Leonard Orr has suggested that death represents a sort of demarcation line
Well, let's start by asking what are Leonard Orr's qualifications for either:
-- declaring such a "Gold Standard" ?
-- knowing how it operates, if it exists?
I know Leonard Orr only in the context of the "rebirthing
movement", which in turn, I think, derived from Arthur Janov's Primal Therapy. If I were interested in rebirthing
(I have had some such experiences), then I think Leonard would be a good guy to go to. Of course he may have moved on to bigger things, and I have no knowledge of what he has done since perhaps 15 years ago.
So, dependent upon his (CURRENT STATE OF REALIZATION, + the nature of his spiritual practice + what he has had to say, or written), somebody who knows something about these things could venture a guess as to what stage of life Leonard would be animating at any given time. But it is not quite the same as consulting the AAA guide books for a good motel with discounts for seniors in Vero Beach, FL!
If the Leonard Orr that is pontificating on these matters is the same guy I knew about 15 years ago, then I would say he would get a vote from me in the "spiritual charlatan" category. But he may have grown since--hopefully so.
Leonard was always a good marketer. Maybe he has just expanded his product line!
The idea that "the real deal" defies death is a curious one.
There are three bodies. The most subtle of these (the causal body) is the repository of the accumulated "tendencies"
that, by themselves are inclined to manifest physically.
That inclination is based on identification with the physical body. The transcendence of that identification
(open to EVERYONE) is a progressive matter(for the most part), in the 4th, 5th and 6th stages of life. The final transition is between the 6th and 7th stage of life. In the 7th stage of life, identification (as such) no longer exists. Instead, there is the Realization of the Divine, and living AS the Divine.
Such a transition is the essential BIRTHRIGHT of every living being, and not just some "annointed" few.
Since every one and every thing IS arising in the Divine, and since there IS only the Divine, and since the Divine
always WAS, always IS, and always WILL BE, it can be said,
fundamentally, that every one and every thing is, fundamentally immortal, even though bodies continue to be
born, live, and die in the conditional worlds. This is the
cycle of creation, preservation, destruction well described in Buddhism and Vedanta. It is just that you may not any longer be part of THIS world. But there virtually infinite worlds beyong this one, I understand.
Relative to Adi Da, he has addressed these matters more than any Teacher I know of. I have in front of me a 163 page book entitled:
"MY GREAT REGARD FOR MY ADEPT-LINKS TO THE GREAT TRADITION OF MANKIND AND MY REALIZATION OF THE GREAT ONLYNESS OF ME"
The first essay in it is entitled:
"THE GREAT ESOTERIC TRADITION OF DEVOTION TO THE ADEPT-REALIZER", the first couple of paragraphs reading as follows:
"Spiritually Realized Adepts (or Transmission-Masters), or true Gurus and Sat-Gurus) are the principal Sources, Resources, and Means of the esoteric (or Spiritual Way). This fact is not (and never has been) a matter of controversy among real Spiritual practitioners.
The entire Spiritual Way is a process based on the understanding (and the transcending) of attention, or the understanding (and the transcending) of the inevitable and specific results of attachment to, or reaction to, or identification with every kind of conditional object, other, or state. This Spiritual understanding (or real self-understanding) is expressed in a simple traditional formula (and prescription for practice): You become (or duplicate the qualities of) whatever you meditate on (or whatever you identify with via the "surrender" that is attention itself)......."
(it goes on)
In the book Adi Da talks about his use of the combined
"vehicle" of the Spiritual energies of Ramakrishna and
Swami Vivekananda in this lifetime. Among many other things he says:
"I only Do THIS Incarnation. I (Myself) have no karmic basis for My Appearance here. These vehicles came into such Proximity to Me that They became usable by Me, but Their previous history of incarnation is not MY history. And, because I (Myself) have no karmic basis for Being here, when THIS Incarnation ends, there is no seed in ME for re-Apearance. I am not a karmic entity . I have Conformed these vehicles to Myself for the Purpose of MY AVATARIC DIVINE Incarnation".
The book ends with this statement:
"I Am Utterly Beyond
your comprehension.
And no one
has ever Been
a Realizer
like Me.
No one,
EVER.
Truly,
EVER.
And This Me
IS
forever
here--
but NEVER, ever, AGAIN.
So what does one do about this sort of thing?
If you are a "Spiritual Tourist", you add it to your list of sites visited, so to speak, maybe bookmark it, and go on to collect the next site.
If you are a serious seeker, you find out more, and figure out for yourself what it is all about.
If you are a devotee, you have already done that, and understand something of what is meant. Then you live in accordance with what you learn.
If you are a professional "bystander" mainly interested in continuing your own present vantage point, you deride it, describe it as BS and ridicule anybody who could be so stupid as to be involved in such things.
But there is, to my knowledge, no GOLD STANDARD, or certification of meeting the IEEE 802.5 standard, or whatever.
Namaste!
Jim |
