Casual Approach
(editors note: This piece is a bit saccadic and impressionistic for the left brain)
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advice to you is not to undertake the spiritual
path. It is too difficult, too long, and it is too
demanding. What I would suggest, if you haven’t
already begun, is to go to the door, ask for your
money back, and go home now.” He said, “This is not
a picnic. It is really going to ask everything of
you and you should understand that from the
beginning. So it is best not to begin. However,” he
said, “if you do begin, it is best to finish.”
Jack Kornfield – ‘Recalling Chogyam
Trungpa’
“A devotee
went to Ramana and said, “I’ve been with you for 25
years, doing “Who am I”, and nothing has happened
yet, so Ramana said, “Try it another 25 and see
what happens.””
Robert
Adams
Casual Approach to Adi Da
and
Misunderstanding the Offering & Responsibility
“Oh, f%#kk”
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n the introductory page in the section on Beezone about Adi Da I put up a ‘cautionary note.’ Briefly, the note reminds the reader that Adi Da is not just a regular guy playing out a role as Guru. He’s a Light and a Fire. He is also “seen by the typical reader – both the ‘TV-minded,’ consumer and the guarded skeptic – as a ‘glorified egotist’ and someone to stay away from. This warning to keep away is in some sense correct, but for the wrong reasons! The ‘TV-minded’, the hopeful consumer, and the independently minded skeptics who need to keep their guard up should stay away.”‘ But, if you do approach Adi Da my suggestion to is approach him in a manner of respect. Otherwise, you may be in for more than you bargained for. Watch this clip of Steve Toth, Executive Producer of Conscious Evolution Media, a website designed to raise Global Consciousnes and you see what I mean. (I should say Steve is not alone in his response to Adi Da. There have been thousands who have come to Adi Da and for one reason or another have departed, but did not leave untouched.)
and now
Watch Annie Rogers’ response to the same ‘offering’
As you can see there are really only THREE options:
Turn and Run
Open and Surrender
or
Stay Cautious
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“The Tibetans regard the nightmare visions as primarily intellectual products. They assign them to the Brain chakra, whereas the peaceful deities are assigned to the Heart chakra and the Knowledge-Holding deities to the intermediate Throat chakra. They are the reactions of the mind to the process of consciousness-expansion. They represent the attempts of the intellect to maintain its threatened boundaries. They symbolize the struggle of breaking through to ego-loss understanding and awareness.” – The Second Bardo – Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche – Transcending Madness
“Principle of Ecstasy is at Work. And those who surrender into the Company of the true Spiritual Master are turned out of self-limits, restored to the pattern of relations, entered into a pattern of feeling experience, established in a pattern of growth (or increase of experience toward completeness), and Awakened to that Understanding wherein all experience is relieved of the Binding Power”.
The Word that Awakens – Adi Da Samraj, ‘The Enlightenment of the Whole Body’
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he following was written by Frank Marrero a number of years ago in response to a letter Ken Wilber wrote entitled ‘Strange Case of Adi Da’. I post it here to let you ponder Steve Toth’s response when Adi Da asked him for his heart.
Do Not Casually Approach the God-Man Adi Da
I first met Ken at the Mountain of Attention just after sitting with Adi Da, then later at parties for him in Marin County. We have the same birthday. I have always appreciated Ken’s books and praise his work as “the greatest words on earth by a living mortal.”
We all owe Ken great praise. He is one of my heroes, razor sharp and holographic. But Ken is not fully enlightened, and so we must understand his limitations and delusions as well as his brilliance. With regards to his latest letter (August) addressing the ‘Strange Case of Adi Da”, Ken’s limitations and projections upon Adi Da are only that, his projections. I can understand how someone involved in self-creation could make these mistakes. I have lived in a small room with Adi Da for months, and I have seen and experienced His Brutal Simplicity and Service and shared many of the same projections myself.
What is Ken’s actual experience of Adi Da aside from a few darshan occasions? He’s read Adi Da’s books and acknowledge his word to be the most enlightened. But the person? What does he know of him from actual experience? Does he know of him only through the negative reactions and negative stories he’s heard from individuals who could not tolerate the heat of his company? Maybe he’s read Georg Feuerstein’s book “Madness and Holy Men” or other such books that speak of these things.
Ken states repetitively that no one cannot afford to be AT LEAST a student of the written teaching the of Adi Da, (see https://www.beezone.com for all of Ken’s endorsements). He bought with this praise a reaction most people do to the God-Man Adi Da. It is a COMMON mistake for those who stand far away from the fire of “Truth.” Ken speaks of Adi Da in breath-taking superlatives, acknowledging him as The Sat Guru of Today and then talks of his dangerous behavior. He tries to reconciling this contradiction with illogical paradox to bridge this “gap.”
This is a very common and traditional misunderstanding when trying to make some sanity out of a seemingly insane situation. I understand this reaction, Adi Da is not nice, not a gentleman, as the title of the book states. He is as ruthless as He is gracious.
Let me share with you a little of my experience with this Ruthless and Loving Master. I lived in a small room with Adi Da for many months, and I saw and EXPERIENCED His Brutal Simplicity and Service. It took me months and years to begin to understand His Fire and Ferocity. The time between my initial, immature reaction and the wave of unending gratitude, a thousand points of view could be seized upon. Only afterward were the lessons understood. What had been seen as so horrible was transform into freedom and radiant joy.
Days with Him would begin with the consideration of Truth and Practice, then with brilliant humor or passionate consideration, He revealed those present to themselves, like a Priest in a Puja, setting a fire upon eachaltar. Then He would reveal Himself and baptize all in waves of joy and Love-Bliss. Consideration–self-understanding–Baptism. He would let your withdrawal from love be seen in His Sweet Fire of Love. His ruthless pursuance of your obstructions to joy could take milliseconds or years to comprehend, He didn’t really care if it took you years or even lifetimes.
He gave everyone everything. But my observation was that Heart-Servant Adi Da always was only gracious, even at His most forceful bluntness. I never saw Him unloving, I never saw Him unfree. I spent twelve hours a day most days in His House, I never saw Him in any way that was not absolute and complete service, not a fraction of anything outside of loving brilliance.
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The following is an edited version of ‘The Oxherding Picture‘ by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
here is an old saying in traditional literature, “if you want to know what enlightenment looks like, go and sit at the feet of a Realizer. The literature of the great wisdom traditions has stories that reveal what Realizers have taught. One such story comes from the Mahayana Tradition of Buddhism.
The story which follows, The Ten Bulls written by Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, tells an old Zen story of the journey of enlightenment.
The beginning of the journey is about the ‘undisciplined mind’ and a ‘suspicion’. There is a mood that something is not quite right, there is an uninspected search happening. This search has taken on a form of an adventure. We’ve been told that there is something to get. This search of adventure takes on family, cultural and religious forms. The search is about exploring possibilities. As one explores one begins to see something familiar in all the adventures, but it’s not quite clear, something has not yet formed itself. Something may be something corrupt. You may have to defend your adventure, the search and adventure has a struggle to it. This suspicion is not a belief, it’s something deeper, something in your gut. It’s not all just a journey of love, light and peace.
As one continues on the journey, the subtle nature of this suspicion begins to reveal itself. The traveler begins to see that maybe he or she has a more direct play. Maybe the traveler is not just an innocent bystander. In fact, the travelers thirst, ones desire for more, more experiences and knowledge is generating it. The search, the journey, ones trip, is beginning to come to the front. At first the journey had a goal or an object but now the subject is appearing. What was in once in the background (unconscious) is now in the foreground. One’s motive is beginning to show itself. With this also comes the understanding that one can’t stop. It’s like going down a hill without brakes. What was once a journey of conviction, something attainable, the journey is now becoming a battle of opposites. The ‘problem’ of conviction which drove the journey is now becoming one of personal responsibility. The Creation of the journey is revealing itself. YOU are becoming suspect. Your motives and efforts are coming to the front.
This is the first level of the inner journey. The journey and adventure itself begins to become suspect. Your conviction is corrupt. The trip is starting to get serious. You begin to see the insatiable nature of your own mind, your unfulfilled emotions, your inability to relax. In this part of the journey, you start to ‘get wise’ and clean up your act. You and your convictions are not as bold and formable as you thought. Your knowledge, although helpful from a practical point of view, does not seem to touch the subtle fabric of what your feeling. Your awareness is growing. Something bigger is beginning to show itself. There is something bigger going on.
?
“The Ox has never really gone astray, so why search for it? Having turned his back on his true nature, a man cannot see it. Because of his defilements he has lost sight of the Ox. Suddenly he finds himself confronted by a maze of crisscrossing roads. Greed for worldly gain and dread of loss spring up like searing flames; ideas of right and wrong dart out like daggers.”
?
You are not as independent as you once believed. Your basic sense of mistrust and feelings of being a victim start to show themselves. You can begin to show a little paranoia at this point. You begin to be cautious and retreat. Many leave the journey at this point and return the the simple ways of sleep. Others start to fly a flag and start digging in. They start to build fortifications around themselves to protect their beliefs and possessions.
The traveler is now at the part of the journey where to go Real Trust is needed. The traveler must leave behind what was once familiar; old memories, stories and identities. The once solid ground of ego, any sense of security dissolves.Even the guru can’t help. There is a gap, a chasm. There is a psychological mind form that must be met if one is to go forward and to do that True Trust must develop.
To take that leap into the unknown requires trust, Real Trust based on wisdom. The traveler understands something greater is going on. There is guidance. There is testing. There is a sense of being informed. The luminosity that you always had a sense of, the basic sense of goodness, is beginning to appear. The Mandala is showing itself. This is the beginning of the Matrix.
“You
need not necessarily make everybody My devotee,
but try to get people to at least invest
themselves
in the greatest aspirations of the tradition they
do embrace.”
Adi
Da Samraj – 1993