and Jung split the territory of the psyche between them, albeit with Freud settling for the tip of the iceberg, they likewise split the territory of spirit—with equally disparate results. Although Freud (1927,1930) denied outright any affiliation with religion, indeed, vehemently denouncing it as an obsessional delusion, his fundamental discoveries involving structural theory were virtually lifted straight from Judeo-Christian metaphysics. However, precisely because of his acrimonious split with the underlying tenets of Judaism and Christianity, his contraband version of its metaphysics could only be expressed as the metapsychology that ultimately formed the core of his theory. On the other hand, Jung (1917, 1964) unabashedly made every effort to find substantiation for his metapsychology among the world’s religions, indeed, amassing an amazing catalog of material in support of his concept of the collective unconscious and the archetypes.

However, there is far more to integral psychology than the theories of Freud and Jung. For a truly integral psychology, every school and system of psychology must be welcomed into the fold. Yet, powerful forces exist to keep this process from occurring. Freud and Jung did not develop their divergent theoretical lines of thinking by accident.

Each was fulfilling deep-seated objectives endemic to their own personalities—or, perhaps better said, their theory emerged from an epigenesis profoundly influenced by their own creative illness (Ellenberger, 1970). Indeed, it is inherent to the creative process that the material delivered up so fecundly is extremely personal, perhaps even idiosyncratic, to one’s own personality.

However, the real point is not what gets discovered and, therefore, represented in theory so much as what doesn’t. Although the great pioneers of the psyche—and spirit—are rightly thought of as profound individuals, there is far more to the story; despite all the efforts generated thus far no truly integral theory has yet occurred. It is not simply that the psyche is so complex and mysterious that most simply throw up their hands and lament that it is too tough a nut to crack. Rather, the reason integral psychology has, thus far, proven to be so elusive is this: what’s inside the nut is so frightening that most conclude it is better left alone. However, this attitude only commits humanity to a false—and, therefore, disabling—vision of reality. To change this unfortunate set of circumstances, it is necessary to better understand the forces operating to keep the psyche—and spirit—a secret.

To develop such an understanding requires considerable insight and an uncommon willingness to go beyond accepted boundaries. To do this, one must be willing to be confronted by the profound and threatening processes found there. It is no easy matter. Every impulse in our being is determined to avoid the matter entirely. Beginning with the child’s first attempts to assess the world, it has been remarked: In [our] tortured interiors radiate complex symbols of many inadmissible realities—terror of the world, the horror of one’s own wishes, the fear of vengeance by the parents, the disappearance of things, one’s lack of control over anything, really (Becker, 1997, p. 19)—all of which sending us scurrying back in the opposite direction as quickly as possible. However joyful our potential growth, dark secrets mar the understanding of which we are presently capable. At best, it is a struggle. The psychological enterprise could be fairly summarized this way: a true vision of the psyche seems to persist just outside of sight, even as it comes ever more into view. Indeed, as we grapple for understanding, the true nature of humanity could probably be best summarized as this: one slippery character. A genius of delusion, in fact. Any number of efforts toward explaining the essence of human nature have, up to this point, gone awry.

Still, we are compelled to discern truth. Yet, the profession of psychology currently has no school or system representing the whole of psychology. Consequently, the methodology of integral theory is to dismantle psychology, that is to say, deconstruct it (Derrida, 1976) and in its wake, rebuild it—restructuring its parts such that they are more in accord with reality. It could be said that each school and system of psychology has a useful and accurate core of tenets, which must be salvaged, while the useless and distorted periphery of arcane tenets must be critiqued and discarded in turn. When Michelangelo sculpted, he visualized the object of his art trapped within the stone. It was his intent to free this entity, chipping away at the stone until it was finally released. However, in the present case, there is an even more demanding protocol: organize these now freed pieces into a proper alignment—and then provide the missing details to the gaps in between them.

Even so, the ultimate purpose of these essays is not so simply stated, for their purpose is not merely to espouse the fundamental objective of psychology: ways of being better adjusted. Rather, it is to advocate the fundamental objective of spirituality, which is to say, the way to Enlightenment. Consequently, the best exemplar to represent spirituality is the Ruchira Avatar, Adi Da Samraj. Indeed, Avatar Adi Da is the only one whose wisdom on the psyche and spirit incorporates every model of psychology—and, indeed, every revelation of spirituality. Although numerous theorists have advocated the inclusion of spirituality in psychological theory, none of these theorists can be rightly regarded as a spiritual master. In fact, the profession of psychology is noticeably lacking in saints or mystics of any kind. This situation represents a loss for psychology, one keenly felt.

On the other hand, such can no longer be maintained to be the case, for Avatar Adi Da is a spiritual master of the highest order. Indeed, He offers a spiritual revelation that includes one of the most penetrating and insightful accounts of psychology ever offered. His spiritual revelation is unprecedented as an integral psychology, except perhaps in the works of Shankara (1979) or Sri Aurobindo (1973) in the East, or else the work of Plotinus (1992) in the West (see Tarnas, 1991; Wilber, 1995). In Adi Da’s revelation, the tenets of psychology and spirituality have all been subsumed and aligned to an Enlightened Vision. However, He can not be rightly thought of as a psychologist, or even a theologian. Every orientation possible to human beings has been aligned to Divine Reality in His revelation. Avatar Adi Da is not any kind of representative of secular wisdom at all. He is the Very Incarnation of God.

Freud’s visage has become virtually an icon of our culture, easily recognized by individuals otherwise only cursorily aware of psychology. Perhaps no single individual is more associated with the emergence of professional psychology into a viable account of human growth and well-being than Freud. Avatar Adi Da, on the other hand, needs some introduction. The following is a brief description of this American-born spiritual Adept, offered by His devotees on the occasion of His 60th birthday:

The Ruchira Avatar, Adi Da Samraj…[is] our Greatest Friend and Help, the True Love of all beings, Whose human Life has made it possible for us to see God’s very Face, and Whose Grace has allowed us to feel the Love-Bliss that is the Source and Substance of Existence suffusing our hearts and minds and bodies.

By taking Birth as a human being, by enduring the ordeal of experiencing all the limitations and sufferings of the mortal I, by understanding and transcending the I and Re-Awakening to His Divine Condition of Conscious Light, Avatar Adi Da has made that same transcendence of suffering, that same En-Light-enment possible for all others. Through the Revelatory Vehicle of His human Form, He has established the Way of Adidam, the True World-Religion of Divine Enlightenment, replete with His Divine Instruction in twenty-three Source-Texts, His Spiritually Resonant Hermitages and Sanctuaries, the Grace-Giving Stories of His Divine Life, the Always-Living Images of His God-Manifesting Human Body, and the beginning of a true human culture of Enlightenment. (Adidam, 1999, p. 32)

As can be seen, the full title and name of Avatar Adi Da is "Ruchira Avatar, Adi Da Samraj". This Divine title and name consists of several parts, each one of which expressing an aspect of recognition of Avatar Adi Da’s Divine State. Ruchira (a Sanskrit word meaning Radiant, Effulgent, or Bright) is the Condition of All-Pervading Radiance, Joy, and Love-Blissful Divine Consciousness. Avatar is the traditional term for Divine Incarnation. It literally means One who is descended, or ‘crossed down’ (from, and as, the Divine). Da is a traditional reference to God, which means the Giver. Adi means First, or Source. Thus, the Name Ruchira Avatar Adi Da means the Divine Giver and Source-Person, Who is the Shining Divine ‘Descent’ and Appearance of Real God in bodily (human) Form. Avatar Adi Da is also Samraj, the Universal Ruler, or Supreme Lord—although not in any worldly or political sense, but as the Divine Master of all those who resort to Him.

In other words, the Ruchira Avatar, Adi Da Samraj, is the Full and True incarnation of God, present among humankind in bodily form as a human being. Many believe precedence for such an incarnation exists in the West, particularly in the case of Jesus of Nazareth. However, as Avatar Adi Da makes clear, His incarnation is unique among spiritual masters, of any time or place.

The various religious traditions each tend to concentrate on one view (and Description)… of the Divine. Thus, God has been Described as Creator, as Ultimate Source, as a kind of Abstract Condition beyond any human conception, and so on and on and on. What is the Most Ultimate and Most Perfect Description? What is the Description of Real God? It is the Description I have Revealed to all. Real God Is Reality, and Truth, or That Which Is Always Already The Case—Indivisible, Indestructible, and Not Other, but One and Only.

The Revelation you have been Given by Me is the Revelation of Real God. It is the Revelation of the Divine Realized in the Manner of the only-by-Me Revealed and Given seventh stage of life. All previous Divine Revelations were of the Divine Realized in the Manner of one or the other of the first six stages of life. Therefore, My Revelation of Real God is the Ultimate Revelation of the Divine—the Revelation that Includes and Completes and Most Perfectly Transcends all other Revelations.² (2000a, p. 141)

Although Avatar Adi Da is not the reincarnation (i.e., second coming) of Jesus of Nazareth, His affiliation with another remarkable spiritual master can be thought of in this manner. Swami Vivekananda was the disciple of the great Indian adept Ramakrishna. He came to America in 1893 to attend the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago. He spoke with passion and eloquence to a crowd consisting largely of Westerners, people who had little, if any, exposure to the spiritual traditions of the East. His imposing and forceful presence, along with his impressive command of English and clear display of spiritual power, moved this audience into an appreciation of the most profound dimensions of spiritual reality.

Swami Vivekananda attempted to bring the message of true spirituality to the West until the end of his life. At that time, He held a deeply felt compassion for the plight of Western humanity and its great need for God. Swami Vivekananda left this life with an urgent passion to be reborn and serve the West in finding God. This passion created a unique conjunction with Avatar Adi Da’s own Divine Impulse to Manifest in the human realm. It was this conjunction that provided the vehicle for Avatar Adi Da’s Incarnation.

It should be understood about this intentional Birth of Mine that no decision was made from an absolute point of view, out of the blue. The Deeper Personality Vehicle of Swami Vivekananda was provided conditionally, as I have indicated. I, My Self, was brought into conjunction with the conditional reality by those means. In that conjunction, I Consented to the Ordeal of human Manifestation… The Deeper Personality Vehicle of Swami Vivekananda arose in the conditional domain and provided the conjunction with Me (As I Am). That Vehicle was conjoined with My Very Being. Swami Vivekananda was given up completely, and the Vehicle became transparent to Me.³ (Adi Da, 1999b, p. 43)

Swami Vivekananda’s own spiritual master, Ramakrishna, was renowned in India for his ecstatic devotion to the Divine Goddess. In addition, He held a remarkable sympathy with other religions, and he contemplated their icons and studied their spiritual revelations. In fact, Avatar Adi Da has remarked that Ramakrishna’s mastery of the devotional path is unsurpassed in all of human history. It was in this context that Ramakrishna developed an appreciation for his disciple’s spiritual stature and destiny: At the end of his life, certain of the great work that lay ahead for his beloved Vivekananda, Ramakrishna poured his own Spiritual virtue into Swami Vivekananda in a formal act of Transmission—becoming, in his own words, only an ‘empty fakir’.⁴ Thus, Ramakrishna, through his total Spiritual investment of himself in Swami Vivekananda, is also part of the Deeper Personality of Avatar Adi Da Samraj (Lee, 1999, p. 44).

In addition, Avatar Adi Da’s spiritual stature can also be understood in light of the lineage of spiritual masters who guided His spiritual practice, leading to His Enlightenment. These spiritual masters also engaged in the same practice of spiritual transmission that characterized the relationship between Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, a process common to all spiritual traditions.

[The] Kundalini Shaktipat tradition is represented, for example, in the legend of the Spiritual Baptism of Jesus of Nazareth by John the Baptist (in which case, the Holy Spirit is said to have descended upon the head of Jesus like a dove, or, in other words, from above, and from and As God). In the modern era, this Kundalini Shaktipat tradition has been represented, for example, by Ramakrishna, in His spontaneous Transmission of Spiritual Power to Swami Vivekananda, and by Swami Nityananda, in His Transmission of Spiritual Power to Swami Muktananda. In the same manner, I, in My present-time bodily (human) Form, Received Kundalini Shaktipat (or the Transmission of cosmically manifested Divine Spirit-Power) from several individuals, including Swami Nityananda, Rang Avadhoot, Swami Muktananda, and Rudi (also known as Swami Rudrananda).⁵ And, in My (present-time) case, the Divine Spirit-Transmission was, at last, also Given most directly, in Person, and in Its Utter Fullness, by the Divine Goddess, Shakti Herself. (Adi Da, 1999a, p. 37)

Avatar Adi Da attained full and complete Enlightenment in September, 1970, and has been teaching and directly serving the awakening of His devotees since April, 1972. As can be seen, His spiritual lineage can be traced along two separate, yet intimately interwoven, tracks: the prior lifetimes of Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, whose spiritual virtue comprise the vehicle of Avatar Adi Da’s deeper personality; and the present lifetimes of Swami Nityananda, Rang Avadhoot, Swami Muktananda, and Swami Rudrananda, whose spiritual virtue guided the development of Avatar Adi Da’s gross personality as it prepared for Enlightenment. However, there is a final spiritual master whose virtue is, likewise, intimately interwoven in Avatar Adi Da’s spiritual lineage:

And He honors Ramana Maharshi⁶ as unsurpassed among Realizers in the domain of Transcendental Consciousness—one who had distinct premonitions of the Divinely Enlightened State. (Ramana Maharshi’s descriptions of Transcendental Self-Realization indicate that the seat of Consciousness in the human body-mind is located at a locus in the right side of the heart, an observation that coincided with Avatar Adi Da’s own experience, as Avatar Adi Da describes in chapter 18 of

His autobiography, The Knee of Listening). In other words, in the last one hundred and fifty years—the timespan covered by these four great Realizers (Ramakrishna was born in 1838, and Swami Muktananda died in 1982)—the different types of possible Spiritual Realization were all demonstrated to an unsurpassed degree through the lives of these remarkable Adepts, and in direct association with Avatar Adi Da’s Appearance. (Lee, 1999, p. 48)

Such auspicious affiliations prepared Avatar Adi Da for His ultimate Enlightenment—and also confirm His spiritual legitimacy. Further, they helped prepare Avatar Adi Da for His ultimate purpose among humanity. Therefore, the purpose of these essays is to serve His Spiritual Agency. It other words, these essays are primarily intended to serve as this: a bridge to God. A primary thesis of these essays claims that the essential objective of psychology is self-actualization—but only for the sake of self-transcendence. Put somewhat differently, the fundamental purpose of the therapeutic process could be thought of as this: integration—for the sake of liberation. Although the ways of being better adjusted are not the point of spirituality, nonetheless, they are an important part of authentic living and have their place. They not only prepare one for the spiritual process but are, if properly engaged, supportive of it. Better adjustment can be understood as the purpose of psychology and concerns itself with issues involving the secular content of life. Spirituality, on the other hand, is concerned with issues that involve the sacred context of