Exoteric and Esoteric Religion

Introduction Part Two
By Megan Anderson, Jonathan Condit, PhD,
and Carolyn Lee, PhD

True religion is not about the "me"-person who participates in religion. Rather, true religion is about the Divine — with Which any individual is re-associating, or re-uniting. True religion is, ultimately, about discovering Oneness with the Divine Self-Condition to be Always Already the Case.

— Avatar Adi Da Samraj

Side by side with His argument about Real (Acausal) God is Avatar Adi Da’s clarification of the nature of true religion. True religion is a process (rather than a concretized "something") — one that involves constant surrender to Reality and that leads (ultimately) to the Realization of Reality Itself.

Mere belief is not purposed to Realization, but only to consolation of the mortal self.

The direct experience of Reality Itself is the true foundation of Reality-Realization. Religion on any other basis, Adi Da Samraj shows us, is a product of immaturity.

Adi Da Samraj distinguishes two categories of religious effort that have developed in human history — the "exoteric" and the "esoteric". Popular, or exoteric, religion is motivated by the concerns of physical and social existence.

Whatever its particular characteristics of doctrine and practice in any time and place, exoteric religion is a search for "salvation" through belief in some kind of "Creator.God" or patron-deity, and through adherence to a moral code of behavior that promotes social order.

The esoteric traditions, accounting for a small minority of humanity’s religious endeavors, conduct a more refined and inward form of seeking. They aspire to transcend the common myths and Awaken directly to What is Ultimate.

They all speak, in one manner or another, of Realizing an Ultimate Source-Condition of the impermanent, arising world. (Of course, this intention has various meanings and implications, depending on the orientation of the tradition.)

In the present age, the ancient esoteric (or "secret") traditions have become widely available outside the cultural milieu in which they developed.

This is both a boon and a hazard. While the opportunity to grow beyond myth-based beliefs is offered now around the globe, we must also respect the profound preparatory practice that is the requirement of any true esoteric path.

Next: The Three Elements of
Conventional Religious Thinking