Transcendental Realism: The Image-Art of Egoless Coincidence with Reality Itself (New, Expanded Second Edition) Paperback – August 1, 2010

In Transcendental Realism, Adi Da summarizes the origins of perspectival art, as a process of magic. Perspectival images reveal how the observer is drawn into a sense of a separate self, by conjuring up a play between a subject and an object. By means of a point of view, in the same way a camera is used to photograph an object by a subject, Adi Da gives clear visual examples of how this is achieved through perspectival art.He also explains that through many years of consideration, he was able to make his aperspectival transcendental art images. These images can be participated in visually, and lead one beyond a subject and an object reference. His images draw me into a thoughtless feeling receptivity, and a feeling of mystery beyond verbal description.The intention of Adi Da’s art is to confound the conceptual and perceptual mind so that the participant in his transcendental images can have a feeling glimpse of the Reality that he speaks of. As well, his use of language to describe his process of creating his art images is detailed and illuminating for any art scholar to study and consider.

Anyone with any interest in the visual arts or the nature of reality will discover insights here that cannot be found elsewhere. The reader is presented not with mere interesting ideas but profound truths.

This unusual and illuminating book sheds light both about the process of artistic rendering and the process of spiritual awakening. Highly recommended.

We all come to image-art from are own point of view. Like so many other experiences, we often make the image-art about ourselves. Much image-art is produced to serve this purpose. And while this process may at times be enjoyable it is not ultimately fulfilling. In this book Adi Da Samraj describes the different aspects and purposes of image-art in general and his image art in particular. For example he describes the process of how to relate to image-art in a participatory manner. In part, Adi Da states: "... However true participation in the image is fundamentally, a process of aesthetic ecstasy, a process of transcending egoity. ... Thus the process of truly participating in the any image that I make and do is, most fundamentally, with reference to Reality Itself--which intrinsically Transcends 'point of view'. Ultimately, the process of rightly viewing the any image I make and do is a process of forgetting 'self', feeling beyond spatial and temporal 'point of view' and (on that basis) freely and egolessly participating in that which is prior to 'point of view'. ... Rather than being an end in itself, the any image I make and do is an aesthetically fabricated means for participatory ecstasy-- wherein and whereby the any rightly participating viewer tacitly transcends 'point of view' (or the otherwise inescapable 'room' of egoity) by participation in Reality Itself." This book completely changed my understanding of image-art and the process of viewing image-art. I highly recommend this work (with illustrations) to everyone.

As a long time collector and patron of contemporary art, I have been intrigued by the digital and photographic art of Adi Da Samraj. Inclusion in the prestigious Venice Biennale in 2007 and a subsequent large exhibition of his work in Florence, Italy in 2008 confirmed his importance in the contemporary art world. Adi Da argues that "point of view," either that of the artist or the viewer, is unnecessary, and represents an illusory and false assumption that subject and object are indeed separate. This false presumption creates the world as we know it. But the "real world" or reality itself is realized only through transcendence of that subject-object dichotomy."Transcendental Realism: The Image-Art of egoless Coincidence With Reality Itself" is a collection of essays by the spiritually-realized Adi Da Samraj which explains the principles and loves, but artistic processes involved in his work, and further elucidates his consideration of Reality:"In the transcending of "point of view", all recognizability vanishes. Nothing is recognizably structured in space-time, apart from "point of view". Apart from "point of view", what does a room look like? If one cannot even comprehend a room apart from taking up a position, or "point of view", within it, how does one expect to comprehend the universe?"These transcendental arguments are deeply intriguing in and of themselves, but "Transcendental Realism" also includes 24 pages of beautifully reproduced full color photographs of Adi Da's image art from 2006-2008, each of them entitled with provocative phrases utterly puzzling to the ego. For an art lover who is spiritually inclined, who can fully participate in these images without cultural political, or social constraints, these reproductions will undoubtedly create a profound aesthetic experience.

Adi Da has changed the way I view art on so many levels through this astonishing educational jewel. To keep it simple, the following principles of truly engaging art of any kind that limit our interaction are severely undercut and pierced with a loud scream. We all tend to objectify, reduce, analyze, control and disassociate from art. I want to just leave it there and it is for you to take this journey into the true and ecstatic way to engage in his art, as well as any art. What e gem.

Not an easy book to follow. But worth reading and thinking about.