(Recognition of soul-tribe and first encounter with Adi Da)
It didn’t matter; there was only one certainty: These beings were my true blood, my eternal soul-bonded tribe, and I’d been with them forever. My love for them was endless and always had been.
There were about eighteen to twenty people, mostly around my age; we watched an excerpt from a film about “The Day of the Heart” (September 16, 1979), which evoked a profound, spontaneous, totally unexpected response in me. Da Free John’s voice had such a depth of profundity that it seemed to be speaking from a place far beyond this plane of existence. I bought a copy of a book called Conversion, later released as Compulsory Dancing, and remained in an ecstatic devotional state for days afterward.
For the next two years, we spent most weekends around his ashram, which was often a wild and crazy place. An evening would begin with us all sitting in the main hall while Swamiji (his common title) meditated on a slightly raised dais. Music was always playing in the background. He liked synthesized and classical Indian music with no vocals. We would sit, eyes closed, and either use the meditative practices he taught or do our own thing.
The parties were mostly great fun. Swamiji enjoyed flaming Drambuie as his signature drink and often drank insane amounts of alcohol, as we all did. We danced endlessly without any formal style. He always controlled the music and managed the mood masterfully. Music and dancing were a huge part of his meditative process.
was lying in one of the many guest beds late, after a mad celebration night, and awoke to find Swamiji rummaging around the wardrobe draws. I asked him in a perplexed voice what he was looking for. “There was a girl here, did you see her? A very nice dakini type; I think she took a pair of my silk underwear.” I was annoyed with the whole event. “Swamiji, if you are enlightened as you claim, why are you messing around, having sex with dakinis, and worried that they will steal your silk underpants? “ He broke into a characteristic giggle. “Oh. Yes, yes. There is always a part of me way beyond all of this, always.” I could see his arm stretched and pointing to infinity. He left the room still giggling. To me, all the sexual activity was a side issue; I was much more interested in the esoteric elements of his expression. Most people who came to the ashram were not; he told me he gave people what they wanted.
(Formal disciplines and the happiest practice period)
This was different; they were to be done as the first and most tangible form of spiritual practice and covered all avenues of activity. I transitioned quickly from LMI One to LMI Two, which included the commitment to practice the basic disciplines. The disciplines were: Vegetarian diet Service to the institution Keeping regular work Supporting the institution with a percentage of earned income A committed sexual relationship or celibacy Daily study and keeping an insightful diary A regime of calisthenics and exercise in the morning and yoga and pranayama in the evening (this was part of a constant bodily practice called conscious exercise). Sunday was reserved for retreat and formal gatherings. It was a demanding but happy time. I felt as if I was finally involved in a true growth process. I worked two jobs for a while and had the luxury and novelty of spare money. The Way became everything for me. I lived and breathed it and was not interested in anything else.
Student practice from 1984 to 1987 was the happiest, healthiest (zero addictions, pure diet), and most demanding (the perfect practice period) to that point of my life.
Siddha means perfected or completed one; in Adidam and Siddha yoga schools, it also refers to a Transmission Guru or Master. Something subtle is given from Guru to disciple, and in Adi Da’s case, what is Transmitted is Happiness or what he calls Love-Bliss. This happiness fills the heart center and the whole front of the body in a downward descent. Happiness is emotive, joyful, feeling-potency, or fullness. There are Shakti-force and potential effects of all kinds, but infilling happiness at heart is the Guru’s primary gift.
She told me Adi Da was extremely particular in his shaving and shaved twice daily with Gillette Mach 3 razors only, which he used only once. I was shocked to hear this. The green alternative part of me thought, what a waste! But then I visualized devotees using those discarded razors in the traditional manner of Guru-Prasad. Now if you are not familiar with this tradition, it may sound a little bizarre, but that is the way it is around the Guru.
(Transmission, conductivity, and the body’s native bliss)
These same currents also stimulate a great deal of illusionary mind. Without a Guru or Teacher who has gone through and transcended (meaning has seen the limitation of these states and their associations), all manner of delusion is possible (and this can be seen clearly as well). Pleasurable conductivity (meaning an unbroken flow or current ) 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. The most universal means of contacting these internal blissful energies is by listening to and performing ecstatic chants in a religious context. Everybody who has or does this knows its potency and very simple mindless pleasure.
You can add, for instance, the Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, or Sufi mind forms, but it remains a simple, fundamentally “mindless” universal experience. In Adidam, such states are not seen as Divine or as contacting the Divine but rather as the naturally pleasurable conducting of native bodily and mentally refined energies.
Distinct from more ascended, subtle, or transcendental possibilities of traditional spiritual accomplishment A longtime practitioner informed me that Adi Da once stated that it is very important to become “a yogi”—at least—by the time you turn 50 (in the sense of allowing this great enjoyment and native conductivity through the body-mind). Traditional means of stimulating or controlling this internal force include physical exercise, sexual discipline, movements and poses, breathing, meditation, chanting, mantra, diet, right association, ecstatic dance, visualization, and study of sacred texts. All of these are incorporated and refined to a most useful and effective form into the daily practice recommended by Adi Da to his students, but to be done from a radically different position to the conventional yogic search. He also draws a very distinct line between personal psychophysical energy and the overwhelming descending Shaktipat of the Siddha Master
Its potency should and will reduce us to nothing, empty of self, just like they say in the Traditions, but overflowing, Full of Bliss. Nothing is utter Bliss. It’s all a sacrifice from the beginning.
Adi Da argues that without constant release and relief from the ordinary survival stress state, the body’s higher energies and chemistry cannot emerge or develop properly. We must understand and overcome a more modern factor that prevents true growth in our higher structure: the headlock. Philosophical materialism and its roots in science, as the constant proof that there is only matter, bodies, and brains and nothing above or beyond solidity, have “locked” our heads to any upward potential growth. True “faith” (not meaning belief), or upward-opening to spirit power, is utterly necessary for growth beyond the limits of human nature (as it is currently defined).
“Nothing feels as good as no contraction.” The unknotted heart, head, and vital center just feel so damn good, and it is absolutely within our ordinary domain. “The creative task of the living being is to remain responsible for its native disposition and conductivity, even through and amid the shocks and impositions of experience. It is the Law of Sacrifice or Love that is hidden in every breath.”- Adi Da.
The brain core or ajna center has immense, intensely pleasurable potential. Adept yogis of the present and past have endlessly and perhaps overly romantically extrapolated about abilities here. Open above and explore; that’s the first step. What is true and fiction may then become clear. The heart center—not so much referring to the heart as chakra or subtle center or the causal knot—has to open to feeling. That’s an equally tough exercise for us “moderns”: to feel, to love, to devote, to revere, and to empathize with all life forms. Feeling the root suffering of all living beings opens the heart, and surrendering devotionally to what is above and beyond self is how to grow past the locked heart. The breath is linked to feeling, so the feeling breath is complementary.
The navel or vital center is where our life force is contracted like a kinked hose with the tap turned on. That’s our root somatic, motivating compulsion. Simplistic as it sounds, most of the complications of our lives revolve around this gut-level drive. That is exactly where our compulsive, unconscious, knee-jerk reactions come from. The cure is to open fully, thus allowing the life force to un-kink. We may then take a free breath with no pained tension.
Anyone who experiments along these lines may find it a moment-to-moment process. The navel lock constantly reintroduces itself compulsively. A counter-movement to the opening is required, which is true for all three locks.
(Radical understanding: the teaching that dissolves all seeking)
The section in the book was titled “The Meditation of Understanding”, and the first chapter with the same title was loaded with baffling counter-intuitive and koan-like statements such as: “I do not recommend that you meditate. There is only understanding. Therefore, understand.” What did he mean by understanding? Truthfully, it has taken me all those years to digest and really cognize what the term “understanding” or “radical understanding” means in this context.
What is this radical teaching in essence? Here is what I perceive the most radical teaching to be, distilled over a long period of time: 1. There is no fundamental problem or actual dilemma to overcome on any level. 2. Since this is the case, even now and in any future instant, why seek or look for freedom as it is already our condition? 3. We are always already free, always have been, and always will be. 4. All human action contains the seed of an illusory felt problem and an unnecessary search based on it. This appears as a simple understanding, yet taken in full, it strips away the motivating basis of all meditative practice (as one example).
These comments are directed to Part Five of the chapter titled The Boundless Self Confession. I first admit that it is impossible for me to do this volume real justice. At some point in time, a scholar-practitioner may come forward to do it some justice.
This ecstatic treatise has a quality of the Lotus Sutra in the sense it is said to eclipse or override (or subsume) all previous Sutras. It speaks directly of non-conditional reality or that which is the only reality, of which this apparent world is a “realm” or contracted modification of light or energy. Perhaps the closest descriptive traditional term, Dharmakāya, is an excellent pointer to this non-conditional reality.
The Bright is knowable to every sentient being (even) through direct intuitive perception, or what he calls “Recognition”: direct perception via our most profound intuitive faculty. This is a heartfelt or devotional perception, in the same sense that we would respond to a Cosmic Christ or Primary Buddha. Nothing is forced about such devotion; it is merely a natural response to the vision of overwhelming greatness. In that Recognition alone (meaning nothing else is required), the non-conditional reality is known, transmitted, or communicated directly to the being. This communication may or has the potential to lift at least the (somewhat prepared) ordinary person from their conventional worldview to that of the profound revelation of how things actually are.
The Bright or Divine comes from outside or beyond the three states traditionally described as waking (all we conventionally assume to exist), dreaming (including any subtle or ascended states), and sleeping (or any depth of being) to intrude as a forceful revelation of Truth or Reality, or that which is beyond all transitory forms.
(The Bright, the Hridaya Rosary, and the Guru’s transmitted happiness)
The Hridaya Rosary The head becomes swollen with bliss. So, as a Siddha student (of Baba Muktananda) told me once, the Honey transmitted by the Transmission Guru soaks the thinking head into no mind, no thought, Bliss-Pleasure Itself. Then the Heart, the middle heart, opens, and we know Happiness and True Satisfaction. You can point to this in your own body-mind and know fully, without doubt: Yes, He Is This and Transmits This Happiness Itself. Absolutely and demonstrably true. Now, there is a secret here. This Heart Satisfaction is Unique to The Ruchira Siddha! Cannot be found anywhere else (truly). We can take time to see if it is true, but it will be discovered.
The real difference is He does it all. There is a mass of karmic purification to endure, which is unpleasant, but we can feel through it all to Him, to Happiness Itself.—the Heart Shines Through. We no longer struggle with ourselves, trying to work it out, trying to do it. We are in a Relationship with Him (as Ruchira Siddha). He Enters we Open. The whole body responds and opens to His Love Bliss-Touch. Our resistance is always we want to be independent (or childishly dependent). We are always at war with Bliss, tending to deny Happiness Itself. The statement of narcissus is, “I would rather be independent than Happy!”
Allow Yourself To Be Seen Scientists have found the gene for shyness. They would have found it years ago, but it was hiding behind a couple of other genes. - Jonathan Katz
This may sound counterintuitive or too simplistic, but if you suffer from these symptoms, try these exercises and see if they work for you.Look for opportunities to put yourself on show: Suppose you are driving into a parking lot and, by tendency, look for a quiet place to park away from crowds and people. Instead, do the opposite.
Practice being ordinary rather than weird and apart: We may develop habits of avoiding or absolutely minimizing social contact, not because we are naturally unsociable but because of the pain involved in that contact. To counter this, try being ordinary. Change your thinking about yourself as being apart from others and feeling weird, strange, or odd. The truth is we are just part of society, our social landscape, not apart. This will require affirmation and the discipline of looking for opportunities to show yourself without fear of judgment by others. Occasionally push your social boundary and be outrageous: When you get a bit more confidence, you may want to go to the nude beach (that’s right, show your beautiful naked body to the world), wear dorky sunglasses to a party, or enroll in a public speaking course (highly recommended).
In the Beginning, Adi Da Offered Two Ways of Response “Turn to Me and Understand or Understand and Turn to Me.” In His Final Work, the only response became: “Turn to Me and Understand.”
However, discriminative intelligence can itself be freely submitted into devotional practice. This is a truly great discovery!
If your nature tends to be ‘devotional,’ you may have to submit it to ‘discriminative intelligence’ to righten your approach, which is also a great discovery. This means that those with a discriminative nature out front can very much apply (surrender) that quality to their ‘feeling,’ devotional practice. “Like a knife through butter,” He Said. So please don’t feel disallowed or unwelcome.
There is Boundless Happiness. You may call it Love-Bliss because it is both love and bliss or many things: Unqualified Relationship (because it is love only or relationship), nondual feeling awareness (because there is no division in the feeling heart, not-two), or non-separation. Whatever you wish to call it, it is Absolute, Unbroken and Unbreakable, Happiness Itself. There is an unplumbed depth of consciousness just behind us. You may have seen it reflected in Adi Da’s eyes. It’s deeper than sleep yet fully awake. That depth allows us to function without disturbance, no matter what arises, including reactive states. It’s as if we are looking to here from another untouchable realm.
The devotee Exists on the other side of that knot. That’s why their Happiness and Freedom are Boundless because there is no contraction, no matter what arises. The other side of that knot reveals Amrita Nadi (Atma Nadi), the secret great channel of Love-Bliss. It is also the Form Of The Lord, His Form. So the devotee only knows The Lord in every instant and nothing else whatsoever.
“The essence of un-Enlightenment is concern for ‘self’—for its survival, well being, pleasure, amusement and perpetuation.” –From Intrinsic Deathlessness by Adi Da
When does the ‘Yoga’ happen? Adi Da often uses the word yoga in a different context from how it is used traditionally. He characteristically uses it in the sense of ‘change via a spiritual process’ rather than by common effort, concentration, or struggle, though these qualities may still be involved.
The Divine Miracle “If the Divine miracle were to be produced in the next town tomorrow, the one who has no “problem” would be absent, found making love, or devoted to bringing peace to the minds of those, who disbelieving, remained behind” –Adi Da Something about this quote points to our Radical Freedom, if our understanding has gone “to the root” (as described in later works), that is, if we “Hear” the Teaching. As described, the freedom of such a one is egoless, he or she has no concern for their own illumination or salvation; they don’t have to go to the “next town tomorrow” because they already know the “Divine Miracle” is Inherent, does not have to be sought, it’s already found.
Of course, it’s an exaggeration, a device. It merely points to our Inherent Freedom. And that Freedom is only a moment. It can’t be held onto, and it must ultimately move to “Seeing,” which is the certainty of Real God or the Perfect Sufficiency of Guru and The All Dissolving Brightness.
In Real God, in Satsang, it does inform the frontal personality. There could be some changes there.
“Consider the “I” and understand. “I” is narcissus, the self-contraction, or the avoidance of relationship.” –Adi Da from ‘I’ Is The Body Of Life
Always Be What Is, and All That Is Not-”self”
“Frequently you will find a sudden opening or release in the heart. It is the release of consciousness, bliss and energy to the Amrita Nadi. This opening, fullness, ease and release, is the typical result of each daily meditation. Of course it is not a ‘required’ experience. It is only that you may perceive it, and so I have accounted for it.”
“You Must Realize The Natural (and Inherent) 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.”
Eckhart Tolle, a modern sage and highly influential source, claims to be able to freely set the compulsive thinking mind to rest, so devotees who have put in years of practice should show this capacity to stand often freely and easefully as the perceptual mind. Notes: 1. Where Eckhart Tolle speaks of being present (and presence) in this context,, he refers to the perceptual mind. 2. Adi Da also talks about the perceptual mind in ascent via meditation as the sensory life current (including light, sound, touch, taste, and smell). That is, it is not limited to descent to ordinary life forms.
1. Sit longer until His Siddhi starts working in your body. 2. Study more and more extensively throughout all spiritual traditions. 3. The Way becomes more Spontaneous and Graceful. Many forms and media arise just when you need them. 4. Live as long as possible. If you spend time with Adi Da’s company, it is our service to do this. Rejuvenation and regeneration are possible but have not yet been taken up generally (as far as I know) and overlooked. Re-Eating Gorilla Comes In Peace and Conscious Exercise. 5. Find your Art ( whatever it is). No Art, no Enlightened Life!
Knowing that “you are always more than what you look like” is the same as saying that we are spirit (meaning more than merely physical). We grow to know this as fact (or in the same way we know we are embodied—no doubt of it). It’s to know immortality or survival of death, which is supremely important knowledge. It is undervalued because it is taken as a given, which it is not. It is not a given at all, and it is very rare. We have to come to know the ‘subtle body’ as a fact while alive if we are to live without fear of death.
The Great Siddhi, Shakti, or Grace does the whole shebang from start to finish. We could cooperate with it, fight it, deny it, or try to control it. Whatever we did, it was never in our control. The illusion was that we were somehow in control. To notice Divine Grace as the only mover and spontaneous manifester of all of this is a wonderful position. We then watch the play and marvel at it with easeful surrender.
Even this may sound like heresy, but everyone must come to the point of realizing personal and spiritual autonomy; it’s absolutely necessary. An empty self is always craving (and craven), seeking, and less than. The Guru often feels like an oppressor of free being, which he is on many levels.
Adi Da once said (I never read this, only by memory from the 80s) that we must become ‘characters’, each and every one. What is a character? Think about it: a character does not have self-doubt, is full, not empty, has confidence, and has strength in self. No one can make you a ‘character’; it’s earned by ordinary growth.
(Spontaneous Kriya yoga versus deliberate effort; the Sahaja unfolding)
Adidam and Kriya Yoga In the quote below from The Knee of Listening, Adi Da notes the difference between spontaneous Kriya Yoga and the effort to use breathing and other means to mimic a process that is otherwise spontaneous and effortless
“Seeing this, the man may think he has recovered a superior kind of yogic process. He may try to use it deliberately to control and purify the instrument. This may seem to be the very yoga of understanding itself. But he will find that as he begins to engage this process he will become a seeker as before. He will become concerned with purification, creative activities on a subtle level, etc. Thus, he will begin to act again on the basis of a dilemma in consciousness and form.”
If we are keen, effortful meditators, we will notice at some point that what was previously and logically a concentrated act just carries on spontaneously with little intention. We notice that it is ‘just happening’. The breath takes on a certain rhythm, and the eyes become diffused and set in a particular way, and we say: “Isn’t that Shambhavi mudra? ” As an example. We may even finally notice that we are ‘meditating,’ without effort and there is no confusion about exactly what meditation is, as described in the traditions.. Then, the word Sahaja (effortless, natural) becomes meaningful. Adi Da once said we are all in the court of the Divine Shakti, and this may be proven to us.
Now, self-reliance and self-dependence are primary signs evoking social respect. God helps those who help themselves, which is a literal, non-ironic statement. Weakness and foolishness go with signs of dependency and need. A teacher is permissible as long as he or she is equal to you and not above you. They may be a guide, coach, mentor, or pastor, but never a Guru as God.
The logic goes that Guru should be demoted to guru. At the root of this is a reasonable stance: that humankind can be independent and free of childish and exploitable reliance on those who may not honor that surrender. Out of this backdrop, a phenomenon has emerged: the rugged, independent, ordinary, Self-Realized man or woman. Sometimes, he or she sounds like John Wayne playing an enlightened being or perhaps even Homer Simpson. He or she is typically American or European, mostly middle-aged, and possessed of a particular quality. Is it a pioneering backwoods individualism? The quality that made America (place your country here) great? The fictional Jed McKenna is the perfectly bogus archetype for this character.
After Realization, you can go to Buddha at the Gas Pump and make your case for joining the ever-growing throng of ordinary enlightened individuals. The bar is so low that anyone who puts their hand up gets their name on the wall of esteemed, purported, ordinary realizers.
The Myth of the Spiritual Person Adi Da had little time for your traditional ‘spiritual person.’ That’s the man or woman you would tend to think of as spiritual, or at least interested in things otherworldly, or seeking enlightenment. He classed the traditional seeking type as ‘peculiar’ (tending to be ungrounded), one of the three base personality types. The other two were solid (given to intellect and stuck in the head) and vital (given to self-indulgence and bodily-based).
(Ruchira Bhakti Yoga: turning all faculties as constant whole-body practice)
Notes on Turning The Faculties into a Real 24/7, Forever Practice 1. A bit of preparation is necessary to do this practice truly and effectively. It appears unlikely that someone could take this up without a lot of ‘Adidam Education’, that is, ‘Listening’ exposure to Blessing Grace, growth and testing, and ordinary discipline revealing practice and perhaps ordinary human maturity. 2. Because it is an actual whole bodily practice, extraordinary (by conventional standards) sensitivity is required: constant bodily awareness (I am the body, feeling), breathing (constant breathing and breath, feeling awareness), and the capacity to be constantly ‘feeling’ aware, and equally the capacity to bring attention to the Name, moment to moment. This is no small matter. see footnote. 3. You can’t really pretend to be doing or hype this practice. As in constantly thinking about ‘turning the faculties’, or making a mind culture about it: ‘The Way Is To Turn Faculties’ actually doing this action, as described 24/7. 4. This is an absolute devotional practice, but not a sentimental emotive one. You can be and will be, ‘not feeling devotional’ at all and still be turning the faculties. You can be feeling like shit and often will be, bodily, emotionally, or be plagued by chronic, negative mind forms and still be turning, submitting. 5. Secondarily, what is revealed in every moment of this whole body practice is a ‘contracted’ state of the body-mind, and because we are by that consistent, constant practice entered into a natural equanimity, it is ‘seen’ (naturally observed) or reflected back to us and dissolves in the moment, or at least loses the power to motivate us.
6. Natural equanimity must be the tested outcome. If it is not, then we are not doing this practice correctly. Reactivity must diminish. There may be occasions of great fear, sorrow, and anger. We are not saints, but from moment to moment, the stress that would lead to constant ordinary reactivity is diminished and dissolved to a great degree. 7. Out of all this, narcissus will be seen over time. The ‘primal self-act’ will show itself just by doing this practice over (perhaps much) time. Profound understanding and equally the perception of what is always prevented and prior to self-contraction must reveal themselves; it’s inevitable. 8. “Don’t forget to Feel Me ” Adi Da said. The lead faculty is ‘feeling,’ which makes the whole process of Ruchira Bhakti Yoga possible. Even the conscious process of Name Invocation is submitted to feeling itself.
This is what is going on behind the scenes. Just walking down an unknown road, happy and free in God, Praising The Great One, without a care in the world. A mild critic of Adi Da wrote that turning all the faculties as described is impossible. He was incorrect, but it points to further development and responsibility for parts of the brain and nervous system considered involuntary by ordinary standards. This is similar ( but not the same brain…
‘I’ is the body is a great liberation Often overlooked, the confession, “‘I’ am the body,” is a great liberation. Fearlessly being the body is opposite to most traditions, which almost universally proclaim, “I am not the body.” It’s a basic liberation to be the body only: joy, relief, great ordinary happiness, conductivity, and equanimity (described by Adi Da). It is right to be the body, which is obviously the case. Has anyone ever seen a mind? Show us the inner self you claim to be! The inner self is an absolute fearful projection. Hang on a minute. How can you be consciousness itself if ‘I’ is the body? The answer to this riddle becomes clear when you allow yourself to be utterly fearless like the…
You can’t enjoy perfect ignorance fully while being ‘afraid,’ it does not work that way. Consider this: try gazing at the infinity of the night sky. Soon enough, you may desist. Why do we feel this threat to ‘self-hood’ and become fearful? We are threatened by Infinity. Adi Da told us that we only gaze into the great dome of the Sahasrara at any…
“In Sahaj Samadhi, there is a great and transcendental yoga that is not described in the traditional texts. It is the yoga of Amrita Nadi, in which everything arising is recognized to be only modification of the prior Condition of your apparent condition. Everything arising is without force, unnecessary. If you persist in that meditation or realization in every moment, the limiting or binding force of existence at every level is lost, and you are brought into a transcendental meditation that is the Radiance of the infinite being itself.”— Adi Da.
The Disciplines as a Reflective Mechanism I never met anyone in Adidam (myself included) who was interested in the formal disciplines as a form of ‘self-observation.’ As Adi Da demanded, they were to be reflective mechanisms, whereby in their natural functioning, we would spontaneously ‘see’ or comprehend the self-contraction as it manifested in that particular moment. We were to take on the formal disciplines only after a degree of ‘Hearing’ was in evidence, and we were to use them as a constant non-strategic sounding board or reflective mechanism whereby our self-understanding would grow quickly and constantly. It never happened. I never met a soul who used them in this intelligent, already free sense. Those coming in later years may not even know about this demand at all. Many years later, I saw that all the disciplines were forms of ‘looking up from the pond’; they all had that same essential shape. Narcissus always wants to remain focused on his own contracted image, and the last thing he is interested in doing is ‘service’ or attention to ‘whatever is not himself.’
“Attend to Me and thus and thereby understand and transcend your own self-attending activity.”
I am interested in using these disciplines in this manner. It’s a different Asana. You cannot force it;…
“The whole yard could be full of avatars; how would I know?” A quote from Adi…
This is not the Buddhist emptiness or no-self. The heart’s radiance before the causal knot shines extremely Brightly. It’s His Form, so a vast well of Happiness is shining to the world. It is not just idealized hope. There is no hope for the self; there never was. If you go into a room full of chattering egos, you will be an ‘insult’ unless you play the game to…
You may allow others ‘importance, no problem humorously. Other Teachers–They are all okay. There is no problem with them, their students, or their dharma. There is no need for conflict at all. We are peacemakers. A devotee wrote, “It is not our job to purify other Teachers.” True, we could add, nor their students/devotees. So yes, the whole yard could be full of supremely enlightened, advanced, and liberated…
Fear The transition from ‘worrier’ (narcissus, living in fear and separation) to warrior (one living free of fear, in Real-God). “Your Fearless Master..” — Adi Da, pointing to this quality in Himself. ‘“To be a spiritual warrior, one must have a broken heart: without a broken heart… your warriorship is…
Have you noticed that as long as there is a separate self, there is another, so there is always fear? I came to feel fear, almost like an ‘alien parasitic entity’ (yes, just like in the movie) crushing my chest. I could not take the strong…
Now, at some point recently, Guru’s Grace just dissolved this blockage, not anything I did, just the Siddha Master’s Blessing Power. I can see how this contraction…
Ego death, anyone? When I wrote this, I was going through a process that began and stalled (impossible at the time)…
1. Remember, nothing is really happening. You are just perceiving ‘reality’ differently. 2. Stay close to the teaching argument re - self-contraction (read /listen) 3. Stay close to Guru; if you do not have that connection, be open to Help and profound Surrender.. 4. Watch for vital depletion and use breath, exercise, conductivity, diet, love, and relationships—perhaps consider fasting (for some, others may need grounding food). 5. The vital, heart and the whole frontal line will take an intense hammering, and you may be ‘knotted up’ beyond belief. This is called vital shock and…
6. You will hit the Great Fear, the Great Sorrow, and the Great Anger. It is very hard to do, but do not dramatize. The more you dramatize, the longer it goes, and more suffering is generated. The Great Sorrow is the worst; it is utterly devastating. But on the other hand nothing at all (paradox). 7. Stay completely functional. This is your best friend. Stay ordinary even in the midst of whatever comes up.…
“The Lord of all the worlds is Radiant…
Friends, don’t forget Adi Da’s Seventh Stage Vision and Gift. We are now looking at and experiencing the Very Divine, the Divine Form. Why go anywhere to meditate on the Lord when He is right before us? Take that Vision to the world and your friends, and allow Transfiguration to begin. Don’t wait…
There is a ‘love’ there that flows or moves out from you to the world, all beings, all objects. This is the opposite of world-denying mysticism. Meditation then coincides with the world. Heartfelt, it is a feeling confession: “The World Is God.” But this is not in any sense ‘worldly’ but rather an extreme of devotion. Adi Da’s final word was Translation. This is Transfiguration. The worlds have to shine Bright first before they may be Outshined.
(Seventh stage vision: Transfiguration and the reversal of the current)
The Reversal Of The Current It flows from us out to the world. There is a distinct motion of energy and attention from within to without. The world looks and feels very different. There is a joyful brilliance that moves to any object arising. A creative surge sings out to All. It feels like the devotee enlightens the world—that’s their work. Not what I thought at all. All our waiting for Something to happen is false in that ‘It’ will never occur. I’m unsure if it is merely the descending force expressing itself or His “Transfiguration of the world” via His Siddhi. When I wrote, “The devotee Enlightens the world, that’s their work.” I didn’t mean they have any role in it other than the Divine Siddhi doing the work through the medium of a body-mind.
Error Revealed: I’ve added this because it may be useful to someone else with similar tendencies. What I’m describing here has nothing to do with Adidam practice. I’m describing an ‘intense idealization’ of the waking state common to traditions that idealize the world as God, such as Kashmir Shaivism. And expounded by the greatest of all modern Idealist Realizers,…
So yes, the current can be felt to reverse and flow to the world of the waking state with an intense elation, which is joyous. Unfortunately, it is still delusional from the highest…
the creative arts. It also moves to the idealization of mankind via an evolutionary projection. Man’s ‘great destiny’ is visualized in the future. Adi Da agreed with this (to a degree) in some earlier works but not at all in his…
The really big difference is that the idealization of the world and man does not see ‘ego as a fault’ but as part of the arising state and creative expression of the Divine. He mentioned this in relation to Baba Muktananda, who tended to divinize the devotee/jiva. If you remove the idealization of man, you are stuck…
This Is All A Yogic Process It’s already an immense and only Yogic Process. It appears otherwise, solid and unyielding. Yet, all bodies and objects are actually miraculous “Manifestations,” never perfectly understandable, in absolute “Divine Ignorance.” We “appear and disappear” in a Vortex of Divine Force. Its beginning (and ending) is infinitely above. Although this may become obvious…
I understood and had direct knowledge of The Bright as it existed at the heart root. It’s like a Radiant Sun of Happiness untouched by any changes. It feels like perfection, but not as emotive as the central heart. It’s Freedom, Uncontained and Uncontainable. So much could be said of it. I simply noticed it and recognized it: “Ah, that’s The Bright he speaks of..”. It was His Transmission of His State, simply that. A Grace and it is our state when we recognize it to be such. It’s the intuition of Enlightenment, a Limitless Radiant Sphere from which we are ever distracted by all arising states. A Magnificence that could never be truly lost, only just a little out of sight and even now completely available to all beings.
It’s All a modification of the Divine, Force, Nature, and Person. This is our Grace Given, Seventh Stage Vision and Intuition. Ordinary or extraordinary, there is no difference. It’s up to us now to notice this, incarnate it, and bring it into consciousness. It starts as ‘Transfiguration’ when the clay pots in the furnace (that’s us) start to glow red, and the Bright is seen playing in natural arising conditions. The world starts to break up, becoming fluid, dynamic, and energetic, not so solid but more mind-like.
“If you live in this way, you have already Realized God. You exist in the God Realized disposition, and all your actions are forms of God Communion. Even all your functions are forms of God-Communion— the mind becomes God-Communion, the cells of the physical body become God-Communion, every aspect or dimension of experience and the whole body-mind becomes Divine, not in and as itself, but by virtue of its surrender to God.” —Adi Da -Vision Mound, vol. 2
It is not the same as the Realization itself, as Adi Da makes very clear, but it is a joyful, blissful, fearless heart surge of Non-Dual perception. If you can’t have the real thing, then this most certainly feels as close as the human ego can reach.
That which is beyond ‘me’ or the action of narcissus is interesting, enlivening, and Happy. There is a great creative destiny beyond the ‘self’; the trouble is that the movement to ‘I’ is a lifelong habit that is expected and reinforced everywhere. It is important that such a destiny is known to be a possibility. Generally, even in Adidam, where it should be lived fully, it’s still mostly about ‘me,’ ‘my destiny,’ ‘my survival,’ and ‘my practice.’ ’ Me’ is utterly boring and always within a shade or degree of suffering..
Integration with the Deeper Personality In Adidam, not much attention is paid to what Adi Da calls the deeper personality or the deep psyche, which seems to be connected to an infinite past and an infinite future. As I grow older, I’ve noticed that deeper character, which you could say or write a lot about, is coming much more to the forefront than it did when I was very young. This is a deeper ego.
The reason is that it is an alternative to simple availability to His Potency. It is always ‘self-meditative’ no matter how seemingly deep and ‘spiritual’ it appears to be. This may sound contradictory or paradoxical, but it should be considered if you are like me and have a long history of sitting (e.g., “I meditate twice a day, have done so for years’.). This is counterproductive in Adidam Practice. If simply allowed, True Potency absolutely kicks ass, far exceeding conventional meditation, even while being A-Not-Yet-Spiritual-Practice.
Surrender simplifies your life. After it’s all given up to Him, you hang loose. There’s no need to be concerned about all your stuff. It can do what it does. Bubbling away, you can rest easily. No internal stress or conflict is necessary. The relationship between you and ‘your shit’ is different. That is a Real Shift. You have more energy and attention for ordinary tasks, and simple joy exists there without complications. If you look at yourself, there is an ease there. In the past, there was always stress between you and your stuff, how it should be, but you couldn’t meet the mark.
Above your head, you can feel Him pouring that Happiness Fluid or Bliss Light into your middle heart. There is no reason for it at all. There is no deserving or undeserving. It is just a bucket of Bliss tipping over, and your choice is to notice it or be distracted by everything else.
It appears extremely difficult for most people (myself included) to see the ‘self’ in its entirety as a single action. We tend to see all the stuff after the self is created (in any instant) and struggle with that, calling that self-contraction. It is a contraction, for sure, but not the root act of the ‘self’ Adi Da’s inquiry (avoiding relationship?) extolled in The Knee of Listening addressed this action precisely, understood it, and dissolved or released it instantly. He fully expected many, including his own students, to do likewise. “At each moment of enquiry the knot of life dissolves, and the fixation and solidity at every focal point of our living being falls out into an infinite perimeter.” -quote is from the original The Knee of Listening.
This humorous statement may hide the key to understanding something about Adidam-defined nonduality. Never be the one “who gets out of bed,” and we never have a problem that needs to be solved by any effort spiritual or ordinary: be non-separate first (or before) any movement at all, be not-two, without difference, before the first action of narcissus ( the very act that is separative and everything that follows from it), this is the presumption of prior unity. This is different from how modern talking schools envision nonduality. In most cases, “they have already gotten out of bed” and then talk about nonduality as an ideal.
Un-obstruction—is the word and work here. In basic conductivity, the navel and heart are unknotted. Do some surrender work there via His disciplines (money, food, sex, addictions). The Guru’s Circuit may be made once the navel knot is open to His ‘Short-Cut.’ There is no necessary movement through the stages, then. Just straight to the Heart and beyond the final knot. Here, you know “My egoless Bright Love-Bliss Undercurrent.”The word egoless is important (why? Because “I” is no longer central)—Guru’s Circuit, Guru’s Meditation.
This process continues to this day, and eternally, many can testify to His veracity and continued potency as the One who ‘Enquires’ of our state, whatever that may be, and effectively dissolves suffering. There may be a point where only meditation is going on, like the old Pacman game: “The objective of the game is to eat all of the dots placed in the maze..” The dots are endless forms of contraction dissolved in feeling, mind, and body. Nothing is superficial about this; a great Sacrifice and Fiery purification are part of this Universal Great Work.
The Bright is that which is Supremely Great, without peer, without limit, and cannot be contained by any sheath or conditional form. Be converted to the Bright; throw all religions out the door (in their silly mythologies, yes, keep useful and beautiful cultural aspects), and let the Great Shine of Inherent Being eclipse all differences.
“There is a State of Being that is completely, unequivocally, permanently, infinitely Happy and Free - a State that cannot be lost under any conditions, in this world or after death. Such a State is not imaginary. It is the underlying Truth of existence.” —Adi Da