Archive for the ‘Enlightenment’ Category

Early Books & Later Work a Schism?(2)

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

 

Quote from B.M

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

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

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

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

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

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

Early Books & Later Work a Schism?(1)

Monday, August 24th, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

Neo-Advaita Nonduality and Modern No Practice Teachings

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

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

 

2 YouTube Video’s of Adi Da 1997

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Just discovered these 2 video’s, the first one has a beautiful freshness to it, Adi Da’s Gaze is full of Blessing and Compassion

This one is more Esoteric and reveals a strong Transmission of Spiritual Potency ( Shaktipat)

The Mysterious Nature of Guru’s Grace

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Adi Da
Stories of devotee’s bringing the Master into life, communicating Him directly to others seem more prevalent in the 1970’s to early 1980’s, I can’t account for this, it is fundamentally mysterious, as are many things connected with the Adept’s Work, I don’t think it is either possible or necessary to try an explain this If you do want to speculate about it, here is my own addition, the 60-70’s were a completely energetically and psychically different time–weird stuff happened a lot more often

Some examples:

A man was standing in the Darshan line waiting to see UG Krishnamurti, a man in front of him turned and either spoke to him or others and said (paraphrasing) “If you want to see God, go to the Ashram Bookstore in L.A (at the time Adi Da was using this facility) He is there”. The man listening later became a devotee.

I met a devotee on Naitauba in November 2008, he had been so since 1974, both formal and informal, in that year he met a man named Bill C., who told him that Franklin Jones, a man in California was the “Living Siddha Master, without a shadow of doubt, the Real Thing”. Merely on the say so, of Bill, he went to California and became a devotee.

In the mid-late 70’s I went into a bookstore and found this incredible stack of books right down the back of the store in Melbourne, Australia (which was a conventional bookstore) It was truly mind blowing, they seemed to have tangible almost glowing, energetic quality, as if I had suddenly been thrust into another realm, the titles included : “Garbage And The Goddess” and “No Remedy” by someone called Bubba Free John, and some other books about Ramana Maharshi The humorous thing was I had previously read “The Knee of Listening” and did not know the author was the same, I bought a copy of “Garbage and Goddess” Talking to the sales assistant he seemed to be perplexed by the mysterious books as well, almost whispering about them. Later I learned that a very close devotee of Bubba Free John, had come to Town and distributed the books directly to that store.

adi da Garbage And The Goddess I recently spoke to a lady H. who told me of seeing a friend called Terry (circa 1981-2) who had been practicing as a Tibetan Buddhist Monk, on his return to the West, he spoke of an amazing being called Da Free John and a book called “Garbage And The Goddess”, these 2 impresssions stayed in her mind.

Some time later in a 2nd hand bookshop, she saw GG and bought it, H. was a very poor english reader, being a native of Poland and expected to struggle with reading it, on the contrary the book came alive to her, she understood it completely, she told me of her profound experience merely by reading this book and feeling her connection to Adi Da via the photos’s inside, which stays with her to the present (2009)

There are dozens of true accounts recorded and unrecorded, just like these, another good example has recently been added to adidaupclose.org here, apart from being very well written it also clearly demonstrates the necessary influence of Adi Da’s devotees in making the Way available to others.

Life is now, Light is later: Not True

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Talk by Adi Da: Explains common illusions about the after death state and release from them (11.23)

Life as potential Equanimity

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

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.

Radical Non Duality subsumes “self”

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Sanskrit DaPost Ruchiradam Event ,The Reality Way of Adidam emerges as completely uncompromising to “I”, no room for, or allowance of cries of “what about me” ?

No little “self” surfing in the Great Self here. No breaking it to “you” gently, no slow, stage by stage evolution into the Great One.

Plainly put– no separate “self” exists, never did, never will, always was fiction.

There are no egos in Reality Itself — none. It is not that Adidam is a Way in which you overcome egoity by a process of “wearing it down” — as if emptying water from a boat with a bucket, such that you eventually succeed in getting all of the water out of the boat.

There is no water in the boat. There is no ego in the body-mind. There is no ego in Reality Itself. The ego does not, in Reality, exist. There is no separate entity — and the preliminary “Perfect Knowledge” practice points to the non-existence of the presumed-to-be-separate self.

Adi Da Samraj

This is where Adidam (practice) post 2000 begins, it does not end there, it merely begins there.

It ends in absolute translation into unbroken light, Only Love Bliss itself, no forms or difference at all.

There need be no evolution of self, since “self” is literally (not metaphorically) fiction, does not exist.

Even many friends and readers of Adi Da Samraj have not yet had a chance to absorb this, He pulled the rug from under all of us. All that is necessary is a touch of equanimity, a little discipline, a serious approach, quite within the capacity of anyone, then Reality (both the who and the what of) itself does the rest.

The Atheleon Volumes (forthcoming next few month) will spell it out.
What is relevant now:

Still No Cure Found For The Dreaded Gomboo!

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

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?

From The Dreaded Gomboo or The Imaginary Disease Religion Seeks To Cure

Listen to this wonderful ecstatic uncut talk compliments of Beezone

(24:24 mins)

Nirvilkalpa Samadhi by Grace

Friday, March 13th, 2009

A long time devotee of Adi Da speaks of his remarkable but temporary spiritual experiences given by the blessing power or Guru Shaktipat of Adi Da Samraj