The following is a talk – a failed prophetic one – that Adi Da (Then Da Free John – called ‘Master Da’) gave on the Island of Nananu I Ra on April 6th, 1983. During this time, Adi Da was looking for his final resting Hermitage (Naituba), which was found shortly after this talk.
What makes this talk prophetic – and clarifying, in a sense, is that it is his first declaration of his intention to Stay in His Realization State and not teach or instruct (submit to a less realized state).
This is the beginning of a struggle that was never able to be realized. For any serious study of Adi Da’s life and his relationship to his devotees, this talk – plainly spoken – can be seen as his central ‘complaint’ that ran throughout his life. The only difference is the volume, relentlessness, and the ultimate failure of his declaration – and wish – to ‘Stay in His Real Condition’ and have devotees Realize That State.
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“I am not actively being the Siddha, the Transmitter of Spiritual Force to the beginning devotee.
I have already done that.”
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MASTER DA: A few months ago, I communicated to everyone that I was about to move fully into the Hermitage position and that this move would change my relationship to everyone, uniquely and irrevocably. I have worked for several years to make and to prepare everyone for this transition. During the last nine months I spent my time recapitulating all of the considerations of the past eleven years, as part of the final preparation for this transition. And now that transition has been made.
I will no longer be Teaching as I have in the past. I will no longer be related to everyone as I have been.
“I am now simply speaking from the point of view of my Realization”
I will no longer assume any kind of obligation to Teach or to Instruct. I am not planning to enter into silence, however. Therefore, if I speak to anyone and thus appear to be Instructing, you must understand that I will not be Teaching as I have in the past but will be speaking only in terms of the Ultimate Realization, the process associated with that Realization, and the process of transition to it. I am now simply speaking from the point of view of my Realization and not from the point of view of your apparent non-Realization. I am no longer observing the state of people and communicating to them in terms that will be useful in their present condition, such that if they made use of those instructions they might ultimately be prepared to make true use of me and to practice the Way in its ultimate form. Instead, I speak entirely in terms of the Real Condition itself, that Condition in which the questioner also stands. You should understand that the Work I have been doing all these years with people has been a way of preparing them to relate to me as they should relate to me now.
I have been helping people to come to that point at which they can practice the Way in its most direct and profound form and make use of me as I Am, rather than as I might be useful to them in their un-Realized condition. For years I have addressed people in the condition in which they presumed themselves to be. It was necessary for me to embrace those conditions in order to help individuals to understand and move beyond them. That instruction produced this unique Teaching Demonstration and all the forms of instruction that relate to the stages of the “yoga of consideration.” That instruction has also produced an institution and a community culture, wherein all of what I considered with everyone in the past now exists in living form as a cultural process that will help people in their presumed un-Enlightenment to prepare themselves to practice the Way in its ultimate and most profound form.
All of that having been established, I no longer presume the function of addressing or serving people as I did. I have no intention to play the role of the human Teacher among unprepared people, to be available to them, to associate with them or to relate to them in the domain of their ordinary problems. Nor is it my intention to be intentionally, personally, and actively involved in Transmitting the Spirit-Power that stimulates and purifies people and -helps them move more quickly toward spiritual maturity.
I am still in some sense serving people as the human Teacher, but not by virtue of any present, personal activity. Rather, I enter into consideration with devotees relative to their presumed limitations through the instruments of the Teaching, the Sacred History, the institution, and the community. All of that has become an Agent that serves the purpose that I originally served in person. I no longer presume that service as an obligation or an intention. To the degree that this service is necessary, it will be performed by these Agencies.
Likewise, in effect, I am still serving everyone as Siddha with the Spiritual Blessing that is particularly associated with the earlier stages of practice. The Radiant Force of my Company is Present, there to be contacted by those who give me their attention. They will naturally encounter it. Thus, those who give me their attention will know this Blessing even though I have no intention to actively communicate it. I have established Agencies for this form of my previous Work also. I have empowered Sanctuaries and places of meditation where that Force is particularly potent. And I have gathered a community that has been Blessed year after year by this Work. The members of that community are collectively serving that Agency now. Thus, all of the people who function in our community and in our institution, who gather with one another and with newly entering devotees, represent a vehicle of Transmission of this Siddhi. But I no longer presume any obligation to be personally responsible to Transmit this particular aspect of my Influence intentionally.
Everyone should be giving me their attention in the spiritual sense without obliging me to be active, to be personally available to them, to be involved in the institution and the community culture, involved in the affair of giving them my personal attention for the sake of creating lessons for them or analyzing their state. All those who truly give me their attention are preparing themselves for the practice that begins at the point of spiritual maturity. At that point I am recognized as I Am. They are then Awake to the Position in which they Stand and are ready to submit to That. I will continue to be available simply where I live and as I Am in the Hermitage to those who come to that point of spiritual maturity.
I am simply present in my Hermitage without any obligation. I am not actively being the Teacher of the un-Enlightened devotee. I am not actively being the Siddha, the Transmitter of Spiritual Force to the beginning devotee. I have already done that. Like the Dawn Horse, that Blessing is there to become manifest in all those who practice this Way and turn to me as devotees. The Blessing is given if you give me your attention. The Work is already done. I am simply Present. I simply Am and I have no presumed Work to do in this Hermitage stage of life. I am calling everyone to practice this discipline of approach, this culture of the beginner’s stages, to pass through the stages of acknowledgment and recognition of me as Teacher and then as Siddha. I call you to use all these Agencies until you show the signs of spiritual maturity, of free energy and attention, of equanimity, wherein you can recognize and acknowledge me as I Am, as the Self, as the Well of Being in which you Stand.
I constantly point out to you that whatever may be going on in the body-mind and however binding it may be to your energy and attention, you are simply witnessing it. You are always already in that position which is aware of arising conditions and all objects, whether those objects are apparently subjective or apparently objective. In either case, everything that arises has the force of an object, and you are always what is witnessing those objects. Whatever problems may appear in the domain of the bodymind, whatever presumptions you have as a manifest personality, whatever answers you may require as a manifest personality, whatever your search may be, whatever your impediments may be, you are only this witness. And the spiritual process for which you must prepare yourself is the process of immersion in that which is the witness to the point of Realizing its Condition and Status.
That is the process into which you enter at the point of spiritual maturity when you have heard and seen me truly, when you have recognized me and have come to acknowledge me as I Am, when you have come to appreciate your own ultimate Condition. That Condition is not other than myself, the One that I Am. Ultimately, you see, I do not even stand in relation to you. I Am that Condition in which you Stand, made evident through the process of human birth for the sake of Instruction and Awakening, in order to lead you to this ultimate process and Realization. Since you are that which is always witnessing all conditions that are arising, I will hereafter only address you as that. I have already addressed you in all other possible terms that would make it possible for you to acknowledge this Realization and come to the point of being capable of submitting yourself to it.
I value the Work of preparing people for the ultimate process, and I have done that. I did it because it is of value. Having done that, however, I have now completely and irrevocably abandoned any intention whatsoever to do that Work again. I am here to be available to people who will use everything that I have done all these years, who will make right use of my Company and practice the discipline associated with spiritual maturity to the point of Realization. I assume no obligations in the world, I assume no obligations in the institution, and I assume no obligations relative to individual practitioners. I am simply Present here for their use, once they have made the fullest use of everything I have already given.
Adi Da Samraj, April 6, 1983
