I came across this 1986 pristine hardback in a 2nd hand book store in Cairns North Queensland Australia. It even had an insert updating the original. Its beautiful orange cover with the 3 Heart Station icon is just wonderful, I have never seen this copy before and even though I have some basic paperback versions from the same era, nothing matches this Gem.
I walked into the shop without motive, perhaps looking for a bit of local reading, but this appearance left me stunned and ecstatic, I said to the woman owner- “How much for this little gem?” . She picked it up and half in jest ( I think) said “$110″. ” You must be joking ?” I replied (would have been happy to pay that much) “OK- 5 bucks!” she said, “Done” I said.
She pranamed in Eastern style to me and I could not respond, just walked out into the bright sunshine. I was over the moon, bought a spirulina and juice smoothie nearby to celebrate and sat to enjoy this great find. An intoxicated man staggered passed me and said “Looks like a great little book!” Its brilliant orange cover sparkled in the sun.
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 Four Fundamental Questions” was published in 1980 and has Adi Da’s handwriting on the cover, the four questions later became more extensive and expanded to ten. They were covered by the term “pondering” as a preparatory form of Practice (later made redundant)
“What are the questions that if answered truly would Enlighten you and lead to practice the Way of Truth. Obviously you have never asked yourself these questions, or you would be totally transformed by now! You could ask many useful questions that may lead you to consider or think about the Way, but what questions would make the practice of real or spiritual life inevitable if you were to answer them fully?”
Da Free John (Adi Da Samraj)
Are you the one who is living you now?
What is your relationship to that one?
Doyou know what anything is?
What is your relationship to all experience, and to every being and thing that exists?
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)
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?
Adi Da’s most demanding texts will yield the greatest reward if they are approached in the right manner, they are necessarily demanding because something in that effort that must be made to absorb their meaning puts the reader in a different asana (or position) from the conventional mind.
A sentence or word may need to be looked at and felt into over and over until its meaning is revealed. Everything in a sentence every word, every comma, every underlining, all inverted commas, all capitalization have specific and exact meaning, very literal, very often idiomatic or particular to Adi Da’s expression of a word.
Concentrated reading of these texts is a simple form of meditation as has been practiced in all traditions . Even after many years of such practice it can still require a great deal of present conscious awareness and persistence, various egoic states arise and dissolve, so there is sadhana and purification there, anyone with sensitivity can observe this.
Adi Da always wrote from the most profound position, so they are always sacred texts in that sense, they are never quick reads if the essence of them is to be distilled. The post 2000 texts in particular which focus on “Reality” ( earlier works used terms such as “Real God’, ” Radiant Transcendental Being” etc) are very powerful and have the potential to move the reader directly into the shape or form of what is being pointed to over and over- that is Reality.
Another remarkable feature, one of many, is the “Reality” being expressed in these texts has 2 qualities embodied in Adi Da Samraj himself, “The What” — of the Impersonal Reality, and “The Who” –of the Divine Person as Reality.
So there is real enjoyment, real sustenance in that reading if it is approached and persisted in passed the point of resistance. One may then find a vast resource of wisdom to be immersed in. Even a life times worth of reading.
Adi Da Samraj introduced the use of raw green smoothies to Adidam some time ago, it is a suggested dietary supplement to practicing students, here is His words on it from the recently published Wisdom On Raw Foods guide, “Green Gorrilla”
Blended Green Drinks A Principal element of the raw fructo-vegetarian dietary practice I have Given is the regular (daily) use of “blended green drinks”, made (most commonly) of green leafy vegetables and sweet fruits
“Green drinks” provide a highly concentrated form of the nutrients found in green leafy vegetables–generally in much greater quantity than could be ingested by eating the greens whole. The sweet fruits are added to “green drinks” in order to make the concentrated greens palatable, and also to provide additional nutrients and calories.
Blended “green drinks” are prepared using one or more varieties of green leafy vegetables–using whatever edible greens are available In temperate climates, appropriate edible greens include such plants as kale, chard, spinach, lettuce, collard greens, bok choy, and so on. Edible weeds (including, in temperate zones, such plants as dandelion, lambsquarters, plantain, and so on), herbs (such as dill, basil, cilantro, mint, parsley, and so on), sprouts (such as alfalfa, clover, buckwheat, sunflower, and so on), other vegetables (such as celery, cucumber, and so on), and medicinal plants (such as aloe vera) may also be added to a “green drink”.
I will add my own favorite recipe and comment on the utility and changes noted from using green smoothies over the next week or so.
True Equanimity is a rare condition, I have met perhaps 3 or 4 people who may live this condition on a daily basis. It has certainly become the deepest aspiration of my life, it is one thing that always makes perfect sense to me
On a really good, blessed day, I awake in the morning and notice there is no fundamental problem at the root or base of life. The navel center just naturally hangs open, as it should when there is no knot cramping the living being. There is a deep pleasurable sense of life moving through the body, but more than this there is a deep rooted ease I articulate this Equanimity as “no dilemma” (first coined by Adi Da in “The Knee Of Listening”)
This is not however a self-attained state, its a blessing given in the company of my Guru, Adi Da Samraj via my daily life of practice. When I notice this marvel, it seems very natural, very embodied, cetainly not an other worldly condition
It certainly feels potentially to be the next step in the evolution (?) of mankind but that may be just a peculiar notion of mine
It certainly beats the crap out of what (from this position) looks like a driven, compulsive and addicted life (conventional living)
To be honest Equanimity just described, is very fragile, the tests of each day almost invariably rob me of it by days end, or often much sooner It has however grown stronger over time, more tangible, but it remains a practice rather than something always available.
I have an old beaten up version of The Dreaded Gomboo, the cover and sides are very knocked about, but the content is still pristine, as it was when I first read it, perhaps now, with even more appreciation and understanding I am re-reading it
The Dreaded Gom-Boo, or The Impossible Three-Day Thumb-and-Finger Problem
September 9, 1982
MASTER DA: Have you all heard about the Dreaded Gom-Boo? Or the impossible Three-Day Thumb-and-Finger Problem? Ah ha! You see? Nobody tells you about these things except me.
A myth has been circulating for many centuries now that mankind is diseased, that all beings are suffering from what I call the Dreaded Gom-Boo, also called sin, maya, ego, suffering, separated individuality, illusion, delusion, confusion, and indifference. We are all supposed to accept this diagnosis, realize how diseased we are, and submit ourselves to the local religious hospital, where a father or mother doctor will confirm our disease and require us to submit for the rest of our lives to various regimes for our own healing and ultimate cure. This is the basic proposition of traditional religion, and it begins with the diagnosis of the dreaded disease.
Tradition has it that we are all, by birth, by virtue of our very existence, even now diseased, sinful, separated from the Great One. What a horror! Yes! What an obscenity has been laid upon us through the traditions of society, which, merely because of the impulse to survive as the body-mind, have for centuries required human beings to invest themselves with the belief in this disease and to suppress their own life-motion, which comes only from the Great One, in order to fulfill the presumed needs of our chaotic society.
I come to tell you, as I stand in the midst of the priests of this horror, that not even one of you is suffering from this disease. It is an imaginary disease, a terrible disease, but altogether imaginary. No one has ever actually had this disease. Not one single being has ever had the Dreaded Gom-Boo, or the impossible Three-Day Thumb-and-Finger Problem. It has never happened! It does not exist!
What is the Truth? We are Happy. We live in God. The Great One is our very Being. We inhere in the Blissful, Forceful Being of the Starry God, the Wonder, the Mystery, the Person of Love. This is our Situation and our Destiny. I am only one among many voices, but this is my Message to you: There is no disease. There is nothing to cure. We are not patients and we are not parented. We are not children. No dreadful destiny lies before us.There is nothing whatsoever to cure.
Tell Me True – Have You Got the Gom-Boo?
August 30, 1982
MASTER DA: If you want to “get religious” in our time, you must first decide that you have the Dreaded Gom-Boo. Then you go to a Doctor Pope, Doctor Church, Doctor Jesus, Doctor Mahatma, Doctor Mahatmaboo, Doctor Gombooananda, Doctor Gomananda-Booharaj. As soon as you get the feeling that you have the disease, you start looking for religious answers. Ask most of the people around here how they got involved with this Way of life, and they will describe some symptom or other of the Dreaded Gom-Boo. The Dreaded Gom-Boo led you all here because you were looking to be cured of the heebie-jeebies, the hopeless Three-Day Thumb-and-Finger Problem, the terrible jiggly meatedness! (Laughter.)
Are you telling me that you think God and Truth are supposed to be interested in curing you of the Dreaded Gom-Boo? Is that it? It is about time you realized that there is no cure for the Dreaded Gom-Boo! The Gom is terrible! The Boo is terminal! And this is why everyone dreads it, the terrible, terminal incurableness. That is what youve got, right? I thought so! I could see the symptoms as soon as you came in here. Have you got the Boo? The Dreaded? The terrible Gom? Have you? Thats what I thought! Tell me true-have you got the Gom-Boo?
The 3rd and final edition of Not Two Is Peace by Adi Da,on global cooperative order and liberated global living is now in print. In many ways it is an very unusual book, written with the very highest consciousness in mind and a call to real action from that very consciousness, in a nutshell, non duality as unified action –a vision of humanity acting as one unit, based in the intuitive capacity of all men and women to know their inherent unity– rather than the endless divisions we know as our tribe, religion, country, village etc
This book is written with great passion and urgency, as an essential spiritual call advocating Reality itself (rather than any other religion or even Adidam ) as its starting point, but its address is not to Divine Enlightenment, but to practical changes in the world for the benefit of all living things
I mentioned it is an unusual book, because it taps directly into a great deal of very obvious truth, things known by just about everyone, yet rarely verbalized as if the most obvious truths remain unseen and unspoken. Such as the whole concept of “prior unity” for humanity, once deeply considered this concept may reveal itself as obvious somehow, but unless stated clearly would have remained hidden or unnoticed.
Not Two Is Peace envisions the capacity for global change to the world situation passed to humanity, as one collective voice and active power, usurping all localized power bases by the sheer and unstoppable weight of a collective global voice, enforcing right action across the planet
Its essential call to action is based in “everybody-all-at-once”– the united power of humanity speaking and acting as an essential force for change– founded in “prior unity”–the inherent and always knowable non-dual and formless one Reality at the Heart of all beings– (these 2 key concepts are used frequently throughout this book) The concept of a Global Cooperative Forum is introduced as the fundamental means to initiate and empower the “everybody-all-at-once” phenomenon
Anyone interested in world change at any level will find this book at the very least interesting and inspiring, it is also written to individuals or “everyman”, in some sense it is also a grass roots liberating call (and this should not be overlooked), hence it subtitle “The Ordinary Peoples Way of Global Cooperative Order” and the text is much less demanding and non-centric to Adi Da himself as Spiritual Teacher, than many of his other books.
There is also a beautiful print of one of Adi Da’s artistic images in fold out style towards the end of the book. There is an online version of much of the text here,
The terrible problems that are occurring politically and naturally in the world today are the result of pattern-driven human unconsciousness. Human beings are continuing mechanically, trying to repeat modes of effort, even modes of thinking, that were workable — up to a point — in the past, but that are no longer workable now. A new kind of human consciousness is required — based on the working-presumption of prior unity, and on an understanding of the indivisibly single world in which everyone is living. This involves not only the notion that there is such a single world, but it requires grasping the necessity for cooperation, and the necessity to function on the basis of an understanding that the Earth is a single system, and humankind (likewise) is a single whole. Humankind must not be forced to function under some kind of totalitarian singleness. Rather, humankind must function cooperatively — in the sense that everyone is living together on Earth, and functioning through a mechanism of global principles that are benign and right and true - Adi Da
Thanks for visiting Adi Da Causal This journal should at best be an "oasis" for any one interested in Adi Da Samraj,these are my own thoughts and impressions and very prejudiced by "point of view"
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