Adi Da Causal

Even to state that the self is unimportant is heresy to modern man and a dreadful insult to many, it’s a slap in the face and nothing will empty a room faster than even hinting in that direction.

Adi Da has a term for this modern overwhelming self-aggrandising world orientation  he calls it bluntly, ego-culture. Plus He always puts the word self, in inverted commas as “self”, reflecting its fictional nature.This is not a popular message. The real reason it is not a popular message is that fundamentally we all cling to self for “dear life” . Self is all we have, after all. To criticise our most precious part is down right depressing for most people. We already have to jump through many hoops to get our meagre selves noticed, the last thing we want is any threat to the little we have, it’s a terrible offense.

There is very much a feeling that the self should be praised, lauded and treated gently as a “poor thing” badly treated by the universe and thus in need of comfort, consolation and only “good reports” abouit itself, a patient in a clinic in some respects.

What is not noticed or taught by convention is the inherent suffering and delusion which is fully integral to the action that creates “self’. That is the reason we would value such a message as Adi Da’s.

The truth is the the self is not great, in most cases it is extremely small and hardly touches anyone or anything. There are greater lives which do touch a lot of people and make immense changes that effect others and there are always smaller lives than our own, which we can call to mind when the self image might be fraying at the edges.

In The Aletheon, there is a chapter - I Am The Not “Other”- which really struck a chord for me, in it Adi Da as the World Friend of all humanity describes His function  as compassionate Critic of the egoity of humanity and why that function should be cherished, protected, championed and absolutely appreciated.

“My intolerance for the egoic “status quo” must never be hidden or forgotten “  Adi Da - from : I Am The Not “Other”

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 

(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.

Homer Simpson (image above) perfectly represents the modern “enlightened”, egalitarian,
neo-advaitan, in a benign aspect, he is succinctly representative of the amiable armchair spiritual dilettante

There is plenty of critical view on the phenomenon of neo-advaita or philosophical enlightenment wherein mental propositions, independent of any need for preparation or practice, are taken as the means to enlightenment, awakening, liberation, moksha however it is perceived. A hedge of mind-dharma is constructed around proponents and then defended via  mental constructs, this is further strengthened by forming a group dynamic based on the same reinforcements of  enlightenment ideology.

A teacher will set him or herself up, as a “realizer” in some shape or form, then attempt to transmit their realization to others by some means of argument, it can be very creative, often with good motive apparently, and most often with no conscious harm intended. The teacher may then allow students to do likewise build their own hedge and propagate the same delusion.

It does tend to suggest a deeper flaw-a sort of house of cards mentality peculiar to modern western spirituality in general. This also includes many who are critical of neo-advaita as such, but still remain within its wider framework

Who owns “nonduality” ? Do a google search and it will show a small, very influential group of personalities associated with websites and books. By “owns”, I mean it in the sense of being a limiting center of influence and directing viewpoints to “specific” possibilities, you have “specific” teachers, teachings and books, rated, ranked and recommended to seekers.

Is there any value to such things ? Yes there is–the knowledge of humanity’s inherent freedom should be freely communicated via education of some form, to all who are interested.

It should also be taught that no one “owns” non-duality, it is the inherent condition of all, this is primary knowledge.

Causal influences via the Internet in particular allow “enlightened egos” to exploit others, since they are “selling water by the river”, in this case.

Give it the Talking School Test :

“‘Talking’ school” is a phrase used by Avatar Adi Da to refer to those in any tradition of sacred life whose approach is characterized by talking, thinking, reading, and philosophical analysis and debate, or even meditative enquiry or reflection, without a concomitant and foundation discipline of body, emotion, mind, and breath. He contrasts the “talking” school with the “practicing” school approach—“practicing” schools involving those who are committed to the ordeal of real ego-transcending discipline, under the guidance of a true Guru.

Further Reading :

Adi Da on J. Krishnamurti from an early magazine “Krishnamurti is himself an essentially honorable and serious man. He is attractive, even fascinating, by virtue of a certain intellectual purity and a superiority founded in a profound sense of separate, subjective, and personal freedom”

What is the conscious process

“It is because of the absence of profound practice of supportive disciplines involving total psycho-physical submission into the Life-Current that the Way of the conscious process gets reduced to a kind of “talking school” obsession with “consciousness.” Many people read and even write books and give lectures about the primacy and freedom of consciousness, as if they could, merely by analyzing consciousness out from the mass of thinking, knowing, and experiencing, achieve the incomparable State of “Jnana,” Enlightenment, or Transcendental Realization. But all such talk is the mediocre chat of the waking mind. In order to Realize the Transcendental Truth that Is Consciousness, the entire process of attention must be liberated from functional bondage to the states and functions and emotions and thoughts and relations of the egoic or self-contracted body-mind”- Adi Da Samraj