Adi Da Samraj, 1975
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All of this here is not what is appears to be. It’s not at all what is appears to be. And what is really is is what Sadhana is all about. The realization of that. And it’s not true that you are a body inside a body and that you are in a world. It is not true that you are in a dimension above which there is a another of many dimensions at the top of which there is a light.
Listen
None of that is true. All of those descriptions may reflect in some way the convention of your ordinary awareness. And all the searches communicated by men of experience through the spiritual traditions are essentially conventional exercises. They are built upon your ordinary perception of things.
So, from the conventional point of view there is this body here and there is all this space here with objects out there. There is me inside…and there is the mind up here… and there is the vital force…. basically in the navel. The saharsra is up here… and the subtle realms are way up there. The light is really up there… and the heart of course is on the right.
What point of view do you point to to all those places anyway? The same one who says the tree is out there says, “I am in there” or “I am in here.” From this conventional point of view even the heart for instance is on the right, the self…???? and so there are all kind of games, spiritual games, salvation games that can be generated from the conventional point of view. You can keep your attention at this sort of gross level and pursue your salvation or consolation, which is basically the same thing, on this level through pleasures and self-improvement, success, ordinary physical enjoyments, psychological change by manipulating yourself. Whatever…there are all kinds of things you can do down here. Improvement of the mind, intellect. Or you can play another game that basically involves conservation and ultimately the abandonment, conversation and then abandonment of life in which you concentrate in the subtle beings and go up. Follow energies, sounds, lights so forth. Eventually, get out of the body, get up to the subtle realms….all those games.
There is also the game of finding the root of subjectivity, the nature of the “I” thought. Discovering this Self which is prior to and excludes the world.
But all of these are really just conventional activities. They are all ordinary. They are visible, obvious kinds of games that anyone can take up depending on his or her inclinations. But none of them have anything to do with the Truth.
The truth is that the body is in the Heart and the saharsra is also in the Heart and the god light is in the Heart and the self is in the Heart. All of these are in the Heart. The Heart is not inside all of them nor is the Heart found by following them. By manipulating them, by going from one to the other. The Heart is the truth of all of these. It doesn’t make any difference really which direction you go in. You could go from the self to the God light. You could go from the God light to the body, do it all in reverse. It still would have nothing whatever to do with the truth which is what it’s for. What it’s all for, what all that sadhana really ultimately is for and the Heart is not really (hits his chest) in the chest.
There is a kind of wisdom read through this physiology from the point of view of most perfect understanding in which statements can be made about the Heart and the Saharsra and the navel and so forth. But all of that is just wisdom that appears in the midst of that perfect consciousness which is not contained but of which everything that arises is the modification. The world is the modification of that. The body is, desires are, thoughts are, all subjectivity is. The three ordinary states waking, sleeping and dreaming are its modifications.
The ego or “I” apart is its modification, the God conceived as creator and other and so forth is its modification. The self, the root of consciousness, the root of subjectivity conceived to be independent of all that appears is its modification. Such realization is absolutely free and I mean absolutely free, not a little bit free, not free to be an ascetic, not free to play a certain kind of role, not free to try to get into the subtle dimensions after death, absolutely free, humorous, free of all of the ordinary implications of this conventional point of view.
It is for the sake of that freedom that you do sadhana. Not for the sake of all of these complications of life, all of these improvements and failures, all of this coming and going, all of this mediocre bullshit. Of course such freedom cannot be sought from this conventional point of view.
The conventional point of view doesn’t want such freedom. It’s the undoing of that point of view. The game is basically over from the point of view of such freedom. Then it’s just play, slight of hand. There is really nothing serious anymore. Nothing is serious. Nothing is required. Nothing is obliging. There is no implication, no limitation. All of this is, that. All of it, not what’s just up there, not just the self. All of it…is amusing.
So the conditions of sadhana are given so that you will enjoy the breakdown of this point of view that your life always tends to involve. You always will tend to complicate it, make it impossible for yourself perhaps. You always tend to justify the convention of your separateness with all kinds of emotional and circumstantial evidence, all kinds of analysis, all kinds of reading. But this affair of sadhana is serving always to undermine it, even though it takes the form of all of these conditions that are ordinary conventional life-supporting and so forth.
So all of sadhana is a progress of lessons, not of attainments. Whatever the theater that appears in your case in this moment, it is your own. Ultimately it is your responsibility. It is testing you and its content at this moment is perfectly appropriate.
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