What Arises – Excerpts from the teachings of Adi Da Samraj

What
Arises

Excerpts from the Teachings of
Adi Da Samraj on the theme of ‘what arises’.

In
the Heart there is no adventure and no world, no one who
thinks or acts, but there is only understanding. It is no
place, no affect, no reflection, no exclusive force. It is
perfect, unqualified existence, conscousness and bliss. It
is conscious existence as bliss. And such also is the very
nature of every quality of life for one who understands and
lives as the Heart. He is eternally the same, whatever
arises. He does not arise, but what arises arises. And what
arises has not other implication for him than its very fact.
It does not imply his existence in or as what arises. It
does not imply his consciouness of, in or as what arises. It
does not imply any other bliss than what always already is
prior to what arises. Thus, by grace, he appears in and as
what arises. By grace he is aware of, in and as what arises.
By grace he moves to find endess kinds of enjoyment in all
that arises. Such is the great activity of the Heart.

No matter what arises, whether you tend to react
appropriately or inappropriately from a conventional point
of view, you always present yourself as a limit on Feeling.
And this, as you might gather, from My “Point of View” is
inappropriate!

Suffering is your action. Therefore, it is the action of
contraction, of self-definition, of obsession with what
arises in itself, independent of its ground or substance or
its true Condition. The action that is suffering produces
the usual life as karma, illusion, negative destiny,
unconsciousness. Thus, the Way of Divine Communion involves
a life of counter-action, of other action, as a specific
responsibility. Whatever is not used becomes obsolete.

This is the essence of renunciation, to recognize what
arises. And in that case there is infinite energy. Not
energy for a purpose, energy for its own sake. It expresses
itself as all kinds of transfigured transformations,
samadhi, developments. That’s your business, in the 7th in
stage of life, you are utterly responsible.

But in (this relationship) of the Heart what arises is
confronted by silence without and the Heart within.

Therefore, the highest form of detachment is life-positive,
not dissociated, but understanding very well why things go
on as they do, seeing clearly that what arises in the world
does not have the power to destroy our suppress one’s
spiritual response, one s spiritual practice. That is true
detachment. It is not the conventional detachment of turning
away and withdrawing sympathy. contractions, do not appear
as limitations to the Enlightened person.

Love or not. That is all there is to it. If you can come
again to the position of loving, of being sustained and
being a sustainer in the natural flow of things, then you
will continue to grow, and the very structural dimensions
toward which you are experientially disposed will show
themselves in the form of experience. You must be
responsible for the effects of those things. You must be
responsible in every moment, so that, no matter what arises,
the contraction of feeling- attention is not your destiny,
not your disposition in the moment. You must be able to cut
through that contraction, whatever the experience, high or
low.

The ultimate fulfillment of the Law-which is sacrifice,
ecstasy, or love-is to abide as this intuition in every
instant, eternally free and full. It is no answer. It is
simply free. All questions are simply dissolved in
it.

What of life then? It is not that it
is a problem. What arises, arises. It does not merely arise
to oneself. It arises inclusive of oneself and as oneself.
Therefore, life is ultimately and wisely lived with humor
and in freedom, allowing all to pass and also to be bright
in the present. But there is no fit or frenzy of living.

The Spirit is not merely behind what arises, pervading it as
some sort of invisible essence. The Spirit is this, just
this exactly, as it is all the other forms of appearance
with which we might become associated. The Living or
Spirit-Current pervades all of this, is all of this, and we
may contact It intimately through the submission of our
body-minds to It.

Exchange the now or radical habit of observing what arises
for the old or conventional habit of engaging what arises.
That is, simply remain in relationship to whatever arises,
aware of whatever arises, rather than identify with, enter
into, or avoid whatever arises.

We still stand in the world even as we rest in this current.
But then you may notice in your private meditation that you
also are released even of this experience here from time to
time. As the currents of the gross being begin to harmonize,
become naturally reoriented, the body comes to rest, the
breathing becomes slow, simple, the heart rate goes down. We
hear the breathing and feel it, but then we become aware in
such a way that we do not hear it any longer, we do not feel
it any longer. The current itself becomes visible and
audible to us, and we may simply forget the gross body and
pass into the subtler dreams, all the while being in the
disposition of this Ignorance, in which we truly identify
what arises rather than automatically becoming attached to
it, rather than getting into patterns of craving on the
basis of gross or subtle experience.

Why don’t you just understand and be quiet then. If it’s
that simple and in some sense that’s true. No matter what
arises, even attention himself, any thought, anything at
all, no matter what arises, you are merely the witness.

The Teaching and the Community are themselves the
communication of Satsang, Divine Communion. What is
apparently given or experienced in the midst of a life that
responds to them is also a Grace, but it may not be earned,
taken, or held. Therefore, what arises is never the point,
but it is always only a paradox and a test, a form of the
always prior Demand, which is itself the Divine Person, the
Maha-Siddha, the Siddha-Guru. A sacrificial life, founded in
humor, love, and understanding, is the sadhana made possible
when Divine Communion is thus given as Grace, not promised
as a reward or a future gift. And no other apparent reward
or gift adds one iota to that Gift.

The first five stages of life all represent one or another
kind of false submission to energy, or one or another kind
of illusion based on submission to energy. Therefore, I
consider existence with you in another light, or from
another point of view. And that point of view is also
suggested by your own description. You described a state of
existence in which there are basically two fundamental
quantities or categories. The one is yourself as awareness
of whatever may be arising, and the other is everything
else, everything that consciousness is aware of. And
everything that consciousness is aware of ultimately amounts
to Energy Itself. In other words, no matter what arises in
this moment, no matter what object or objects arise, no
matter what experience arises, no matter what particularity
there is in this moment, it’s still a form of Energy.

DEVOTEE: That attention varies. Sometimes I feel very
attentive towards you, and at other times my mind is very
vague. Should I sit longer when I feel most attentive, when
I am observing what arises?

BUBBA: This self-observation does
not take place only when you are sitting here with me. It
takes place under all kinds of circumstances. And it
requires attention. If your attention is not free, you
cannot observe what arises. You become what arises. Then you
only exercise what arises and become involved in it. And if
that kind of obsessive involvement is characteristic of your
present state, then you should move yourself into practical,
functional conditions instead of sitting in the Satsang
Hall. You should not be sitting here vaguely trying to
generate attention. You should do something functional,
because function always includes your attention. Function
requires attention in ways that are easy to fulfill. Then
you work with your hands or your body or your senses. You
use your mind. So dont sit trying to battle what arises.
Move into functional conditions with real attention, and
then you may also, under such practical circumstances,
observe the turning away, the distraction, the games.
Therefore, living these practical conditions is real
meditation, self-observation in the form of insight, or
return to the natural condition of happiness.

Enquiry is not a process of self-analysis. Its purpose is
not to draw the mind into all kinds of formulations and the
deep self-consciousness of endless patterns. Enquiry is not
“concerned” with the nature and forms of avoidance. Nor is
the analytical awareness of the whole pattern of one’s life
of avoidance the same as understanding.

One who enquires remains attentive
to the question, to the one who receives the question, the
place where the question is received, and to what arises.
Until something arises, he only remains in the enquiry in
its place. Finally, by his remaining in the enquiry, what
arises will reveal itself to consciousness as the avoidance
of relationship.

It makes no difference what arises
or what is the character of the particular form of
avoidance, for, as soon as it is consciously recognized, one
ceases to exist in that form of separation and avoidance.
One is not concentrated in the recognition or the analysis
of avoidance. Instead, one becomes aware of relationship.
The unconscious image of separation is replaced by the
conscious awareness of relationship, of unqualified, present
relationship

Meaning is an unnecessary, secondary, artificial, and
ultimately binding attribution of what arises. To be free of
it, we must be free of mind.

The function of the experiential mind is to know, directly,
what arises. When the world is known directly, then one can
abstract oneself. Thus, the play between these two functions
produces the traditional convention of
liberation.

However, the mind in both its forms
must be undone if there is to be realization in Truth. When
confinement to what arises as well as the search to escape
or transcend what arises no longer distract, then Only God
becomes the Condition and the Enjoyment

Wherever you live fully in relationship to someone, all the
qualities are generated happily in relationship to them. For
it is not liable to identify with anything, to dissociate
from anything, or to pursue anything by these means in
desire. Then there is only the perception of what arises,
and the direct, creative participation in what arises. There
is no involvement in ignorance, conflict, compulsion or
search.

If you are troubled by what arises,
you are simply not in your proper relationship to things.
You are not existing in relationship to what arises at all.
You are avoiding relationship by an act of identification
with what arises, differentiation from or within what
arises, or some form of desiring or motivation produce by
these and which seeks to overcome their implications in
cognition and experience.

The ultimate fulfillment of the Law, which is sacrifice,
ecstasy, or love, is to abide as this intuition in every
instant, eternally free and full. It is no answer. It is
simply free. All questions are simply dissolved in
it.

“But the communication of the Heart is essentially a process
in silence, whereby what arises gets no response, no
reinforcement.” Again, the activity of the man of
understanding is mere presence, that is what he does. His
mere existence, his mere presence in relation to his
disciple, mere Satsang – this is the method of the Siddhas

“But in the ‘Satsang’ or conscious company of the Heart,
what arises is confronted by silence without and the Heart
within.”

You are not separate ego. No matter what ariseswaking,
dreaming, or sleeping, no matter what arisesyou are
the Witness of it, Prior to it, not bound, not separate, the
Only Condition that is Self-Evident, that is non-separate
and Indivisible. There is no separate self. And there is no
not-self. There is no not-self to dissociate from by
introversion. There is no separate self to expand by
extroversion.

he must fulfill the Law of sacrifice regardless of past
history, present circumstance, or any condition that may
appear in the future. And then the individual must become
committed to that principal discipline with the whole force
of his life. No matter what arises to distract, console, or
frustrate him, he must remain as love in God- Communion.
When he is in love, convinced of the Teaching, full of
energy and delight in ordinary relations, then the
individual may come to the Spiritual Master for initiation
into the higher or spiritual dimensions of adaptation and
sacrifice. But not before that time.

“Then what arises is confronted with silence. This company
of silence, this confrontation with silence while remaining
in conscious relationship to the teacher, causes the
individual to be simply aware of what arises.” (Simply
aware.) There’s a difference between simple awareness and
sitting there equipped with all kinds of methods to deal
with what arises. When one is truly living in Satsang, the
condition of Satsang being the process you are living, then
the things that arise simply arise. You witness them, you
see them in the midst of the freedom of Satsang.

So this Satsang “causes the
individual to be simply aware of what arises, without the
possibility of indulging or avoiding it.” The very condition
of Satsang eliminates, undermines the seeking activity, the
ordinary methodical activity of the disciple, because it
puts that utterly in doubt. So it eliminates from his
quality in Satsang, in his meditation, the possibility of
indulging the qualities that are arising in himself, or the
possibility of avoiding them. In other words, the mere
condition of Satsang tends to put him in the turiya state of
witnessing the qualities that arise. Sitting or living in
the mere presence of the Guru tends to awaken the turiya
state, the fourth state beyond waking, sleeping, and
dreaming, and awakens this function of witness in the face
of the qualities that arise. And whenever this mere
witnessing, this turiya state, this quality is awakened in
consciousness, the possibility of real understanding has
awakened.

“So he is allowed to see what
arises, rather than to become further identified with the
stream through the unconsciousness of ordinary conversation
and action.” The process of Satsang, the meditation of
Satsang precedes all strategies, all methods, all
philosophies, all verbalizations, all conceptualizations of
Truth, all egoic preferences, all Narcissistic
approaches.

“And the ‘space’ between him and
what arises is the place where the power of the Heart works
to draw him from within.” In this turiya condition of mere
witnessing.

The specific “practice” in this most radical form of the way
is simple, moment to moment observation and recognition of
the Condition of whatever arises in the field of awareness.
Therefore, that practice is described as follows: Simply
observe whatever arises, whatever attention finds in the
field of awareness. Do this moment to moment, under all
circumstances, in times of relative activity, and in times
of respose – waking, dreaming, or sleeping. Do not force
attention to go within (either toward internal mental and
psychic objects or toward the root of the “I” thought and
the root of the gesture of attention itself). Do not force
attention to go outward (toward physical or perceptual
objects and relations). Simply observe whatever is arising
as the effect of the spontaneous movement of attention,
within or without. Remain as surrender–that is, simply
allow whatever will arise in the field of awareness to arise
and be whatever it will, or to change or disappear as it
will. Exchange the now or radical habit of observing what
arises for the old or conventional habit of engaging what
arises. That is, simply remain in relationship to whatever
arises, aware of whatever arises, rather than identify with,
enter into, or avoid whatever arises. Whatever arises is
nothing more than a modification of the Energy or
Consciousness or Being that is awareness itself. Therefore,
simply allow and observe whatever arises, and, in every
moment, “see” or recognize whatever arises to be simply a
modification of awareness itself. Do not be troubled by
anything that arises. Simply allow and observe and recognize
it. Do not become motivated by anything that arises. Simply
allow and observe and recognize whatever arises.
(Participate in thought and action only to the degree that
is necessary within the ordinary economy of your habit or
obligation, and, even then, remain in this disposition of
surrender, simply allowing, observing, and recognizing the
conditions, states, and relations of the body-mind. Thus,
over time, you will become less and less occupied with
activity and thought and you will abide more and more in
simple recognition of all conditions in the Radiant
Transcendental Being.)

all the conditions and states that arise are his own form
just as his speech comes from his own silence or very
nature. All of the three ordinary states also arise within
him, within his own fundamental nature but without
identification, without illusion, without mystery, without
noncomprehension. I am the one about whom there is no
mystery and no deeper part. He is not mysterious, he finds
no mystery within himself or within the world. The world is
obvious. Everything is obvious that arises. So for such a
one there is no depth. I think it’s in this book or at some
point I speak of the man of understanding as being a
profoundly superficial man. Not in the sense that we
ordinarily use that term to refer to somebody as being
superficial, only in the sense that his quality is not
mysterious. He is as he appears to be. There is no dilemma
within him, no division within him and so nothing to him and
for himself that is peculiarly mysterious. He is involved in
the obviousness of things and what is obvious to him is the
divine. I am the one who always appears exactly as he is. I
am the one who is always present. He is not hidden, he is
not elsewhere, he is not in another time and space
condition. His quality, his fundamental nature is presence.
I recognize myself as everything, everyone, every form,
every movement. Whatever arises he realizes to be his own
form, his own quality, his own nature. No separation is
created in him. No sense of separation is implied to him on
the basis of what arises, either in the form of his own
states, waking, sleeping and dreaming, or if the qualities
that seem to be other than himself within those states,
other people, things in the waking state, worlds that arise
in visions. Whatever arises he no longer discovers them to
be other than himself. He no longer becomes involved in the
implication of separation. He recognizes whatever arises to
be himself, his own form.

To whatever degree you fail or find yourself unable to
fulfill this discipline at any time, simply observe
yourself, be easy, be full of enjoyment, make your actions
at least an indulgence that does not harm others, and
continue to turn to God through me and in the form of my
Presence with feeling, from the heart. The more you mature
in my Company, the more you will fulfill this discipline.
The more you fulfill it, the more you will see of your
turning from the Divine Condition. And the more you see of
this turning away, the more responsible you will become for
your turning to God through me.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj

“Notice what is affecting you. In
one fashion or another, through the Grace of Truth Itself,
you must handle business – even after the fact, at a later
date. You must. You cannot continue to grow, you cannot move
on in the Way of the Heart, until you handle your business,
until there is nothing left over, nothing unforgiven,
nothing unspoken, nothing unthought. You must be physically,
emotionally, and mentally purified of memory, of insult, of
moments of pain and separation. You must be. You can make
great leaps in that process, because Truth is a great Force,
but nonetheless you must endure it. You must handle your
personal business, the business in your past, the business
in your friendships, the business in your blood relations,
the business in your intimate relations, the business in
your friendly relations, your business with the
world.

You are suffering many concrete
things in life, and others are also suffering. By the power
of Truth erase what you and they are suffering. That is the
Way of the Heart, and nothing else, nothing less, at all.
You have very real things to do, very real things, very
human things, even very ordinary things. You must do these
things. There are conversations you must have. There are
things you must say and things that must be said to you.
Energies must be released, feelings must be exposed,
thoughts must be expressed, bodily signs must be given. New
society must be generated. The entire culture of My devotees
must be changed by this exercise. Do not tell Me I am Free
to give you My Native Sign until you do that and give Me
your sign.

You can see what a cave the ordinary
life is, what a wilderness it is, what tapas it is, what
sannyas it is, what self-mastery it requires, what manliness
it requires, male or female. It is in precisely those
moments that you must make the great Choice that is the
measure of My devotee.

Especially in the beginning of your
sadhana in the Way of the Heart there is so much gross,
petty nonsense. Because you are only at the beginning, you
are dealing with all the ordinary, first-threestages-of-life
stuff. But do the real sadhana and it becomes-I would not
say “easier”, necessarily, but it becomes more
straightforward, subtler, more refined, more profound. You
must endure that beginning, the handling of life-business,
and be purified of the grossest part, which is there at the
beginning.”