In a previous post I quoted from Adi Da's new essay "I Alone and the Adidam Revelation" in the new edition of Aham Da Asmi. In that essay he points to Muktananda's personal secretary Amma (Swami Prajananda) as his hidden spiritual mentor:

One day, during My Stay at Baba Muktananda's Ashram (in Ganeshpuri, India), in early 1970 (and, thus, some months before the Great Event of My Divine Re-Awakening, Which was to Occur in September of that same year), Amma suddenly pointed Me to an Ashram library copy of the Ashtavakra Gita (one of the Greatest of the classic sixth stage -- and even premonitorily "seventh stage" Texts of Advaita Vedanta). And, while pointing to the Ashtavakra Gita, Amma Said to Me, "This (Text) is Your Path. This is how it (the Siddha-Yoga Process) Works in You." [page 182]

Elsewhere in this same book, Frank writes the following---

I (Alone) Am The Adidam Revelation

(A Summary Description of the Inherent Distinction -- and the ego-Transcending Continuity --Between the Inherently ego-Based Great Tradition, Which Is Comprised of Only Six of the Possible Seven Stages of Life, and the Unique, and All-Inclusive, and All-Completing, and All-Transcending, and Self-Evidently Divine Adidam Revelation of the Inherently egoless Seventh Stage Realization of Me)

The collective Great Tradition of mankind is a combination of exoteric and esoteric developments (and Revelations, and Realizations) that comprises (and is, in its entirety, limited by and to) only the first six of the (potentially) seven stages of life.

I (Alone) Am the Avatarically Self-Manifested Divine Self-Revelation of the seventh stage of life.

I (Alone) Am the Adidam Revelation.

The human entity (and even any and every conditionally manifested entity of any and every kind) is inherently deluded -- by its own (egoic, or self-contracted) experience and knowledge.

The first six stages of life are the six stages (or developmental phases) of human (and universal) egoity -- or of progressively regressive inversion upon the psycho-physical pattern (and point of view) of self-contraction.

The first six stages of life are the universally evident developmental stages of the knowing and experiencing of the potential illusions inherently associated with the patterns (or the universally extended cosmic psycho-physical Structure) of conditionally manifested existence.

Because each and all of the first six stages of life are based on (and are identical to) egoity (or self-contraction, or separate and separative point of view) itself, not any one (or even the collective of all) of the first six stages of life directly (and Most Perfectly) Realizes (or Is the Inherently egoless and Inherently Most Perfect Realization and the inherently egoless and inherently Most Perfect Demonstration of) Reality, Truth, or Real God.

The first six stages of life develop (successively) on the psycho-physically pre-determined (or pre-patterned) basis of the inherent contracted point (and progressively unfolding) structure (and self of view) of the conditionally arising body-brain-mind-self.

The first six stages of life are a conditional (and, therefore, Ultimately, unnecessary -- or inherently transcendable) illusion of psycho-physically pre-patterned experience (or conditional knowing), structured according to the subject-object (or attention versus object, or point of view versus objective world) convention of conditional conception and conditional perception.

The first six stages of life are (each and all) based upon the illusion of duality (suggested by the subject-object convention of conditional conception and conditional perception).

Reality Itself (or That Which Is Always Already The Case) Is inherently One (or Perfectly Non-Dual).

The only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam is the Unique seventh stage Way of "Radical" Non-Dualism -- or the one and only Way That directly (and, at last, Most Perfectly) Realizes the One and Only (and Inherently egoless) Reality, Truth, or Real God.

The only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam is the Unique and only Way That always directly (and, at last, Most Perfectly) transcends egoity (or self-contraction). [Ibid, pages 163-165]

A friend recently sent me an e-mail which jogged by memory regarding The Ashtavakra Gita. As a matter of fact, The Dawn Horse Press published an edition of that classic spiritual text in 1982. It was called The Song of the Self Supreme, it was a reprint of a 1971 translation by Radhakamal Mukerjee, and it included a new 58-page Preface by Da Free John!

Ashtavakra Gita has been dated to the 5th to 4th century B.C. It is widely considered one of the greatest classics of Indian philosophy and spirituality -- equal to the Bhagavad Gita. When the Dawn Horse Press reissued it, in 1982, it became one of my favorite bedside books -- the kind you want to read in the middle of those nights when you wake up and feel nothing but the immense silence of existence.

After I received that e-mail, I dug out my copy of The Song of the Self Supreme, started reading it, and was immediately transported into the clear and profound depths of the intelligence behind it. What a great book!

Then I turned to Da Free John's Preface---

From the Preface by Da Free John to The Song of the Self Supreme (Ashtavakra Gita), Dawn Horse Press, 1982, pages 17-20---

The Ashtavakra Gita (herein entitled The Song of the Self Supreme) is among the highest communications of all religious and spiritual traditions. It is one of the rare jewels of spiritual literature, the Free communication by an Enlightened or God-Realized Adept of the point of view of the seventh or ultimate stage of life.
...

The seventh stage of life is the natural but paradoxical fulfillment of the first six stages of life. The seventh stage Realization tends to occur spontaneously in the case of sixth stage Sages of the highest type, particularly those who are less grounded in the conflict with Nature, who have entered into the sixth stage of life on the basis of the Wisdom of the seventh stage, and who exercise the free intuitional capacity to make the subtle transition between the sixth and the seventh stage points of view.

The Ashtavakra Gita is the Great Confession of a Sage who has made the transition from the philosophies and practices of the first six stages of life (including ceremonial and devotional religion, yogic mysticism, and a kind of exclusive or strategically life-negative monism) to the Siddhi or Fullness of the Divinely Realized Adept in the seventh stage.

The Ashtavakra Gita assumes a tradition of progressive practice in the lesser stages, but it does not itself represent or communicate any ideal or technique of practice. It simply communicates the radical point of view of the seventh stage Adept.
...

The Ashtavakra Gita is a culminating expression of the religious and philosophical schools of the early Vedic and Upanishadic tradition. It also encompasses all that is contained in the ancient and modern tradition associated with the God-concept called "Siva". The Siva tradition includes the fourth stage devotional tradition of ancient Shaivism, the fifth stage philosophy of the Upanishads of the yoga schools, the fifth stage yoga of the more modern school of Kashmir Shaivism, and the (medieval) Nath tradition, and the sixth stage attitudes and practices of Advaita Vedanta (which is a tradition founded on Upanishadic non-dualism, and which, like the Buddhist tradition, includes both sixth and seventh stage orientations to Truth).

A very few other texts, like the Ashtavakra Gita, are the ultimate texts of complete schools. The Tripura Rahasya, the Avadhoota Gita, and the Lankavatara Sutra clearly are such seventh stage texts. Like the Ashtavakra Gita, they do not represent a practice but rather they represent the description or Confession of ultimate Realization. They represent the ultimate free point of view of an Adept who Teaches others, who are yet practicing in the lesser stages, about the Realization that is the ultimate import of the traditional texts.

What can we say? In 1982, Franklin Jones (Da Free John) was still honoring the greatest gurus and teachings like Ashtavakra Gita as "the culminating expression...of the seventh stage Adept."

And we agreed with him then.

We don't agree with him now. We think he has gone completely foolish now. To consign, as he now does, Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, and texts like Ashtavakra Gita, Tripura Rahasya, and Lankavatara Sutra, to "the illusion of duality" of the "sixth stage of life" is the worst sort of foolishness.

ADI DA: The first six stages of life are (each and all) based upon the illusion of duality (suggested by the subject-object convention of conditional conception and conditional perception). [Aham Da Asmi, as quoted above.]

Interestingly enough, if I juxtapose the teachings of "Da Free John" with those of "Adi Da" , I have to say that "Da Free John" was more realized that "Adi Da"!

On the other hand, if "Adi Da" is, as he contends, a "7th stage realizer", and everyone else isn't, then "Da Free John" can at best have been a "sixth stage" dualist, because he found his "realization" to be in agreement with the greatest teachings of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism!

It is becoming clear that Frank, as "Adi Da" is in conflict with much of what he said up until around 1985.

Putting aside, for the moment, the antisocial pathology of Franklin Jones in the 1970s, I still have high regard for 1982-Da Free John's open-eyed appreciation of the great realizers and teachings of times past and present -- especially The Ashtavakra Gita.