FAQs about Adi Da & Adidam > Taking Up the Way of Adidam > Testing the Way


Testing the Way Before Taking It Up

Question: Can anyone here recommend me how to do sadhana [spiritual practice]? I want to test the Way of Adi Da, please.

Adi Da has given an immense body of detail about the practice of the Way of Adidam. For a simple introduction, click here.

But before you even start looking at details (from diet to sexuality to meditation), your question suggests you are conceiving of the Way of Adidam as a technique — like, say, meditating on your breath, or that sort of thing. Thinking of it in this way, you want to "test the Way of Adidam" . . . you want to "give it a try" and "see how it works".

In fact, though, the Way of Adidam is not a technique. It is all about developing a devotional and spiritual relationship with Adi Da:


The Way of Adidam has unique characteristics, and they are all based on the tangible Spiritual Transmission Given by My Avataric Divine Grace. They are not based on philosophy or thinking or techniques. The entire process in My Company is based on the devotional and (in due course) Spiritual relationship to Me, and not on any technique of seeking. If you want to know that this process in My Company is true, then experience Me. That is all. It is not about believing something or merely thinking that it is so. It is a matter of approaching Me as a devotee, in this searchlessly Me-Beholding manner of true devotion. . . . Your turning to Me and My Transmission of My Own Spiritual Presence — My "Bright" Spiritual Transmission in response to you — these two together, that is Adidam.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj


The purpose of the Way of Adidam is God-Realization. The Way of Adidam "works" because it is based on the Divine Person incarnating here in the human form of Adi Da, thereby making the Divine State available here and now, in every moment. The Way "works" by devotees accessing the Divine State via their devotional and spiritual response to Adi Da.

God has always been present. There has never not been a moment when the Divine has not been present, because the Divine is our very State and Source. The entire universe is arising in the Divine. That having been said, however, one of the primary communications of Adidam is that the always present Divine is not accessible to us except through the appearance of a human incarnation of the Divine. We don't know how to locate the Divine in the abstract. We do know how to locate another human being, and it is possible to locate the Divine through a human being who is transparently revealing the Divine.


I am teaching you about it in My physical lifetime so that after My physical lifetime you will have this learning, the cultural supposition, this understanding, this Yoga to do, and I won't have to be physically present. But you will know that I will be Present. I will be with you, you see, not gone forever.

I have helped you by My physical Incarnation to identify or locate Me as I've always been, which you never noticed before. And I will have taught you about how to notice Me, having physically incarnated.

Thereafter, you will be able to associate with Me as I was before, but now that you have noticed it, you will be able to locate Me forever. I will never leave you or ever be dissociated from you or ever be separate from you. . . And after my My physical lifetime I will be in the same Play with you, exactly as present with you. . . You will have My Murtis and My Holy locations and so on.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj
I Taught You How To Notice Me (December 7, 1994)


The core principle behind the Way of Adidam is: You become what you meditate on. If you want to Realize God, then you must locate God and meditate on God. But how to do that? The Way of Adidam provides the means. Because Adi Da is the Divine here in person, His appearance here has provided an easily accessible means to locate and meditate on God.

So to "test" the Way of Adidam, you must become a devotee, and meditate on the Divine State, using the human form of Adi Da as the "gateway" or "touchstone" to locating that State. But to become a devotee, you must first receive the Revelation that Adi Da is the incarnation of the Divine. The Way of Adidam is not based on the belief that Adi Da is an incarnation of the Divine, but the Revelation that this is so. Much more about that here.

* * *

You can certainly "peel off" secondary pieces of the Way of Adidam, test them by themselves, and find them useful in their own right. For example, the vegetarian (and mostly if not entirely raw) diet recommended by Adi Da certainly is useful in its own right, for promoting health, longevity, and even greater emotional equilibrium, even if you are not purposed to God-Realization. As Adi Da puts it:


My "right life" Teachings apply to everyone. People do not necessarily have to become My devotees at the moment to benefit from these Teachings.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Green Gorilla

Also: since the reason it is useful for God-Realization is because it helps free up energy and attention (cooked food, junk food, etc. all bind attention to the body, stultify energy, toxify the body, make one ill, negatively impact one's emotional states, etc.), then it is useful for anything less than God-Realization that can benefit from freeing up energy and attention: anything from winning an Olympic Gold medal, to working more effectively, to attaining lesser Spiritual Realizations than God-Realization (like becoming directly aware that there is a greater-than-material Reality, whether through psychism, awareness of astral dimensions, etc.).

You can also look at excerpts from Adi Da's Teaching that include observations or statements about the nature of Reality — there are countless such observations! — and compare these observations against what you have discovered or concluded about the nature of Reality. In this restricted sense, you can "test" the Teaching of Adi Da (if not the Way itself).

But the purpose of the Way of Adidam per se is God-Realization, and neither the secondary practices associated with Adidam nor study of Adi Da's Teachings bring about God-Realization. Only becoming a devotee of Adi Da is the means for God-Realization in Adidam. So the true test of the Way Itself can only occur after becoming His devotee.

Thus, the first real "proof" of the Way of Adidam is the one that enables you to become a devotee in the first place: the receiving of the Revelation of recognition of Adi Da as the Divine Person. The further testing of all the different details of the Way can only be done in the context of that initial and ongoing recognition of Adi Da — since the point is to progressively deepen one's immersion in the Divine State that Adi Da is, over time, to the point where one Realizes that Divine State oneself. All the various disciplines and other aspects of the Way of Adidam are about that progressive deepening, and that is what one "tests" over time. One sees how taking up these disciplines actually does make it increasingly easier to turn to Adi Da in every moment (and re-immerse oneself in that Divine State), actually does deepen one's immersion in the Divine State, and actually does progressively weaken one's (otherwise automatic) egoic recoil from that Divine State.


The Way verifies itself in the form of Realization, if the Way is truly lived. . . . The Way has been verified or proven by those who practice it truly. And there is a history since ancient times of experimental verification of the Way of Truth.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Dec. 12, 1980
Keep Attention in the Sacrifice

* * *

Because the Way of Adidam is all about cultivating and deepening the devotional and spiritual relationship with Adi Da (based on recognition of Him as incarnation of the Divine Person, our own Native State), in some sense it is a like a marriage. And to speak of "testing" the Way of Adidam makes sense only to the degree to which the notion of "testing" a marriage makes sense. First: you can't "test" a marriage unless and until you get married! Second, any test of a marriage is as much a test of oneself as it is of one's spouse.

But a marriage isn't fundamentally about "testing". It's about falling in love. It doesn't make sense to talk about testing a marriage if the "falling in love" part hasn't happened. In the context of a marriage (or a potential marriage), the only purpose to talking about "testing" (or "trial marriages", or living together first) is to just to get a sense of whether this relationship is going to endure, weathering the ups and downs of daily life, beyond the initial attraction and the initial expression of love.

But that's where the analogy between "becoming a devotee" and "getting married" breaks down. "Falling in love" is analogous to receiving the Revelation that Adi Da is the Divine Person. But once you get that Revelation, you also instantly realize that the only limit on the Revalation and the relationship is you, not the Divine Person, into Whose Person and State you are surrendering. God is that which is Perfect, Unlimited, Eternal, and Perfectly Happy. Ego is the limit. This "marriage" is all about surrendering a limited identity into the One Identity, the Divine Person. It is not a relationship or marriage in the ordinary sense — a marriage of "equals". It is a total surrender of "self", the lesser identity, the mortal, suffering identity, for the sake of Realizing the Perfect, Unlimited Identity. The "test" is always only on one side of the relationship! Am "I" going to surrender "me" in any moment. . . or not.

Once the primary commitment to that relationship is in place, there are many secondary details of practice that one must explore and experiment with. One tests the various alternatives and determines which form of practice works best in one's own case.


What you practice depends on what works for you. . . The best is what works. None of the approaches is inherently best. Therefore, you must endure the ordeal of discovering what works. For example, no single diet is prescribed in the Way of Adidam, but there is a basic diet with options that account for anyone's personal requirements. At the student-beginner stage of the Way of Adidam, you engage the ordeal of testing the options to discover the minimum-optimum version of the basic diet for you. You test the options, observe their effects, and refine your dietary practice through real observation. When you have developed an understanding of what works, then you assume the discipline. . . .

I have not Given you a teeny booklet with a few pages of simplistic and consoling Teaching that you can just believe and in some mediocre way apply. I have elaborated My Wisdom-Teaching fully to cover all possibilities and every kind of person. The Way of Adidam requires seriousness, real practice, and a real trial of testing all the options. First you must know My Instruction. Then apply it. Test the options, until you can choose on the basis of knowing what works.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, "Testing What Works", Ishta



* * *

OK, so you are interested in or intrigued by the Way of Adidam; or you are moved by Adi Da's Wisdom; or you feel His Spiritual Transmission in some way — but you have not yet received the Revelation that He is the Divine Person. What can you do?

1. Get help — You don't have to rely solely on your own resources. This site is full of firsthand accounts of Who Adi Da is, and about the Way of Adidam. In addition, you can get in touch with any of the devotees who have received this Revelation. Get them to tell you their story!

2. Immerse yourself in Adi Da — This response is meant not to discourage you, but rather to clarify, inspire and move you to do what is required to receive this extraordinary Revelation, this miracle which many otherwise ordinary people have received, by doing the necessary preparation. Your best bet is to immerse yourself in the contemplation of Adi Da: His Word (books, websites, audio talks, etc.), His Image (photos, videos, etc.), His Art, serving His World Work, etc. That Revelation will be Given to you by Grace, sooner or later — guaranteed!

3. Grow in self-understanding — Because this Revelation is not just a matter of immersing oneself in Adi Da, but also a matter of self-understanding — of discovering (and transcending) all the ways one is pre-disposed to (unconsciously) block the reception of that Gift — I'd recommend considering which of the following "pre-Adidam" issues (not specific to Adi Da or the Way of Adidam) may apply (to some degree) in your own case:

  • There is still a significant part of "me" that is committed to a life of materialistic self-fulfillment. Perhaps I'm "intellectually" interested in spiritual life, but what my life habits suggest about me (i.e., where my time and energy actually goes) is another matter — I'm "talking the talk", but not yet "walking the walk". Or as Adi Da once put it, I have one foot in the self-transcendence camp, and one foot in the self-indulgence camp (and the bigger "foot" is in the latter. . .).

  • There is still a significant part of "me" that feels there should be a way to realize anything spiritually on my own, without the need of a Guru or Spiritual Master — something in me resists the notion of "surrendering" to a "Master" (even God — my very Source — in person).

  • There is still a significant part of "me" that has problems with the notion of a human Incarnation of the Divine Person (even though, intellectually, I understand that, by "Divine Person" we're not talking about the omniscient and omnipotent Judeo-Christian God, but rather the Consciousness in Whom all is arising).

  • There still is a significant part of "me" that is bothered by any non-egalitarian assertions about spiritual traditions, such as: one spiritual path could lead to a greater Realization than another (in the sense that more forms and levels of egoic patterning are transcended), one Realizer is (consequently) "greater" than another, etc.

If any of these patterns are in play in you, they will tend to block the reception of Adi Da's Revelation, either limiting it or shutting it down altogether — sometimes through knee-jerk reactions. (In fact, these tendencies and viewpoints are just as much a matter of consideration for devotees as for interested non-devotees, because they represent the habits of a lifetime; they don't just disappear overnight, even after the Revelation is given, and one becomes a devotee.) For instance, if you are bothered by the "non-egalitarianism" in a phrase like, "Only-By-Me-Given" (which appears here and there in Adi Da's Teaching, and is based on His comprehensive, comparative study of all the precedents in the world's spiritual and religious traditions), that very disturbance will tend block to your reception of His Revelation. You'll be so caught up in your reaction to His words, that you'll miss Him!

 

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I don't know who replied here but it is excellent. The compassion for the question, the understanding of what might be going on for the questioner, or anyone that might have doubts about becoming a formal devotee touched me tremendously and I think will serve many.
Quotations from and/or photographs of Avatar Adi Da Samraj used by permission of the copyright owner:
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