|
3.
Response: |
| Devotion to Me is the response of turning to Me — just that. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The Code of Sacred Governance |
If
one recognizes Adi Da as the Divine Person, the response is both profound and
inevitable, and signed both by spontaneous advance in practice and effective service
to Adi Da's Divine Work of liberating all beings.
| If I am devotionally recognized, the "Radical" Reality-Way of Adidam Ruchiradam Is Revealed. Indeed, the "Radical" Reality-Way of Adidam Ruchiradam Is Found only if I am devotionally recognized — because Adidam Ruchiradam Is participation in Me. Adidam Ruchiradam Is the Process That Spontaneously Unfolds if I am devotionally recognized. . . . When I am devotionally recognized, there is not anything to do anymore, because there is no "problem", and (therefore) no basis for seeking. None whatsoever. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "The Boundless
Self-Confession" |
I have Priorly Established Perfect Coincidence with all and All. The Reality-Way of Adidam, then, is to be entered into that Perfect Coincidence with Me. That is the Way entirely. If people did that, everything about the Reality-Way of Adidam would happen spontaneously. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, October 20, 2008 |
The response to recognition of Adi Da is a spontaneous turning of the "whole body" — hence, Adi Da refers to it as "whole bodily devotional recognition-response":
| The disposition of the ancient Walk-About Way is simply to turn to the Realizer in the very moment of sighting the Realizer. Just so, My true devotees simply turn to Me on sight. They turn to Me with everything "inside" and everything "outside" — such that the entire body-mind is turned to Me, rather than turned on itself and wandering in its patterning. Such devotional turning to Me is a simple matter. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "The Ancient
Walk-About Way" |
There is a real sense in which one is moved to respond by the Divine, in the manner of a kriya — one simply has to go along with that movement:
| If you rightly, truly, fully, and fully devotionally recognize Me, everything “in-between” vanishes. All of that is inherently without force. In heart-responsive devotional recognition of Me, a spontaneous kriya of the principal faculties occurs, such that they are loosed from the objects to which they are otherwise bound — loosed from the patterns of self-contraction. The faculties turn to Me, and, in that turning, there is tacit devotional recognition of Me, tacit experiential Realization of Me, of Happiness Itself, of My Love-Bliss-Full Condition. That “Locating” of Me opens the body-mind spontaneously. When you have been thus Initiated by Me, it then becomes your responsibility, your sadhana, to continuously Remember Me, to constantly return to this devotional recognition of Me, in which you are Attracted to Me, in which you devotionally respond to Me spontaneously with all the principal faculties. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Hridaya Rosary |
It is important to note that it is the heart that recognizes Adi Da as the Divine, and the heart that responds — not necessarily the body-mind. Sometimes the body-mind can be carried along with the heart. But even in all the moments when that does not occur, the recognizing and responding heart can always direct the body-mind to turn to Adi Da:
| Those who devotionally recognize Me, in The Walk-About Manner, are recognizing (or tacitly Apprehending) My Divine State. Such recognition is "radical" devotion to Me — because such heart-recognition of Me is already "at the root". In that case, there is no body-mind-ego responding to Me. Rather, there is direct devotional recognition of Me — Prior to all identification with the body-mind-complex, and Prior to all egoic "self"-identification with the patterning of the body-mind. Avatar
Adi Da Samraj, "In Place (Where and As I Am)" |
One reason why "free growth — demonstrated as habit-transcending true and positive change — is assured" [1] is because now, absorbed in Adi Da's State moment to moment (through the recognition capability), one can be indifferent to circumstance. In contrast, the devotee who is not recognizing Adi Da will find doing some aspect of the practice harder or easier depending on the difficulty of the circumstance — because one's attention is on oneself and one's circumstance. As Adi Da said, in response to a devotee who talked about easier moments and harder moments in his practice:
| If you are aware of Me, then there would be no difference one moment to the next relative to this impulse to turn to Me. So it would seem you are simply not aware of Me at any time. . .You are associating with your own conditions, not Me. What is more, you're not really aware of the condition in which your experience is arising. If you were, crisis or difficulty would not be required to motivate you to transcend moment to moment experience. So you're neither finding Me through recognition nor are you understanding your own activity. . . Fundamentally then, you're not doing sadhana at all. You are simply occupied with self. . . . You can't . . . reduce this Way to techniques or practices or ideas alone. All of those kinds of content can be fitted into the body-mind in its independence from Me, in its self-contraction. So you may think the Way is about turning the faculties to Me. Yes, it is, but it's not merely about turning the faculties, it's about Me, turning the faculties to Me, not merely by objectifying Me into something from which you are detached, but on the basis of the present recognition of Me, knowing of Me, the faculties must turn to Me responsively. Then it makes no difference if the moment is difficult in your experience and you want to get out of the conditions of the moment; or the moment is pleasurable and you might then want to stay in it; or it's simply mediocre and you're wandering aimlessly in it. Avatar
Adi Da Samraj, "Find Me, Know Me, Recognize Me" |
| The Condition To Be (Thus) Realized Is Always Already Above and Beyond the Always Merely local weather — For I Am Not Something Inward To the ego and its Acquired Patterning. I Am Not "Located" In The Core Of Your Suffering smallness, Below, In the weathering Dark. The weather (Made By ego) here Can Darken all-and-All — Such that It May Seem To You There Is No Divine (and Perfectly Conscious) Light At All. Nevertheless, In The True Practice Of Devotional Turning To Me, There Is No weather — Ever. This (here) is "weather-all-the-time" -land. Time is weather. And the body-mind-complex is Always weathered — To the ego's Quick. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, pp. 165 - 166, Recognition of Me Is Liberation |
| Truth must become the "Point of View". When Truth is the "Point of View", there is no past or future that can absolutely limit your state. Then time and place become relatively insignificant. Then it makes no ultimate difference whether the "good thing" is going to happen or the "bad thing". In either case, My devotee must turn to Me and understand. The "good thing" is just as much a form of suffering as the "bad thing". Apart from Me, you only live the self-contraction and the avoidance of relationship — under all conditions. But if (by Means of My Avataric Divine Spiritual Grace) this root-strategy is transcended [3], then you can truly delight in the "good thing" that happens — and there will be an inherent freedom even when the bad thing happens. . . . All kinds of conditional manifestations, ordinary and extraordinary, arise in Satsang with Me, and the Force of Satsang with Me inevitably tends to bring on purifying events — which will, in some cases, manifest as difficult experiences that must be gone through. If you abide in the Condition of Satsang with Me, if you live the "Point of View" of Satsang with Me, if you resort to Me while going through these experiences, they can serve the Real process of heart-resort to Me and understanding of the egoic self. Ultimately, purifying events simply are what they are — not what they imply. They arise like the stars, the world, the bodies of living beings. Depending on your disposition, such events can increase your suffering and your search or (otherwise) they can serve the Real process of Satsang with Me. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Phases" |
There can still be heat (tapas) associated with practice, but the Divinely responsive nature of the practice dissolves all egoic concern and "difference"-making:
| Sometimes the turning to Me is quite easy, and even happens spontaneously. At other times — in the midst of whole bodily participation in your turning-response to Me — you are moved into a required heat of intensely activated counter-egoic turning. Nevertheless, the practice is always to be a responsive turning. In that fundamental practice, you first feel your heart-Attraction to Me, and then (as an inevitable response to the heart-Attractiveness of My Inherently egoless Self-Radiant State) you are (Thus and Thereby) turned to Me. In that fundamental practice of devotion to Me, you simply allow yourself to be heart-Moved to Me. Done in that manner, your devotional turning to Me will never be a matter of strategic, goal-oriented, and ego-effortful technique. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "The
Searchless Essence of Radical Devotion To Me" |
| Be always utterly turned to Me and surrendered to Me, and always persist unwaveringly, explicitly, and consistently in following My always specific Instructions — regardless of any protest or limitation or tendency or “experience” that arises. That persistence is the necessary “heat” that makes moment to moment practice right, true, and full of Realityevidence. That is the necessary ordeal of ego-transcending practice. And that is what is always required of you, by Me. Always staying in the “heat” of the ordeal of right and true practice is how you will Really grow in My Divine Avataric Company — and not remain a lifelong beginner. That is all there is to it. Avatar
Adi Da Samraj, "All There Is To It" |
| None of you has the right any longer to your bad days or to your phases. They will occur within you because that is the process of this sadhana, but I don't want to see a sign of it on your faces or in your outward lives. I don't want to see any drama. I haven't come so that you can persist in ignorance and mediocrity, showing me no life, no energy, no intelligence, no attention. The tendencies are within you to make that occur, but so what? So you will have to do a little sadhana. The little difficulty required of one who lives the sadhana of Satsang is nothing compared to the sadhana that the seeker must perform. I expect you to accept this responsibility and to live this Satsang and always to be happy. If some circumstance within or without is temporarily giving you apparent trouble, I expect you to be happy and to live this Satsang with great energy, and never to turn away from me. If you do all that is required of you with great energy, you will see a transformation of this Ashram even within the next month that will amaze you. And I expect it not to stop but to increase. Avatar
Adi Da Samraj |
Adi Da has expressed this point about surrendering personal preference in many different ways over the years, including:
- Realizing God really does require sacrifice of self — it is not going to look or feel like self-fulfillment. It requires progressively adapting to being God, instead of limited self.
If You Are My Devotee, You Are Impulsed To Realize Me — Not To Maintain Your persona. Indeed, In Order To Realize Me, You Must Be Willing To Go Beyond All Trace Of Separate and Separative persona, and (Thereby) To Go Beyond all the egoic limitations By Which You Are Binding and Deluding Yourself. . . . The Revelation I Have Given Is Not About You. The Revelation I Have Given Is About Me. Therefore, I Call You To Abandon All Forms Of self-"guruing" and To Enter Into Relationship With Me — By Forgetting "self" and Turning To Me.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Sutra 29
The Dawn Horse Testament
The essence of un-Enlightenment is concern for 'self'. It does not make any difference if you put a small 's' or a capital 'S' on it. Concern for 'self' — for its survival, well-being, pleasure, amusement, perpetuation, and so on — is the essence of un-Enlightenment.
Enlightenment is not merely the transcending of 'self' or the concern for 'self'. It is a matter of the Realization of Reality, Which Is Always Already The Case. It is Inherently, in other words, without 'self' and without a concern for 'self'. It is simply a matter of Realization of Reality, or What Is Always Already The Case. It is without 'self'. . . .
You are so confused with it that your potential for 'lifetimes' (so-called) is literally without limit. You are capable of endless modes of self-concerned existence, or births — all of which, of course (because they are a circumstance of changes), end in separation, loss, and death. Separation, loss, and death are what is going on here. I have noticed this. It is important to deal with that and go beyond it — profoundly important.
It has to be important to you. If it is not, you are in the wheel of changes. And your 'emperor's new clothes' of self-concerned existence, the 'Narcissus' pose, or the beachy water there glaring at itself, mind to mind, will continue to appear.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, January 19, 1997
The first law of business is to transcend yourself, to notice and renounce your own demands. . . . It is not you anyway, so do not make subjective content out of it. It is another, others, the world, the past, memory, limits. It is not in you. It is your associations.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Unfinished Business"
Crazy Wisdom, Nov/Dec 1987
- Based on recognition of Adi Da as the Divine, one must allow oneself and one's life to be Mastered by the Divine [2], appearing here in the form of Adi Da:
The idea of obedience to an "other" is anathema to the adolescent Omega mentality of the West. According to Omega "doctrine", every individual is supposed to be independent of all "others", "self"-driven, and goal-oriented — "working it out" by himself or herself.
However, in the Wisdom-Way, you are not called to be mastered by an apparent "other". In the Wisdom-Way, the One by Whom you must be Mastered Is the Divine Person. And the Spiritual Master must be devotionally recognized as not different from the Very Divine Person.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Divine Self-Obedience"
Part 9, The Aletheon
If you have a Guru, a Master — and you all have Me — then you have a Mastered life. You don't tell Me what you're going to do. You ask. And the basis of your asking is you don't want bondage anymore, you don't want this suffering, you don't want this search, you don't want this stress and fear, you don't want this mortality. You want utter Freedom from all that. So, being committed to that, you ask Me relative to every fraction of your life, "What shall I do?" Well, sometimes you ask Me personally, in a conversation or whatever, but fundamentally you go to My Teaching Word, because that's where all the answers are.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "I Am Your Capacity", in A Mastered Life
- Based on recognition of Adi Da as the Divine, we surrender the egoic notion that our body-mind is "our own", acknowledging that, in Truth, everything "belongs" to the Source of our very existence, to the Very Divine.
The ego wants to keep its body, its emotion, its mind, its breathing — therefore, the totality of the body-mind — fixed in its own handgrip, and always let to wander in its own patterning and impulses. . . . If your faculties are withdrawn from Me, I no longer exist for you. Therefore, you must not be the "owner" of your own faculties. If you are My devotee, you must relinquish "ownership" of the faculties and give them to Me instead. Such relinquishment of the faculties to Me is devotion to Me. . . . If you are My devotee, you accept Me as Master — and, because I Am your Master, you actively and unreservedly turn all of the psycho-physical faculties over to Me, moment to moment. . . . Will you turn to Me — or will you protect "self"? It is that simple. Whether to be the closed fist, or else to be the open hand? — that is the moment to moment question of life. Therefore, by always turning to Me, always choose and be the open hand.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Be The Open Hand"
Part 9, The Aletheon
| Adi Da asked me to begin to serve Him by passing on His Communications to His devotees. Beloved Adi Da's Instructions to His devotees encompass every aspect of human existence and everything required for the establishment of His Work in the world. And so, in this new service, I had to begin to do profound sadhana [spiritual practice] for the sake of others in a manner I had never done before. I had to relinquish my self-based concentration on my "own" relationship to Beloved Adi Da and in the simpler forms of service — such as cleaning, cooking, and caring for [Adi Da's children] — that, until then, I had been used to doing in His Intimate Sphere. Now I had to devote my life to His Work. This marked a profound turning point in me, a surrender of all personal preference. . . . During this time, I saw that, no matter how positive or negative or easeful or difficult any moment was, I was always doing the same thing. Through my Beloved Guru's Divine Siddhi [Blessing-Power], I saw that my body-mind was only self-contraction and that it was my own activity. I also saw that my Divine Heart-Master Stands eternally Prior to that activity of mine. And I felt a profound Liberation in being able to effectively resort to Him beyond the mechanism of self-contraction. This was not a mental process — it was a Revelation, a Gift, an Initiation into Communion with Him. Thus, the Grace of hearing was awakened in me. Ruchiradama Quandra Sukhapur Rani |
Years later, describing further growth in her practice, she made a similar point:
| In my own life of practice, there was an unwinding, in the final years, of Bhagavan's immense involvement in Working with every detail of my ego-patterning. Then Bhagavan's Disposition became one of absolutely no regard, no reinforcement of individual pattern, not even one reference. I was simply there to be His sarvadhikari twenty-four hours a day, to attend to Him, and to serve whatever was required in order for Him to do His Work. That was it. Anything that had to do with personal feelings, personal regard, or personal relationship was utterly washed. I sat with Bhagavan Adi Da in many moments of His fiery speech, and if I expressed any personal response, even a tear coming from my eye, Bhagavan would utterly address the fault of self-attention. He would not allow any form of sympathy with the ego. Such is His Call to every devotee, to be turned to Him with one-pointed devotional responsiveness such that the ego is entirely forgotten. Ruchiradama Quandra Sukhapur Rani, December, 2010 |
Ruchiradama Quandra Sukhapur Rani's accounts are significant not only in that they describe what she was no longer focusing on, but also what she was focusing on instead: which included not only Adi Da Himself (and His Divine State), but Adi Da's great Work of liberating all beings. For this reason, Adi Da has always measured recognition of Him and growth in the Way of Adidam not only by signs in one's "individual practice" but also in how effectively one is serving His Work (which is the collective responsibility of all devotees):
| When devotees provide the Divine Heart-Master with the Requirements of His Heart (and even every Necessity), they soon become the servants of His Heart's Intention in the world — both during and after (and forever after) His physical Lifetime of Avataric Incarnation. In this manner, the Divine Heart-Master's Work in the world becomes entirely dependent on those who love Him. When devotees of the Great One become the recognition-Awakened servants of the Divine Heart-Master, the Great One Serves them via the Divine Heart-Master's Avatarically-Born Bodily (Human) Divine Form, and via the Divine Heart-Master's Avatarically Self-Revealed "Bright" Divine Body of Mere and Blessing Divine Spiritual Presence. And those who are Thus Served by the Great One soon become the necessary servers of His Serving Work. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Ruchira Avatara Gita |
In other words, it is a kind of contradiction in terms to want to be "personally Enlightened". That is at odds with the Divine State Itself, in which all beings are arising.
| In the only-by-Me Revealed and Given “Radical” (or Always “At-the-Root”) Reality-Way of Adidam, your commitment must not be to “your” En-Light-enment, but to Me, to the only-by-Me-and-As-Me Divinely Avatarically Self-Revealed Self-Nature, Self-Condition, and Self-State of Reality Itself, Which Is the egoless, Indivisible, Nonseparate, Acausal, and Self-Evidently Divine Conscious Light Itself. That commitment must be exercised through the constant (moment to moment) recognition-responsive devotional turning of all the psycho-physical faculties to Me, in always right and true and truly ego-transcending devotional (and, in due course, Transcendental Spiritual) Communion with Me. Avatar
Adi Da Samraj, "The Way of Light Is The Way of Fire" [4] |
| Never wish anyone eternal suffering — anyone! Through the "play" of your life, you must demonstrate the taking on of the suffering of everybody, the conditions of everybody. You must always maintain your sympathy. You must always be free of the tendency to separate from "others". All (including you) are part of the same pattern of totality. Therefore, in Truth, and in Reality, there is no individual (or separate and "personal") pattern of conditional happening and tendency. Of course you must transcend your own apparently individual (or apparently “personal”) patterns of conditional happening and tendency — but, beyond this, you must overcome your apparently individual patterns of conditional happening and tendency that arise in and as the form of all “others”. This is the true meaning of compassion and love. This is what Reality-Enlightenment inevitably expresses. There is no “private destiny”, there is no “personal righteousness”. All are involved in the same Reality — together and indivisibly. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "The Repenting
of egoity" |
"Realizing God" means not only transcending self (and its "limited self" preferences), but also taking on God's "preferences" and acting accordingly. The more one is steeped in Adi Da's Divine State (which is perfectly non-separate from all apparent things and beings), the more one resonates and identifies with (and is moved to serve) the Divine impulse — Adi Da's impulse — to liberate all beings. As Adi Da once put it: Perfect Enlightenment coincides with perfect responsibility. And He has humorously illustrated that point by mentioning that He had exactly fifteen minutes of rest after He re-Awakened (in September, 1970) to Divine Self-Realization, before that Realization (of perfect non-separation from all) spontaneously began requiring Him to meditate countless other beings, for the sake of their Awakening. As He once put it, "I've been used uncompromisingly by My Own Prior State." (June, 2007)
There's no rest for the Enlightened (as long as they are still
associated with a body-mind) . . . but no un-Happiness either!
3.2. The Way of Enchantment through Recognition-Based Divine Distraction and Divine Samadhi
| Being functional and bringing order to the process of
human relationships has its use as an aspect or a sign of life turned into the
Divine Process. However, it is not an end in itself. Realization of Reality Itself
is not merely conventional orderliness. Realization of Reality Itself has profundity
of purpose about it, a characteristic of ecstasy that is different from merely
fulfilling functions. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, October 20, 2008 |
. . Heart-recognition of Me is a matter of heart-feeling Who (and What) I (Myself) Am, altogether — As My Avatarically-Born bodily (human) Divine Form, and As My Avatarically Self-Transmitted Spiritual (and Always Blessing) Divine Presence, and As My Avatarically Self-Revealed (and Very, and Transcendental, and Perfectly Subjective, and Inherently Spiritual, and Inherently egoless, and Inherently Perfect, and Self-Evidently Divine) State. If you heart-recognize Me, then you feel My "Bright" Divine Self-Condition, Prior to your own limited (and mortal) condition. If you heart-recognize Me, then you are Swooned into the Ecstatic Asana of devotion to Me. Avatar Adi Da Samraj |
Recognition of Adi Da is not a strategic, grim effort to transcend oneself. It is ecstatic — to recognize Adi Da is to be lost in His Divine State, and perfectly Distracted by the Divine from all the concerns of separate self. One is in a state of Enchantment. And if recognition is established as one's capability, then one is continually in that state of Enchantment. Recognition is the capability to be Divinely Distracted in every moment. Whole bodily recognition means whole bodily Enchantment; the whole body is "thrown to Infinity" in any moment of recognition. That is another reason why response flows so naturally, once recognition is stable. One engages the disciplines of the practice, but all the while whole bodily absorbed in an Enchanted State.
| Everything accumulated is ultimately thrown to Infinity in this Way. But that dissolution depends on radically intuitive insight, not effort. And all the apparent efforts or acts of devotees are, when true, simply forms of feeling into Infinity, founded on insight. Service or love is to throw the whole and entire bodily being into Infinity. It is not an act performed on oneself or one's body. It is simply to feel into Infinity via all relations, under all conditions. It is to look, and feel, and be, and act happy. It is the Infinite Pleasure of love. It is not humorless self-mortification, but humorous relaxation into the Infinite, beyond all recoil. The whole Way of Divine Ignorance is training for the ultimate priesthood of this Sacrifice. And every devotee must perform this Sacrifice alone in the Presence or Company of the Spiritual Master, who is the present and eternal Divine, the Condition of every body-"I". Avatar
Adi Da Samraj, "The Sacrifice of Man" |
| Where ever you may be, you must find the space of My Company. . . This is The Secret. Even so, you Find It By Locating That Attractiveness Itself, Being Attracted By It, Being Moved By It. . . . This is a life of gravitating to The Sacred Domain. Avatar Adi Da Samraj |
| I am not present here merely to "rap out" a philosophy or to distribute "techniques" that you may apply to yourself, depending on your intelligence. I Am Present in the conditional "worlds" in order (now, and forever hereafter) to Offer a (Most Ultimately) Divinely Liberating relationship to all those who are willing to assume such a relationship with Me, to all those who have the capability to be Distracted by Me in an absolute love-relationship that is more and more Distracting. Therefore, if that Perfect Distraction by Me is not present in any particular individual's life, then the ego-transcending practice of the devotional relationship to Me cannot begin. . . . There is only one process that makes a difference — the process of Perfect Distraction in Real (Acausal) God. . . . The entire purpose of everything that occurs between Me and My devotee is the establishment of this "in-Love" relationship. Without that devotional relationship, there can be no Transcendental Spiritual practice. All My devotees must enjoy such Perfect Distraction, whether or not they ever come into My physical human Company. Avatar Adi
Da Samraj, "Perfect Distraction" |
When My true devotee Sights Me, It Is an Ecstatic Meeting — an egoless Divine Event . . . The Event of moment-to-moment coincidence with Me Is the "Root" of Adidam . . . The entire devotional process in My Divine Avataric Company is the unfolding magnification of "Root"-Coincidence with Me. Avatar Adi Da
Samraj, "Always Know Me Perfectly" |
The Adept incarnates, is, and is established in That which is perfectly attractive — to which beings should be attracted, and in which they may realize their True Condition. They become blissful through attraction, through the force of attractiveness. And when they submit themselves to it perfectly, then every aspect of the stages of the Way — all the kinds of transitions I consider with you — occur quite spontaneously. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Enchantment" (April 26, 1983) |
It's not that you practice a "yoga of being attracted". You do all the things that are associated with our discipline. But the essence of it, the driving force of it, the essential content of it, is this attractedness. And the fundamental quality of your life — to the degree that you are really involved in that practice — is Enchantment. . . . What is Enchanting you is the Living Presence of the Divine, That in which you stand, That which is Omnipresent and All-Pervading. . . . That which is absolutely attractive is incarnate, stands before beings, and draws them into relationship. . . . And those who practice the Way communicated in that Company develop more and more the capacity to submit to the State of Enchantment, to the point where they are absolutely Enchanted by the State of That which is attracting them. . . How can ordinary beings come to the point of confessing this Absolute? Because you are Enchanted! . . . You discover the essence of the Way is Enchantment. It is expressed through all the disciplines — it doesn't override them. It's not like there's some sort of "Enchanted Way" and everybody else is inquiring, or considering the Witness Position — it takes just that form! The Force that is essential to all of it is Enchantment. The more Enchanted you are, the more you allow yourself to be gravitated toward That which is attracting you. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Enchantment" (April 26, 1983) |
Of course, as is suggested by Adi Da's references to "practice" in the above passage, this Enchantment is not "magic", in the sense that one is entered by the Divine into the Enchanted State "for free", moment to moment, without requiring any kind of personal responsibility. Indeed, another way to describe the practice of Adidam is this: the Way of Adidam is the cultivation of Adi Da's Divine Samadhi (or absorption in His Enchanted State) by consciously allowing the faculties of the body-mind (through the practice of Ruchira Avatara Bhakti Yoga) to be responsively and spontaneously turned to Adi Da and absorbed in His Divine State in every moment.
| The Practice Of The Only-By-Me-Revealed and Given Way Of The Heart Is, From The Beginning, The Devotionally Me-Recognizing and Devotionally To-Me-Responding (and Effectively ego-Transcending) Cultivation Of My Divine Samadhi . . . Until, At Last, There is . . . Most Perfect Realization Of My Divine Samadhi (or Divine State). . . . The Characteristic (or, Previous To Divine Translation, Typical) Samadhi In The Only-By-Me Revealed and Given Way Of The Heart Does Not Involve Suspension of experiential Association With the body-mind (or With psycho-physical conditions In General), but (Rather) A Suspension of self-Contraction (and A Passing Into What Is Beyond self-Contraction, and A Conscious Absorption In — and, Ultimately, The Realization Of Non-separate, or egoless, Self-Identification With — What Is Beyond the self-contraction), Even While psycho-physical conditions Continue to arise. . . . In The Only-By-Me Revealed and Given Way Of The Heart, Samadhi Is A moment to moment Conscious . . . Practice and Process, To Be Realized In The Context Of every kind of circumstance, condition, function, relation, state of activity, and state of inactivity. . . . The Cultivation of Samadhi In The Way Of The Heart Is The Practice Of Ruchira Avatara Bhakti Yoga, Under all conditions, More and More Becoming moment to moment Surrender of body, emotion, mind, breath, and all of Separate and Separative self to Me, In Devotional Communion With Me. . . . In The Context Of Every Stage Of Life, The Practice Of The Way Of The Heart Is The Cultivation Of Samadhi By Cultivating My Divine Samadhi. Avatar Adi Da Samraj,
Sutra 22 |
Adidam is the Way of Enchantment not only because it is ecstatic, but because because one is utterly (and ecstatically) absorbed in (and by) Adi Da's Divine State. Ecstatic absorption is the root sense of the word, "devotion", and the primary (and spontaneous) practice of those who are truly "devotees", devoted to their Master's State. They forgot themselves not through any intention to forget themselves, but because they were Perfectly Distracted from themselves, and utterly obsessed with, enchanted by, and absorbed in, their Master's State.
| The people who were the servants of Bhagavan Nityananda devoted their entire lives to Him. I do not mean they would merely do whatever Bhagavan Nityananda wanted. Their attention was totally absorbed in their Spiritual Master. Those are the people who set Him apart. The same was true in the Ashram of Ramana Maharshi. . . . The people immediate to those Spiritual Masters were totally absorbed in them. These devotees had absolutely no “self”-attention. They were truly servants who set their Spiritual Masters apart. They were constantly devotionally Communing with their Master. They did not require any verbal instruction. Generally speaking, they never even asked for it. All the tacit, non-verbal instruction they received was demonstrated in their own person by their “self”-forgetting Communion with their Spiritual Master. They were given over to the State of their Spiritual Master. Their Spiritual Master's State was their Realization. That “self”-forgetting Communion with the Spiritual Master is all there was and is to Realization. The fundamental and ancient Way is absorption in the Spiritual Master's State. All the rest of the Great Tradition is mere philosophy. Modern humankind by tendency are all consumers. People want a program or a prescription for what to do so that they can achieve something. There is absolutely nothing to achieve. I Am Realization. If you devotionally recognize Me, you simply become “self”-forgetting and absorbed in My State. Adidam Ruchiradam is an Acausal Way — I do not “cause” Realization in you, nor is there any “technique”. I Perfectly Coincide with everyone. The Way of Realization is “self”-forgetting in Me. That is it. |
| Real life is obsession with That which is Beyond life, That Which is, miraculously, somehow Shown in life but Which moves you beyond it. . . . I am just the Divine One, just the Living One, Showing Itself here. I am just this Shakti, this Form, this Divine Sign. Be obsessed! Be governed by this Vision. That and nothing else, is devotion to Me. . . . A true devotee never wants to be anywhere but at the Master's Feet, looking into His Face, looking at His Body, never wanting to be anywhere else — and never going anywhere else, then! . . . The Master Admonishes you, "Do this practice, fulfill this obligation, handle this business." And so you do, but in that obsession, in that adoration, just fulfilling your Master's Admonition, but never forgetting Him, never giving up to that function of separate self, to the world itself, to your programs of egoic "self-possession". If you were My true devotee and this were your disposition, there would be nothing to listening, nothing to hearing. It would be nothing. It would happen quickly. Oh, yes! What is there more to do when there is this obsession with your Master's own Form? Everything is cut through quickly, cut through directly. All there is, is the Love-Bliss of your adoration, your devotion, that feeling, the heart wide open, a hole in your head, holes all over your heart, all over your body, no karmas to take into account, no destiny you would have happen to your body. Your only object is your Master. . . . You must become Mad with this devotion. Everything is purified by it. It is the one Great Principle of existence. All I am doing in this conversation with you tonight is Giving you permission to do so. You will do what you will. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "How Magical! How Profound!", Ishta |
3.3. The Impulse to Transcend Self Flows Directly from the Establishment of Recognition
The impulse to transcend the ego (and do whatever that requires) flows directly from this state of Enchantment. A good example is how listening proceeds to the point of hearing — after you have been established in recognition of Adi Da. It's not a grinding, technical affair, but a passionate matter, with one's heart on the line.
Here's one way of thinking about it. You are in an Enchanted State in the Room of your Beloved, and you don't want to do anything but to stay there forever. But then all of a sudden, in spite of that deepest heart-impulse, the floor falls out beneath you, and you fall into another room: a hell room full of suffering and apart from your Beloved. Now (via established recognition), you know where your Beloved's "Room" is, so you can certainly return there (by "feeling beyond the self-contraction"):
| If you truly locate the self-contraction in this Yoga of devotion to Me, you simultaneously locate Me and discover the immediate means always available to you for going beyond that ego-knot. . . . It's a matter of standing in the position of that act, that self-contraction, that knot, not just experiencing it from some point of view outside it, and directly feeling beyond it. So that becomes the basis of practice once hearing is the case. It's a very direct gesture. . . . And you have the knowledge, in that position, of Radiance. You can always make this gesture. You always know what the problem is. It's this knot, that you're doing. And you always can feel beyond it in Communion with Me. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The Knot of 'I' - The Self-Contraction |
But . . .
because you have not "heard" yet, that trapdoor keeps opening and you keep falling
out of your Beloved's Room over and over again. It's driving you crazy! Everything
in you wants to just stay in the Room with your Beloved forever. But you know
that — in order to do that —you've got to completely understand and "master"
your own egoity, you've got to completely understand and "master" the
secret of the trapdoor (otherwise known as the self-contraction), that keeps separating
you from your Beloved.
So, if you have truly recognized Adi Da (i.e.,
you are established in that recognition moment to moment), you are on fire
to "hear" (i.e., to master the secret of that trapdoor). The one directly
follows from the other. First (through the disciplines), you learn how to move
off the trapdoor before it opens. That gives you enough space to actually take
a real good look at how the door is opening, the kind of space you didn't have
when all your attention was bound up in "falling through the door" (i.e.,
engaged in habits of seeking).
Suddenly, you see that the trapdoor is being opened by a string, and you discover that you yourself are the one pulling the string, and you don't have to do that anymore! That discovery is hearing. And going through "level 1.3" of practice in the Way of Adidam is adapting — in every moment — to this new habit of not pulling the "trapdoor" string. (Even after you get it, there still will be the automatic tendency to pull that string for some period of time; that is why there is an adaptation period called "level 1.3".) But the entire impetus behind wanting to hear is the impulse to never be separate from one's Beloved:
| It becomes more and more profound, more and more constant.
So instead of noticing the self-contraction, feeling beyond it, or however it
works in your own case, you see, instead of those kinds of routines, it becomes
the constant of Communion with Me, Samadhi, just beyond the self-knot. . . . A
taste of that is so full you don't want to drop back. And you find out
how to enter into that Communion under all circumstances. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The Knot of 'I' - The Self-Contraction |
As time goes on, many of the old habits fall away (through non-use) making your job of not letting that door open much easier:
| What is simply not used is intrinsically obsolete — whereas what is opposed is constantly kept in front of you. The creative principle of true and positive change is a combination of always relaxed inspection (and discriminating awareness) of existing tendencies and, on that basis, an active, persistent, full feeling-orientation to right, new, and regenerative functional patterns. If this creative principle of true and positive change is practiced consistently and in ecstatic (or intrinsically ego-transcending) resort to Me, the Divine Avataric Master, free growth — demonstrated as habit-transcending true and positive change — is assured. Avatar Adi Da Samraj |
This metaphor suggests that someone who is taking years to hear is someone who is not "on fire" to hear — and therefore, someone who is not yet established in recognition of Adi Da as the Divine Person (not yet established in being "in His Room"), someone who is not yet given over to the Enchantment of that Divine State.
| If you, as you claimed earlier, are moved to Realize Me,
if this is true of you, then it would manifest itself as literal changes of life
in recognition-response to Me and in obedience to My Instruction, in ever more
elaborated detail, as it must be (and more and more refined detail, as it must
be) as the process actually matures. To be always at the beginning, and (therefore)
always in this kind of beginner’s cultic state, of stated devotional enthusiasm,
is to live in a “religious” mummery — and there is no Realization of Me. There
is no recognition of Me. You are identifying Me bodily. Yes, you know what I look
like. But it is not profound. That is simply a category of ordinary perception
and thought, and it is not such that you are drawn beyond the presumption of “self”
that is the active “self”-contraction of the body-mind. Avatar
Adi Da Samraj, October 6, 2005 |
| In the course of the only-by-Me Revealed and Given devotional practice of Abiding with Me in My "First Room", My true devotee (in the always "radical", or "at-the-root", context of practice-demonstration) out-grows all the possible kinds of phenomenal associations — but My true devotee is always (even Perfectly) with Me the entire time. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The Knee Of Listening |
| To enter into relationship with the Spiritual Master along with other devotees is to enter into a Mandala or Circle of Divine Influence, a machine of Liberation and Transformation. The spiritual process is a matter of passing out of the narcissistic self-limit and all of its visions into Communion with the Divine Influence or the Divine Agent. Once Communion is established, then the uncommon process of spiritual transformation begins. Therefore, recognition of the Spiritual Master is of primary importance, and that recognition depends on hearing the Spiritual Master and participating in a culture of self-surrender. Devotees should use all the artifacts associated with the Spiritual Master as forms of Communion with Him. If you take food as food, then you remember yourself. But if you take food as the offering of the Spiritual Master from his excess, then you remember the Spiritual Master by granting full bodily attention to Him in the act of taking food — or in any other act. Therefore, I recommend that every action be transformed into Communion. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Forehead, Breath, and Smile |
We grow in practice beyond hearing, on fire to grow for much the same reason: we are always moved by the impulse to dissolve every last bit of separation from our Beloved. Adi Da's description of His Own practice before re-Awakening is the best illustration of this. When Adi Da was completing His Own sadhana, He reached the point where He could re-locate the Goddess whenever He visited the Vedanta Temple in Hollywood. But He was dissatisfied that He ever had to be apart from Her, and so He asked Her to be with Him wherever He went . . . and She agreed.
| I became Aware that the Divine Mother-Shakti had taken up residence in this temple, and that I had been drawn there by Her. I Enjoyed the fact that I could go there and be with Her whenever I chose to experience Her Joyous Presence. . . . But as time went on, I began to feel that even this was a limitation. Why should I have to travel at all to Enjoy Her Presence? I desired that She be utterly available to me — where I lived, as well as in my own living being. Thus, one day, I went to the temple and asked Her to come and dwell permanently in me, and always to manifest Herself to me wherever I was. When I left, I felt Her with me — and when I arrived at home, I continued to feel Her constant Presence Filling the space. Days passed, and I realized that She had done what I had asked. There was this constant Presence, even including the effects in the body, and the state of everyone around me became affected by Her Force. But even this became a strain in me. I felt as if I had to hold on to Her, as if I had bound Her to a bargain that constrained us both. Then, one day, I felt an urge to return to the temple. As I sat down, I saw that the little pagoda and shrine in the front of the temple was in shadows and dimly lit, as if it were empty. It seemed as if I had emptied it by taking the Mother away. Suddenly I felt a jolt in my body — and, with open eyes, I saw the shrine become "Bright" in a blast of light. Thus the Mother-Shakti showed me that She is always able to make Herself Present anywhere — and that She was (indeed) always already Present with me. There was no need for me to hold on to Her, as if She could be absent. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The Knee Of Listening |
But even being with Her always (already) was not enough. Adi Da's impulse to have no separation whatsoever between Them led to Their Divine Union (as inseparable Shiva-Shakti), and then at last to Adi Da's Re-Awakening, with all separation from the Beloved vanished.
The passionate impulse to remove or dissolve every bit of separation from our Beloved is the great impeller for us in our practice, that is awakened by recognition of Adi Da as the Divine — as our Very Self.
Part
4: Placing recognition of Adi Da in a historical and cultural context
| [1] | Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Right Principle and Right Self-Management: The Secrets of How To Change, Part 9, The Aletheon. |
| [2] | Useful guides for this consideration is Avatar Adi Da Samraj, A Mastered Life and Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "If I Am your Guru, you Must Consent to be Mastered By Me"; and "What Is Radical, Right, and Perfect?" which is Part 9 of The Aletheon. |
| [3] | The self-contraction is "intrinsically transcended", and "Truth is the 'Point of View'", in every moment of recognition of Adi Da. |
| [4] | Adi Da's updated version of His talk, The Fire Must Have Its Way (July 17, 1978). |
| Quotations
from and/or photographs of Avatar Adi Da Samraj used by permission of the copyright
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