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 FAQs
about Adi Da & Adidam > Adi
Da's Mahasamadhi > Dead
Gurus Can't Kick Ass
"Dead Gurus Can't Kick Ass"
Chris
Tong, Ph.D.
Question:
Does Adi Da's famous saying apply to Him, now that He is no longer
alive?
Brief answer: Adi Da's saying epitomized His Work with devotees during the "Teaching
Years". But from 1986 on, it became increasingly clear to Him
that "kicking the ass" of His devotees — in other words, submitting to work with His devotees one-on-one in every possible way: being their friend, humanly loving them, answering their questions, reflecting them to
themselves, granting them Spiritual experiences of every kind, persuading them to practice, shouting at their lack of practice, etc. — was fruitless for serving actual growth in the seventh stage Way He was offering. (It might have made a difference
in the context of a lesser Way, but not in the Way of Adidam.) It became clear to Him that the only thing that worked was for
devotees to submit to Adi Da, through recognition of Him as the
Divine, and response to Him on that basis. In other words, in the Divine Way of Adidam, the Guru's Divine Revelation and Transmission
is always available and sufficient for growth, and ultimately, Divine Realization. But actual growth in the Way depends entirely on the individual devotee's recognition of the Guru as the Divine, and response to Him on that basis — and not on the Guru "kicking ass". So whether or not Adi Da can "kick ass" at this point is completely besides the point.
Soon after Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi in November, 2008, the
question, "Does Adi Da's famous saying — 'Dead Gurus can't kick ass!' — apply to Him, now that He is no longer alive?", was raised on many websites. I suppose it was only
natural, given how well-known Adi Da's saying had become, over the years! Those raising
the question were passingly aware of Adi Da (and this early saying
of His), but were not intimately familiar with the entire course
of His Work with devotees, from 1972 to 2008 — and so they were not aware that Adi Da had abandoned the "Teaching Years" modality
of interacting with His devotees many years before His death (and along with it, that phrase which epitomized the Work of His "Teaching Years", but not His later Work).
This article clarifies the context
in which Adi Da's famous saying was originally used, as well as
the major changes in His Work since that early time.
Sections in this article:
- "Dead Gurus": Mythical Gurus
vs. Spiritual Transmission Masters
- "Dead" Gurus That
Are Still Alive: Spiritual Transmission and Agency
- Living Gurus
Can Kick Ass (But To No Avail in a Seventh Stage Way)
- The Force of the Divine vs. the force
of egoity
- Recap: "Dead Gurus Can't Kick Ass" is Besides The Point in Realizing the Divine
1. "Dead
Gurus": Mythical Gurus vs. Spiritual Transmission Masters
In His original talk on the subject, Adi Da made clear that the
primary target of the phrase, "dead gurus", was belief-based religions and mythical
gurus:
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Even if you believe in one who is no longer alive in human
form, you cannot provide the necessary, living means for this
meditation. Truth must come in living form, usually in the
human vehicle of the Guru. Spiritual life involves this marvelous
process, this Siddhi, this Satsang. If this Siddhi, or living
spiritual process, is not activated, it doesn't make a damn
bit of difference what exotic or humble spiritual methods
you apply to yourself, for they will always be of the same
nature. They will always amount to a form of this contraction.
All your remedial methods, all your beliefs, all remedial
paths, all conventional and consoling religions, all merely
strategic religious and spiritual methods, are extensions
of this contraction. Truth Itself must become the process
of life. Truth must communicate Itself. Truth must generate
conditions in life, make demands, restoring the conscious
participation of the individual.
Dead Gurus can't kick ass!
Avatar Adi Da Samraj
"One-'Point'-edness",
The Method of the Siddhas
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There are two points implied here:
- Belief in a mythical Guru won't save or liberate me.
- I can't be my own Guru. I
(as "self") can't liberate myself. Realization requires
an actual relationship with a Spiritual Transmission Master: one
who has already Realized that which transcends "self"
and who is capable of Transmitting that Realization to others.
By virtue of that devotional relationship, I am able to surrender
"self", and commune with, and ultimately Realize (through
contemplating the Master's State, which He or She transmits to
the devotee), that which transcends "self".
So belief in a mythical Jesus won't get me into Heaven, and belief
in a mythical Guatama Buddha won't enable me to realize Nirvana. A relationship with a real Spiritual
Transmission Master (alive in human form or not) and profound practice on that basis is required. But most Christians
do not speak about Jesus as their "Spiritual Transmission Master",
giving details of their growth in practice and Realization via contemplation
of that Presence and his Spiritual Transmission. Instead, if they do
talk about a "personal relationship with Jesus" their descriptions
more closely resemble a child talking about an imaginary
friend: a lot of subjectivity and generalities ("I know he loves me and is always
there for me", etc.) but little tangible detail.
So the intended target of Adi Da's phrase, "dead Gurus",
was just such mythical Gurus with whom one has an essentially imaginary
relationship. Often this is further compounded by an abdication of personal
responsibility — for example, the belief that Jesus' sacrifice of himself
(on the cross) will vicariously substitute for my needing to sacrifice my "self"
in order to realize anything great Spiritually.
Of course, if one could actually Spiritually locate the real Jesus
(if he did indeed exist), and enter into relationship with him as
Spiritual Transmitter, that would be a very different story! (Same thing
with Guatama Buddha.) And indeed, the accounts of certain Christian
saints throughout history (Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, etc.)
are very different from those of the average Christian believer. They look a lot more like descriptions of what Adi Da calls fourth to fifth stage Realizers: people
who are receiving, responding to, and being Spiritually grown by, a genuine Spiritual Transmission.
So the primary import of Adi Da's phrase, "Dead Gurus can't kick ass"
is not really whether the Guru is humanly "dead" or "alive",
but whether the Guru is still functioning as Spiritual Transmitter,
and whether a person is in relationship with such a genuine and ongoing
source of Spiritual Transmission. (Adi Da was served in just such a way by the no longer
living Spiritual Master, Bhagavan Nityananda.) The real issue is whether such a genuine
Spiritual Transmission is alive in (and as) them (as it is in many saints
and yogis), or "dead", replaced by
beliefs and imagination.
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No Transmission comes directly from Jesus now. The link with Jesus through Baptized devotees has been broken. But many other Adepts appeared before Jesus and after Jesus, and they too have come and gone. Some precincts may exist within the Great Tradition here and there where this true spirituality is still alive — it is alive in My Company.
Dead Gurus can't kick ass!
Avatar Adi Da Samraj
"A Birthday Message From Jesus and Me",
The Fire Gospel
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2. "Dead"
Gurus That Are Still Alive: Spiritual Transmission and Agency
What the human Spiritual Transmission Master accomplishes, while alive, has a lot to do with whether the Guru's Transmission
will be accessible after His or Her human lifetime. For this reason, much of Adi Da's Work from 1972 through 2008 was devoted
to creating the means that would enable His Transcendental Spiritual
Transmission to be accessible to (and locatable by) all beings in
perpetuity, long beyond His human lifetime. He referred to such
means as "Agency" and "Instrumentality". Not long before His Divine Mahasamadhi, Adi Da gave this communication:
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The
Source must be extended by Agency and Instrumentality
beyond My physical Lifetime. That is, all of My Gifts — My
Teaching, My Image-Art, all of the Empowered Sanctuaries,
and the renunciate orders. It must include there being fully
seventh-stage-functioning devotees — sannyasins, and, optimally,
lay renunciates similarly, coordinated with the sannyasins.
And then everything that I am purposed to bring to here will
have its vehicle. Then, this physical Body is no longer necessary
— not in any absolute sense necessary — because what It had
to transfer into this world will have been done.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, February 26, 2008
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During His human lifetime, Adi Da created and developed many of
these elements. It is now the joyful
responsibility of His devotees to manifest the remaining elements
that serve the accessibility of His Transcendental Spiritual Transmission
for all time.
Even as we creatively engage the great challenge of that work,
we can also attest to the continuing accessibility of Adi Da and
His Transmission after His human lifetime, through many
stories from both devotees and non-devotees.
And so the first point of this article is: Adi Da is very much
alive for all His devotees, through His Spiritual Transmission.
As one devotee (who never was in Adi Da's physical company while Adi Da was alive) puts
it:
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 Recently,
a friend of mine who has been responding to Adi Da, asked
me if I thought it might be more beneficial to become a student
of a living Guru, as in a Guru who is physically alive. I
immediately thought, Adi Da must be the most Alive and Active
Guru that exists! I couldn't help but feel how much of a "Living
Guru" Adi Da really Is, even now. I thought it was a particularly
striking question and was surprised by my immediate, intuitive
response. I just felt how true it was, and how much of a Divine
Gift He Is to all beings, forever. He is a wonder and a miracle;
the Divine Blessing-Presence and Person of Reality Itself.
Neeshee Pandit, He
Is Satisfaction
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3. Living Gurus
Can Kick Ass (But To No Avail in a Seventh Stage Way)
So Adi Da is not at all a "dead Guru" — because
of His Eternal Divine Presence and Eternal Transmission, and because
of all the available means He created that enable anyone to locate Him now.
But now let's explore the second half of Adi Da's phrase, "Dead
gurus can't kick ass". Is Adi Da's Transmission sufficient
for "kicking our ass" (to move us to practice, and to
advance in practice, to the point of Realization)? Or did that require
Adi Da to be alive in human form? If we read more of Adi Da's talk,
One-'Point'-edness" (where He first tells devotees, "Dead
gurus can't kick ass"), it might seem so:
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True spiritual life is a demand, it is a confrontation,
it is a relationship. It is not a method you apply to yourself.
Your "self" is this contraction, and this contraction is what
must be undermined in spiritual life. Therefore, the Guru
comes in human form, in living form, to confront you and take
you by the neck. The Guru doesn't merely send down a grinning
symbol, to be reproduced with a few fairy comments for everybody
to believe. The traditional images and records of the past
help serve very little. At best they may help a person move
into a position where he or she can actually begin spiritual
life. But Truth must come in a living form, absolutely. Truth
must confront you, live you, and meditate you. It is not your
meditation that matters. Truth must meditate you.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj
"One-'Point'-edness",
The Method of the Siddhas
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Longtime devotee, Annie Rogers, talks about the kind of "kicking
ass" that Adi Da did in the early days of His Work with devotees. (Her account below is from 1974.)
It was far more than the words "kicking ass" might suggest (shouting, etc.).
It included all the skillful means recounted in the traditions
of "Crazy Wise" Spiritual Masters, and more.
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 Right
through the "Garbage and the Goddess" period, I was experiencing
kriyas, ecstatic feelings in my body, rushes of energy, and
blissful mindlessness. I would often actually feel my Beloved
Guru Spiritually enter my body and drive my karmas right out
of me. I heard Him say "No one wants God." But I thought that,
whatever others might feel, I certainly did! However, as the
process continued in me, I realized that what Beloved Adi
Da was saying is true. No "person" wants Real God, because
to turn to Real God is to sacrifice that very person.
There used to be a sign on Beloved Adi Da's desk:
DEAD GURUS CAN'T KICK ASS.
I learned what He meant — He had to be relentless
in His skillful means. He had to put us in difficult situations,
cajole us, love us, tease us, and trick us into Realizing
Satsang, into Realizing the relationship to Him as
Consciousness. At one point, He said that what He asks of
us is not the effort of surrender, but true self-sacrifice.
Effortful surrender, He said, is something the ego does, something
willful — and "Narcissus" loves it. Sacrifice is something
entirely different. As the months passed after my first coming
to Him, I began to realize what that sacrifice involves.
Avatar Adi Da said that His way of Working at that time was
to establish a "theatre of love" with His devotees, to attract
His devotees so strongly with His own Love that they would
be moved to turn to Him, to the Divine, and away from the
attachments of life. Almost from the beginning of my relationship
with Beloved Adi Da as His devotee, He Attracted me like a
magnet. And I fell in love with Him. But it was more than
that. An utterly absorbing attachment was created. I realized
that everything I had ever loved was Him — that He is
Love. I was consumed by love of Him, and nothing else mattered.
From the very beginning, I had Spiritual experiences in the
Presence of Beloved Adi Da. And then, with the deepening of
my love-attachment to Him, there arose in me an intuition
of His Divine Nature. I began to have experiences of complete
Oneness with Him. In fact, I would often feel that He was
me, that He was "Living" me, that every breath I took was
His breath. This sense of Oneness was ecstatic beyond anything
I had ever known. I felt as if I went to a place where He
and I were One, where there was no fear, where there was only
complete Love and Joy. That Love, which was beyond the realm
of human love, grew and grew. At times, that Love became so
immense that I felt unable to contain It, and I would feel
impelled to scream as a way of expressing this intensity of
feeling.
Then the Supremely Attractive One really put me to the test.
He began to play upon my attachment to Him. He withdrew His
attention. He would ignore me, He would tease me, He would
insult me. Basically, He refused to give me whatever it was
I was craving. At first, I understood that this was part of
the process of going beyond the ego, and, although I felt
sorrow, I maintained the same love and openness toward Him.
But He did not relent. I felt abandoned, and, finally, I rebelled.
I began to have periods of tremendous resentment toward Him
for the suffering I felt He was causing me.
At the same time that He was testing the depth and steadfastness
of my love for Him, Beloved Adi Da demanded that I serve.
"A gopi's life is service," He told me a number of times.
I began to serve Him by doing ordinary, practical chores in
His house and in the community of devotees. This was a way
of performing the sacrifice He Calls us to in real, functional
terms. I didn't mind serving people. In fact, I enjoyed it.
But all I wanted was to be with "Bubba", and I felt that serving
kept me away from Him, while He lavished His attention on
others.
At the same time, I began to have a strange, powerful intuition.
This intuition was quite different from the sense of Oneness
I was feeling with Beloved Adi Da. I began to sense something
immense above my head. I resisted it. I kept clutching my
head to keep it away. Then, holding my hands up, I looked
up, as if it were something I could see. I sensed that it
was Real-God-Above — Immense, Silent. I could only throw
up my arms in joy. All I wanted was for this Infinite Universe
of Energy to Pour into my body and Fill me with Its Ecstatic
Love and Light.
One night, I was unable to sleep, and I went to sit beside
Beloved Adi Da's chair. My arms went up to this Presence Above,
my palms spread receiving Its Energy. That night, as I sat
there, I knew my life would have to be lived as a sacrifice
to this Presence, the Spiritual Presence of my Beloved Guru.
Meanwhile, Beloved Adi Da only intensified His Demand on
me. And, even though I had foreseen this, I would not, or
could not, meet it. I felt as if my heart were literally being
wrenched out of my body. I cried for Him. I longed for Him.
And I was answered only by the Demand that I sacrifice.
After several dramatic emotional crises, which pushed me
to a point where I realized I had absolutely no other choice,
I began to accept my suffering instead of rebelling against
it. I began to direct more energy to my daily functioning,
and my attention was taken off myself and directed to other
things. Thus, drawn out of my despair, I started to feel my
love for my Beloved Guru intensifying again.
I began to turn from myself to Beloved Adi Da, because He
had created a situation that forced me to do so. I had to
see how I was creating my own suffering. And so, a few moments
at a time, I began to live from this new viewpoint. I did
it in desperation. This sacrifice, this conscious Satsang,
went against everything I had ever lived up to that point.
Everyone always tends to separate. When your demands, whatever
they are, are frustrated, when you feel hurt or humiliated
or are treated apparently unjustly (and, in the theatre with
Beloved Adi Da, all of this was occurring), there is always
the tendency to play out the drama, to pull back — to
feel self-pity, anger, resentment, even rage, for your suffering,
and to totally identify with it.
The "radical" alternative, the constant act of turning back
to Beloved Adi Da, required a lot of discipline of me. It
was like walking a tightrope all the time. My tendencies were
always clambering after me, tempting me to live them —
like the anger I felt toward Beloved Adi Da for ignoring me.
It was so easy to "buy" it and to rebel. I felt that I had
a right to it. And, by the standards of this world
of "Narcissus", I did! The anger was me. I was bound to my
own drama.
At last, I began to see the whole thing as suffering, and
in those moments my suffering would dissolve. My Beloved gave
me glimmerings of what that ultimately leads to. One night
as I gazed at Him, He kept disappearing, becoming Infinite.
At one point, I disappeared, too. It was brief. Perhaps only
a few seconds. But there seemed to be nothing to identify
with. "I" vanished. From the point of view of the ego, it
was frightening. But it was Free. It was thrilling.
The more I resort to my Beloved Guru, the more devotional
self-sacrifice is required, and the more Grace and Happiness
is Given. I know that, in the end, there is only sacrifice.
Beloved Adi Da is the Sign of that. He Is only Sacrifice.
Annie Rogers, "Reminiscences of Avatar
Adi Da Samraj in 1974"
in Carolyn Lee, The
Promised God-Man Is Here
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This is an extraordinary story.
The "Crazy Wise" play in which Adi Da engaged Annie was
Divinely creative and intelligent, and displayed Adi Da's
willingness to do anything for the sake of His devotee's
liberation — to "kick ass" in whatever way was required — particularly for a devotee who was responding to Him
as strongly as Annie was, and who was willing to participate fully.
The Revelations and the lessons in self-understanding that Annie
describes are truly profound. In many other Spiritual traditions,
an ordeal of engagement between Guru and devotee as profound as the one she described
here might be enough for the devotee to attain a great Realization.
But in the seventh stage Way of Adidam — whose requirement
for Divine Enlightenment is the transcendence of egoity altogether,
the complete sacrifice of "self" — even the profound
lessons and Revelations described here were not enough to enable
Annie to move through the crisis of hearing (fundamental self-understanding)
— the milestone in practice that enables the devotee to move beyond the
beginner's stage of practice and enter into the advanced stages
of the Way of Adidam.
As time passed, Adi Da grew
in His conviction that no amount of "kicking ass"
— that is, no amount of "Crazy Wise" work with His
devotees (submitting, befriending, embracing, loving, attracting, giving talks, giving Spiritual experiences, reflecting, tricking, etc.) — would be sufficient to move devotees into the kind of total sacrifice of self Annie described
above.[1]
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. . . My Love-Impulse to Submit — as the Means by Which to
Teach and Awaken others — was (over the course of many years)
proven to be absolutely fruitless. That Inclination, That
Purpose, and That “Method” of My Self-Submission did not —
and cannot — work. . .
The culture of humankind — as it is — is absolutely false.
There are all kinds of modes and levels of falseness about
human culture — but, as a totality, human culture is simply
false. Human culture is based on an utterly false view of
Reality Itself, of the human being, and of the apparent universe.
Therefore, over the many years of My Divine Avataric Self-Submission,
the evidence that My Effort of Self-Submission was not going
to work (and could not work) steadily grew more and more conclusive.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj
"My Self-Submission-Time Has Come To An End"
Part
22 of The Aletheon
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4. The Force
of the Divine vs. the force of egoity
So Adi Da stopped using the phrase, "Dead Gurus can't kick ass", long ago — long before the end of His own human lifetime. He did so because He had steadily grown in the conviction that something altogether different from the "kick ass" manner of working with His devotees was required.
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As that conclusion [that My Effort of Self-Submission
was not going to work (and could not work)] became more
and more fully accepted by Me, I began to Work in a different
Manner.
A Profound Shift in My Manner of Working occurred on January
11, 1986, with the Initiation of My
Divine Avataric Self-“Emergence” Time. Even though I was
required to continue My Submission-Work after January 11,
1986, I have, since then, been (fundamentally, and, at last,
only) Avatarically Self-Revealing My Own egoless Divine Person
and My Own Transcendental Spiritual Self-Nature, Self-Condition,
and Self-State — Which Is the egoless, Self-Evidently Divine,
and Transcendental Spiritual Self-Nature, Self-Condition,
and Self-State of Reality Itself. . .
Now My “Method” Is Only Self-Revelation. My “Method” is no
longer Self-Submission. Divine Avataric Self-Revelation-Only
Is the “Method” That has Come About through a Lifetime of
Divine Avataric Self-Submission — in the course of Which the
fruitlessness of My Self-Submission was conclusively proven.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj
"My Self-Submission-Time Has Come To An End"
Part
22 of The Aletheon
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The shift in Adi Da's Work with devotees that began on January 11, 1986, was not only a shift away from the "kick ass" modality of the Teaching Years. That modality was superceded by a new modality, which focused entirely on Revelation by Adi Da, and response to that Revelation by devotees. What made that new modality possible was an immense magnification of the Divine Force pouring through Adi Da's body that began on January 11, 1986 — Adi Da called it His Divine Emergence. That immense magnification of Divine Force (relative to the force of egoity in devotees) opened the door to devotees practicing on the basis of that magnified, and always available Revelation of the Divine, rather than Adi Da having to personally interact with them. And consequently, on that basis (and not on the basis of the earlier "kick ass" work He had done with them), several devotees swiftly moved into the advanced stages of practice in the Way of Adidam.
In April, 2000, an even greater breakthrough occurred — the Ruchira Dham Event — in which Adi Da entered the Divine Translation phase of the seventh stage of life, and magnified the Divine Force directly available to His devotees to the ultimate degree, bringing the Divine State into direct conjunction with His human body-mind. This further magnification of Adi Da's Revelation was enough to enable all His devotees to practice purely on the basis of recognition of Adi Da as the Divine. Consequently, as a reflection of this new reality and opportunity, Adi Da renamed the fundamental practice given to all devotees, "the Way of Adidam Ruchiradam".
It is important to note that Adi Da's Revelation, and devotees' devotional response to It, together had always constituted the senior element of the Way of Adidam from the beginning. However, during His Teaching Years, Adi Da supplemented that Revelation with a tremendous amount of one-on-one work with His devotees. The magnification in His Revelation that we have just described enabled the Way of Adidam to be exclusively based on the Revelation and devotees' response to It.
5. Recap: "Dead Gurus Can't Kick Ass" is Besides The Point in Realizing the Divine
Thus, in its final form, the Way of Adidam Ruchiradam did not (while Adi Da was alive) and does not (now, after His death) require His "kicking ass" in any way whatsoever. It depends entirely on devotees recognizing Him as the Divine, responding to Him (and growing in practice, "kicking their own asses") on that basis, and ultimately Realizing the Divine through this ongoing and ever-deepening Communion with the Divine.
So to recap the question and the answer: If one is moved to Realize the Very Divine (and not some lesser Spiritual Realization), then one must take up the Way of Adidam.[2] Other esoteric ways and lesser Realizations might involve a human Guru "kicking the ass" of His or Her devotees, to good effect. But Adi Da's conclusion, as He pioneered the previously uncharted territory of creating a Way for Realizing the Very Divine, was that the human Guru (Adi Da) "kicking ass" had little impact on devotees' practice. It all came down to His Revelation and devotees' response to It. So whether Adi Da can "kick ass" or not now that He is no longer humanly alive is completely besides the point, if what one wants is to Realize the Very Divine.
I Am here to Attract you to Myself, to My Very (and Self-Evidently Divine) Self-Nature, Self-Condition, and Self-State.
In My Sympathetic Self-Submission to all, I Entered into a Teaching-Ordeal of Divine Avataric Self-Revelation and Instruction, Conformed to an apparent ego-likeness of one and all, in order to Reflect you to yourselves by Submitting to Appear as a "you"-mirroring "other".
All of That was Done for a particular Purpose: to equip you to rightly relate to Me, to be Moved by Me As I Am, to "Locate" My Divine Avataric Transcendental Spiritual Blessing, and (in due course) to searchlessly Behold Me and "Perfectly Know" Me As I Am — Thus and Thereby, always searchlessly Beholding My Divinely-Avatarically-Born bodily (human) Divine Form and My Very (and Self-Evidently Divine) Self-Nature, Self-Condition, and Self-State.
Therefore, now that My Divine Avataric Self-Revelation has been Perfectly and Fully Made, I Call one and all to (simply) searchlessly Behold My Divinely-Avatarically-Born bodily (human) Divine Form As I Am — no longer requiring or expecting Me to Submit to Appear in your egoic likeness, or to interact with you, as "other" to your ego-"I", for the Purpose of only eventually (rather than always already) equipping you to rightly relate to Me.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj
"My Self-Submission-Time Has Come To An End"
Part
22 of The Aletheon
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How many people will be moved to engage in this greatest, most challenging, and most creative of all human endeavors, to the ultimate degree of Divine Realization remains to be seen. But Adi Da has always said that, because of what it requires — the complete transcendence of "self" — Adidam will never grow in the manner of a "mass movement", or exoteric, belief-based religion, but rather in the manner of an esoteric Spiritual tradition (which is set apart "in the hills", and where — as in the Olympics or the Marines — the requirements of the esoteric practice are the primary reason the numbers of practitioners is limited):
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Truth does not win. Fundamentally, the entire affair of the
communication of Truth to mankind has been a failure, and
it will always be a failure. It is a fruitless enterprise
— if we consider its results in terms of the true and perfect
Awakening of great numbers of people and the Divine Transformation
of human society as a whole. However, since a few in every
generation are prepared to respond to the Teaching of Truth,
the communication of Truth must be continued in the world.
A few in every generation become a Sacrifice in God, while
mankind in general ignores, denies, and otherwise betrays
the Teaching, the Way, and the Agents of God. This is so,
not only because of the subhuman evolutionary stage of mankind
at this time, but because the embodied soul is naturally motivated
toward its own experiential fulfillment, not the transcendence
of itself. Therefore, only a random few in any generation
Awaken, while all others are oblivious in their bewildered
intoxication.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, June 27, 1978
The Enlightenment
of the Whole Body
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Even so, there is no limit to the number of people who can Awaken in the Divine through the Way of Adidam Ruchiradam — not by some "mass movement" and religious belief, but one by one: one miracle of Revelation at a time, one heart-response at a time, one self-transcending ordeal at a time. (And if you, the reader, are responding to Adi Da's Offering, then by all means explore it further! That response itself is the first indicator that you may be one of those who are ready and able to make use of Adi Da's Offering.) Over time, the number of such individuals recognizing and responding to the Divine may collectively create a great Spiritual force sufficient to bring about a global Spiritual transformation. May it be so!
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Whether My birth and My association with people can represent
the force of some great age, a great transformation of the
world, is to be seen. My work can be relatively modest and
local, as Shirdi Sai Baba's work was in his lifetime, or My
work can be associated with a global transformation. It will
depend on recognition, surrender, and acceptance of a lawful
order of existence by many, many, many people.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, January, 1982
The
Divine Life and Work of the Spiritual Master
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This article apppears in the sections
Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi and
Adidam in Perpetuity
and Questions
about Adi Da and Adidam
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