Commitment, Understanding, Faith and Mediocrity
A beezone study
of an original talk entitled
No Congratulations – Only Realization
By Adi Da Samraj, August 16, 1987
HEART-MASTER DA:: The clear sign of commitment is lacking in this gathering. You must clearly demonstrate the sign of practice, the commitment to practice. You all are supposed to be real religious practitioners, and yet you do not tend to exhibit a similar sign of commitment and clarity.
What is lacking in you is the disposition of a practitioner, which is something like the disposition of faith that is fundamental to religion. Faith, or real commitment, heart-commitment to self-transcending God-Realization, is also fundamental in our Way. Real heart-commitment is not simply a matter of liking the idea of becoming Realized. It is a matter of commitment to the Process itself, commitment to the reality of Realization, without doubting Realization itself. You must have that certainty. The commitment to self-transcending God-Realization is a confession of the heart-principle and not merely an experiment, a gesture toward a possibility.
What am I criticizing, then? It is your mediocrity. And what is the source of that mediocrity? The lack of faith, the lack of presumption, certainty, great confession, real participation. Your commitment is tentative yet – it is still something on your mind. It is not heart-bom and forceful.
That being so, all your gestures will be mediocre and will neither prove nor demonstrate the principle of the Way. Thus, the heart-principle, or faith must be present at the beginning. The force of unfaithfulness, or bad faith, must be transcended in you. Bad faith is really just another word for self-contraction in the face of reality in all its forms. That inability to participate, to go beyond yourself, is what I have been criticizing.
You come into my Company, but you do not demonstrate the sign, without effort, without being strategic, of one who has confessed that principle and is certain of it. You are talking about transitions to practicing stage 1.1 and 1.2, but how can you really be considering such transitions if this force of faith is not fundamental? The transition to practicing stage 1.1 in this Way is founded upon the commitment to self-transcending God-Realization. By that I mean heart commitment, certainty, and the real capacity to participate in the process. But you cannot be talking seriously about transitions to levels 1.1 and 1.2 if that force of faith is not present in you. Until then you are at best a student.
What am I considering with you, then? Where is the real sign?
Full of the true signs of The Way of The Heart
You must overcome your own mediocrity and show me some signs. Stop calling upon me to show you this and that, do this and that, say this and that. Where is your work? Where is it? It is difficult, no doubt. But so is everything that people become committed to. Scientists are committed in their work, and it is difficult.
Sports figures are always setting difficult goals for themselves. People all over the world are setting goals for themselves and struggling to achieve them. It is all difficult. Likewise, the Great Way is difficult—more difficult than any other undertaking, because it encompasses everything. But it is no more difficult in any moment than you can handle.
True religion is a trial. It is not a force of consolation. It is a test, an obligation, a creative demand. It requires everything of you.
True Religion is a Great and Creative Struggle