I Feel the Greatest Devotion to Him
Robert
K. Hall, M.D.
Robert
K. Hall, M.D. was a student of Fritz Perls (the creator of Gestalt psychology) and Ida Rolf (the creator of Rolfing).
He is a psychiatrist and a lay Buddhist priest (who began his meditation practice in 1969), and has been
a pioneer in the integration of Gestalt psychology, bodywork, and meditation, for many years. He is the co-founder of The
Lomi School — a "school
of awareness "founded on the principle of the integration of mind, body, and spirit,
with particular emphasis on the life of the body. (Since its start several decades ago, the Lomi School has evolved
into a large agency that offers holistically oriented
counseling to the public at low fees and a training center for psychotherapists.)
Robert is also one of the council of teachers (practicing within the Theravadin
Buddhist tradition) that comprise Spirit
Rock, a retreat center
in Marin County, California.
I first learned of Adi Da in 1972, when The Lomi School was in full bloom
and we had a growth center in the Santa Cruz Mountains and someone brought me
a copy of The Knee of Listening.
I remember reading it and feeling profoundly inspired by it because it was the
first time I had read a Westerner's writings that were speaking to what I felt
intuitively about spiritual life. I was very excited by the book and from then
on I was a follower of all of His writings — everything of Adi Da's that was published,
I read. I gained so much inspiration from all of His books. His Teachings about
the Heart, about love, and particularly His description of the "self-contraction"
and the ego-centric position was immensely helpful to me, because He was putting
into clear sentences what I was struggling to understand and express. And so my
coming across His Teachings was a Grace for which I have always been very grateful.
Adi Da's Teaching has also been a source of major support for me in the
continuation of my personal Vipassana meditation practice. He has always represented
for me an example of the truly Realized individual — especially since there are
so few of those. In fact, I can't think of more than one or two that I've come
across in my life who I could honestly say I feel have Realized to any degree.
And so His example has been important to me. Particularly in my practice as a
psychotherapist, His Teachings have been a foundation for me when I sit with clients
and recognize the need for open-hearted compassion and taking a non-egoic point
of view of the situation — and so my therapy work has greatly benefited from His
Teaching.
The first time I saw Adi Da was at a Darshan in 1986. That first
Darshan was very powerful for me because I experienced a transcendent "exit" from
the body and a meeting with Him outside of the body. It was exhilarating and ecstatic.
It happened spontaneously and, for me, it removed any doubt and concern I might
have had about His authenticity as a Great Spiritual Realizer. From that time
on I became even more interested in His Work.
My second Darshan was truly
wonderful. I had an experience of being totally "there" with Him, relieved of
all contraction at the heart, and I was lifted into a simple, happy everything-just-as-it-is
state and I carry that state of mind and body with me still. Seeing Him in person
has changed my relationship to Him only in the sense that it has deepened my respect
for Him and my feeling of devotion to Him.
Though I am not a formal member
of Adidam, I feel the greatest devotion to Him. His Work enters my life, His Teaching
enters my heart, and I gratefully use what I assimilate from His Presence in my
service to others.
I also actively talk about Adi Da to others — to people
who have a spiritual bent, to other Spirit Rock dharma teachers, and I talk a
lot about Him with my personal friends. In fact, I have described my recent Darshan
of Him so many, many times now that I'm needing to stop talking about it!
I
feel that Adi Da's Teachings have tremendous significance for humanity in general.
He presents a foundation and a structure for sanity. The equation "Cooperation
+ Tolerance = Peace" that He has Taught is deceptively simple but extremely
profound as a guide for sane living that applies to all human beings, both individually
and collectively. [Ed. note: See also Adi Da's book, Not-Two Is Peace.] He is one among the very few genuinely sane public figures that
I have ever encountered. And so I think that His Teachings, particularly in the
West — in this culture where there are so few people who can be admired and are
serving as role models — are of the greatest significance.