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Road Trip & Practice

Friday, July 30th, 2010

just diary notes here, about travelling and how it forces us to confront the present arising state, much more so than in the safety of regular living

20/7

“There must be someway out of here said the joker to the thief” ~Bob Dylan

A thick fog has descended on me in relation to Beloved Adi Da and Practice. I have seen this happen many times (almost inevitably) when travelling. It forces me to contemplate arising “reality”, motel rooms, roadhouse meals, hotel lobbies, confined spaces, endless driving and all the objects that flash by. The only conscious moment then becomes “this” and slowly this arising life event, right in your face, the so called “here and now” starts to show signs of the Guru.

Did you read about my find in the Cairns bookshop? here, to others may be dismissed, but in my present “available” state it was like finding a dream object (and photographing it for proof) in so called “reality” gob-smacked and mind-blown perhaps but very happy

..in progress..

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Zero Point Education

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

My experiments in testing Adi Da’s Word in the reality of everyday life has led me on many adventures and will continue to do so.

As my taste for Adi Da Samraj’s mature Word–examples:The Aletheon & Not Two Is Peace comes to fruition (at times not without great internal resistance), something of a breakthrough is emerging in my understanding of all this.

Adi Da once said we become priests in our own dissolution (paraphrasing); we become interested participants in dissolving the “ego” or “self” at root (or where it first arises). Remarkably this is not a call to the extreme of Divine Enlightenment or the full 7th Stage of Life Realization through The Reality Way of Adidam, but a non-sectarian call to ordinary men and women to educate themselves in the pragmatic possibility of living from a new perspective, that is “egolessly”.This Adi Da calls “Zero Point Education” or considering the root of egoity via His Teaching Word and by this means allowing it to reveal the Truth inherent to all.

The concept of “egoless” living, seems to imply many things. My own experimental approach, in which I test everything in my own body mind (which is what Adi Da suggests all devotees do) finds it is a “stripping down” of self-importance and self-centeredness, it has a peculiar effect in that the mind also becomes still or less chronic, I would say ‘no-self’ equals ‘no-mind’.Thinking still goes on but it may be more directed rather than random compulsive & chronic.

Adi Da’s Art compliments DaPlastique
Some concepts that arise; the unmirrored life: It is as if I carry a mirror with me at all times, in that mirror I is always seen, that mirror creates a chronic sense of self, this reflected self is mind and all the imagery of self. It is complete nonsense, fiction and fundamental suffering, a sort of madness.The life without egoity is thus unmirrored without reflection, or as little as necessary to function fully in life.

Adi Da explains all this in precise detail over and over, that is why we study the texts as a “meditative” means, available to anyone with the capacity or willing to develop the capacity.

I find by tendency no interest whatsoever in concepts such as “no self” or becoming “egoless”, it sounds way too rarefied and beyond my capacity;  yet I now find my interest is growing there, because Zero Point Education is very potent, very interesting, very effective, can be proven, it “works”

Further Reading : Not Two Is Peace

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The Restoration & Descent of Faith

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

If you read my post here, you will see the extent of “doubt” as a specific culturally imbibed mental & emotional state in my case (and if you look closely, perhaps in your own case)

I wrote : Faith was lost or nebulous, that doubt always outweighed it. Well, lately Faith as a tangible force has again begun to become ascendant, incarnate (or bodily felt)

It appears to be the single most effective quality of real change in my life, it appears to descend down through the front of my being and into the vital center.

Its effect is transforming, and actually changes “reality”.This is clearly seen. The world takes on more of a fluid character, less solid and immovable. It becomes “psychic” or more like the psyche itself.

It has something of a strange and “freaky” nature from the conventional point of view. The universe starts to talk back to you (in effect) A lot of fear may arise, naturally, because the basis of security the solid, dependable–real world–starts to be seen as just as undependable as a dream or subjective state.

Faith changes the world view. I am just writing about what  I am actually feeling or seeing. Adi Da often wrote about what He called “Conversion”; well it’s of this nature. Faith is felt as a joyous fullness that changes everything, you can clearly see how an adherent of any particular religion would see various saints, deities and spirit forms. In Adidam there are none. The psyche is empty, unless you want to pursue various forms that appear, fleetingly. The form of The Guru is utterly sufficient, nothing needs to be added or embellished.

Faith becomes the asana or position we view all things from, rather than the common, modern and culturally informed one of doubt.

By observing it closely you can see it needs to be protected, nurtured and allowed to grow otherwise the mood of doubt returns. The discriminative facility (normally associated with doubt) can be freely used without the burden of negative emotional content. So it’s not the naive and vulnerable faith of childhood but the maturing Faith of adulthood.

“And the world is a psychic phenomenon. In other words, we never experience the world except psychically. We never experience it except as knowledge and perception. We never experience it except as a condition that includes us. We are not separate from it. What we are at the level of the psyche and at the level of consciousness is just as much an inherent part of the world as the so-called material, objective forms. When we associate with the world on the basis of the totality of all the conditions of our existence, we participate in the world of forms as a psychic process. By participating psychically in the psychic phenomena of the world, we learn the laws whereby we can influence the phenomena of the waking state. We generate a process wherein we can become sensitive to the phenomena of the waking state so that we can observe unusual coincidences of form and psychic significances that our verbal mind tends to exclude from what we are observing” ~Adi Da Samraj

Further Reading : The Bridge To God

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Collecting Adi Da~Adidam History

Sunday, June 13th, 2010


Image Compliments E.Fenz Facebook–click to enlarge

Recently went to the Melbourne Adidam Centre and noticed there was a huge stack of old Laughing Man, Free Daist & Crazy Wisdom magazines for sale for “peanuts”. My good fortune perhaps, I bought all I didn’t have.

I have always thought that devotees should have a sense of history to fully appreciate “The Event”; without that historical perspective it’s all so localized, history adds or shows the great dimensions that it spans and continues to. Not to mention the intellectual and aesthetic enjoyment in all of this. Adi Da Samraj certainly displayed this quality, His historical perspective on everything, was second to none.

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Completing the 3rd stage of life

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

I have met a handful of men and women during my life who appear to have fulfilled and even grown passed the 3rd stage of life, they all have been involved in some form of spiritual practice, either formal or informal.

From what Adi Da has said and from my own observations it appears that the 4th stage of life informs and  matures the 3rd stage, in other words it is necessary to be “spiritually open” for the 3rd stage to mature properly and structurally.

Someone with no sense or intuition of Spirit or that which is greater than “matter”, could not truly grow passed or fully integrate in the 3rd stage of life. That is not to say mere belief has anything to do with this process.

The ideal situation according to Adi Da Samraj would be for a young person to grow up in a spiritual community, culturally influenced by people mature in and beyond this stage and by the age of 21 (or adulthood) naturally to  have adapted to all that is required for maturity there.

Some qualities that may be evident, there is no idealistic vision necessary, of what is typical here.

  • Full integration as an autonomous (rather than chronically dependent or independent) personality, having dealt with and continuing to deal with both childish and adolescent personal strategies.
  • Fundamental or natural free attention of mind–the ability to think, feel and be happily embodied and thus breathe and act with clarity and ease.
  • A  self disciplined life- taking responsibility for money, work, food, sexuality and everything related to a happy functional life.
  • A  life of conscious active service, rather than chronic self interest and random action.
  • The focus of life  practice in the 4th stage of life, that is one that is centered in real and self-generated (rather than imposed from without) spiritual practice.
  • Having dealt with and continuing to bring to awareness the patterns of sexuality and un-love that tend to dominate the psyche.
  • The ability to confess “I am not an addict” to be able to choose freely non addictive patterns.
  • Social  adeptness, the social level of life would be developed and non problematic (maturity in the 2nd stage of life)
  • An ease  with the functions of  bodily life and grounding, a life positive association with bodily existence (maturity in the 1st stage of life)

“But most people you see do not adapt beyond the third stage of life, do not even come to a point of maturity in the third stage of life. Very few people enter into the fourth stage of life in this society which is without culture. As a result we don’t see much of higher adapted personalities in this culture, this society. We see people more or less of the same kind everywhere. And not much gracefulness, not much serenity, not much bodily confession of the existence of God. If God exists, you should be able to see it in the body of old men and women. Because such bodies have been in the fire for a long time you see, a body submitted to God for 80 years looks a lot different you see than a body that’s just been indulged for 80 years. So the old should be a principle witness within the community”.
___Adi Da Samraj

“Because of their developmental tendencies toward either childish or adolescent ego-dramatizations, those who are yet bound to the unfinished “business” of the first three stages of life are not yet truly ready to enter into the esoteric process …”

___Adi Da Samraj

Further Reading

You must become human before you can become spiritual

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Free present conscious awareness

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Free & present conscious awareness (or free attention) is the unfettered waking mind or state. Looking at it closely and anyone can do this, it is clearly functional, meaning it is available to think and act clearly and intelligently, rather than cluttered and unavailable for free thought and action as attention tends to constantly become.

Adi Da calls this state “perceptual mind” he writes.

“You Must Realize The Natural Ability To Set Aside The Secondary or conceptual Function Of mind, or Else You Will Be Dominated By A Compulsive and Obsessive Effort To think conceptually, To Seek knowledge About, To Interpret, and To Separate From the perceived conditional worlds.

You Must Enjoy The Natural, Inherent, moment to moment Ability To Merely perceive, To feel, To be with, and To Wholly Participate In the phenomenal conditions Of Your psycho-physical Existence, or Else You Will Not Truly Understand what arises conditionally, Nor Will You Transcend the limitations Of conditional Existence.

Through The Ordeal Of The Way Of The Heart, and By Means Of self-Observation, Developing self-Understanding, and The Progressively Awakening Natural Feeling-Practice Of Mere and always present perception, You Must Realize The Inherent Ability To Intentionally Relax The Chronic, Compulsive, and Obsessive Tendency Of attention To Become Associated With the past and the future and Even the present.

If moment to moment Mere and Also perceptible Existence Is Intolerable To You, So That You Are Unable To perceive each present perceptible moment as it is and To feel and Participate In it Without Recoil, You Will Exist Only In the Secondary or Reflected world of time and mind.”

Again in His description of the basis of “conscious exercise”, He writes :

“Do not randomly think and daydream, but apply the mind as free attention to the whole process of the present activity.

Mind is not, in itself, thought. Thought is only one of many objects of attention. Mind is basically consciousness, conscious awareness, or free attention itself. Therefore, the basic condition of mind in any moment is thoughtless free attention, or awareness. If attention is not turned into the relations of the whole body, it will, because of our habitual adaptation to separative and self-possessed games of existence, tend to reflect or randomly turn upon subjective and self-meditative phenomena.

Thus, we always think, randomly and obsessively, and we always turn within and away, and we always daydream or meditate on our own sense of independent existence, unless we are already and presently turned into the functional pattern of present relations.”

I find this consideration and practice very useful in daily life, particularly when engaged in work, where I tend to really get involved in subjectivity almost as a reaction to the demand to function.

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Q: What about all the criticism?

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Yes there is a lot of critical views out there ranging from reasonably fair assessments (in a comparative sense) to ignorant (uninformed) views and then onto the usual hateful rants.

In my opinion there is no real or useful answer or solution to any of this that would satisfy either friends and devotees or detractors merely by debate.

I used to spend a lot of time defending Adi Da and Adidam on the internet at every opportunity and there was rarely a happy outcome particularity from my point of view. So in the end I made a choice to simply stop getting involved in any of it.

The devotee of Adi Da Samraj has a massive vulnerability, not so much wearing his or her heart on their sleeve, as having the perennial Achilles heel of “being a devotee”

It’s a wound (and an absolute joy, that would never be relinquished) in some sense, that must remain open. Of course,  if you can’t feel, then you can’t love or enjoy ecstasy and true heart felt delight. The downside to that  is any negativity directed at one’s Guru or even the Way itself tends to be taken personally and bluntly- “hurts like hell”. Thus the committed devotee is not interested in shallow  intellectual sparring about his or her Beloved- for the reason outlined.

The devotee should be aware of this, as useful self knowledge (which is part of an enlightening education, Gracefully received) and act on the basis of this intelligence, no need to be a “glutton for punishment”, no need to suffer pointlessly.

To some this may seem an attempt to avoid “real issues”, but from my point of view, whomever has those “issues”- has to deal with them. As a critic they are your “issues”, and you have my sympathy and hope for a resolution, but you will not find any satisfaction here, so  ”deal me out. Thank you, kindly pass me by” (song lyrics)

There is a deeper more intimate possibility and that is talking straight, from the heart to people who already have an intuitive response to Adi Da Samraj, that requires an environment other than the “pub” like atmosphere of the general internet, such more sheltered and potentially available to higher sensibilities situations, are being brought into being by highly creative people.

The basis for any real response and appreciation of  Adi Da and the Way He established is one of felt intuitive recognition of Him at least as a man of profound Realization (whatever the personal conception that may accompany this intuition). If that intuition is not “there”, even in a very crude and basic manner, there is no need for any conversation beyond that point. It’s a complete waste of time, love and energy . The most useful human response passed that point is to exchange happy notes on the weather, or football teams or any felt points in common! That is not a cynical comment just a pragmatic one.

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On getting an Adidam education

Friday, May 7th, 2010

If you are a spiritual seeker or Truth seeker in the serious sense, that is, you really want to get to the root of “what is going on” , or “what it all means” then you should educate yourself in Adi Da’s Teaching .

In the very early days Adi Da wrote “Make use of Teachings such as this one” .

I would read this statement and think – there are more of these radical teachings??

You may ask : how do I do that- get an Adidam education? Well I certainly can’t tell you the answer to that, other than throw a few pointers out for consideration and suggest sources and media.

This education is given on many levels and is not just about absorbing Dharma, though this is very important.

There is another level of education much harder to get and always “hard won”. It’s about our own self, or more exactly the revelation of  ”own self” as narcissus -the all rejecting self lover. The “revelation of narcissus” in our own case, not in anyone else’s case, is huge, and ongoing from the beginning.

It’s possible and not uncommon to experience profound states, to talk with apparent wisdom on very subtle subjects, to even convince ones self of personal illumination, yet remain utterly locked into narcissus as an  unbroken pattern. This is quite remarkable but also quite true.

In a way this is just a nuance, just a side note, but it keeps us “sober”

“Part of the integrity of being a devotee of mine is to have a fundamental and very serious mistrust of your self. Don’t take anything you say or think seriously, at least in absolute terms.”

Adi Da Samraj

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Q : Are there any modern teachers of value?

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

That’s a tough one to answer without coming across as elitist and exclusive, tends to be something of a paradox, as well.

Fundamentally I would say if you find Adi Da  to be  your Guru, you don’t need any other external sources ( that’s the paradox)

However when I look back I see I have had teachers, some were more useful than others, some seemed to add nothing to my education in Truth, and others were even detrimental, wasted my time, taught me bad habits and even deluded me futher. Even so I look back with fondness on them all.

For example I spent over 2 years with an Indian Yogi of the Bengali Tantric school, Swami K. in hindsight he appeared to teach me nothing of lasting value, yet at the time, every day seemed to hold great promise. He was something of a lovable  rogue, but he did have a great heart, not to mention exceptional siddhis (spirit power).

So yes, there have always been spiritual teachers of some caliber around, varying from men and women of useful wisdom to Realizers of a tradition, and this is currently the case and I assume will always be the case. there are also many teachers of little or no use, “professionals”, bullshitters and literally “time wasters” (thats your precious time, life is short) hopefully you won’t spend too long in their company, and  lessons can be learned even  there.

So I could not recommend any, because from my point of view, none are necessary or even complete, I would say make your way to Adi Da Samraj by whatever road that requires, either directly or indirectly as Grace would have it.

Part of the paradox of answering this question rests in the unique nature of Adi Da’s work and appearance here and how muddied the waters are around modern spirituality or what passes for it.  If there were in truth a whole lot of Realized beings out there, then it would be different but it’s not the case.

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Three philosophical devices “old school”

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

There is no dilemma : There is no problem in any shape or form what-so -ever

No-Seeking : Any effort to acquire, struggle with or change anything in order to be Free is futile, unnecessary and completely doomed to failure

We are always already Free : Needs no further elaboration

These 3 contemplations I have found very useful (understatement), their roots are in The Knee Of Listening. They are only useful devices that need to be discarded at some point. They are admittedly Adidam “old school” , but I carry them with with me like old friends, and they are in some ways only reminders of  the Guru.

For those interested Adi Da teaches that such devices used in the conventional manner are 6th stage methods or techniques, similar to Ramana’ Maharshi’s  suggested ” Who Am I? ”  inquiry.

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