Adi Da’s Writing Style
IN WRITING OF Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyst and philosopher Erich Fromm observes:
“The attempt to understand Freud’s theoretical system, or that of any creative systematic thinker, cannot be successful unless we recognize that, and why, every system as it is developed and presented by its author is necessarily erroneous…. The creative thinker must think in the terms of the logic, the thought patterns, the expressible concepts of his culture. That means he has not yet the proper words to express the creative, the new, the liberating idea. He is forced to solve an insoluble problem: to express the new thought in concepts and words that do not yet exist in his language…. The consequence is that the new thought as he formulated it is a blend of what is truly new and the conventional thought which it transcends”
With Me—or Else any object or any other Will Be The Cause Of Heart-Stress, self-Contraction, Dissociation, Clinging, Boredom, Doubt, The Progressive Discomfort Of Diminished Love-Bliss, and All The Forgetfulness Of Grace and Truth and Happiness Itself.
Note that “and” and “or” are lower-cased—because these conjunctions are (here, and in almost all contexts) primal expressions of the point of view of two-ness, or duality. Also note that “all conditions”, “any object”, “any other”, and “self” are lower-cased, while “Heart-Stress”, “Contraction”, “Dissociation”, “Clinging,” “Boredom”, “Doubt”, “Discomfort”, “Diminished”, and “Forgetfulness” are capitalized. Avatar Adi Da is telling us that unpleasant or apparently “negative” states are not inherently egoic. It is only the presumption of duality and separateness—as expressed by such words as “conditions”, “object”, “other”, and “self”—that is egoic.
from Adidam.org
Why does Adi Da write in capital letters?
Avatar Adi Da has transformed the English language into a vehicle to serve His Communication of the Sacred, God-Realizing Process in His Company. In doing so, He has Revealed the logic underlying the common conventions of written English.
Ordinary speech and written language are centered on the ego-“I”, as a tent is raised on a centerpole. Therefore, in ordinary speech and written language, the ego-word “I” is commonly capitalized and everything less than the ego-“I” is shown in lowercase. In contrast, the “centerpole” of Avatar Adi Da’s Speech and Writing is the Heart, the Divine, Consciousness, Truth, Realty, and Happiness. Therefore, He capitalizes those words that express the Ecstatic Feeling of the Awakened Heart, and, in many instances, lowercases those words expressive of the ego or conditional limits in general.
In addition, Avatar Adi Da has developed the conventions of punctuation (commas, dashes, quotation marks, underlining, and parentheses) to an extraordinary degree. This allows Him to clearly articulate complex sentences in such a way that His intended mean can be expressed with utmost precision.
This capitalization convention, which Avatar Adi Da has worked out to an extraordinarily subtle degree—in ways that are often startling) is in itself a Teaching device, intended to communicate His fundamental Revelation that “There is Only Real God”, and that only the ego (or the dualistic or separative point of view) prevents us from living and Realizing that Truth.
From the time when Adi Da first began to Communicate His Testament of Secrets, He used capital letters in a unique way, to honor the importance of the Message and to give the Communication of His Testament Principal Force. When asked to explain this use of capital letters, Heart-Master Da replied, “It Is Louder!” After His Testament was completed, He responded to those who seemed to require a further explanation:
The conventions of everyday speech and writing are based on egoity. The “I” of the separate, independent, and separative (or `Narcissistic’) self is the primary word around which all common spoken and written language is built. My Testament of Secrets is not spoken or Communicated from the egoic point of view. Therefore, a unique convention developed spontaneously with the making of this Testament (wherein and whereby I Intend to speak the Heart-Word, plain and summary, and in the unique language of the Heart Itself).
In fact, this Testament is primarily a spoken Message. From the beginning, I spoke it aloud to gatherings of practitioners of the Way of the Heart. Written language is basically a representation, or a picture (or pictogram), of spoken language. Therefore, this Testament (in its written form) is a visual representation or Sign of My spoken Word (which Word itself represents or Conveys My Heart-Feeling and Heart-Consciousness).
I spontaneously made this picture that is the written text of this Testament, and it is a picture of a form of speech that is not based on egoity. It is the speech of Ecstasy, of Inherently self-Transcending Heart-Consciousness, or of Perfectly Awakened (and necessarily Divine) Self-Consciousness, the Heart-Word of Reality (Itself), Which Is the Inherent or Native Feeling of Being (Itself).
Ordinary speech and written language are centered on the ego-‘I’, as a tent is raised on a centerpole. Therefore, in ordinary speech and written language, the egoword “I” is commonly capitalized, and everything less than the ego-`I” is shown in lowercase. (Indeed, everything that is not the ego-“I” is grammatically subordinated to the egoic “I”-reference.) Other ego- “I”s (other than the principal subject or speaker) are also commonly shown in uppercase, if they are being `properly” (or formally) addressed, by name. And capitalization is otherwise commonly reserved for “big meanings, or whatever the ego- “I” presumes to be somehow great, or even Larger (and, therefore, the ego presumes, Other) than itself
My Testament of Secrets was (and is) spoken in Ecstasy, or from the Inherent or Native `point of view” of the Heart (or Inherently Free Being) Itself, the Ultimate Condition that always already transcends the ego-“I”, the conditional world of others and things, and the Primary Illusions of Separation, Otherness, Relatedness, and “Difference”. Therefore, the very language of this Testament expresses (and Communicates) a view of the world (and of Truth) that is prior to egoity, and prior to the vision of the world (and the “vision” of Truth) made by the ego.
This Testament is My Intention to Awaken the Consciousness of every being to Its Ultimate Real (and Necessarily Divine) Condition. Therefore, the conventions of capitalization (and non-capitalization) in this Testament are Natural Signals to the Inherently (and Ultimately) Free Heart-Consciousness.
The “centerpole” of this Testament is the Heart Itself, the Consciousness That Is Transcendental, Inherently Spiritual, and Necessarily Divine Being (Itself). The uppercase words express the Ecstatic “Vision” of Heart-Significance. And the lowercase words (which appear only occasionally, like the uppercase words in common speech and writing) achieve, by their infrequency, a special significance as indicators of conditional or limited existence.
To read (or Listen to) and Understand this Testament is to be Released from the egoic vision and its point of view. Let it be so. Feel and speak (rather than merely think) this Message. The big and small letters interrupt the common flow of mind and Signal your Heart that it is time to Awaken, As You Are.