The Seven Stages Of Life contains Avatar Adi Da's unique Revelation of "the seven potential stages of the progressive development of human life", culminating in Divine Enlightenment (or the seventh stage of life).

Avatar Adi Da's "map" of the seven stages of life is not only a powerful tool for understanding the entire potential course of human existence—it is also the means by which the diverse religious and Spiritual traditions of the world can be understood to form a single (collective) Great Tradition. The various (and often contradictory) philosophies and practices recommended within the Great Tradition are, by means of Avatar Adi Da's Revelation of the seven stages of life, rightly understood as simply reflecting the different points of view of the different stages of life Realized by each particular tradition.

One of Avatar Adi Da's central Revelations in this book is that only the first six stages of life have been known previous to His Avataric Appearance here—and those six stages are all, in one manner or another, based on the principle of egoity. The seventh stage Realization is His unique Realization and Revelation, entirely beyond ego. Thus, It is the Realization and Revelation that completes and transcends the entire Great Tradition (with its six stages of life), making it possible for human beings to Realize Perfect Non-"difference" from the "Bright" Divine Reality.

The Seven Stages Of Life is ecstatic Sacred literature, penetrating and powerful, simultaneously challenging and transcendent. Every sentence is Radiant with Ruchira Avatar Adi Da Samraj's Presence and Heart Blessing, His Confession and Invitation. Each page is an urgent call to Consciousness. To truly understand what is written here is to be transformed in relationship with Him.

Robert K. Hall, M.D.
psychiatrist; author, Out of Nowhere;
co-founder, The Lomi School and The Lomi Clinic

The Seven Stages of Life

The First Three Stages of Life:
Specific Processes of Human Adaptation and the Specific Human Organs Involved

Vanishing the Ego-"Point"

The Seven Stages of Life

In the first three stages of life, the gross body-mind complex is developed and coordinated. First, the gross physical is developed, then the emotional-sexual functions are developed and coordinated with the gross physical, and (finally) the mental functions and the function of the will are developed and coordinated with the emotional-sexual and gross physical functions. . . .

In the fourth stage of life, this now complex psycho-physical being is surrendered beyond itself, to and into the (All-Pervading and All-Transcending) Source (or Source-Condition) that Pervades (and yet Transcends) it and the total world. This surrender is done to the point of conditional union with that Source (or Source-Condition). In due course, such conditional union becomes, by Divine Grace, conditional union with the Spiritual Presence (or Spirit-Current) of that Source (or of that Source-Condition, Truth, or Reality), and this in occasions of experienced (descending) Bliss that involve and (simultaneously) transcend the body-mind.

In the fifth stage of life, this process is continued, but the plane of conditional self-awareness ascends instead, to become dominantly subtle (or psychic), rather than gross (or merely physical)—and the Realization of conditional union with the (All-Pervading and All-Transcending) Source (or Source-Condition) involves experiences of ascended attention that eventually go beyond physical references and (at last) even beyond mental references.

In the sixth stage of life, attention (which is the root, or base, of the mind) is inverted (or, by one or another means, surrendered), away from gross and subtle states and objects of the body-mind, and toward its own Root, even the Ultimate Root of the ego-self—Which is the Witness-Consciousness (when attention is active), and Which is also (Ultimately) Consciousness Itself (prior to objects and separate self-definition). The Ultimate result of this exercise is conditional Realization of the Transcendental Self-Condition, or the intuition of Self-Existing Transcendental Being, which intuition remains strategically (and, otherwise, tacitly) dissociated from all objects . . .

In the only-by-Me Revealed and Given seventh stage of life, there is Native and Non-conditional (or Inherent, and Inherently Most Perfect) Identification with Self-Existing and Self-Radiant Transcendental (and Self-Evidently Divine) Being, the Ultimate (Divine) Identity of all beings (or subjects) and the Ultimate (Divine) Self-Condition of all conditions (or objects). This Native (or Inherent) and Inherently Most Perfect Identification (or Divine Self-Abiding) is directly Realized, entirely apart from any dissociative act of inversion. And, while so Abiding, if any conditions arise (or if any states of body-mind arise), they are simply (Divinely) Self-Recognized in the Self-Existing and Self-Radiant Condition of Being (as transparent, or merely apparent, and un-necessary, and inherently non-binding, modifications of Itself). Such is seventh stage Sahaj Samadhi, and It is Inherently Free of any apparent implications, limitations, or binding power of phenomenal conditions. If no conditions arise to the notice, there is simply the Self-Existing and Self-Radiant Condition of Transcendental, Inherently Spiritual, and Self-Evidently Divine Being. Such is Absolute (or Inherently Most Perfect) Realization of That about Which nothing sufficient can be said—and there is not Anyone, Anything, or Anywhere beyond It to be Realized.

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Each Of The Stages Of Life (In The human Context) Is Associated With A Unique Form Of human Adaptation and Growth. And Each Form Of Adaptation Is Associated With a specific human organ (or Structural Pattern).

The First Three Stages Of Life Occur Within The Context Of the lower organ functions Of human Adaptation—and, In That Context, human Development Is Associated With individuation, socialization, and integration Of The psycho-physical Patterns Of the frontal personality.

The First Stage Of Life Is The Process Of psycho-physical (and, thus, also emotional) individuation, Based On Identification With the Separate (and personal) gross physical body in the waking state. The First Stage Of Life Is Also Associated With the oral (or nutritive) function. At birth, the infant Is Separated From The Situation Of Unity With the human mother, and This Begins A Struggle With The Fact Of individual Existence. This Struggle Is Displayed In The Context Of oral Dependence On the mother as a Separate body (and Dependence On food that Must Be Acquired outside If individual bodily Existence Is To Continue). Whatever Occurs In The Drama Of breast-feeding and The Transition To food sources apart from the mother's body, human beings Tend To Develop A Fundamental Reactive Habit (or Presumption Of Un-Happiness) At This Stage.

Un-Happy (or egoic) individuation Tends To Be Associated With A Feeling Of Separation (or Of Separating, and Of Separateness, and Of Separativeness)—and, Thus, Un-Happy (or egoic) individuation Is Also Characterized By An Only Partial (or Ambiguous) Willingness To Relinquish (or, Otherwise, Even To Accept) The Feeling Of Dependency On the mother (or On others In General). This Feeling Of Separation (or Of Separating, and Of Separateness, and Of Separativeness) Ultimately (or Primarily) Involves The Sense Of Disconnection From The Ultimate Source Of Support and Love (Which Is The Living Divine), and It Also Becomes A General Doubt (or Anxiety) About other human beings On whom one Depends For Love. Sex-Differentiation (Whereby emotional-sexual self-identity and the emotional-sexual identification of others Become Basic To Every Situation Of Relationship) Begins Even At This Stage, but all relationships are experienced from the viewpoint Of Dependency and Reluctance To Accept The Situation Of individuated Existence.

The Second Stage Of Life Is The Process Of socialization (or relationalization of the individual), Based On The Development Of emotional (or emotional-sexual) Sensitivity To the psycho-physical self, To others, and To the Natural world (including the Natural etheric energies associated with the psycho-physical self, with others, and with the entire Natural world). The Second Stage Of Life Is Also Associated With the anal (or eliminative) function and The Conflict Between Privacy (or self-Acceptance) and The Search For social Visibility (or Acceptance By others).

The anal function Begins To Develop Coincident With the oral function, but socialization itself Truly Begins Only After The Basic Struggle With individuation Has Reached A Workable (Even Though ego-Bound, or self-Contracted) Settlement. (Thus, It Can Be Said That, As A General Rule, The First Stage Of Life Involves the first seven years after birth, and The Second Stage Of Life Involves the second seven years, or The Period From early childhood Until puberty.)

Character Motivations That Are Rooted In the biology and psychology Of sex-Differentiation Are, In The Second Stage Of Life, Extended and Developed In An Expanded social Context, and individuation (Including A Partial but Significantly Defined Sense Of emotional-sexual self-identity), Rather Than Ambiguously Differentiated Dependency, Becomes A Catalyst Toward social Exploration.

When individuation Has Become A Workable egoic Settlement, the individual Begins To Struggle, As an individual, With relationships (First On the intimate scale, and Then In an ever larger social sphere). The Second Stage individual Tends To Continue To function In The Context Of Dependency, but With A More Fully Developed Sense Of Separate self, Independence, and Mobility. Likewise, There Is A Gradual Discovery That There Are many kinds of relationships, and all of them Carry A Test, A Demand, and An Obstacle That Offends The Want To Be Dependent. The anal Phase Of Development Represents An Early Stage Of self-Awareness, In Which the individual's self-Esteem (or Presumed Desirability, or Presumed Lovableness) Is Apparently At Stake. Thus, Doubt Of the ego-self Appears—and, Likewise, Doubt Of The Love In others Appears. And, So, The Second Stage Of Life Tends To Develop Only To The Degree Of A Tentative (or ego-Based and, Ultimately, Unsatisfactory) Resolution Of the relational and social character. Whereas The Feeling Of Separation (or Of Separating, and Of Separateness, and Of Separativeness) Characterizes The First Stage Reaction (or egoic Presumption), The Feeling Of Being Rejected (and The Felt Need To Reject or Punish others For Un-Love) Characterizes The Second Stage Reaction (or egoic and, Necessarily, Un-Happy Presumption).

The Third Stage Of Life Is The Process Of integration Of The psycho-physical Patterns (Both individual and relational) Of the frontal personality, By Means Of The Development and Application Of the functions of mind, discriminative intelligence, and the will. And This Process Is Also Associated With The genital Phase Of human Development. Genital Development and emotional-sexual gender-Differentiation Begin Even In infancy, and The emotional Trial Of The Second Stage Of Life Relates To the gender-Defined character, but The Great Struggle Of integration and self-Presentation (As a Fully Differentiated and Defined sexual, emotional-sexual, and social character) Takes Place Only After puberty.

The Third Stage Of Life Tends To Be Wasted (or Made Un-Happy) By Indulgence In Patterns That May Be Called adolescent. That Is To Say, The Third Stage Of Life Does Not Tend Toward Full (and Happy) Resolution, Because The First Two Stages Of Life (Which Are The Basis For Growth In The Third) Tend To Be Unresolved (or Patterned By Un-Happiness). As A Result, The Third Stage Of Life Becomes A Fruitless Drama Of Conflict Between Two Alternating and Contrary Impulses—The One Toward infantile and childish (or Passive and Weak-minded) Dependence, and The Other Toward willful and Rebellious (or self-Destructive and other-Destructive) Independence. The Life-Process Is Disturbed By This Un-Happy and Irresponsible Drama, and the mental faculties and the integrating function of the will Are (Thus) Impaired (or Retarded) In their Ability To Develop the True adult character—which character Is Characterized By Basic human Equanimity, Discriminative Intelligence, Responsive Heart-Feeling, and The Active Impulse (or Counter-egoic Will) To Always Continue To Grow (By ego-Transcendence—and, Necessarily, By Entering Into The Devotional and, Eventually, Spiritual Context Of The Fourth Stage Of Life).

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The Realization of the seventh stage of life cannot be (Itself) described (Such that It Is Realized thereby) to a point of view, or to any one who has not yet Realized It. Nevertheless, I must Speak of this Great Matter . . . . And, even though the Totality of space-time (or the Totality of the conditional, or Cosmic, domain) cannot be "viewed" by an apparently particularized individual at a particularized point in space-time, it is, nevertheless, useful to "consider" the Nature of Totality, in order to Help even all apparently individual beings to understand the "provincial" and merely conventional nature of the point of view of egoity.

Egoity is (itself) nothing more (or other) than the presumption of identification with a particularized "point" (or organized point of view) in space-time, made by contraction from the (even Ultimate, or Divine) Condition of Totality (and, therefore, by contraction from the Condition That Inherently Transcends the Totality of conditional existence—and, indeed, by contraction from even every mode, form, or condition of conditional existence).

Even though you are suffering the complications of presuming to be a particular "point" in space-time, it is (or must become) completely and tacitly obvious that (in any and every moment) the Totality Exists, and that the Knowing of Reality from the Position of Totality is (necessarily) infinitely unlike any kind of knowing from a particular "point" in space-time. In this very moment, you tacitly (Inherently, Prior to body-mind, self-contraction, point of view, or ego-"I") know that the Totality Exists. Therefore, if you grow to understand how to Know from the Position of Totality, rather than merely (and by means of, or as a result of) knowing from your apparently separate point of view in space-time, that "radical" understanding (or root-understanding—or Divine Ignorance) will constantly provide immediate tacit proof of the Real Existence of Real God (or of Truth Itself, or of Reality Itself). . . .

The Process of the Way of Adidam is not a matter of "expanding" from a "point" and becoming somehow "huge". The Process of the Way of Adidam is not a matter of "expanding" the "point" itself, such that it progressively "includes" more and more of Totality. It is only in the sense of feeling (beyond the "point" of ego-"I") to Me that the Process of the Way of Adidam is "expansive", rather than "contracted". To be "expansive" (in this sense) requires the transcending of the very self-"point" (or self-contraction) that could, otherwise, be the "center" of an ever-enlarging "expansiveness". Thus, the Process of the Way of Adidam is not a matter of getting "larger" and "larger" as a separate (and presumed-to-be independent) ego-"point". Such is the "evolutionary" ideal, or the seeker's ideal. Rather, the Process of the Way of Adidam is a matter of (progressively) Vanishing the ego-"point" (or the separate and separative self-position), and (thereby, by becoming egoless) Realizing My Condition Non-Separately—Which Condition Is Inherently Non-Separate. And, when There Is only Totality (and the Inherent Transcending of the total sum of parts, or of points of view), Such That There Is the Inherent and Utter Vanishment of the point of view of particularity, That Is Most Perfect Realization of Me (and, therefore, Most Perfect Divine Self-Realization).

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