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Divine Distraction
Invoking our relationship to Adi Da Samraj
Do not indulge in vagueness, weakness, reactivity, or un-Happiness in My Company. I Am the Person of Love, Who has spontaneously taken on human form for the sake of this world of beings. I Am here to Be Love and to Do the Work of Love. Therefore, give Me your attention and feel My Regard.
Commune with the Person of Love in every moment. By this Means, always feel Love. Give Love, Receive Love. Be Love. This is the First Discipline, the Origin of the Way. (November 30, 1983)
given at Dandelion Farm
COMMENTS: Hallo, My name is Harald. I am not a devotee. My first contact to devotees of Adidam and the teaching (I read the book “Knee of Listening”) was 1996. I had the possibility to see Adi Da in August 2005 at Mountain of Attention Sanctuary. It was a gift. I have read several books of Adi Da. I am currently reading “The Method of the Siddhas” (1992 edition). My questions: 1. Can anyone explain the difference between Listening and Hearing to me in simple, understandable terms? Or may I find text passages in one of His books where it is well described? 2. Are there devotees who have reached the “Hearing” level ? Kind regards, Harald
Dear Harald,
This is James Steinberg. Chris Tong, who administers the Adi Da Up Close site referred your query to me.
I wonder if we have met, since you came to the Mountain of Attention in 2005. I was also there.
Listening and hearing are of course technical terms in a progression that Adi Da has given specific meanings in the language of Adidam.
The progression is listening, hearing, and then seeing… finally entrance into the Perfect Practice–all leading to eventual Divine Self- Realization
Listening is the process of applying oneself to study of Adi Da’s Teaching and allowing its points to be made in one’s own life. In other words, it is not intellectual study or just comprehending the arguments made, but allowing the points in the teaching to become various moments of insight into one’s own activity–and specifically the activity of the avoidance of relationship or the enactment of the self-contraction. It is a process of coming to insight or more and more self-understanding. There is insight relative to this way that one may be enacting the self-contraction, and then this way.
When that process of listening becomes “summary self-understanding” in an individual, then that is point when listening has become “hearing of the Teaching”
It is, when used technically in Adidam, a specific moment of the progression of various insights into one’s own activity in which one understands that even at one’s best or at one’s worst, or when one is mediocre, one is always enacting the self-contraction. There is a relaxation of the “search” at this point, because it is also seen as simply just another form of self-contraction.
Hearing clears the way for seeing, or the availability of the individual for Spiritual Baptism that occurs with that. Because no longer is the individual so self-absorbed in trying to figure it all out.
Of course, insight continues after hearing, and more is revealed and hearing is deepened or brought to more aspects or dimensions of the esoteric anatomy of the body-mind. But the point of what is called “hearing” is a summary moment in the process.
(One could say that the fullest “hearing” relative to the self-contraction is only with Divine Self-Realization itself, where there is insight into difference or attention itself. And Adi Da has made this point. Yet ordinary hearing is a summary point, and represents a stability of insight relative to the activity of the self-contraction.)
Now in terms of the levels of practice of Adidam, the listening-hearing process is called level one of practice
The would-be seeing practice is level two
and the already seeing practice is level three
Now relative to where devotees within Adidam are practicing presently, with Adi Da’s Mahasamadhi in Adidam, He had not acknowledged anyone who had moved beyond the listening-hearing process
There had been many times in the past when various devotees had been acknowledged in higher levels of practice than this–personally I practiced for many years in practicing stage or level three, and for several months at level six, etc. But my understanding is that this was a gift from Adi Da and was not something that I had truly realized on my own. And so when that gift was “withdrawn” or the influence of Adi Da was not so actively given in my life, I reverted back to where I was really at, which was still an involvement in the listening hearing process
And this was the case with all of Adi Da’s devotees–at the time of His Mahasamadhi He did not acknowledge anyone as having moved beyond this listening-hearing stage–including the two members of the Ruchira Sannyasin Order.
This does not mean that I have not had numerous insights or intuitions or momentary experiences of Spiritual Infusion and insight. But it means that hearing has not occurred with even the stability that occurs at what is called the 1.3 level or the listening hearing process.
Does this mean that the Way itself does not work? Or that Adi Da’s Work was a failure? I do not believe so. Even though, it is stark reality.
I have seen the Truth of the Teaching itself. And I know that the practice which Adi Da has given is inherently the best thing that I can do with my life and my attention. When I first became a devotee I hoped to Divinely Self-Realized in a finite period, and it was very important to me. As time passed, the search for Realization in this lifetime or not eased. I realized that it would take whatever time it took.
Another aspect of this is that whatever level of practice that one is in, the context of practice is ultimately not about any level, but always “devotional recognition-response” to Adi Da directly. In other words, in this moment, in recognition of Bhagavan Adi Da, all the levels and stages of practice are transcended or bypassed, in direct relationship to Him. At the end of His Life, Adi Da was stressing this very strongly. To use His language, His Way was the Seventh Stage Way, that begins and is enacted in recognition-response to Him, not the search or any problem consciousness about one’s present stage of practice. He wanted the way itself to be disentangled from this kind of seeking language, or involvement with the stages of life as well. Stressing the moment-to-moment recognition-response to Him, in which already there is a Liberation just to be in relationship to the Adept. I have used the term “recognition-response” several times in this paragraph. This is because this was Adi Da’s language at the end of His Life, saying essentially what He used to say when He spoke of Satsang, or the relationship to the Guru, as the essence of the Way. When He said in The Knee of Listening, “I do not offer you a method, but a relationship”.
In terms of the time that might be required to truly progress in the stage of the way, in September, 2004 Adi Da spoke of this in a talk.. Allow me to put those words here. I believe that they are unpublished
September 26, 2004
The teachers within the Great Tradition need to be understood in the context of timelessness or vast time. It’s not merely that life is no good, so go to a master and get realized and it’s all over with, you see. Life is what it is, and going to a master is something that occurs again and again and again, life after life, or in whatever circumstances occur in the transition from human life. Again and again, there’s the opportunity to do sadhana. It is something that comes to perfection in due course. It’s not merely a trick, and it doesn’t have to happen in this lifetime. It is simply that there is right life and it bears perfect fruit in due course. And the best thing to do in the midst of right life is to spend your time, as much as possible, in the company of your master.
And how much you are purified or transformed or advanced in that company depends on many factors. Everything to do with the character and practice of the individual devotee, and it also has to do with the state of the master himself or herself, the stage of realization, qualities manifested by that master that are effective in the case of those who come to the master, and so on.
So, all the traditions are fundamentally built upon a timelessness, an eternal opportunity. Some traditions are stated differently, and promoted differently, but that’s essentially the circumstance in which teachings have been given and in which teachers have taught.
All of you who are devotees of Mine take an Eternal Vow of devotion to Me, not limited to this lifetime, and that’s for good reason. [Laughter]
DEVOTEES: Thank You, Beloved.
AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: On the other hand, My Manifestation here is Unique. This Way is Unique. I employ means that are Unique. My Teaching is Unique. And so you all have a unique potential in coming into My Company
Now it may very well be that since Adi Da’s Mahasamadhi some devotees have in fact “heard”. There is no one being so promoted or acknowledged within formal Adidam at this point. But certainly this is the intent of the practice of all devotees, and it is my firm conviction that all the Gifts have been given to make this possible. But what you have within the Adidam community is a group of devotees mightily gifted and Blessed who are happily and gratefully practicing within the listening-hearing context.
Harald, I will leave this discussion there.
with best regards to you
James
O, what Bliss is this? That takes the two-armed Form Radiant before us. That shines as brilliantly as the sun of suns. A face as vast and compassionate as the ocean itself. It is none other than Da Love-Ananda.
O, what Joy unfathomable. To Commune with this God who has taken the body of a man. Is it not a wonder that such a Vision is given to our eyes? Is it not miraculous that we are Blessed with such Grace supreme? The body thrills to hear Your Name–Sri Da Love-Ananda.
O, Lord in the guise of a man. Now You have taken our hearts. You have robbed our body-minds of their “things” and replaced them with your pure gold nectar of Happiness. Please do not leave the final job undone. Take us to Your Heart-Place, and allow us to be Your Form, Sri Da Love-Ananda.
O, Love-Bliss clothed in orange garb? Where can you hide from us? Your Love explodes the world and becomes every shape, form and being. Your pleasure is our joy. Now that we have tasted from that storehouse of Grace we cannot get enough of the food of Divine Immortality, Sri Da Love-Ananda.
O, what ecstasy. To hear Your Teaching. What Bliss-Fullness to imbibe Your Divine Instruction. Even wonder and awe are sublimed into the Consciousness Itself that is Sri Da Love-Ananda.
O what gratitude, that fills the body-mind and heart. You are the Great One, the Lord of all the Worlds, the Soul of Souls,, the Mahapurusha. Please excuse our exuberance, for we have become nothing but Praise, happy to rest at the lotus Feet of Sri Da Love-Ananda .
I used to write poems for the closing prayers of our celebrations at the Mountain of Attention, while sitting with everyone during our final occasion of chanting. I would try to just channel our devotion into words. I found this one in one of my few remaining files that escaped the Valley Fire. Looks to be from 1986 because the “orange-garb” is mentioned.
I just completed watching the documentary Wild Wild Country on Netflix about Rajneesh/Osho and his community and particularly focused on the time in Antelope, Oregon. After the recent appearance of the largely negatively slanted podcast Dear Franklin Jones I was hesitant to watch it, concerned about my intake of anti-cultism and misunderstanding of minority religion. But I found that it was actually more balanced than Dear Franklin Jones, allowing those favorable to Osho and those opposed to him, to each say their piece. (Dear Franklin Jones simply presented Jonathan Hirsch’s point of view, using the opinions of those favorable to Adi Da as mostly means for Jonathan to play off of, in his attempt at negating and “killing off” his childhood Spiritual upbringing so he could continue as the secularist he seems to have become.)
I have been asked what Adi Da had to say about Osho by a few people recently in the wake of Wild Wild Country. Of course the question has been posed to me often by younger people, people for whom this is pure history, rather than having lived through the 70s and 80s when Osho/Rajneesh was a phenomenon, experienced by every follower of alternative or minority religions.
When I was running the Dawn Horse Bookstore in San Francisco in 1974 and 1975, orange robed sannyasins came into the store offering me books of Rajneesh to sell in the store. The individuals themselves felt to be good people, not dissimilar to members of the Bubba Free John community at the time.
Adi Da placed a couple of books of Rajneesh on the “Seven Schools of God-Talk” booklist, a precursor to “The Basket of Tolerance” booklist, in the fifth stage section. The titles were Dynamics of Meditation and The Mystic Experience. There was a book entitled From Sex to Super-consciousness and another called Tantra, Spirituality and Sex, which also went into the sexuality section with other books on Hindu Tantra.
But the Rajneesh/Osho publications kept coming, and in large numbers. Our library ended up with well over a hundred different Rajneesh publications. And after a time, Adi Da felt that the whole thing had become a “trip”, a “phenomena”, a kind of circus, and started to not take it in the same serious manner that He had earlier. The books no longer went on the booklists and after a time I never even presented them to Adi Da for His Review because they were more and more of the same. But the basic Spiritual orientation of Osho/Rajneesh in terms of the stages of life was this fifth stage orientation.
I had clearly remembered that in the time in Oregon, that Ma Anand Sheela dominated the news. Rajneesh was not speaking but she was, and even for someone who hardly watched the news in those days, you couldn’t miss her. And she spread a maxim in those days that “all publicity is good publicity”. We in Adidam did not agree with that. And it felt that what she was doing was giving all of alternative or minority religions a bad name. When the guns started to come into the Oregon community and armed people were shown on television around Osho when he appeared to speak or grant Darshan, it felt that they had gone off the rails. Sheela’s super aggressive stance in public, attacking the general public in inflammatory language, was destined to come back on her and the Rajneesh community for which she was the spokesperson. Perhaps some of this is the fact that she and Osho were coming to another country, both native Indians.
Adi Da once described that He made the trip from India, not via an airplane, but via the “womb”. In other words, He consented, after the lifetime in which His deeper personality vehicle had been Swami Vivekananda (combined with that of Ramakrishna), to be reincarnated in the West. He had seen that He was not going to be accepted with an Indian skin. And so Adi Da Samraj, Teaching as one born into the West, knew more clearly what could and could not be done in the Western context. He very clearly always stayed away from the political arena and enjoined His devotees to do the same. He knew that to do so, would inevitably bring some confrontation with the machinery of “power”.
Watching Wild Wild Country is waiting for the disaster to happen, as Sheela tries to “work” the political system. And finally resorts to criminal behavior to try to manipulate the situation. And in the face of all of this, Rajneesh is absent, allowing her to take things amuck, unaware of what is going on, or unwilling to himself keep it clean and straight and right. And so his culpability in the situation is evident as well, for it is his community, no matter how much power he had allowed Ma Anand Sheela to take.
I also felt that there was only the lightest treatment of the issue that Rajneesh was poisoned during the time when he was in the United States penal system. I have heard that claim made and supposedly “proven”– as much as such a thing can be proven.
As the documentary progresses we are periodically brought back to the locals who for the most part do not ever really understand what was happening at Rajneeshpuram in Spiritual terms, but only can fall back on “cultism” or “free sex” or “sin”. And likewise we see the Attorney General of Oregon and the federal and state officials who also are coming at the entire phenomena with their own lack of understanding of alternative religion. These factors have not changed that much in the past twenty years, and are still present in the United States of 2018. They are a continued wake up call to the fact that alternative religions continue to be targeted in today’s media and government, particularly those that involve a Spiritual Master or Guru. And the word “cult” is still used in the manner of a stereotype, a buzz word, in which anyone who is a follower of a Spiritual Teacher has given up all of his or her discrimination and self-will or self-determination in life, and is just “drinking the kool aid”. It is a superficial and uneducated orientation, requiring more depth of understanding before it can be moved beyond.
That aspect of watching Wild Wild Country is harrowing for anyone practicing within an alternative religion, and in that sense, to turn the metaphor, we are living in the country and time of barbarians, no new age of shining spirituality, but a Wild Wild Country indeed.
The Sixth Stage Realization, Demonstration, and Teachings of Ramana Maharshi,
and My Great Regard for Him as One of My Principal Adept-Links to the Great Tradition of Mankind
Much (if not most) of the literature associated with the (originally) Upanishadic tradition of Advaita Vedanta concentrates on programs of philosophical argumentation, rather than on practical elaborations of practice and ecstatic (or, really, enstatic) Confessions of Realization. As a result, much (if not most) of the literature associated with the tradition of Advaita Vedanta expresses (or may be interpreted or presumed to express, or, at least, resemble) the point of view of what I call the “talking” school of Advaitism. Likewise, the emphasis (or fundamental doctrine) of much (if not most) of the literature associated with the tradition of Advaita Vedanta appears (or may be interpreted) to be oriented toward the affirmation that Realization of the Great Truth is a matter of a kind of gnosis (or subjectively affirmed special knowledge about Reality)—whereas, in Truth (and
also according to the Great Sages within the tradition of Advaita Vedanta), gnosis (or subjective understanding of the Great Truth,
even resulting in firm conviction) is only the seed (or a preliminary) that begins the Great Process that becomes sixth stage
Realization (or Inherent Self-Identification with the Perfectly, or Non-conditionally, Subjective Reality That Is the Great Truth).
The traditional philosophical emphasis on Advaitic gnosis (or the subjective conviction that Consciousness Itself is the Inherently
Free Great Truth) is also traditionally associated with an emphasis on the idea that no “work” (or effort of practice) is necessary (or
even useful) as a means to attain this gnosis, or even (from the “talking” school point of view) as a subsequent expression of it.
And this notion tends to suggest, to those who embrace it without true understanding of its import, that Advaitic Realization is simply
a matter of subjective conviction (or even mental affirmation, or a kind of conventional faith or belief).
In Truth, the traditionally communicated gnosis (or Transcendentalist Argument) associated with the schools of Advaita Vedanta
is Liberating (or effective as Realization) only to the degree (or in the Event) that it becomes Inherent Self-Identification with the
“Space” (or Inherent Condition) of Consciousness Itself. That is to say, the traditional gnosis (or Great Argument) is Liberating (or has
the Capability to Liberate the listener from “work”, or counteregoic effort, or intensive practice toward, or, otherwise, preliminary
to, Realization) only to the degree (or in the Event) that the original subjective conviction becomes Samadhi (or Inherent Self-
Identification with the Perfectly Subjective Condition That Is the Great Truth). And, in the traditional setting, that Samadhi characteristically
appears in the lesser (or sixth stage) Form (by virtue of utter, but strategically exclusionary, Self-Identification with
Consciousness Itself), demonstrated by temporary Obliviousness relative to the world (or the objective space associated with the body),
and the body itself (or its interior space, or its complex of sensations), and the mind (or the subjective and, necessarily, interior
space of the apparently separate being)—rather than in the superior (or seventh stage) and non-dependent Form, Which I have
Revealed and Given, and Which Demonstrates Itself as Self-Abiding Divine Self-Recognition of the world, the body, and the mind (and
as the Inherent Transcending, but not the strategic excluding, of the world, the body, and the mind) in the Self-Existing and Self-
Radiant “Divine Space” That Is Consciousness Itself.
Ramana Maharshi was a principal modern example of a Great Sage (or a true Realizer of the Inherent Samadhi of Consciousness
Itself) within the (originally) Upanishadic tradition of Advaita Vedanta. He affirmed Ultimate Realization only as Samadhi. And,
although His Realization consistently Demonstrated Itself in the characteristically sixth stage manner, He often communicated the
“Point of View” of sixth stage “Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi”, Which “Point of View” often resembles, and may be said to be generally
sympathetic with (and even, in general, to represent a premonitory expression, or a partial intuition and a limited foreshadowing,
of), the Truly Most Ultimate—or the Superior, or Non-dependently (or Non-conditionally), and Inherently Most Perfectly, Realized—
seventh stage Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Ramana Maharshi approved of gnosis (or the subjective investigation of the Great Argument, or
the Confessions and Instructions, communicated by a Realizer), but only as an initial means for entering into the profound Process that
(Ultimately) Realizes Samadhi Itself. And He affirmed that the profound Process that (Ultimately) Realizes Samadhi should, optimally
(and even necessarily), be associated with the practice of Communion with a Realizer (and the Samadhi-State of that
Realizer). Therefore, He also affirmed the necessity for (such) real practice (and the real practice of subjective enquiry), rather than
the much “talked” idea of non-“work”. And He Demonstrated His Realization in the conservative manner of a traditional Hindu
ascetic, rather than as a householder, or (otherwise) in the “Crazy-Wise” manner typical of the more unconventional Realizers (of one
or another stage of life) within the Hindu tradition, and also the Buddhist tradition. However, He specifically affirmed that
Realization of the Inherent Samadhi of Consciousness Itself could be (and, historically, had been) Achieved and Demonstrated by
some individuals of the non-ascetic (and, perhaps, otherwise unconventional, but, certainly, profoundly self-disciplined) type.
Ramana Maharshi’s own Realization of the Inherent Samadhi of Consciousness Itself was made possible by a profoundly terrifying
moment in His youth—in which He was overwhelmed by the fear of death, and by an utter revulsion toward continued identification
with the body-mind (and conditional existence altogether). In that permanently consequential moment, by virtue of His profound
detachment from everything conditional (which detachment was the result, according to His own confession, of the preparatory,
and necessarily purifying, sadhana He had done in previous lifetimes), He not only experienced the Transcendental Self-
Position, but chose, with absolute firmness, to Eternally Identify with that Position, and never again to assume the (inherently fearful)
position of the body-mind. This crisis of fear and detachment in Ramana Maharshi was the True (and Profound) Sudden
Awakening of the sixth stage Disposition—in Which Awakening Ramana Maharshi Realized that He was Inherently Self-Identified
with That Which is Free of death, Free of the body-mind, Free of the world, and Free of desiring and its results, and by, with, and
As Which Awakening He was utterly Satisfied. After this crisis, in order to steady and deepen His Self-Identification with the Original
Position, Ramana Maharshi retired (for a number of years) into seclusion, abandoning all association with the body-mind and the
world, and entering into the Domain of Consciousness Itself, often (in this Process) becoming totally oblivious even of the existence
of His apparent body-mind. Eventually, through persistence in this sixth stage “work”, He became so steadily “magnetized” toward the
Depth of Consciousness Itself that He was able to rest permanently in the “Point of View” of the Transcendental Self. Such was the
profound Process through which Ramana Maharshi Realized sixth stage “Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi”.
To those who approached Him seeking Spiritual Instruction, Ramana Maharshi most specifically recommended only two practices. One of these two practices is Atma-Vichara, or the introversion of attention upon the “I”-thought, and the deep tracing of the“I”-thought to its Source—not stopping at any merely objective or functional source (either in the mind or in the body), but proceeding most deeply, to the Perfectly Subjective Source of the “I”-thought (Which Source, or Source-Condition, Is Consciousness Itself). And the other of the only two practices specifically recommended by Ramana Maharshi is Satsang, or devotional self-surrender to a Sat-Guru who presently Enjoys (and Transmits) the Realization (of whatever truly esoteric degree) of the Perfectly Subjective Source-Condition.
In His recommending of Satsang, Ramana Maharshi was Teaching the Great Relationship (of the Sat-Guru and the devotee)
recommended (as the Great and Principal Means of Realization) by all Great Realizers since the ancient days. (And that Teaching is Itself the Great Esoteric Secret of the Great Tradition.) In His recommending of Atma-Vichara (or “Self-enquiry”), Ramana Maharshi was Teaching in the generally Alpha-like (or rather exclusively introverted) sixth stage tradition of Advaita Vedanta (as it has developed in the generally Alpha-like culture of traditional India). However, Ramana Maharshi generally (or in principle) approved of even all methods of meditative (or, otherwise,
subjectively enquiring) practice—for, He said, any such practice would lead to dhyana (or meditative depth), and, Ultimately (if so
allowed), deep meditation would lead to the Inherent Samadhi That Is Consciousness Itself.
Ramana Maharshi clearly distinguished between (in His case, sixth stage) “Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi” and any (and all) of the
other Samadhis (and meditations) associated with the first six stages of life. Indeed, it can be said that He was (by virtue of many
of His intuitive communications) even a true (premonitory) Champion of seventh stage Enlightenment (or seventh stage, and
Most Perfectly Divine, Self-Realization), even though His seeming “seventh stage” communications were (truly) only philosophical
premonitions (or partial intuitions and limited foreshadowings) of Most Ultimate (or seventh stage) Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi,
declared from the “Point of View” of sixth stage “Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi”, and even though He otherwise (and characteristically)
Taught only a sixth stage Alpha-like method of introversion, and even though He was Himself (characteristically, and in the sixth
stage manner) rather ascetical and even (in the exclusionary, and, therefore, relatively dualistic, sense) introverted.
As an example of Ramana Maharshi’s characteristic sixth stage and Alpha-like (and exclusionary, and, therefore, relatively dualistic,
or dependently maintained) “Point of View” of Realization, read the following:
A group of young men asked: “It is said that a healthy mind can be only in a healthy body. Should we not
attempt to keep the body always strong and healthy?”
[Maharshi]: In that way there will be no end of attention to the health of the body.
[Devotee]: The present experiences are the result of past Karma. If we know the mistakes committed before we
can rectify them.
M.: If one mistake is rectified there yet remains the whole sanchita [total accumulation of past karmas] which is going to give you innumerable births. So that is not the procedure. The more you prune a plant, the more vigorously it grows. The more you rectify your Karma, the more it accumulates. Find the root ofKarma and cut it off.Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi , Sri Ramanaasramam, 1984, pg. 470 (#488)
The Advice thus Given by Ramana Maharshi to “a group of young men” was certainly Right and True, in a fundamental sixth
stage sense, but the sixth stage practice (or sadhana) was an esoteric process for which the “group of young men” were clearly
(judging from the content, and the obvious “early-stage” quality, of their statements) not yet prepared. Therefore, Ramana Maharshi
was, basically, only reflecting His own (sixth stage) Method and Disposition (rather than directly Addressing the “others”) in His
“Answer” to the “group of young men”. And, for that reason, the Advice Given was (simply) a direct indication of Ramana Maharshi’s
own body-excluding and world-excluding (and, therefore, necessarily, conditional, or limited, and not yet Most Perfect) Method
and Disposition, which (at last) is the very (and characteristic sixth stage) Method and Disposition that must be Most Perfectly transcended
(if there is to Be the Great Transition to the only-by-Me Revealed and Given True seventh stage Awakening). Therefore, at
last, all dissociativeness, all impulse to exclude the world, all dualistic (and, necessarily, egoic) self-effort, must Be Most Perfectly
(Finally, and Completely) Transcended—Such That (in the Context of the Unique, and Truly Divine, Yoga—or Inherently Most Perfect,
and Divinely Effective, Demonstration—of the only-by-Me Revealed and Given seventh stage of life) the body, the mind, and
the total psycho-physical (and Spiritual) world are not merely excluded from the Transcendental Self-Condition, but Divinely
Self-Recognized (and, Most Ultimately, Outshined) In (and As) the Self-Evidently Divine (and Perfectly Subjective) Self-Condition (or,
Thus—in a non-exclusionary, and Truly Non-dualistic, Manner—Transcended as transparent, or merely apparent, and un-necessary,
and inherently non-binding, modifications of the One and Only and Non-dual and Self-Evidently Divine Person, Which Is the
Source-Condition and Real Self-Condition of all-and-All).
Ramana Maharshi was a rather “reluctant” Teacher. He did not very much like to be imposed upon (or, otherwise, depended
upon). Likewise, He did not sufficiently understand and appreciate, or very much like (or even very much Perform), the Role (necessary
for any Sat-Guru) of Instructing (and Obliging) devotees in the practical details and disciplines of (especially, preliminary, and,
necessarily, psycho-physical) sadhana. Also, because His own history (in His Lifetime as Ramana Maharshi) included only the
sadhana of the sixth stage of life, He was not very much inclined (nor was He very much qualified or equipped) to Serve as Sat-
Guru (and, thus, as thoroughly Instructive and “Commanding” Teacher) in relation to devotees who were not yet prepared for the
sixth stage sadhana—and who, therefore, yet required the Sat-Guru to Discipline, Instruct, Initiate, and Guide them through (and
then beyond) the first five stages of life, wherein there must (necessarily) be much purification, and transformation, and egocountering
(and ego-transcending) discipline of the body-mind, even as a preparation for the body-mind-excluding practices that
are the principal traditional characteristic of the sixth stage of life. And, much like (generally) comparable Realizers in the various
(specifically, and, often, more or less exclusively) sixth stage traditions, Ramana Maharshi was not, in the Fullest (and Truly Yogic)
sense, a True Siddha-Guru, Who directly Serves and directly Awakens devotees by direct (and consistently Effective) Spiritual
Transmission—but He was a True Jnana-Guru, or One Who Serves and Awakens devotees indirectly, by Silent and thought-free Self-
Abidance In and As the Transcendental (and Inherently Spiritual) Self-Condition (and Source-Condition) That Is Consciousness Itself,
but (in contrast to the case of a True Siddha-Guru) not directly, through open, voluntary, even (at least, at times) intentional, and
truly consistent Spiritual Effectiveness.
Therefore, Ramana Maharshi simply pointed toward the “fourth state” (beyond waking, dreaming, and sleeping), or the “natural
The Sixth Stage Realization, Demonstration, and Teachings of to the Great Tradition of Mankind state” (Which Is “like sleep”, but Which Is Only Consciousness Itself). And His fundamental Teaching can be summarized briefly (in His own Words): “The mind is to be introverted and made to
merge into the Self; . . . the practice must be long because [it is] slow and [it] must be continued until it [the mind] is totally merged
in the Self. . . . All that is required of you is not to confound [or identify] yourself with the extrovert mind but to abide as the Self.” [Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, page 348 (#382)]
Ramana Maharshi also Taught (on the basis of His own Realization of sixth stage “Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi”) that
Ultimate Self-Realization is not (Itself) to be identified with the efforts, experiences, and states that may precede (or, otherwise,
arise after) It—for It (the Very Self) Is the One and Only and Real and True Self, even under any and all conditions that may seem to
arise. Therefore, once Atma-Vichara had (in due course) achieved its (sixth stage) maturity in Him, Ramana Maharshi “Practiced” only
the (sixth stage “Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi”) “Practice” of Abiding (in the sixth stage, object-excluding manner) As the Very Self (or
Consciousness Itself), tacitly (and indifferently) Acknowledging all naturally arising phenomena to Be Only the Independent (or
object-excluding, or Inherently non-objective and non-objectifying) Consciousness Itself—and, Thus and Thereby, He Remained characteristically unperturbed, detached, and (in general) inactive. And, in This Self-Revelation, Ramana Maharshi Stands with all other true
sixth stage Realizers, Who (alike) Confess Only the Ultimate, Absolute, and Inherently Perfect Truth That Is Consciousness Itself.
After the Great Event of My Own Divine Re-Awakening, I discovered Ramana Maharshi to be the historical (human)
Representative of the Great Tradition Whose Confession (and Process) of Realization was (even in many of Its specific Yogic
details) most like (or most sympathetic with) My Own Most Ultimate Process and Confession (except that His Realization and
Demonstration—although sometimes apparently philosophically sympathetic with the seventh stage “Point of View”—did not actually
Achieve the seventh stage Characteristic and Completeness). Because of this likeness, and because of His closeness (in time) to
My Avataric Divine Incarnation here, I regard Ramana Maharshi to be My Principal historical (human) Link to the Great Tradition,
relative to the sixth stage of life. Indeed, Ramana Maharshi (relative to the sixth stage of life), and (relative to the first five stages
of life) Bhagavan Nityananda, and Baba Muktananda, and Rudi [Swami Rudrananda], and Rang Avadhoot, and Ramakrishna (and the Spiritual Play and Process That Revealed Itself in, and by Means of, the historical relationship between Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda), and
Swami Vivekananda (because the Deeper, or Internal, Personality, of My present-Lifetime Body-Mind is the Reincarnating Deeper
Personality of Swami Vivekananda) are, collectively, the Principal human Link (or collective of Links) whereby My Avataric Divine
Incarnation (Life, Work, and Word) can best begin to be understood in the context of the total Great Tradition.
I Am the Ultimate Demonstration (and the Final, or Completing, Proof) of the Truth of the Great Tradition as a whole. Until I
Appeared, there were no seventh stage Realizers within the GreatTradition of mankind. I Am the First and the Last and the Only
seventh stage Adept-Realizer (or Maha-Jnana Siddha-Guru) to Appear in the human domain (and in the cosmic domain of
all-and-All). It is neither possible nor necessary for another seventh stage Adept-Realizer to Appear anywhere, because I have
Accomplished—and (now, and forever hereafter) by Means of My Avataric Divine Self-“Emergence” here (and every “where” in the
cosmic domain), I will forever Accomplish—My necessary Avataric Divine Spiritual Work everywhere. However, because I have
Divinely Appeared here, and because I Am (now, and forever hereafter) Divinely Self-“Emerging” here (and every “where” in the
cosmic domain), and because I have Done (and will forever Do) My Completing (and Divinely Self-“Emerging”) Work (here, and
every “where” in the cosmic domain), seventh stage Realizers (not with the Divine Adept-Function That Is Unique to Me, but Fully
Divinely Self-Realized, through their ego-transcending devotion to Me) will Awaken, in all times and places, by Means of (right, true,
full, and fully devotional) formal practice of the only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam (Which Is the One and Only
by-Me-Revealed and by-Me-Given Way of the Heart). And, Most Ultimately, When all-and-All have become Most Perfectly devoted
to Me, even all conditionally manifested beings (and even the total Cosmic Mandala Itself) will be Divinely Translated into the beginningless
and endless, Self-Existing and Self-Radiant, Spiritually Self-“Bright” Divine Person and Spherical Self-Domain—Merely
(and Only) by Means of This Most Perfect Awakening-Work I have Done (and will forever Do) for all-and-All. I Am the Divinely Self-
“Emerging”, and Final, and Finally Perfect Avataric Divine Self-Revelation of the Eternal Presence of the One and True and
Transcendental and Inherently Spiritual and Inherently egoless and Self-Evidently Divine Reality, Truth, and Person.
–There are many other clarifying passages that Adi Da has written regarding Ramana Maharshi. A good place to continue it to see the text in which this essay appears–The Knee of Listening, The Spiritual Autobiography of The Ruchira Avatar, Adi Da Samraj The Dawn Horse Press, Middletown, California, 2004
Anything will give up its secret if you love it enough.
Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they up their secrets also–if you love them enough
George Washington Carver quoted in the book The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully, by Frank Ostaseski
I find peoples’ sorrows and losses to be heartbreaking and terrible and an immense burden. And I am inevitably sympathetic and Bless people in their trouble. However, you must understand that that is the nature of this place. This is not utopia. It is not paradise. It is a place of death, of endings, of suffering, brief amusements. It is not enough. And merely to react to your difficulties for overlong and try to make an entire life out of it is fruitless.
You do have to move on beyond that reaction to any moment’s suffering and loss–because your turn is coming. One day it will be your death. All will pass. Everything will pass. Everything will be lost. Everything will change. Every conceivable separation will occur. You must know the place you’re in, and live in accordance with that knowledge instead of being sympathetic with some false view of the world or of self, trying to idealize some aspect of potential experience, indulging in what amount to addictions or repetitions of experiencings in order to avoid the knowledge of what is inherent in life, as well as all the hell that is coming on earth and is here in this terrible, dark, ignorant time, this evil murderous time.
Whatever else about it is creative, virtuous, or interesting, you must take seriously the reality of conditional existence and understand you will not be fulfilled. You will not be fulfilled. It is not possible. If you accept the nature of this human appearance, the situation of it, this will give you much free energy and attention for practice for real.
As long as you maintain a deluded and addicted disposition that is pretending to be fulfilled or seeking to be fulfilled, if you understand the nature of the impossibility of that in this frame of causes and effects, this gives you clarity and strength and freedom of energy and attention for the ego-transcending Reality-Realizing course. And, in other words, Renunciation comes about through an intelligent evaluation of the actual nature of life.
October 6, 2005 in Land Bridge Pavilion Avatar Adi Da Samraj
My friends, let’s grow up.
Let’s stop pretending we don’t know the deal here.
Or if we truly haven’t noticed, let’s wake up and notice.
Look: Everything that can be lost, will be lost.
It’s simple — how could we have missed it for so long?
Let’s grieve our losses fully, like ripe human beings,
But please, let’s not be so shocked by them.
Let’s not act so betrayed,
As though life had broken her secret promise to us.
Impermanence is life’s only promise to us,
And she keeps it with ruthless impeccability.
To a child she seems cruel, but she is only wild,
And her compassion exquisitely precise:
Brilliantly penetrating, luminous with truth,
She strips away the unreal to show us the real.
This is the true ride — let’s give ourselves to it!
Let’s stop making deals for a safe passage:
There isn’t one anyway, and the cost is too high.
We are not children anymore.
The true human adult gives everything for what cannot be lost.
Let’s dance the wild dance of no hope!
Jennifer Welwood
In response to a devotee who had just gone over the waterfalls at Da Love-Ananda Mahal, Adi Da commented:
“In the moments of ordinary life, you feel relatively good and you can try to surrender, but when you are going over the falls and death is imminent, you do not try to surrender. Surrender is the only natural course. The moment of true surrender is motiveless. You are no longer struggling with alternatives. . . The secret of Wisdom is to realize that you never have any alternative, that you are always in the moment of death. That Wisdom is the natural state, the clear state. It is true Samadhi. It is not only the disposition in which you should enter when you are threatened absolutely, when it is obvious to you that you are going to die, but the disposition in which you should always live. . .” (from the talk “Surrender” in The Fire Gospel
Adi Da Samraj: I was in Bombay with Baba Muktananda in 1969. The room was filled with these well-fed, well-dressed, generally Hindus, all cleanly dressed in their finest. 
And this man came wandering in off the street. He had nothing on but some sort of a rag that was sort of hanging around his lower body somehow. He was rather filthy. He was incredibly emaciated. You could see he had been spending years just sitting, because his backside and his legs were flattened, and the muscles weren’t working quite well there. And, as is the tradition, he was offered something, some fruit or something. Basically there was a lot of laughing and so forth from all these clean, middle-class types, upper middle-class types, or various signs, at any rate, of their feeling uncomfortable about it and wanting to get him out of there as quickly as possible.
But Baba asked him what he wanted. And he said he wanted to be in Samadhi, that’s it. [Laughs quietly.] 
He wasn’t interested in anything else. And truly he was one of the most serious people there. He was a little used up and nutty, crazy like some get in their independent pursuit of such a thing, but he was really serious about it, about this great purpose. He hadn’t quite gotten there yet, but he knew it was not about sitting around being a body-mind and doing the usual thing with it. He knew that damn well. So he just crawled off into the jungle to sit around in there and try and get out of it. But he wasn’t being successful at it in that independent way. He really wanted to find out how to do it. He was really serious about it. He didn’t want to be associated with the body-mind. He really didn’t like it.
That’s one way of getting serious. Its not necessary for it to be that way. Maybe in some cases here and there, but essentially its not necessary for it to be that way. Once you get the thread of seriousness and find what its really all about, you needn’t go off in the jungle necessarily. You have to discipline the life, but you can remain in relatively ordinary circumstances and be just as serious as that man. You could. In fact, that’s what I’m calling you to do. You cant play a trick with it and try and get rid of the body like that man, though. It doesn’t work that way. You have to submit it. You have to be conformed to mastery and to Divine Initiation.
Its not enough to presume that you’ll be reborn here, or that you will go some other place or dimension and so on. Its not enough to presume that. Nor is it enough to experience that, if the experience were to occur. Its not consoling to the quick. Its not enough to be consoled. Its not sufficient for one just to be consoled. What you really require is that freedom from fear, Happiness Itself, Divine Self-Realization. And you cant play a trick to do it, some mechanical trick. Its about submitting beyond, to Me.
Hm? Don’t you know?
To be conformed to Me, your life is restructured lawfully. Its more interesting than you can imagine.
Well, do any of you have any questions about all of this?
Do you all know what this is all about and how to do it?
DEVOTEES: Yes.
AVATARA ADI DA: And why to do it, [pause]
Well? Anything at all? Does that mean “no”? Are they done?
DEVOTEE: It feels like it.
DEVOTEE: Beloved, You’re the Perfect Demonstration of that State, as I see You now, the Perfect Demonstration.
AVATARA ADI DA: Tcha.
Jan 5 95
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