Archive for the ‘Adept’ Category

The Humor of The Heart

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

There is a chapter in The Enlightenment of The Whole Body (1978 Bubba Free John) titled “The Mood Of Enlightenment” one of my favorite talks from all the books, I had forgotten about, it’s a truly great essay on the Humor and Perfect Freedom at the heart of 7th Stage Enlightenment. Click here to read full chapter. Short quote below.

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But the seventh stage, the Enlightened stage, is not serious at all. In that stage we Realize our native Transcendence of everything. There is the tacit Realization that there is nothing serious whatsoever about experiential existence. It could end in this moment, casually, and that cessation in itself would not have the slightest significance. Or, it could continue for infinite eons of time, through infinite permutations and transformations of experience, and its continuing would not have any significance either. That is the Disposition in Enlightenment-Realization of the non-necessity of everything. Absolutely nothing is of serious consequence or of ultimate necessity-absolutely nothing.

The ordinary reactive personality, who is basically in despair and hysterical, can also say that life is meaningless, but such a person is very serious. The Enlightened man, however, Realizes total Freedom. He is no longer serious, but neither is he self-destructive. He has passed into Ecstasy. He has not suppressed or separated from himself-rather, all that he is has been transcended in the Radiant Transcendental Consciousness. Thus, he is full of humor and delight. He is not aggressively opposed to the world, nor is he clinging to it. All the tension in his heart has been re-leased. To speak of Enlightenment without that sign is nonsense. There is no Enlightenment without the release of the heart from all of its seriousness, all of its clinging to phenomena, high and low.”

The Great Bird That Flies to the Heart

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

This is one of my favorite chapters from The Dreaded Gomboo from February 3, 1983

The full chapter is located Here it contains unique Esoteric and Transcendental instruction that won’t be found anywhere as near complete as here, it also fundamentally gels with Adi Da’s final word on the necessity of Divine Grace as the means (or The Great Bird, Garuda) to Realisation epitomized perhaps in the essay “Atma Nadi Shakti Yoga” (The Aletheon)

Four Phases of the Seventh Stage of Life

Friday, April 9th, 2010

This is taken from the 1992 edition of The Knee Of Listening (editorial). The process after Divine Enlightenment has never been previously detailed  in any traditional  literature.

The Ultimate, or fully Awakened and seventh stage Practice unfolds in four progressive phases of the Perfect Demonstration of the Heart And each of the four phases of the seventh stage Demonstration is an expression of the “Bright” Yoga of Amrita Nadi.

Divine Transfiguration is the phase in which the Divine or ‘Original Spiritual Current of Love-Bliss is reflected from the Infinitely Ascended Terminal, or “Head’ of Amrita Nadi into the descending circuit of the body-mind of the Awakened individual, thereby Transfiguring the body-mind. This results in great Heart-Service to others and signs of (even sometimes visible) bodily Illumination and Infusion by the Self-Radiance of the Heart.

Divine Transformation is the phase in which the Divine or -Original Spiritual Current of Love-Bliss’ is reflected from the Infinitely Ascended Terminal of Amrita Nadi in the full Circle (both descending and ascending) of the body-mind of the Awakened individual—resulting in the spontaneous manifestation of Siddhis. or extraordinary Powers of Blessing Both the Divine Transfiguration and the Divine Transformation phases aft founded in Descent—as the “Original Spiritual Current of Love-Bliss’ is reflected from the Infinitely Ascended Terminal of Amrita Nadi into the descending (or descending and ascending) circuit of the conditional body-mind. It is this very ‘Descent’ that allows the apparent conditional embodiment Of the Realizer to take place.

Divine Indifference is the phase in which the Divine. or ”Original Spiritual Current of Love Bliss”. Abides in Amrita Nadi Itself, and It is only minimally, and less and less, reflected in the Circle of the body-mind of the Awakened individual. Thus, the conditional body-mind and all experience are only minimally noticed (and less and less engaged), as the individual being Inheres in the Prior and formless Well of Love-Bliss or Divine Being Itself. This was Sri Da Avabhasa’s Disposition at the time of His Birth until the age of two, and the State to which He Returned after the Event of His Divine Emergence in 1986.

Divine Translation is the phase of the seventh stage Demonstration in which all conditions (including Amrita Nadi) are Recognized and Outshined in the Divine Self-Condition. in the Perfect Space and ‘Bright’ Domain that is Consciousness itself. Realized as the Native Love-Bliss-Feeling of Being.

Adi Da passed into the final phase of Translation in 2000

In Divine Translation, the movement of Descent whereby the Awakened Adept Appears in a conditional form comes to rest or is dissolved. In Divine Translation. Absorption-Identification with the Self-Existing and Self-Radiant, Infinite and Divine Person utterly Outshines the Structure of Amrita Nadi, the conditional body-mind, and all the possible worlds of experience.

© 2010 The Da Love-Ananda Samrajya Pty Ltd, as trustee for the Da Love-Ananda Samrajya. All rights reserved. Perpetual copyright claimed

Adi Da’s 1973 trip to India-reprinted article

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

 

Beezone has recently reprinted an article from a  1974 copy of The Dawn Horse Magazine. It’s a gritty, raw, unfiltered account of a fully illumined Master, doing His uncompromising Work travelling with one western devotee (still very much in the process of learning what “Guru” means)  with ancient and modern spiritual sources in India.  The account has no political correctness, and without doubt is full of “offense”, to just about everyone, it certainly makes me squirm in parts and I am sure many others will as well. However it unmistakeably reveals the incredible and uncompromising integrity of Adi Da wherein he would engage everyone and anyone in this always sacrificial and Divinely madcap, dangerous adventure. Outrageous humour blend with absolute spiritual seriousness, the audacity of it, is quite shocking particularly to the modern taste. I have spent time in India ( visiting some of th sites listed) so it has a little more reality to it, perhaps for those who have been there.

The reader who is not familiar with the vastness of Adi Da’s life and teaching, may also take note that much more “work” was done with His spiritual sources in India (including His relationship with Baba Muktananda which changed greatly) and this was covered in much later magazine articles which may get reprinted at some point, so this account may be seen as the  beginning of a much greater and more extensive story ( Leela)

On a personal note, I love this “telling it how it is”, form of Adi Da’s teaching work. It has a beautiful honesty and purity to it, totally at odds with traditional hypocrisy and pretense, and very liberating
(potentiality for all parties) that is not to say, it’s rawness and unpredictability is utterly “disturbing” which is how it meant to be.

Article Here : The Trip To India; Taxis Temples & God

 Adi Da wrote this shortly before going on the Pilgrimage

Unimaginable numbers of beings, energies, and processes outside this world generate and cooperate in spiritual work in this world. Wherever the real spiritual process is awakened at any point in time and space, it is the product of the spiritual process that exists prior to time and space and also within all the levels of time and space or manifest existence. So behind our work are all the Siddhas and all the great activities that transcend the Earth plane.

Just as there is a vast spiritual process behind this work and all true spiritual work, there are also certain individuals, Siddhas and others, who are very directly involved with our work, Muktananda is the only one alive in the body, and it is very important that I purify my connection to him for the sake of the work itself. There are others with whom my contact is in subtler dimensions–Nityananda, Ramana Maharshi, Shirdi Sai Baba, Ramakrishna. I want to return to the places most intimately associated with these people and insure my proper relationship to them for the sake of this work

Part 2   The India Tapes

Following on from the main article is a series of tape recordings made at the some of the Ashrams and places visited. There are many choice and pithy observations made here, and this material needs to be savoured and chewed over, since it brings up some obvious and apparently startling contradictions. 

This observation caught my eye and interest. It should not be taken personally, in the sense that the “characterization” is impersonal and could belong to anyone. I have met many people like this in various groups formed around teachers, just the remarkable clear perception of this “character” is worth noting (as is the fact that Adi Da was absolutely willing to work spiritually directly with him)

“I must maintain a relationship to people outwardly that is coincident with the approach that they make. This American you mentioned wants to be palsy-walsy with all the great ones. That’s his number. He likes famous and great and well-known people and all of that. He wants them to shine on him. That’s how he gets his goodie. Baba satisfies that egoic demand of his in some way. But I’m not interested in satisfying it. I’m interested in seeing it come to an end in that guy. So I would rather be offensive to him and not kiss him on the cheek, tell him he is a good friend, and make him my friend, because the next hour he would be throwing darts at my picture. That’s what he does anyway. It is better to deal with him in this way”

Fundamentally I think it is good thing that these old documents are coming into modern consciousness, nor do I believe it is just random, Adi Da’s Leela (or spiritual play and conscious work) continues, it is just as active now as it was then. These transcripts may be seen rightly as unfinished historical documents, a beginning, yet to be refined and “worked” into cohesion and “finished”. They definitely should be seen as a work in progress. For instance if you read carefully you may see something of the beginning of the ” Seven Stages of Life” teaching in its crudest form.

Related : Leela :The Cave at Arunachala (from Adi Da’s brief 1977 India Trip)

The Emergence of Free Religion

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

Such religion is free. It is native religion, it is God-made religion. Those who enter in such a religious process may live with one another, create a structure or an institution for association with one another and the communication of the Teaching but their religion itself is free and immediate.

It is a process that is always intimate, that one can practice in every moment of existence, that one must practice in every moment of existence. It is not a practice to be engaged only sometimes in meditation or weekly church gatherings….. It is a kind of renegade Teaching. It is not smiled upon by religionists and worldly people.”

This remarkable text was taken from a book written by Adi Da called – The Fire Gospel- published in 1982. The particular talk is- “A Birthday Message from Jesus and Me”.

The concept of Free Religion has often been used by Adi Da, examples are “The Free Communion Church” and later “Free Daism”. I often wondered why He used this term “Free” so often, in particular related to Adidam (whatever form it was conceived of in the past). Now I get it, it’s the complete reversal of how religion is perceived – by me at least, perhaps everyone already has this astonishingly liberal view !

Religion is generally seen as an imposition from without, it requires something of you by an institution or organisation outside of self.

This is crucial point and a most liberating one. Quite astounding in its direct emancipation from what I call “catechism” (1) something I endured with at best fortitude, as a child attending catholic school- in short, rote, unbelievably boring ritual, and feelingless liturgy. Adi Da calls it “mummery”.

“Such religion is free. It is native religion, it is God-made religion.”

It must come from your own free response, not imposed on you from without !

“Those who enter in such a religious process may live with one another, create a structure or an institution for association with one another and the communication of the Teaching “

So the structure and institution is based on the practice of a religious process, it comes from that process-freely.

“but their religion itself is free and immediate.”

How cool is that, the almost universal complaint about “organized religion” ends here, because you the practitioner create and maintain this religion, freely. This inherent religious process (understood in this most expansive manner) precedes the structure of religion itself, in any form, nor can it be ever subservient to the institution itself. It must stand prior to any external form, though the form  and institution is its free expression and natural form (again understood from this most radical point of view)

It’s a revolutionary point of view and one all the Great Adept Masters of the past have gestured at (in this talk Adi Da equates Jesus to this primary attempt to establish Free Religion), previous to the formation of “religion” in its far lesser or exoteric (2) mode, after the death of The Master.

There is no need for naive idealism though, it is far more gritty than that, in how it actually works out. Adidam is thus described in the best case scenario, there is already something of this quality there, at particular times it is very clear. As time goes on this will become more the case. It’s a wonderful vision. Should inspire the Free Heart in all, just in its mere contemplation.

Listen to the talk (or MP3 download) “A Birthday Message from Jesus and Me

(1) catechism (; κατηχισμός from kata = “down” + echein = “to sound”, literally “to sound down” (into the ears), i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present

(2) exoteric & esoteric religion

Secret of Spiritual Practice

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

This is taken from a book written in 1983 called “What Is the Conscious Process?” it includes some of Adi Da’s most direct and simple word on the Esoteric nature of The Spiritual Master’s influence in the daily life of a practitioner, it is my habit to read later texts (currently The Aletheon) combined with older texts(such as this one) which remain a remarkable and seemingly endless source of Wisdom Instruction, this combination has a wonderful expansive and enrichening quality

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As I have told you, when the Adept Awakens into his Function for others, the “Siddhi” or Divine Awakening Power achieves universal Agency. Thereafter, when the Influence of the Adept is contacted via the practice of devotees (or when the Adept makes his Influence effective, spontaneously or at will, in the case of any person or condition), changes begin to occur. The essence of those changes is a Work that purifies, balances, and ultimately Awakens the individual being.

Those who truly practice, and thus cooperate with (rather than resist, or even merely luxuriate in the superficial effects of) the Adept’s Transmission, are progressively relieved or purified of the “karmic” (or self-based and habitual) limitations they have accumulated in the functional domain of the body-mind and its relations.

It should be understood that the karmas or habit patterns of every individual are effective at every level: physical, emotional, mental, unconscious, subconscious, conscious, waking, dreaming, and sleeping. And those karmas extend beyond the individual body-mind to include others, objects, and environments on every level, visible (or gross) and invisible (or subtle), known and unknown–past, present, and future. Also, because of the universal effectiveness of the karmic or conditional associations of individual being, it is not at all possible merely to invert upon and identify with the self-essence (the “Atman” or most inner consciousness) and have that be true Transcendental Self-Realization or Enlightenment. The inner self or “Atman” is not identical to the Transcendental Self (“Paramatman” or “Brahman”) unless it is Realized to be Such. (Just as “Nirvana” and “samsara” are not identical until they are Realized to be So.) And such Realization is not at all possible until the individual or self-bound consciousness has first been transcended through the real discipline of practice.

Transcendental Realization requires, as a prerequisite, the purificatory release of karmic accumulations, or the tendencies of attention that limit and suppress the ability of attention to Locate its Ultimate Source-Condition. Therefore, the ultimate fulfillment of the Way (which is to “Be Conscious as the Feeling of Being and Realize that It Is Radiant Happiness”) requires, as a matter of preparation, the purification or release of attention from the self-bond, the stable development of true psycho-physical equanimity (or full responsibility for self-transcendence), and the magnification of free energy and attention.

The Adept Spiritual Master Works spontaneously for devotees as a Free Agent that Serves both the initial or preparatory process (of purification, self-transcendence, equanimity, and free energy and attention) and the ultimate process of Transcendental Awakening that follows naturally upon and even always coincides with every stage of such preparation. Therefore, when I regard my devotees, or when I sit with them in Transcendental Communion (whether I am physically near or far from them), I Magnify the Purifying, Liberating, and Awakening Power to them, each and all.

As devotees progressively develop and mature in their practice, the Power in my Company acts directly and effectively to prepare them and to Awaken them. This is shown by many kinds of evidence in life and meditation, and there are at least many hundreds of individuals thus far who can attest to this. The Awakening Effect is affirmed even by those who first study the literature of my Teaching. Likewise, all the Effects that serve to purify, to release the self-contraction, to create equanimity, and to release energy and attention can be testified to by many who have practiced this Way in my Company for years or even months.

The process whereby these Effects are Demonstrated is directly associated with the unique daily life and meditation of each devotee. Each day, unique tendencies, associations, and conditions of life and meditation appear in the case of each devotee. When those tendencies, associations, and conditions are combined with real practice (in the forms of conductivity and the Conscious Process) and brought into the sphere of Communion with the Adept in God (or Reality), a purifying, harmonizing, liberating, and Awakening Force is brought into the context of the moment–and this Event produces all kinds of transformative changes, both ordinary and extraordinary or profound. In this manner, the various karmic accumulations or habitual limitations of each true devotee are gradually lifted off and absorbed or eliminated by my Agency.

My own Work in this regard is a spontaneous Siddhi that has always been Alive in me, but I accepted full responsibility for It in relation to others only after the Event in the Vedanta Temple. Then the Signs of Its Operation began to Move and Oblige me toward others for the sake of their Awakening, and I began to Teach. Over the years since then, I have entered spontaneously and freely into all kinds of relations with people in order to allow this Siddhi to do Its Work without limitation. As a result, the Great Way has now been fully Communicated anew, and devotees and I practice the Siddhi of our Great Relationship even at great distances. It is a Marvel of Divine Grace which few are able to value and understand.

And so I call you to practice this Way in my Company. I call you to understand, surrender, and transcend yourself in Divine Company, free of the conceits of egoity. If you do this, then all of the obvious and also hidden content of manifest consciousness will gradually rise up to your attention–and each portion of it will be inspected and released in your own case. When all of that content has been drawn up and released, then attention will stand bare in you, and all of the energies of your manifest being will be free to collect in the locus of the right side of the heart. Then, and only then, your own consciousness will be free to Identify with the Transcendental Consciousness, which is prior to the body-mind and all of Nature.

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A fundamental aspect of the Way is the progressive recognition of the Spiritual Master. In other words entering into that Company, the sphere of the Spiritual Master’s Influence more and more profoundly. By entering into more and more profound levels of recognition of the Spiritual Master, beginning with obvious acknowledgment of the Spiritual Master, as a Living Master, but then going on to recognize and locate the Spiritual Master as Siddha, as Siddhi, as that Influence, which is directly present to every practicing devotee, in every moment, not merely in occasions of being in the Spiritual master’s human company, or being in meditation, of being in an empowered place, or being in the community and so on, but always. Those who truly practice begin to locate and recognize and acknowledge this Influence in every moment of life and meditation. it is always available. It is a matter of turning to it, of acknowledging it, recognizing it, locating it, making your practice into communion with that Influence. Therefore allowing that Influence to transform the conditions of existence that are arising from hour to hour, moment to moment, not only in meditation, but in daily life. In daily life all kinds of changes occur, all kinds of moods, all kinds of circumstances, physical, emotional and mental states, relations, changes in relations and so forth. Those are just as much within the sphere of Transcendental Influence, as any of the activities that occur in the subjective realm of meditation. Therefore these also, you will discover, remarkably, are constantly being changed, in various ways by this influence.

The Influence, or Siddhi that you have entered into is the Power and Being in which all of nature is arising. And therefore it has its effect on all of the apparently objective conditions of your existence, just as it has an effect upon the subjective conditions. So in daily life, you notice this influence making changes, if your sensitive and really practicing in this company, in both the subjective and objective levels of your existence. In meditation, you notice this influence more in terms of the subjective changes and the effects this Influence has on you immediate personal experience, you physical, emotional, mental states, and those kinds of states that may arise in meditation.

You should also begin to notice how this Influence is operative beyond the waking state, in dreams, in sleeping, in every moment of existence. There is a tradition in which Adepts have asked devotees, usually advanced devotees, to sleep at night, with the intention of entering into the Spiritual Master’s company. Sometimes this instruction is given in very specific detail, to go to sleep with the intention in the astral or dream form, to go to a specific location, usually the Communion Hall, or the place of residence of the Spiritual Master, with full visual expression and so on, during the dreaming time. Also with the intention in the sleep state, to be entered into communion with the Transcendental Condition and presence of the Spiritual Master, or the Consciousness, or Being that is the Adept and the Divine.

Well, devotees over the years, frequently report random, unintentional experiences of this kind. Similar experiences in fact occur even during waking hours, various kinds of visionary experiences, of seeing me in the meditation hall, or having some vision of me and so forth, in a moment of activity. These are reported by people. they also report all kinds of extraordinary dreams. Now these dreams in general do not have anything to do with me in the sense that I am personally, at the level of my human mind and so on, aware that you are having these dreams, although I very often am aware of them. But the fact that somebody has a dream in which I appear to them, does not necessarily mean that I would be able to tell them the next day that I was aware of it. I may or may not be aware of it. Or I may be aware of it in a difference form. Or I may be aware of it in the same form. But most of the time I wouldn’t be aware of it, there would be no reflection in my waking mind of it. But this does not mean that the experience if false. It can be falsified by the individual who just uses it for his own self-glamouriation, to console him or herself so they can feel they’re had some profound experience. But generally the essential content of such dreams is a feeling of entering into this communion, and something about the meaning of the dream, will generally have some pertinence, some significance that is real and appropriate enough, worth remembering, worth allowing to have some effect on you whenever it will.

Therefore since this possibility exists, some people might try this. You should feel free to try this. These gatherings we have on celebration occasions are something like this. People gather in Centers and various parts of the world, at the same time I’m sitting here with you all. And they prepare themselves through the devotional occasion, and use my photograph as a way of associating with me. They are literally tuning into me, allowing themselves to enter into the sphere of my Influence, personally. During meditation, or perhaps in dreams, or some other visions afterwards, they may have some sense of coming to some place where I’m sitting with them and so forth. During that time of meditation, they may have visions of it, of my being in the room with them, or them being in a room some place or other with me.

In other words the psyche may function automatically to create some sort of association with me that’s tangible. Whether or not that tangible association has anything directly to do with my actual physical location or not. It is simply something that adds a dimension to the whole force of their alignment to me”

Handle business and drop out

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Notes on a meditation experience

Today had an insight into that which stands Free or is never implicated in all the arising conditions of the body-mind with which we normally identify.

That which stands Free, just “rest-abides”, it seems to be where our attention would naturally rest if it was not constantly disturbed by stressful demands in our association with the body-mind. Ordinary life as we know it is a constant demand on our attention, in my life I conceive of it as “survival stress”, or the most basic form of self-contraction.

The place I rested today briefly, was free of any bound implication, any need for my attention to be absorbed in the ordinary round of events-money, food, sex, society, or to respond to any environmental demands. There was just profound rested-ease, it felt like my (our) native condition, free of disturbance, unperturbed, moveless, thought-free (though thinking was possible and clear) searchless, without dilemma and completely free of primal fear

It can also be described as natural, wherein the life lived in my conventional manner is unnatural, rooted in stress, craving and fundamental disturbance. To be absorbed there in motionless ease, seems to be what Adi Da calls “at-root” or “in-depth”. He also says that many non-humans (sentient beings) abide here whenever they are at rest, after having handled business they “contemplate’, he does not describe this contemplation as of a something, just the act of contemplation itself, everyone would allow this condition (beats any vacation, strategic meditation state, or entertainment possible), “Handle business and drop out !” is the Adept’s advice.

By convention a human being tends to do nothing other than “handle business”, here to “drop out” means to fall into the Heart Depth, rest there, abide there, the Sages and Great Ones did not hesitate about it, just dived in. It is not enlightenment as some claim, just native to all beings.

If you want to get technical it may be resting attention naturally at the causal root(1) of the being, not by any method or technique, it’s just where attention natively “sits” when all the hub-bub of life demands really fall away for periods of time. It feels structural or a natural progression or evolved state of our essential being, what I mean by this is it is not ephemeral (or at least less changeable) like so many internal states that come and go, but more like a stage of life of human possibility.

(1)The causal dimension is senior to and pervades both the gross and the subtle dimensions. It is the root of attention, or the essence of the separate and separative ego-”I”. The causal dimension is associated with the right side of the heart, specifically with the sinoatrial node, or “pacemaker” (the psycho-physical source of the heartbeat). Its corresponding state of consciousness is the formless awareness of deep sleep

A Favorite Image

Friday, September 11th, 2009

Some may find this image a strange choice but others will know exactly why I chose it, over time my choice may change but as it stands this is my number one image of the Miraculous Great Sage-Adi Da Samraj- here as Master Da Free John, most likely taken in 1983 shortly before or after the acquisition of Naitauba Island.

His almost naked stance, has a timeless, unconcerned, ease and fearlessness, I immediately think of the Avadhoot tradition, His Freedom in striding effortlessly and indifferently through the water with a remote island in view, is a waltz through the universe of samsara. Most of all look at that Blessing Hand and Arm, it’s the gesture of Divine Victory- All forms will ultimately dissolve in Divine Love- no doubt of this expressed here.

“The Avadhoot in unshakable equanimity, living in the holy temple of nothingness, walks naked, knowing all to be Brahman”  -Avadhoot Gita

Early Books & Later Work a Schism?(2)

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

 

Quote from B.M

Adi Da is asking a huge amount of people, just looking at it from the average joe-seeker’s point of view, I would say too much is asked of him or her and outside of the cloisters of Adidam, my friend, it’s gob-smackingly-freaking-obvious, which is tragic, because this great wisdom should be available to all surely, as this was the point of this Incarnation of the Adept in my opinion – since it is what will always bring many people to the Master.

The other thing to consider is that the spiritual market, has changed mightily since we were new, young and fresh seekers of Truth, there may have been 30 or 40 present sources of spiritual influence available to westerners at that time, hanging around spiritual bookshops and reading posters on health food notice boards for sources of wisdom, was as good as it got for us. These days the numbers of such sources and influences is massive and they pander to individual taste, even. The waters are so muddied in present time, the guy looking for Truth in all of that, has so many more options than the dude reading “The Method of The Siddha’s” in the 70’s and even 80’s The questions may be exactly the same, but the potential answers by all the Guru’s of now, has become overwhelming, I pity the poor devil moving through all of this hype and possibility. We had it easy, in fact. I sometimes think if I was was a young person trying to make sense of it all, could I have found my way, even to “The Knee of Listening” and if I did would I have been able to recognize the Adept’s appearance or gone on from there to be lost in the miasma of all current possibilities in the spiritual marketplace, or more to the point, If I came across some of Adi Da’s more recent and demanding texts would I have the capacity to persist through them ? Hard to say, perhaps, but it was certainly more clear cut, then, than now.

(Response)
Well, agree on some points, but things are not necessarily how they seem. Grace has to be there, right. No matter what the circumstance, now, in the future, after death, in another state, we depend utterly on Grace that is fundamental to the Way and has always been the case.

Anyway take heart brother, this young hero proves it is currently possible to Recognize- The spiritual Master, and will continue to be in any time and space  and his quote (below) is really pertinent to our conversation

I found The Knee Of Listening to be an amazing book and was fascinated by Adi Da’s life story. I enjoyed reading His Writing and reading about His childhood and His time in India, and everything else. I found it very humbling. And His Writing was so sophisticated, intelligent, and creative. I was fascinated with the technical precision in His use of language. I remember reading the first essay “Do Not Misunderstand Me“; it was full of capitalization, underlining, and parentheticals. I did not feel intimidated, but immediately felt that whoever Adi Da Is, He is very serious.

I never felt offended by His claims of Divinity or Avatarhood, but was more struck by the way He said it. His Written-Word was absolutely confident, firm, and unshakable. I felt that there was no trace of uncertainty in Adi Da about anything. His Writing was so strong, with the underlining, the capitalization, everything. I did not care if He was the Divine Avatar or not, I could at least respect His utter seriousness and confidence about it. He did not feel weak at all, as if He was someone who needed to make claims about himself for the sake of identity, or self-esteem, or megalomania. His strength was overpowering to me. I did not even question Him, nor did I believe Him, but I just kept reading. I was fascinated and attracted to Him and His claims, that someone would even say something like that was startling and amazing to me. I couldn’t get enough. I continued to read passages where Adi Da would say that He was the Divine, and sometimes would even seek for these passages, just marveling that someone would say such a thing! Why would a man say that? And with such Force?

Early Books & Later Work a Schism?(1)

Monday, August 24th, 2009

(B.M) – A lot of readers and friends of Adi Da felt there is a real schism between the early works & writing and audio’s of Adi Da especially starting in the 1990’s, it seems to me that when he started to use phrases like “Only-By-Me-Revealed-Way” and an apparent claim to exclusive Avatar-hood and the massive use of “Me” in text, he lost his audience to a large degree, at least many who followed him through the changes of his remarkable life would have struggled mightily with all this. I often read and play media from early years and feel this is the Master whom I can relate to, and will always relate  to. His world view was one of him being an “Adept” or “Siddha” in an infinite lineage of other True Adepts and Siddhas appearing forever in the past and future. This was to me and many, a beautiful, cohesive cosmology and world view which made perfect sense in the light of the great tradition of religion and spirituality

(Response) Could write a lot about the demanding language, but from my point of view the constant “Me” ism and “Only-By-Me-Revealed-Way” style phrases is an ego prickling device, it is part of the necessary demand put on the serious reader to go passed “me” or “self”. This language also gives the reader a great opportunity for self understanding, in that here is the constant reflection of the action of self, or self-contraction, back to consciousness. As the egoic self in its ordinary enjoyment and reading capacity we just want to be entertained, gather information or whatever, but we are given the opportunity to do sadhana , just by reading these sacred texts. Yes its tough, demanding, hard work at times this is exactly how Adi Da Samraj wants it to be, then its as if we crack the code and briefly feel what he means by all of this.

Ultimately the ” Me” he champions so relentlessly, the “Reality” he pounds us with so harrowingly, when ego is fully dead, vanished, is our state, our Realization.In other words the ” Me” that is so offensive to “you” as that tiny ego being is the only “One” that is. In “The Boundless Self Confession” there is a chapter titled ” I am alone in My House” – you would understand the “My House” to be the “Divine Domain” used extensively in earlier works, therefore you could say there is only one being here called “Me” but it is not “me” now or ever, “me” is the one that prevents ” Reality” from currently being the case, thus you are forced to stand outside of “me” in order to enjoy “Reality” or “Me” ( our ultimate post egoic condition) That is why Adi Da also uses the phrase “Realize Me” you can’t Realize something (one) who is not already your ultimate condition.

So you start getting a lot more sympathy for this formerly troublesome “ Me” language, its coded, a seemingly endless “prickle” to the conventional self, yet for those that persist yielding a great and awesome Intuition.

Having said that, there is also the constant falling back into the conventional viewpoint and thus again a constant resistance emerging when ever the texts are read, recited or listened to, I don’t think there is any alternative to this engagement.

The other point you raise about Avatarhood  and the only 7th stage Realizer, seems to me to be something arrived at spontaneously by Adi Da, I don’t think there is any doubt that He assumed there were other 7th stage Realizers and over the years spoke of certain individuals and sometimes a whole tradition of such Realizers (Great Siddhas) but upon great testing he appeared to come to the certain knowledge that this is not the case, so no matter how much we would like it to be so, how symmetrical it could be, and even painful this may be to accept, according to Adi Da these concepts and possibilities fell short of “Reality” or how things actually are, but of course it would be far better for Adidam as a believable missionary offering if it had turned out otherwise (in my opinion) or again pehaps this is just a “santa claus” type of illusion.