A Matter of Hearing
Adi Da Samraj
January 6, 1996
AVATARA ADI DA: In other words, if you truly locate the self-contraction in this Yoga of devotion to Me, you simultaneously locate Me and discover the immediate means, always available to you, for going beyond that ego-knot.
DEVOTEE: I felt in the last two nights that You’ve been Calling me-you know, like the first night I felt really sick when I felt this speck of egoity in that process You were leading us through, but what’s occurring more now is that, as I said, that drawing. I just feel that quickening of that drawing.
AVATARA ADI DA: But in the hearing practice, there’s basically a single gesture, whatever its accompaniments. It’s a matter of standing in the position of that act, that self-contraction, that knot, not just experiencing it from some point of view outside it. And directly feeling beyond it. So that becomes the basis of practice once hearing is the case. It’s a very direct gesture. It may be accompanied by Naama Japa or self-Enquiry, whatever, and conductivity practice-your whole life of practice-but still fundamentally its this one gesture every moment. It’s not working on the self-contraction from outside. It’s standing in its position-and you have the knowledge in that position-of radiance.
You can always make this gesture. You always know what the problem is. It’s this knot, that you’re doing. And you always can feel beyond it in Communion with Me. There’s certain knowledge in it. This covers everything. This covers the whole case. This was the seeker. This is the basis for the seeking, the constant disturbance. It’s the key to all of it. Therefore, it’s the key to all the separate parts of your egoic life, patterns you’ve developed. And they can likewise be addressed from this hearing point of view, must be.
So that’s hearing, that realized capability, and always true, always available. And then you never leave that knot position, except through Communion with Me. And you should always be aware of that knot, that act, that contraction that you are doing. And that will be your principal experience until you do this act of opening the hand, so to speak-enter into this Communion with Me and not drop back. It becomes more and more profound, more and more constant. So instead of noticing the self-contraction, feeling beyond it, or however it works in your own case, you see, instead of those kinds of routines, it becomes the constancy of Communion with Me, Samadhi, just beyond the self-knot.
So that’s how hearing matures. It becomes essentially constant Communion with Me. A taste of that is so full you don’t want to drop back. And you find out how to enter into that Communion under all circumstances.
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“From the beginning of this Way you must understand this self-knot and its symptoms, and you must naturally transform your relational life. You cannot therefore just be a self-indulgent or doubtful character or a bound householder or a lover, an attached character, a worldly seeker, a businessman. You can be functionally something like that you can work in the world, you can be sexually active obviously-but only as a free personality, only from the point of view of That which precedes the self-knot. Rather than bind yourself in relations and seek Happiness in them, you Stand already Free and Happy, and magnify that Happiness in relations. That very Principle is the essence of the Way, and it makes all the difference.” – The Knot of self