Archive for the ‘Adi Da Samraj’ Category

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Experiment in egolessness

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Walking on the beach, inspired by the prospect of no “me”, this is not any silly self aggrandising presumptuousness, but rather Adi Da’s calling to ordinary men and women, read “Not Two Is Peace” it’s clear, live as no self, “just  part of the landscape”, only. The body mind is just a pattern, no need to inflate it (or deflate it) It’s just a strange coinciding with this rather ordinary form. He said you could have just as easily woken up as a pair of shoes on the lawn, what mirth in that.

Look closely at the beach image, can you see a self in it? where is the ego there? it’s just egoless pattern, landscape, same as the rest of us.

“The fiction of separateness- and the denial of the universal characteristic  of prior unity- is a mind based illusion.”  Adi Da Samraj

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The Restoration of Faith(1)

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

Introduction

“Science has thus found how to make doubt into a tool of conventional knowledge. And, rightly used, that tool has its place. But as a psychological state that defines our existence and that is developed into a view of the universe, doubt is a form of affliction, something to be understood and transcended. In the course of real spiritual practice, doubt is encountered in its purity. It is not regarded to have philosophical content. It is regarded to be simply a sign of the contraction of being” (1) Adi Da Samraj

As a modern man born in the 20Th century, my primary mood is doubt, not faith, my first response to anything of an even slightly spiritual nature is disbelief, more as an underlying and characteristic feeling response than a conscious, thinking one.

Along with my peers I have inherited an ingrained world view that is generally uninspected and unnoticed, accepted as natural, rather than one acquired culturally. That view is non-faith or the tacit denial of God, Truth, Love and Happiness as our primary state and primary knowledge.

This apparently inherited mood of doubt was not the case in my early childhood, thus I say my faith was lost and was previous to doubt, the mood of faith seems unreal and ephemeral compared to this deeply conditioned doubt response that clearly came from cultural and educational sources.

Part 1: Doubt and Faith

Doubt used in this context is mostly seen as the opposite of faith, faith is generally defined as belief in religious or spiritual doctrine or deity, doubt is a sense of denial in relation to doctrine or belief in a doctrine, Adi Da treats doubt as primarily an emotional state or mood (2) (a form of self-contraction) at the root of all doubt.

 Anyone who takes the trouble to “feel” doubt, may notice it is has a characteristic emotional component, no matter what the particular subject of the doubt. To doubt is felt as a negative state of self . In contrast to this, one can use objective analysis or discriminative reflection without the addition of doubt (as a negative psycho-physical state), that is, the analytical discriminative faculty  need not carry the emotive component that is the mood of doubt.

To me the constant arising of doubt is not something to be concerned about, it does not mean what it appears to, because I see it (when this insight is active) as a condition of myself, rather than a reflection of what is true or external to me.

It is also notable that the conflict between doubt and faith is overwhelming in Western theology, not an overriding consideration in Hindu thought, but perhaps more considered in some schools of Buddhism.

Since doubt is easily known, the use of the term faith needs clarification :

Faith used here, is a natural heart felt openness, that seems to be strong in childhood and quickly recedes as our education in conventional doctrines and world concepts overwhelms it. It is a state of mind and emotion, it naturally presumes a happy, joyous source to all things. Not  merely the belief in doctrine but a disposition that assumes eternal life via feeling rather than thought. It stands in opposition to the mood of doubt  but shares the demonstrable quality of being also a state of self, but felt as a positivity, joy and connection to all life and its inherent mystery.

To clarify further then, faith in Adi Da’s specific idiom (as I understand it), means not a particular set of beliefs or a response to specific dogma or concepts but an opening of the being, that would then allow conceptualization to follow. It is not belief in a particular God concept, or a particular religion, but is previous to any particular concept, God or religious idea, rather it is  rooted in the visceral source of faith as response prior to conceptualizations

I am not suggesting that a return to the mere naivety of childhood is the desired outcome but rather the manifesting of faith in a fully adult manner, with the full capacity to use discriminative insight. Adi Da postulates that God, Truth or Divine Reality is obvious(3), not the usual modern point of view that starts with the apparent (at least as a feeling sense) absence of anything remotely Divine in nature. 

Doubt and faith in religious traditions

Consider the Christian (Catholic) concept of doubt :

“The faith demanded by the Christian Revelation stands on a different footing from the belief claimed by any other religion. Since it rests on divine authority, it implies an obligation to believe on the part of all to whom it is proposed; and faith being an act of the will as well as of the intellect, its refusal involves not merely intellectual error, but also some degree of moral perversity. It follows that doubt in regard to the Christian religion is equivalent to its total rejection, the ground of its acceptance being necessarily in every case the authority on which it is proposed, and not, as with philosophical or scientific doctrines, its intrinsic demonstrability in detail. Thus, whereas a philosophical or scientific opinion may be held provisionally and subject to an unresolved doubt, no such position can be held towards the doctrines of Christianity; their authority must be either accepted or rejected. The unconditional, interior assent which the Church demands to the Divine authority of revelation is incompatible with any doubt as to its validity. Gregory XVI. ” (4)

The Demon of Doubt

Clearly then to doubt Christian doctrine, is a conscious choice and always a sinful one, whether practicing Christians actually hold this view consciously is unlikely, but something of it may be be present.

From the Christian viewpoint (at least as expressed above very dogmatically), someone like myself who confesses doubt as a primary sensation, must be forced to suppress this and instead apply a mental discipline to believe prescribed concepts, this is often the common view of what faith is, or what a man or woman “of faith” would demonstrate. By applying a counter effort to suppress all that is doubt, or doubting of religious doctrine, I show or express my faith. Which makes faith thus defined always at war with doubt.

Another example of the faith/doubt dynamic is expressed here, in a more expansive manner by Sri Aurobindo (5)

“There is one kind of faith demanded as indispensable by the integral Yoga and that may be described as faith in God and the Shakti, faith in the presence and power of the Divine in us and the world, a faith that all in the world is the working of one divine Shakti, that all the steps of the Yoga, its strivings and sufferings and failures as well as its successes and satisfactions and victories are utilities and necessities of her workings and that by a firm and strong dependence on and a total self-surrender to the Divine and to his Shakti in us we can attain to oneness and freedom and victory and perfection”

“The enemy of faith is doubt, and yet doubt too is an utility and necessity, because man in his ignorance and in his progressive labour towards knowledge needs to be visited by doubt, otherwise he would remain obstinate in an ignorant belief and limited knowledge and unable to escape from his errors. This utility and necessity of doubt does not altogether disappear when we enter on the path of Yoga. The integral Yoga aims at a knowledge not merely of some fundamental principle, but a knowing, a gnosis which will apply itself to and cover all life and the world action, and in this search for knowledge we enter on the way and are accompanied for many miles upon it by the mind’s unregenerated activities before these are purified and transformed by a greater light: we carry with us a number of intellectual beliefs and ideas which are by no means all of them correct and perfect and a host of new ideas and suggestions meet us afterwards demanding our credence which it would be fatal to seize on and always cling to in the shape in which they come without regard to their possible error, limitation or imperfection.”

Sogyal Rinpoche a Tibetan Lama of the Nyingma tradition writing  on doubt (6) :

“Our minds, however, are riddled with confusion and doubt. I sometimes think that doubt is an even greater block to human evolution than is desire or attachment. Our society promotes cleverness instead of wisdom, and celebrates the most superficial, harsh, and least useful aspects of our intelligence. We have become so falsely “sophisticated” and neurotic that we take doubt itself for truth, and the doubt that is nothing more than ego’s desperate attempt to defend itself from wisdom is deified as the goal and fruit of true knowledge. This form of mean-spirited doubt is the shabby emperor of samsara, served by a flock of “experts” who teach us not the open-souled and generous doubt that Buddha assured us was necessary for testing and proving the worth of the teachings, but a destructive form of doubt that leaves us nothing to believe in, nothing to hope for, and nothing to live by.”

“Doubts demand from us a real skillfulness in dealing with them, and I notice how few people have any idea how to pursue doubts or to use them. It seems ironic that in a civilization that so worships the power of deflation and doubt, hardly anyone has the courage to deflate the claims of doubt itself-to do as one Hindu master said: ‘turn the dogs of doubt on doubt itself, to unmask cynicism, and to uncover what fear, despair, hopelessness, and tired conditioning it springs from’. Then doubt would no longer be an obstacle, but a door to realization, and whenever doubt appeared in the mind, a seeker would welcome it as a means of going deeper into the truth.”

notes
(1) The Transmission of Doubt pp 149- (Da Free John) Adi Da Samraj
(2) ” You are always “capable” of doubt, because doubt is a condition of yourself. It is a form of contraction” Adi Da Samraj – God and Doubt.
(3)Adi Da Samraj – God and Doubt
(4) http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05141a.htm
(5)Yoga of Self-Perfection by Sri Aurobindo Chapter XVIII Faith and Shakti
(6) Quoted from viewonbuddhism.org

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Naitauba: Description and Short History

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

“I am desirous to climb the heights of *Laucala That I may see thence the island of Naitaumba, Floating apparently like a canoe on the Bright water…” Author unknown, from Transactions of the ninth International congress of Orientalists, 1893

Not much information is available about Naitauba pre-European settlement of the Lau Archipelago, some commentators are of the opinion that fresh water would have been an issue on such islands (no above ground water) and would have prevented a permanent settlement.

When Captain William Bligh sailed passed Naitauba in 1789, it is recorded “.. steered West to pass close to Naitauba, where they saw natives on the beach with spears in their hands..”
The Fiji Islands: a geographical handbook By Ronald Albert Derrick

****

Naitauba pronounced “Ny-tum-ba” is a volcanic and raised limestone island, with a high point of 186 metres(1), part of the Northern Lau Group, recently estimated to be 2000 acres or just over 3 square miles(2) in size.

It has cultivated areas and virgin forest. There are sections of ocean within the reef kept as a marine park, restricting fishing and hunting. The Island is almost completely enclosed by reef -named “The Garland of Whales” by Adi Da Samraj- as this high altitude photograph clearly shows. Naitauba has also been spelled ; Naitaba – Naitaumba- Naitamba – Neita-oumba (3) in the past

Walter and Herbert Chamberlain (1877-1899) The brothers Walter and Herbert Chamberlain, uncles of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, a pair of British adventures and entrepreneurs, bought the Island of Naitauba from William Hennings in 1877, for £ 7,250. They sold it back to Hennings after deeming it an unprofitable enterprise for £ 4,000, in 1899.

From Diary Notes recorded from a return visit by the brothers in 1881:

“Cleared much Jungle, planted many thousands of cocoanuts and 300 ac. of South Sea cotton, the proceeds about paying the costs.Then, as the government regulations enormously increased the expenses of labour and we deemed it hopeless as a paying proposition under vicarious management, we sold it in July 1899.. ” (4)

The Hennings Family (1899-1965)
The first reliable record of a European owner of Naituaba was William Hennings a German national (married to a Fijian women of title) and at times a successful Copra Trader(5) his son Ratu Gustavus Mara Hennings (the “Ratu” title goes back to his link to Fijian Royalty on his mothers side), took over and continued to develop the plantation, later marrying Elizabeth Vogel, German by birth. The island then remained in the Hennings family until 1965.

Under the stewardship of the Hennings, Naitauba became mainly copra producing, known for good labour relations and described as “a model plantation”(6)

Raymond Burr 1965-1983
Raymond Burr and his long time partner Robert Benevides(7), bought Naitauba from Elizabeth Hennings (Gus Hennings died in 1955) The pair further developed the plantation, including building many wooden structures and introducing cattle, Burr had a great passion for orchids and grew many varieties on the island.

Burr was a noted philanthropist and helped the Fijian residents, providing employment and among other things sponsored several Island children to be educated in the US. Burr always referred to the island as “Naitamba”

His biographer noted “”All religions are respected with dignity on Naitamba”(8)

Adi Da Samraj & Adidam (1983 – present)

In 1983 Naitauba was acquired for Adidam (Adi Da was a legal renunciate) primarily financed by one patron-devotee. Adi Da first set foot on Naitauba on October 27Th 1983, the next day he said (9) :

AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: Naitauba is not just a piece of land. It is a Divine Place. That is how it will be for as long as the sun shines and rises and sets and the grass grows and the wind blows. Forever – as ever as there can be in this world. Maybe it will become a paradise through Spiritual sacrifice. And, all during that epoch, this Place should be a Sanctuary of Blessing. Over time, then, millions of people – literally, millions of people – should come to this Place and be Blessed. They should come and acknowledge, affirm, and see My Revelation magnified.

This place is so great, so great. Civilization has never interfered with it. It is untouched. The water is blue. The fish are happy. Untouched, really untouched. Pristine from the beginning of the world – this place. It has been waiting here since the beginning of time.
–October 28, 1983

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Under the custodianship of Adi Da Samraj the Island was slowly developed into a Hermitage Ashram (formally named, Adi Da Samrajashram) with some similarities to the Indian model yet unique to the emerging Spiritual Way of Adidam . Its emphasis is a disciplined life of devotion, service and meditative practice. The conservation of the Island flora, fauna and reef was actioned from the beginning of acquisition of the island. A report into the health of the reef (named by Adi Da, “The Garland of Wales”) was undertaken in 1986(10). The necessity of supplying food to the residents of the island in a self sufficient manner moved the plantation model into that of an organic farm, in the later 1980’s one of the founders of permaculture Bill Mollison(11) was invited to Naituaba to research and advise Adidam on the development of this practice. A constant weed eradication program continues, many thousand of the coconuts have been removed as they become unclimbable (and therefore unusable) and a hazard to humans and all cattle were removed and gifted to local island communities.

Co-operative association with Indigenous Fijian village of Ciqomi (thing-GO-mee) was an imperative from the beginning. Many residents started to work for Adidam on projects from new building infrastructure to developing the extensive gardens. Adidam supports the village in many ways including employment- school scholarships, health clinic service, transport, water supply and sanitation. The village is completely independent of Adidam.

Naitauba remains a place of pilgrimage and spiritual retreat for devotees of Adi Da Samraj, it exists solely on the sponsorship of members and friends of Adidam, as a place of personal and spiritual sacrifice. The intention is to protect and preserve this Sanctuary as an esoteric and conservation treasure of humanity, into perpetuity.

A more extensive version of this article is available here

notes and references

*Laucala is a nearby island
(1) Review of the protected areas system in Oceania By Arthur L. Dahl
(2) http://naitaubafarm.org/
(3) http://www.geody.com/geospot.php?world=terra&ufi=-1189947&alc=ntm
(4) The years of hope: Cambridge, colonial administration in the South Seas and Cricket By Philip Snow
(5)The Cambridge History of the Pacific Islanders By Donald Denoon, Malama Meleisea, Stewart Firth, Jocelyn Linnekin, Karen Nero
(6) The years of hope: Cambridge, colonial administration in the South Seas and Cricket By Philip Snow
(7) http://www.glbtq.com/arts/burr1_r,2.html
(8) Raymond Burr: A Film, Radio and Television Biography By Ona L. Hill
(9) http://global.adidam.org/books/adi-da.html
(10) http://www.reefbase.org/pacific/pub_C0000000130.aspx
(11) http://www.tagari.com/?p=58

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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.

****

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”

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Last pilgrimage to Naitauba-partial journal

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

This is a partial journal  from my last pilgrimage to Naitauba (Adi Da Samrajashram) in November 2008, just prior to the passing (Mahasamadhi) of The Great Sage, Adi Da Samraj

(Airport Taveuni)

I love arriving in Taveuni, the small Fijian island where we wait for the boat ride to Naitauba Hermitage Sanctuary, Adidam has a little cottage there used by devotees and guests as a simple sleep over while waiting for the boat to arrive.

The cottage is in an idyllic setting and nobody bothers guests, other than a shrewd Fijian Indian fruit farmer who may knock on the door to sell bananas or papaya but other than that it’s a place to enjoy the company of Gurubai and prepare for the journey to Naitauba. It’s a complete chill down, tempered with the  anticipation of the journey ahead

There is a simple yet powerful meditation room, set-apart in the cottage and that becomes a focal point of preparing oneself for the Spiritual Retreat that is Naitauba, a beautiful young Sri Lankan woman did the pujas in this tiny little room and the beauty and unexpected quality she brought to the occasions was spellbinding.

When I arrived there November 1, 2008 I had the company of Anthony, a long time devotee of Adi Da, Jacqueline a talented musician and vivacious personality, John another great musician and unstoppable comic, and his friend and guest Robert also with a musical background.

I particularly enjoyed the company of Anthony a man of natural humour and equanimity, we talked long and walked and swam in the little beach below the cottage. Anthony was happy to tell me great stories of his time with Adi Da Samraj, this form of oral communication is priceless and considered a personal gift from the teller of the Leela (spiritual story)

If I was asked to characterize devotees of Adi Da as certain type, I could not give an honest reply, if pressed I would have to say “varying from extremely quiet and inverted to courageously out there, vocal and extroverted! ” I could write all day about the marvelous, ordinary and extraordinary range of people who have turned up at the door of Adi Da Samraj (and that’s only the few I have met). On one level “everyone you have ever met, loved and unloved”, is there

There is a extremely good little restaurant on Taveuni, not far from the cottage, it is run by a friendly American woman who is very hospitable to devotees and caters for many unconventional food requests including green smoothies  using some local greens.

The stop over in Taveuni gives people time to adjust to a slower pace, but also the difficulties inherent in living in a developing country in the Tropics, including heat, bugs and bodily discomforts, there is also a deeper level of preparation to accommodate, a necessary shedding of both bodily and psychic accumulations, there is always a degree of purification to go through which begins as soon as the pilgrimage is undertaken and continues and intensifies when Adi Da Samrajashram is reached.

 It is fair to say that pilgrims to Naituaba who have been coming to this island since 1983 “tread lightly” and are hardly noticed by the local populace, there is no feeling of intrusion or cultural difference, many factors combine here, including a laid back and welcoming attitude by locals (it is normal to greet everyone you pass with the customary “Bulla”) cultural sensitivity by devotees and multi-faith tolerance due to Indian influences

On another level this is grand adventure, in the sense of stepping way outside of conventional living and entering into another world quite literally, all your normal ties and duties are vanished for a long or short period and even though Naitauba is always a very demanding situation, you feel liberated set free and entering into  a vortex of force and Grace never encountered in the tedium of everyday, a new pattern, becomes very tangible to you the closer you get to The Guru

The boat was to be delayed for some reason and we were overjoyed to hear that we were to get there by motor launch a fast and exhilarating 2 to 2.5 hour dash across the often wild ocean, which can at times be a horrendous ordeal of up to 7 hours of fighting (or yielding to) seasickness, if the seas are rough.

(devotees waiting for boat , image compliments of www.adidaupclose.com)

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Audio : The Great Tradition

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Adi Da talks with great wisdom and insight on the religious traditions of mankind, which he calls in total “The Great Tradition”, he mentions one of the services he performed as Adept Realizer in service to humanity, which was to review the very best spiritual literature and media available called at the time of this talk “The 7 Schools of God Talk”, this list and its eloquent reviews, later became called. “The Basket Of Tolerance”, which may appear in book form in the future.
Adi Da’s scheme or map of Seven Stages of life, based on His personal exploration of the esoteric anatomy of man is explained here. This talk may be of interest to anyone with a passion for religion, esoteric traditions, eastern religions, religious philosophy & comparative religion.

Posted in Adi Da, Adi Da Samraj, Audio, Religion, The Great Tradition, stages of life | No Comments »

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

Posted in Adept, Adi Da, Adi Da Samraj, Avadhoot, Guru | 2 Comments »

The Vanished Gardens Of Cordoba

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

Ah, I long for the vanished gardens of Cordoba, where no thing hangs or rises up desirous to be sucked in or forced out, where all beings are sublime, tasting only the nectar of Love-Bliss in their mouths, their tongues clinging to the roof of their tooth-hood only for Happiness, without the slightest thought of self, without the slightest thought of clinging to another.

Such Bliss is not heaven! It is nowhere, nowhere at all, not then, not now, not in the future. Such Bliss has never been experienced by beings at all except in their moment of vanishing when they slide upon the Light from which forms are made. When nothing even in the slightest is experienced or known or presumed, then there is only the Infinite Light of Bliss, the same state in which you now exist, but without the compartments of your atrocious thought, without even a parcel of it hanging out.

Now we are free. Then we are free. Then we were free. Then we will be free. This space of time is only a figment of your imagination. This body here is the lie by which you are bound. Be willing to give up your body, even now, even now, even now. And your mind, which is your body.

Let it go. Let it go. Cling to nothing. Let it go. This is my recommendation.

Adi Da Samraj (published date says 1983, was spoken spontaneously earlier)

Posted in Adi Da, Adi Da Samraj, Da Free John, Poetry, Quotes | No Comments »

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?

Posted in Adept, Adi Da, Adi Da Samraj, Adidam, Books, Enlightenment, Green Smoothies, Guru, Guru's Grace, Spiritual Experience, knee of listening, personal views | No Comments »

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.

Posted in Adept, Adi Da, Adi Da Samraj, Adidam, Ego Death, Enlightenment, Guru, Non duality | 2 Comments »

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