Adi Da Causal

This is a beautiful and prophetic piece of writing, this original entry appeared as the Epilogue of the early copies of “The Knee of Listening”

“The man of understanding is not entranced. He is not elsewhere. He is not having an experience. He is not passionless and inoffensive. He is awake. He is present. He knows no obstruction in the form of mind, identity, differentiation and desire. He uses mind, identity, differentiation and desire. He is passionate. His quality is an offense to those who are entranced, elsewhere, contained in the mechanics of experience, asleep, living as various forms of identity, separation and dependence. He is acceptable only to those who understand.

He may appear no different from any other man. How could he appear otherwise? There is nothing by which to appear except the qualities of life. He may appear to have learned nothing. He may seem to be addicted to every kind of foolishness and error. How could it be otherwise? Understanding is not a different communication than the ordinary. There is only the ordinary. There is no special and exclusive communication that is the truth. There is no exclusive state of truth. But there is the understanding of the ordinary.

Therefore, the man of understanding cannot be found. He cannot be followed. He can only be understood as the ordinary. He is not spiritual. He is not religious. He is not philosophical. He is not moral. He is not fastidious, lean and lawful. He always appears to be the opposite of what you are.

He always seems to sympathize with what you deny. Therefore, at times and over time he appears as every kind of persuasion. He is not consistent. He has no image. At times he denies. At times he asserts. At times he asserts what he has already denied. At times he denies what he has already asserted. He is not useful. His teaching is every kind of nonsense. His wisdom is vanished. Altogether, that is his wisdom.

At last he represents no truth at all. Therefore, his living coaxes everyone only to understand. His existence denies every truth, every path by which men depend on certain truths, certain experiences, certain simulations of freedom and enjoyment. He is a seducer, a madman, a hoax, a libertine, a fool, a moralist, a sayer of truths, a bearer of all experience, a righteous knave, a prince, a child, an old one, an ascetic, a god. He demonstrates the futility of all things. Therefore, he makes understanding the only possibility. And understanding makes no difference at all. Except it is reality, which was already the case.

Heartless one, Narcissus, friend, loved one, he weeps for you to understand. After all of this, why haven’t you understood? The only thing you have not done is understanding.

You have seen everything, but you do not understand. Therefore, the man of understanding leaps for joy that you have already understood. He looks at the world and sees that every one and every thing has always understood. He sees that there is only understanding. Thus, the man of understanding is constantly happy with you. He is overwhelmed with happiness. He says to you: See how there is only this world of perfect enjoyment, where every one is happy, and every thing is blissful. His heart is always tearful with the endless happiness of the world.

He has grasped it, but no one is interested. He is of interest to no one. He is fascinating. He is unnoticed. Since no one understands, how could they notice him? Because there is only understanding, he is beloved, and no one comes to see him. Because there is only truth, he is likely to become famous. Since there is only joy, he will not be remembered. Because you have already understood, you find it necessary to touch his hand. Since you love so much and are not understood, you find it possible to touch his ears. He smiles at you. You notice it. Everything has already died. This is the other world.”

Freedom & Adidam

I am often impressed with the personal and philosophical freedom shown by some formal student practitioners of Adidam (Adidam can mean both the Way or Practice of Adidam and the Institution/ Collective/ Community of Adidam)

I am someone who loves personal freedom, it is so important to me, I have tended to live my life based on that tenet more than anything else, it is the root of joy for me, all my experiments in life have this love at the core

So the question must arise, why would a freedom loving individual take  up an extremely limiting or confining practice and way of life? A life of devotion, discipline, apparently binding on personal motion–great self discipline required.

Yet it is not the monks life, great creativity is completely possible within this self imposed confinement For instance I live in a rather desirable location, nice house, sea views, self employed, relatively free of external stress, good health and free of physically crippling addictions. Many Adidam people are exceptionally creative, in arts, music, culture, business, this is common rather than unusual.

To answer this question : This is its paradox of formality ( keeping to a set of prescribed disciplines)…it increases freedom both at the level of action and philosophically or in the sense of “feeling free” or as a complex term within Adidam it is sometimes called “free energy and attention”. The exact opposite of how freedom is generally viewed — being able to do what you want, when you want, where you want, in other words the disciplined life actually increases true demonstrable and tacit freedom.

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The Attitude of Retreat : Dropping Below Survival Stress Patterns into Perfect Ease

Setting aside sacred time, meditation time, spirit time, practice time, as opposed to conventional stress and survival time is part of Adidam practice. Most people have no real time other than the conventional round of life, as it is given. The level of survival stress and all its associations never really “drops”; at best some relief is found in sleep, recreation, creative and holiday time, this is “normal” relief and release.

The asana (attitude or stance) of retreat is deeper than this, in Adidam, the set-apart sacred time of spiritual practice, is outside of all the concerns of money, food, sex, survival & society So it immediately allows a depth of falling below, or beyond bodily based, daily stress patterns.

This equanimity is where practice time begins. If this state of natural ease or equilibrium is noticed an immediate joy and deep refreshment of being is felt. There is nothing otherworldly about it, it is native everyone.

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How Radical Understanding became Radical Devotion

My first contact with Adi Da Samraj came through an early edition of “The Knee Of Listening” (KOL), after reading this book many, many times over many years, its distilled wisdom essence was essentially located for me in the sections titled ” The meditation of understanding ” and even more so in ” The wisdom of understanding ” ( neither of these are in the most recent 2004 edition )

I distilled this wisdom to a few quotes committed to memory and also to even one liners repeated internally, the first one most essentially - (1) “I am always already Free ” The pristine logic here being if I ( or we ) are always already free, even now, then why do any practice at all ? Clearly according to this liberating foundation argument, this knowledge is simply enough! Absolutely nothing else is required now or ever, devastating in its liberating simplicity.

Now taking this essential point from KOL, how then is Adidam (meaning both the Way and Practices, and the Institution ) relevant or necessary in the light of this prior Liberation ?

First, what I found and I assume many others who come from this particular philosophical school of thought, or one of the modern equivalents, find or will find, is that “no practice” , though liberating in its philosophical vision, does not work in reality.

I have no interest in criticizing those who promote or champion such “pathless paths” or what Adi Da calls “talking school”, I remain utterly philosophically sympathetic with the logic that motivates all who find liberated mind in these considerations My difference comes from the observation in concrete experience over time in my own life, that even the most liberating philosophical attitude, does not actually free the essential being.

I should make the point here that Adi Da Samraj states emphatically - -dozens if not hundreds of times in all the literature, talks & media of Adidam — the this Way has no techniques, no methods, is searchless –without seeking– not based in any dilemma, problem, or solution to problem and is in complete harmony with the fundamental KOL doctrine. It could also be described as a ” pathless path ” from the most radical viewpoint, in fact he has recently written essays titled ” The End of the Path is the Way from the Beginning ” and ” The Seventh Stage Reality Way of No Stages at All ” It is paradoxically an intensively practicing Way.

The second and equally important point gleaned from KOL was (2) “observe the patterns of your life ” In other words develop the freedom to inspect yourself most essentially, what motivates you at the very core. Apply the discriminative faculty to yourself and your motives, your choices, your actions . You could sum this up as ” its all about you ” your consciousness, not anyone or anything else at all - self understanding, self knowledge. As far as my investigations into other religious, spiritual and therapeutic methods have gone I have never heard or seen this radical self inspection expressed or even understood in this exact manner.

How then does this intense discrimination then make the jump to radical devotion, the two seem extremely incompatible, in the traditions Bhakta and Gnani keep a critical and sometimes contemptuous distance

The first point is, devotion in Adidam is not the raw bhakti of the traditions, it is not mere devotionalism or emotionalism ( not implying that bhakti in the traditions is always only this either ) It is not rote ritualism, it is never fake, forced or contrived, though in the midst of human scale reality it will tend to be this way . If it is expressed this way, it is not Adidam as detailed precisely by Heart Master Adi Da.

So how does radical self understanding , the faculty of intense discrimination join forces with radical devotion and why ? Going back to KOL 1992 edition p 287 - The then seeker Franklin Jones made a remarkable poetically clothed observation when in the company of his Guru, Baba Muktananada

” Guru-bhakti is superior to all mere methods. Put aside all dharma, all means, and think only of Him. That itself is realization and the way itself…if I seek to recognize myself in the heart and enquire as to my own nature I find myself drawn apart from all things separated even from that recognition by my own exclusive search. But even in that same ignorance, if I think of Shee Guru, or look upon him in the company of devotees, I am drawn into the heart of all reality, and by the easy deepest heart I lose the body of all distinctions While I loved him thus, I gained my true heart and never tried and sought “

What this means to me is that the mere devotional sighting and heart felt response to ones Guru achieves exactly the same result as the most intense radical inquiry. It is not averse to discrimination and is in fact essential to it. This practice is exactly the only one that Adi Da suggests his student devotees apply, after it was “drawn out of him” by the many years of teaching demonstration.

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Adi Da Samraj’s MahaSamadhi site (burial chamber and temple complex) is named  “The Brightness”, it is located high on Naitauba Island Hermitage. The temple itself is small white oblong masonry building, apart from a stupa, it is distinctly not built in the traditional manner of an Asian temple, it is sited in a vast field of lush tropical grasses. There is a young sacred grove consisting of one banyan, peepel, ashok, amla, bel, neem and mango tree, this is set below the MahaSamadhi, up higher is a group of sacred coconuts, the seeds collected by devotees from various Indian holy sites and temples associated with Bhagavan Adi Da’s sadhana and spiritual associations.

I briefly served the garden area there only 3 weeks ago while on a short (and as it turned out an immeasurably graceful, timely) retreat, the light at this height struck me as very rarified and intense, unusual in the tropics, where it tends to be more diffused than in temperate climates. There is a 360 degree view of Naitauba its surrounding reef, islands and the vast powerful sea, it is an intensely beautiful sight

I am always struck by the immense work and detailed planning that Adi Da put into every item that he focused on. In his physical life he was an Iceberg, in that no one really had the capacity to see the depth of his consciousness and creativity, to what extent that depth will be recognized, explored and expressed with his passing will remain to be seen. To know that depth fully would require an equal Realization ( in Adidam this is called 7th Stage Realization )–a fully enlightened devotee did not arise during his physical life time.

Below is an edited account from a long time devotee indicating something of the amount of intention Adi Da put into planning and construction of the Mahasamadhi.

The Mahasamadhi burial chamber is 6′ 9″ in height, and five feet square. It has a dirt floor and concrete walls. This had all been specifically designed by Bhagavan Adi Da Samraj previous to the construction of the “Brightness” structure. Bhagavan Adi Da had come up to the “Brightness” and personally made the site location for every aspect of the “Brightness”. (Many structures remain to be built in the overall plan.) For several months, He had been involved in discussions relative to every detail of His Mahasamadhi Place. He had Requested and Received many traditional accounts of Mahasamadhi of Realizers in the Great Tradition, and explained their orientations. And He determined in detail just what should happen in the case of His Own Mahasamadhi, so as to ensure that His Body could be a point of contact for His “Bright” Blessing forever

Currently with the Master’s passing only a few days old, huge personal sacrifice and heroic endeavor by devotees is in place, hundreds of devotees and friends of Bhagavan have done (and are doing) whatever is necessary to get to Naitauba to share something of this immense occasion. In spite of modern transport, Naitauba is a very remote place and requires much of a person just to get there. Adi Da Samraj’s body faces West, by his own instruction, not North or East as in the traditional manner.

More on Adi Da’s MahaSamadhi and the Future of Adidam

A friends account

Article from Laughing Man on death of Realized Beings

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Naitauba November 12  2008

Naitauba is a very isolated Island of the Lau group of Islands situated on the far east of the main Fiji Islands group, 3.5 Sq miles in area and encircled by a coral reef, it is approached by boat or seaplane (more rarely) Naitauba is a religious hermitage based on the model of an Indian Ashram, My Guru or Spiritual Teacher Adi Da is always in residence there

Only practicing devotees, invited guests and the local Fijian people reside there. Adi Da Samraj would like many, many more people to come for spiritual sighting ( Darshan) and spiritual Retreat ( a long or short period of intense spiritual practice for the sake of God Realization or Liberation)

It is not a holiday resort, and the conditions are often hot, wet & uncomfortable. It is a place to do spiritual practice or sadhana, the day has a fairly strict voluntary recommended code. Beginning with meditation around 5 AM ( or earlier ) breakfast ( 6.30 to 8 AM) followed by Service ( or Guru Seva) until 12 AM lunch, then service to 4/5PM The food is extremely good vegetarian cuisine tending to raw. Raw smoothies, red papaya, small sweet bananas and mangoes are much in demand at present

Often in the evening Bhagavan Adi Da will sit in one of several beautiful temples on Naitauba in formal Darshan ( here is a YouTube Darshan if you would like to get a taste of this experience) The difficulties of the day are soon forgotten in the natural joy of swooning in the Masters company, great love-bliss and intense vibratory light are often felt without any effort on these prized occasions.

Although Naitauba is often tough and uncomfortable practitioners take great joy in their Spiritual Masters company ( Darshan) creative occupation ( anything from carpentry to digital arts ) friendship, humour, meditation, study of spiritual texts, environment (pristine natural beauty) and most recently the use of ipods ( or equivalent mp3 players) to keep their focus in spiritual practice.

There is a lot in the 1971 version that is not in the latest edition of the Knee of Listening ( 2004) on the other hand there is also a huge amount added to the later version. Adi Da ( then Franklin Jones)briefly associated with Baba Ram Dass (Richard Alpert) -a quite famous instigator and inspirer of Western Youth to go “Eastward”, after he abandoned the limitations of drug induced consciousness expansion, this sympathetic and prophetic quote from Adi Da proved to be accurate

Baba Ram Dass with Neem Karoli Baba 1967

“When I met him he was animated and storied at Kesey’s, but, like myself, about to enter on a long adventure into the kinds of spiritual consciousness promoted in the East. We were to meet again in 1970, in the company of the same Guru. But he seems ready to pass forever into the habit of Indian devotion, whereas, for me, the paths of yoga, of occultism, of mysticism and all of the tradition of that remarkable consciousness I was about to experience would only be another brief stage in the simplicity of understanding”

Another famed but passing association of his time “on the Beach” was Ken Kesey, described here

“There was Ken Kesey, a novelist who had written at the Stanford workshop and who has since gained notoriety as an exponent of drug culture.”

Ken Kesey 1967

When Adi Da stated “We were to meet again in 1970, in the company of the same Guru ..” in relation to Baba Ram Dass, he was referring to the 1970 visit of Baba Muktananda to the US described here

Baba and Rudi arrived in the company of “Baba Ram Dass.” Ram Dass was previously known as Richard Alpert, the man who, along with Timothy Leary and others, had done much to create the current “drug-culture” among younger people. I had met him several years before at the home of Ken Kesey in northern California. Since then, like myself, he had been led into the experience of Indian spirituality.

Ram Dass was now trying to reverse the karma of those who had become devoted to drug culture. He wanted to turn them to the devotional path of Indian spirituality. He had met Baba in New York and subsequently volunteered to engineer Baba’s California visit, as Rudi had done in New York.

I met them all quite openly, but without any desire or motivation to become involved in the whole drama of Baba’s American tour. They stayed for several days in Pacific Palisades, then on for two weeks in northern California and Utah. They returned again at the end of October, and flew on to Hawaii November 3rd, my birthday.

I was interested in seeing how Baba’s Presence would affect me and how he would respond to my own discovery. I sat with him while large groups of people chanted devotions and gazed at the Guru. I held his foot, I chanted, and I meditated.

In the first hours of his visit he blessed me with his peculiar form of the Shakti. And I moved with the experience, abandoning myself utterly to the familiar physical movements and the merging in the mind. I shook and fell on the floor. I watched Baba. I enjoyed the communication of his Shakti. I listened to him advise people to turn within and seek the “blue pearl” and the “blue person” in the sahasrar, the seat of consciousness in the head. I listened to him detail the various forms of vision, internal sounds and experiences, and I experienced them along with him.

In my own case as a young man reading this remarkable book in the early 70’s, in the remote cloisters of Hobart Library, perhaps the one description that had the most impact on me ( Adi Da was writing about the various effects of the Shakti) was this, a literal undeniable miraculous physical effect, witnessed by another. There was no mistaking it, flowers cannot move from a nailed position.

“These manifestations were not simply internal. Frequently my perceptions coincided with certain external events. Thus, a friend once came to see me after a long stay at the Ashram. We bowed to Baba’s picture and felt the Shakti fill the room. Just then, the flowers that were nailed about the portrait flew off and landed at our feet.”

Beezone has an online copy of the 1971 (I believe this was the first version publicly released) Knee of Listening, the first book written by Adi Da and his best known work. I stumbled across a copy of this book in the Hobart (yes Tasmania) Library in the early 1970’s and it blew my mind, I read it all in one day. I was a somewhat desperate seeker at the time around 17 years old, my head full of the traditional seeking and finding, methodology, still current in spirituality to this day. On first read, I loved the adventure, Adi Da‘s (then Franklin Jones) marvelous meetings with powerful beings, great forces and his wonderful shakti filled life and experiences. The imagery of great siddha’s and yogis’s such as the tough and earthy Rudi (Rudrananda), the powerful and enigmatic Baba Muktananda and the benign and incomprehensible Baba Nityananda was riveting, yet the ending of this book put me into revolt and deep disturbance (as I am sure it has many others) –The spiritual search and all its imagery and methodology are futile for the goal they seek — certainly not a popular message compared with the opposite tangent, beautifully described in Yogananda’s ” Autobiography of a Yogi ” So after first reading it several times–just to make sure I got this extremely (at the time) unpalatable message correct– I resolved to never go near it again!

Of course in spiritual life nothing is quite that simple, I had a very powerful dream about Adi Da around that time and continued to be haunted by the message of the Knee of Listening. I had a periphery involvement with Ananda Marga who had quite a strong presence in Hobart in the 70’s, I spoke to one of their Acharya’s about the shakti and its effects, to be fair I don’t think the man had any understanding of this phenomenon and dismissed it as “mind”, he told me to forget this nonsense, meditate twice a day for the rest of my life and “Moksha” ( liberation in the yogic system) is guaranteed !

Just finished writing a page on the the effects of spiritual practices and internal bodily bliss and inherent pleasurableness and what Adi Da teaches about these effects, here is a quote

However natural pleasurable –conductivity– ( meaning exactly what this word implies a unbroken flow ) is native to the body and living things, without deep bodily bliss readily available and at least relatively constant in the body mind , the world and life appear devoid of real sustenance and we are always hungry and addicted to any pleasurable source.

Read Full Article Here

More an intuitive title, a gut feeling title, defies a simple explanation, go here first

Adi Da

Someone asked me of any relation between Adi Da and Subud , the only relation I am aware of is the fact that Rudrananda ( Rudi ) had some connection with Subud, the descending force connection perhaps. Great story here on Subud - Bali - Mystery and Beautiful Art the web page is also quite beautiful, nice blend of colour, pattern and images