3. The "Evil Superman" Form
of Misunderstanding Genuine Crazy Wisdom

This is Part 3 of Chris Tong's eight part article, An Overview of Adi Da's Crazy Wisdom and "the Way That I Teach".

Another point that often gets lost is the necessity for Adi Da to work with devotees' limitations in the area of money, food, and sex. Because all limitations at the human level prevent growth at more profound levels — including Spiritual Realization — at times Adi Da has worked to free devotees from this or that addiction or obsession. Just so, He has worked to free devotees from this or that phobia, hang-up, sexual dysfunction, or limiting emotional/oedipal patterning. Whether self-indulgence or self-suppression, both forms of patterning keep attention and energy bound up in "self", and unavailable for the greater purpose of locating the Divine. For this reason, Adi Da was required to work to free us from both.

Here is an example where Adi Da worked, in His "Crazy-Wise" manner, to reflect to a devotee (me) a pattern of the self-suppressive kind. I remember one occasion where Adi Da was speaking to a large group of devotees. Suddenly, He swung around in His seat and started shouting at me very loudly. It threw me into a state of shock — I couldn't respond to Him. And I could see that other devotees in the room also were confused, because they too couldn't make sense of why He was suddenly shouting at me. However, I made an immediate connection with my father yelling at me, a fairly regular occurrence when I was a child, often unjustified. I could see that I was recoiling internally, fetus-like, in the face of Adi Da's energy, just as I did when I was a child with my father. I realized that I needed to grow beyond that childhood pattern of recoil, to the point where no matter what energy was thrown my way — whether by life in general, or most especially in relationship with my Guru and His being able to do whatever He needed to free me — I needed to be able to receive it without recoil, and stay in relationship. It was a wonderful lesson, and far more compelling Instruction when presented to me through a spontaneous incident like that (without me being able to prepare for it or armor myself against it), than through mere words. I got the lesson instantly and bodily! And at a profound level, that allowed a deepening of my reception of Adi Da's Spiritual Transmission from then on.

Indeed, this level of Adi Da's Work with devotees has many similarities with the exercises that can occur in encounter groups, interpersonal workshops, and the like: a similarity we will explore in more detail in our next section. It was just somewhat less restricted than most encounter groups, and set in the context of a greater purpose: God-Realization. Even so, because they are being initiated by a "Guru" rather than an "encounter group leader", such incidents tend to get miscommunicated to the "outside world" and turned on their head into criticisms of the Spiritual Master. For example, in the case of my story, I got the point of Adi Da's lesson, because the lesson was specifically created for me; but another devotee in the room might walk away confused, and perhaps years later label Adi Da as "abusive", based on that one incident whose purpose they didn't comprehend. Alternatively, if I myself hadn't gotten the point of the lesson, I might have gotten offended, left Adidam, and gone around communicating a similar misperception myself. I should add though, that — even if I hadn't gotten the point of the lesson immediately (or ever) — the direct experience of numerous miracles in Adi Da's Company has been sufficient reason not to jump to a conventional interpretation of Adi Da's actions ("He shouted at me, therefore He must have been angry"), as though they were the actions of an ordinary man rather than those of a genuine Spiritual Master.

The list of possible "misconceptions" goes on and on, because Adi Da Himself has never held back from doing everything He can to serve His devotees' liberation:

The compassionate Master does not do for others everything He can do within the bounds of propriety. The compassionate Master will do everything, whether in the realm of propriety or not, for the sake of Awakening others. Avatar Adi Da Samraj

Misinterpretation of Adi Da's Work occurs frequently — this "flipping" of uncommon, higher virtue into common, lower "vice", through misunderstanding something that is not only unconventional, but which can only be rightly explained in higher terms not commonly available to materialistic culture. But the fact that our materialistic culture doesn't have the experience or even the language for conceiving of, and communicating about, such things as "Spiritual Transmission" doesn't take away from its tangible reality to those of us who have experienced such things time and again.

When those of us who have had extensive experience with Adi Da over the years read these kinds of misconceptions on the internet — some even published by "devotees" who stayed for a brief while, maybe even years, but not long enough to get a fuller sense of what Adi Da was actually doing and why — it is horrific to us. We feel it as an abuse to the one who is directly serving our Spiritual Awakening; and disconcerting, because it is like entering into a "parallel universe", that both resembles and doesn't resemble the universe with which one is familiar.

the real Superman SUPERMAN and all related elements are the property of DC Comics. TM & © 2007

It is something like the "evil Superman" parallel universe in some of the Superman cartoons. For those readers not familiar with "evil Superman": there is the Superman we all know and love. And then, in a parallel universe, there is the "evil Superman". What makes the "evil Superman" story so interesting to comic book readers is that there is a grain of truth to this guy: We do recognize him (more or less) — he looks something like the real one, has similar powers, etc. But, unlike the real Superman, he uses his powers for evil purposes; he is driven to hurt others. Just as in the "evil superman" universe, Adi Da's critics create an internally consistent "evil Adi Da" parallel universe, mistelling the same limited set of stories of "abuse", "megalomania", etc. over and over to the point where all the critics know by heart — like the lines in the Rocky Horror Picture Show — these "takes" on reality (mis-"takes", actually).  And the fact that these people reinforce the same misconceptions in each other through endless repetition, seems to prove to them that these misconceptions must be true. (If you repeat something often enough, and you have a few people with you doing the same, it can start feeling like "truth".)

the parallel universe "evil Superman"

Well, all that is a strange re-interpretation of the actual facts.  Those of us who know and experience the real Adi Da firsthand and have "stayed the course" have a much better and fuller understanding of (and gratitude for) the "Crazy Wise" means that He has used. Because such "parallel universe" stories of "evil Adi Da" are not only inaccurate, but misleading, even sometimes to the point where they "scare away" would-be practitioners of the Way of Adidam, we feel obliged to set the record straight!

No one should miss the opportunity represented by the Way of Adidam because they read or hear these absurd cartoon versions of Adi Da. Many of the misconceptions stem from distortions produced by the rumor mill made up of "just-passing-through devotees" (even some of the "takes ten years to just pass through" kind), non-devotees, and the media. Whether that mill uses as its grist politicians, celebrities, or Spiritual Masters, it tends to convert confusion into negative reaction, and negative reaction into some form of sensationalistic media expression (from a website to a newspaper article).

By way of contrast with that rumor mill, we want to set the record straight through the many firsthand accounts that appear on this site. The real Adi Da is not only an extraordinary Spiritual Transmission Master, but an extraordinarily compassionate and courageous Being. He worked with unbridled passion day in and day out to do everything He could to serve His devotees' liberation . . . and to keep the world from destroying itself. And so we will provide you with the "real scoop" on Adi Da's Crazy Wisdom, through many firsthand accounts.

It is unfortunate enough that a handful of actual "cults" like Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, and David Koresh's group destroyed the lives of their members. What is doubly unfortunate, however, is that the relatively small-scale reality of that handful of groups has been blown so out of proportion that now all the tens of thousands of new religious movements — including Adidam — are suspect as "cults", and "tarred" with that label. "Cult" has become a prejudicial button word used against any small new religious movement, much like "nigger" was such a word for any person of color prior to the civil rights movement. But — like racism and sexism — this remaining form of prejudice must be recognized for what it is and rooted out. No followers of Jim Jones or David Koresh have ever stepped forward with the kinds of accounts we are presenting on this site of great human wisdom and extraordinary Spiritual Revelation given to them freely by their leader! That observation alone should be enough to end this sort of prejudice against Adi Da and all other genuine Spiritual Masters.