Unblemished Infinity

THE “BRIGHTENING” WAY TALK
SERIES

THE “BRIGHTENING” WAY TALK SERIES – The Yajna Discourses
of Santosha Adi Da (1995-1996) – Gathering “Considerations”
with Beloved Adi Da Samraj, at Sugar Bowl Ski Resort and the
Manner of Flowers, December 29 and 30 1995, and January 3,
1996.

Index

The Yajna Discourses of Santosha Adi Da
(1995-1996) (12/95 and 1/96)

THE “BRIGHTENING” WAY TALK SERIES

The Yajna Discourses of Santosha Adi Da (1995-1996)

Volume 1, Number 7

The Unblemished Infinity

A Gathering “Consideration” with Beloved Adi Da Samraj in
the Manner of Flowers on January 12, 1996

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, last night we spoke about how much
more of these “consideration” gatherings were going to be
useful. You all didnt feel you could be definite about it
last night. But one thing I did observe when we first
gathered, the first one or two gatherings, we very fully
“considered” the whole matter of hearing, which is pertinent
to your practice at the moment. And then we passed on from
there to all those “considerations” that relate to the
“Perfect Practice” and so on, and pretty much persisted in
that for the next three or four evenings, I guess. And what
I noticed last evening was that that was not done as
intensively as the previous evenings, and instead there was
a lot of, I guess you would call it, small talk or something
that filled a lot of our hours, particularly toward the end
of last evening. And that seemed to—whatever you feel
it may mean altogether—suggest that everybodys sensing
this “consideration” has covered everything basically, and
now youre sort of anticipating the ending of this
“consideration” group meeting and going back to business as
usual sort of thing, showing yourselves making that
transition by being sort of mundane. And that would tend to
be the quality of our gathering this evening, unless you
were able to reconnect with the seriousness of the
“consideration”.

STANLEY HASTINGS: Beloved, one of the things that we were
talking about was the matter of something You illustrated in
this conversation that You and I had in the office, which
was that, using Dennis and Frans as an example, You said
that is basically the mentality of leadership, and that its
useful and good-hearted in some way, but also it lacks the
profundity of what an LRO is, and what a body of people are
that can actually speak about the profound practice that
goes beyond just the day to day social and practical and
relational disciplines.

And one of the things that Nina said when we were talking
is that a lot of what these “considerations” have been about
with You are her receiving—I cant remember what the
word was—if it was “realizations” or “Revelations” from
You, Beloved, and then “considering” what shes was going to
do about it. And I think thats really what the key in this
“consideration” is at this point.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: But thats already bullshit, you see?

NINA DAVIS: Yes.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Shes going to go through what shes going
to do about it, as if there are options?

DEVOTEES: Yes, right.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: [kind of laughing] If thats all
that Krishna could get out of Arjuna, He probably would have
just eaten them Himself. [laughter, Beloved laughs.]
“Now that I have Given you My complete Word, and you choose
what you will do”, you know, [mimicking a tentative
Arjuna] “I dont know, Lord. I dig where Youre coming
from about me going back to battle, you know, and its my
duty and all that, but Im sort of scared. [laughter,
Beloved laughs.] I think Id like to take a retreat in
the local tavern for a month or two and really just really
hash out what Youve been telling me, “consider” it in
relation to my overall life.” [laughter] [in a
deepish voice] Chapter 19 of the Bhagavad Gita.

NINA: Yeah. [in a repulsed voice] Oooooh.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: So is that what you were suggesting, Nina?
Some hemming hawing double-mindedness and . . .

NINA: Well, I didnt think so.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: . . . thinking of options relative to this
matter?

NINA: Thats not how I felt it, but, I mean, I know what
Youre saying. I know what Youre saying, of course.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: A couple of nights ago when we were
“considering” these matters, you all had no doubt about what
you were going to do. You were even pressing hard in the
direction of the “Perfect Practice”, and you were just going
to just snicker-snack handle whatever life-business
loopholes youve got, and get down to this most intensive
process altogether. And then now, and the quality of the
conversation later last evening, suggests youre just
thinking about it again, or its like youve got options. And
maybe youll get real intense about it, and maybe you wont so
much. Its kind of a bargaining time, when you get into that
disposition. You make the “consideration” somehow objective
to you again, in the sense that its not involving you. But
youre sort of relating to it somehow—sometimes
interested, sometimes not so much.

Whereas the right result of this week of “consideration”
should be that all of you are truly established in
seriousness relative to this listening-hearing process, and
just very directly, very systematically even, enduring these
days of noticing the loopholes in your discipline and so on,
and just dealing with it very readily.

So you shouldnt leave these “considerations” detached
from them, as if theres some sort of subject matter to mull
over and quibble about or bargain about. You should leave
these “considerations” very seriously focused, and just turn
in your vacation chit to the front office. [Some
laughter, Beloved chuckles]

FRANS BAKKER: Beloved?

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm?

FRANS: Ive certainly felt that seriousness all through
the days that Ive been with You. And I was “considering”
with myself why I otherwise dont tend to do that, along the
line of the criticisms that You Gave to Dennis.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

FRANS: And it was particularly because being with You in
the room here has been so incredibly intense for me in terms
of practice, because literally everything has come up, you
know—all my stresses and ways I go about things. But,
being in Your Company, it was impossible to buy it. I just
had to practice in all the hours that Ive been here. And
that has stayed with me, and I feel will stay with me,
because I dont feel I have any other options.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Maybe. But youre already in that
disposition where youre making earnest affirmations at Me
about some change of life, you see. Whereas you should just
be seriously involved in this “consideration” right now
instead.

FRANS: Mm-hm.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Right life, intensifying your life and
practice altogether, is just something I expect. Why should
we even have to make reference to it?

(25) FRANS: Yes. I was trying to say that thats what Ive
been doing.

(26) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes, but youve vacationed into your
solemn affirmation mind.

(27) FRANS: Right now?

(28) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes.

(29) FRANS: Yes. I can see that.

(30) ADI DA SAMRAJ: To relate to Me rather in social
manner, as somebody toward whom you make affirmations, you
see, . . .

(31) FRANS: Right. I see that.

(32) ADI DA SAMRAJ: . . . trying to sell it to Me. And
youll just have to do all that stuff. If that is going to be
the case, then right now you should be seriously
concentrated, not just trying to do what you ordinarily call
practice—Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga and so forth—but
truly embracing the “considerations” weve entered into here,
and be seriously applying that. And that will make all the
other aspects of your practice profound because it will have
a profound, constant core. And its not just a bunch of
superficial arrangements with peripheral personality, all
that outwardly looking good and so forth in terms of the
religious life, but not dealing with the fundamental
matters. Its like a kind of religious garb, you know? Its a
kind of way of having the status-in-the-club kind of
obsession. Its all ego-based social concerns. You tend to
gravitate back into that constantly, along with all of your
entanglements, and desire plan, the seeker plan, relative to
this, that, and the other thing.

(33) So by identification with the body-mind, youve
inherited this complex entanglement of seeking and so on,
and yet it binds you more and more intensely to the thing
that you fear, as a cover-up of that fear. This was actually
how our “consideration” began here—just addressing this
particular point again.

(34) So you desensitize yourself constantly to your real
feelings about being a mortal organism. No matter how much
you try to keep yourself amused superficially, its still
there, that root fear and anxiety, which you cover
up—never to the point of total relinquishment of all
anxiety, but you cover it up as best you can, try to be
distracted, and pretend that life is just so damned amusing.
You know?

(35) I remember as a little boy sitting in front of the
television set, right around the time we first got it, I
guess—I was around ten years old—and at the time
feeling something like this. Ive watched these people on
what were then something like talk show programs, I guess. A
number of known personalities, and they would sit around
gabbing about one thing or another. And I observed how they
were always smiling and glib, full of the lingo of social
amusedness. It always seemed strange to Me. [Beloved
chuckles.] I remember sitting there, around ten, looking
at this and feeling how incredibly strange this is. What the
hell are these people smiling about? [some
laughter]

(36) I mean, of course you smile sometimes, but its
constant. I dont know—you must be familiar with people
like that on television. [Devotees murmur
affirmation.] Theyre all so out there and interested in
life and smiling, just super-positive and so forth. Its
amazing, going through that song and dance standing in front
of the guillotine. So it seemed very strange to Me. But of
course, now Ive long since realized that its show
business—social show business, being more exaggeratedly
happy as social personalities than any of the viewers could
possibly be, in order to reinforce that whole point of view
that the more body-based ordinary worldly you are, the
happier you get.

(37) These are the successful people. Look at them.
Theyre all smiling. Theyre incredibly enthusiastic about
life. They have no sense of anything else whatsoever. Theyre
just totally fastened in chit-chat, and ordinary amusedness,
and so forth, as if they are immortals of a kind. People on
TV are all sort of like gods of some kind—and
goddesses. So it just suggests, to the masses of people who
watch these kind of programs, that that thing theyre being
indoctrinated into—which is just to be a body-based,
social personality—really works. The president is
happy, you know? All the celebrities are happy. They are
somehow the sources of happiness. [Beloved chuckles
softly.] Theyre so damn happy that they go on TV, and
theyre in magazines, and they hold things up and tell you
how terrific these things are. [laughter]

(38) Theres a kind of cultural show business that goes on
all the time that reflects the disposition of the people
altogether. These are hired fools who suggest to everyone
that this mortal bondage, which underneath youre very
anxious about, is just a lot of fun you should be just
really interested in, and it really works. Someday youll be
rich and famous too, and youll be on TV yourself telling
people the same story, like Frans tells the advocacy
groups.

(39) Were just a bunch of nice, smiling, social
personalities over here, “we Daists”. You know? We Daists,
were just like you. You dont have to get involved with us,
because were just like you! [devotees make sounds of
feeling what Beloved is saying]

(40) STANLEY: Oh, Beloved.

(41) ADI DA SAMRAJ: [Beloved laughs.] Youve all
become for those people, the non-devotees yet, something
like those characters on TV when I was a boy. Youre selling
everybody a bill of goods with all that social personality
rap, just trying to have a pleasing occasion so everybody
can shake hands or hug or whatever, say, “By the way, your
Masters photograph is very beautiful.” [Devotees make
more sounds of feeling the bite of what Beloved is
saying.]

(42) Nothing ever comes of it. The mission is hardly
effective at all. Advocacy work is minimally effective. And
this has a lot to do with it. Youre not connecting people
with the profundity of this Way. Youre not connecting them
with Me. Youre connecting them with some sort of
institutionalized revision of Me. And when you present
examples of My Teaching Word and all the rest of it, you
present it in banal terms, revised somehow to suit this
image you have of what public people are like, you know.
Theyre not really available. They cant really understand
this. They dont really understand this kind of thing
altogether. Or theyre reactive, even, and problematic and so
forth, extremely ordinary. So when you talk to them, you got
to talk to them in these institutionalized, worldly terms
about “your overall life” and all the rest of it. But you
know, “Relax a little bit now here, feel a little feeling,
isnt that terrific? And thats basically what were about.”
[Devotees oh woundedly, Beloved chuckles.]

(43) You ought to go in there and bop them with The
Liberator and The Lion Sutra and some other very important
things that Im really all about. And get beyond their
superficial inclinations and just having a pleasant occasion
and deal with real business. Put them in touch with what
this sadhana is really all about. Put them really in touch
with Me.

(44) But you cant do that if you dont go beyond the
superficialities of the people youre addressing. And if you
presume that theyre just so damned superficial theyre just
not going to understand, then youre not doing missionary or
advocacy work. So you need to provide them directly with
every kind of communication and experience that gets beyond
their superficiality, so they can see Me truly and
understand the profundity and uniqueness of this Way, and
see it addresses something profound and not merely that
ordinary buzz of trouble of the social character. And youre
basically—approaching it the way youve been doing
it—serving that universal pop-religion culture, when it
really comes down to it. Life is about being yourself and
doing your thing and getting as much pleasure out of it as
possible, but keep the edges as round as possible. Be nice
and smiling to people. The message is love. Love everybody.
Even though you dont do much of that, still all religion
gets reduced to it.

(45) So you all do that with Me in this Way altogether.
You trivialize it by adapting it to a model of human
ordinariness that has no profundity. You reduce this Way to
sort of friendly messages.

(46) There doesnt need to be any more religions like
that. You see? Theres already plenty of that exoteric
appeal. Thats not the Way that Ive Given you. So youre not
here to change it into that.

My “consideration” has always been most direct and
profound since the first day I began to address you all
formally. Never done it any other way. So why should you do
it any other way with the people that you come in contact
with? If they had come here, I would have addressed them
straight on and dealt with whats really going on with them
and got beyond the superficiality, got down to business
about things of importance. So if they had come around
instead of you, I would have done it with them. So when you
associate with them, you should deal with them. Be serious,
and not the smiling, social personality merely, and put
people in touch with things that are real issues for them,
real disturbances, real motives of seeking, real responses
to Me—real stuff, not just the chit-chat of social
religiosity.

Fine to be positive characters. What is there to be
negative about? But its another thing to be just slightly
balding, smiling, social personality businessmen, [mild
laughter] whatever.

We also spoke this afternoon about another one of the
techniques of the mission that always seemed to Me to be
remarkable, and which has been played out over and over
again, year after year. There are many aspects to that
particular kind of missionary strategy, but one of them was
this technique which has been played out over and over
again, year after year. Its based on this idea that the
public is not really ready for the Way of the Heart, what
its really all about, you know. So instead of doing direct
missionary work, in extension of Me, you decided to do
specialized kinds of things—Easy Death seminar, or trip
around the world or whatever, or dietary or whatever, some
emotional-sexual seminar—and attract people to
presentations because of their interest in that kind of
subject matter. And, you know, a little bit of reference to
Me maybe here and there in the midst of that, and maybe then
theyll say theyre interested. Its kind of a religious show
business approach where you presume that youre out there to
give entertainments to the public somehow, or just have
pleasant contacts so that you can feel that you and this
whole organization is loved. So you just turn the mission
into a series of self-help lectures or something, or some
secondary reference to Me. You dont do direct missionary
work.

And for years when I would talk to those involved in
mission here, this is the constant plan that they would
propose. So theres always this sort of tendency in the
mission to be sort of off-the-mark or superficial in its
communication to those who arent practitioners yet, also
sort of conforming to social mortality expectations or what
kind of religious group or quality in them is acceptable.
And then you go about trying to look like that.

So youre more and more concerned about the social
personality content and effects and so forth of everything
you do, including the mission. Instead of it being an
activity that converts people to Me and this Way of life
altogether, it becomes just endless chit-chat and trying to
establish some sort of friendly contact, or always have it
be at ease and some social personality kisses at the end
somehow. That always becomes the concern, to have that be
the way everything turns out, the way everything is
experienced. So instead of doing missionary work, what youre
doing is pursuing your own anxious need for some sort of
social harmlessness or positiveness. Youre not converting
people to anything. Youre being very strategic about your
fears relative to their qualities in ordinary contact. You
want it all to be pleasant and smiling, and reduce your
social anxiety.

And so more and more that becomes the whole purpose of
missionary work, advocacy work, is just to have these
chit-chatty hugging sessions with people. And they feel
friendly enough toward you, fine. But theres never any real
“consideration” of this Way. Theres also, therefore, no
conversion to it—minimal of all that, but lots of
smiling talkativeness.

So when I was talking to Stanley, we were noticing
something of this in Dennis and Frans, who are among
those—when I go back to Purnashram—who are going
to be back here, as individuals, principal ones, functioning
in the whole area of culture and mission and so forth. And
something of the quality Ive noticed in the two of you Ive
noticed in the cultural and missionary servers altogether.
And it squeezes the profundity out of the gathering to have
its leadership, so-called, be reinforcing this ordinariness
in everyone.

STANLEY: So thats what then becomes the LRO.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes.

STANLEY: Thats simply just the LRO list then—just a
list reaffirming the status quo.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes, things are this way, have been this
way, and now Im supposed to put My imprimatur on it. “Youre
LRO.”

DEVOTEES: [feeling His criticism]: Mmmm.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: “Now its all been Blessed.”

So I saw that happening. When we were at Sugar Bowl, it
was the night before I was supposed to receive the list of
LRO possibilities, and I was talking to Brian about it in
our conversation at Sugar Bowl, and how I felt clearly what
kind of a list I was about to receive, and it would be,
generally speaking, basically a list of all those who are in
positions doing cultural work or whatever, prominent
functionally in the gathering, and basically it would be a
list of such people. And I pointed out, if I were to declare
these people LRO, well what in effect Im doing is saying
that the state of things in this gathering is right, you
see?

If there were a real LRO, the quality of the gathering
would be different. The effect you would be creating in
leadership positions and so forth would be profound,
positive, really orienting people to the profundity of this
Way of life. So Id be seeing all those good signs. After
all, they are the leaderships stats. This is the result
youre creating here.

So Ive got no more of LRO than I have a right exemplary
gathering in effect, in the midst of everything. The purpose
of the LRO, you see, is to, as an extension of the Free
Renunciate Order, guarantee the integrity of this Way of
life in the institution, culture, community, and mission, by
being its clear exemplars of what it is to be done rightly,
but also being in charge of it. Thats the role of the LRO
principally, speaking of it as a total group. But now Im
looking at those things for which the LRO is supposed to be
responsible, and I see the state its in, and then I get the
list for the LRO, and its the list of the people who have
those responsibilities.

I really dont even have to talk further about it, except
that Ive got to get you all to understand what this is all
about. I mean, just right there is proof theres no LRO. So
why should I put an LRO in parenthesis after the names of
these people and everybody be told this is the Lay
Renunciate Order? Its just to suggest that the way things
are is the Way of the Heart.

So thats why there is a preliminary process preceding
actually becoming a member of the LRO in which you prove
your application so to speak, by everything about your
practice, but also in your service in the manner of what the
LRO is supposed to do.

How do you affect the culture, the institution, the
mission, the community, and so on? And you cant be
Instrumentality for Me, if your effects are not coincident
with the most serious practice of this Way. Then youre not
My Instrument, youre not an extension of Me, in that case.
Youre an exemplar of the revised, nominal version of the Way
of the Heart.

So generally speaking, the gathering has to do it like I
do it—like I did it, in like circumstances. Thats why,
at one time or another, Ive had just about every cultural
position in this gathering. And the purpose was to Give you
the sign of how to handle such responsibilities, and then
youre supposed to do it yourselves.

So youve seen how Ive related to even people right off
the street or people who are just interested, not really
involved in any profound sadhana yet, and so on. Youve seen
Me work with them. Theres nothing indirect about it, or just
about social personality exchanges and so forth, and wanting
to have the lovey-dovey, universal pop-religion effect. It
was always, one way or another, entering into the real
thread of “consideration”, self-understanding, Communion
with Me. So I always spoke directly to that which is on the
other side of that social face there and all the games it
wants to play, and always spoke to that directly.

So “considerations” in My Company are always about
something. So you cant reduce that work to social
personality exchanges and no intention but just sort of
share some sort of good will. I mean, thats fine, and there
shouldnt be any bad will generated, but thats all there is
to it, it seems, so often anyway.

So weve decided to hang both of you right now,
[laughter] yeah, and nip this thing in the bud.
[laughter]

STANLEY: Beloved.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm?

STANLEY: I was noticing today, and actually a couple of
others mentioned this as well, since we began the
“considerations” seven days ago now and have been
through—as You said, there was the hearing
“consideration”, and then that was done, and then we went on
to the “Perfect Practice” and the Witness “consideration”
and that was done, and then it seemed to slip back into
ordinary conversation.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

STANLEY: And one thing that Ive noticed about it in the
midst of it all, that there have been more . . .

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Sort of like the cycle you all experience
in sexual activity, you see. [Beloved laughs.]
Theres the initial arousal and stimulation and so forth,
getting into it stuff. And then theres the climactic, big
highest energy part of it all. And then it starts to recede
quite automatically, quite naturally. And you return to your
non-erotic state, whatever. Well, something like that is not
just found in sex, its found in human doing altogether. And
youve done something like that here, started to notice it
already—not just last night, the night before. So its
starting a little bit. And last night there was a lot of all
that. As I said, I took that to be a sign, just sort of a
natural sign, that the “consideration” has basically been
completed relative to all the things we addressed, and now
youre going through the relaxation into normalcy and “back
to business as usual” mode.

But as I said, thats not good enough. This was not
supposed to be just an interesting way to spend some time
for a while and sort of a little vacation together. It
shouldnt be left just on the basis of that natural cycle by
which you just readapt back to your ordinary life. The end
of this period of “consideration” should be associated with
the sign of all those here not only promising to be involved
in serious and intensive practice in the future, but
everyone here clearly established in the profound core of
your sadhana, and not disregarding it or being superficial
about it all, so that, yes, youll go back into whatever your
life will be in service and practice, but not as before, not
in the superficial, egoic manner, but always attentive in
this serious thread of the listening process and so on.

So I do see the signs of the natural “cycles over” kind
of qualities in you, but we shouldnt end this period on that
basis. And Im sure we have essentially, yes, gone through
those “considerations”, but the result should not be merely,
“Well, thats the end of that,” and you print it and gab
about it, you see. If you all are not transformed in your
disposition by this direct “consideration”, then what is
going to happen with everybody else when you go and use it
in booklets and education and such?—and culturally?
Nothing more than what has happened with you. Everything is
just games then. You play a little game of being profound
for a few minutes, and then you go back to business as
usual.

So whats the point of Revelations if you refuse to
incorporate them into your overall life? [some
laughter]

[Beloved chuckles.] I was just thinking of
Scrooge before, you know. I mean, what if after this
terrific service that Ebenezer Scrooge received from various
spirits and so forth, [Beloved laughs, and devotees
laugh.] he had just gotten up the next morning, you
know, shaken, disturbed, or in wonder, or whatever, because
hed been so absorbed in this dream, but then realized it was
just a dream. And then, you know, brushes his teeth and gets
on with his day. It just recedes—its gone by breakfast,
and he just grumbled back to the office to do it the way he
always did it before. I mean it could have been written that
way. It would have been a rotten story, but . . .
[laughter]

ANIELLO PANICO: And a rotten ending.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, according to the way it was written
by Dickens, he didnt just have some revelation experience
and it was just a brief moment, rather dramatic, but then it
just passed and he went back to his ordinary life. No, he
allowed himself to be changed by the revelations and the
revealers, as the story goes. And he did change his overall
life. Thats very Western of him. [some laughter] But
it wasnt just about outer behavior. It was a change of his
disposition. He was made happy. He understood something
about how to live and his error, and he let go of that. But
he also found a fundamental happiness, deeper than just
being gratified by positive social behavior.

So you could say that he became a kind of a
Contemplative—in the sense of a fulfilled
Contemplative—in a kind of samadhi of wisdom and
joyfulness. I mean, thats how the storys told. Right? So he
allowed himself to be transformed utterly and most
positively for the rest of his life, because he was able to
take revelations seriously—seriously in terms of what
they showed him about himself that he had to correct, and
seriously in terms of being located Contemplatively, finding
that which is great, and making it the basis of your
existence altogether.

So its basically a religious conversion being pictured in
that story. And it is pertinent to “consider” it relative to
your own situation. Most of you, all but a few, have been
here all of these seven days, where mostly this is what we
have done—”consider” these serious matters, with a few
hours off in between. Its like Scrooge being visited by grim
Marley warning him, and then giving him the opportunity to
get out of it. If you take the other spirit seriously, be
converted.

So thats a way of describing something about why weve
gathered and what weve been up to with it. And the question
is the usual one—what will you do?—with such
Revelation Given, shown how to be serious, and what there is
to be seriously done. Are you going to do that? Or are you
going to make a really stupid story of A Christmas
Carol?—by not responding, by not being converted, not
being changed, reoriented so that you thereafter perpetually
live the right life and enter into serious practice in
Communion with Me.

And that ought to be what comes of it. Thats what you
expected Scrooge to do. Right? Everybody would have spat on
Dickens A Christmas Carol if he had written it that other
way.

DEVOTEES: Right.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: Its just a bad story, with a bad ending,
you know. [some laughter]

MICHAEL WOOD: Sure is.

ADI DA SAMRAJ: So you expected it of the guy just reading
a book or watching a movie about that story. And its very
logical to you, his enlightenment and change. You feel quite
naturally thats the way it ought to be. But then, in your
own case, for some reason you feel you have the right to
make a bad story for everyone all the time in your
tendencies. In other words you are showing the unconverted,
un-Enlightened disposition, unmoved by Revelation.

So if you come out of this period of “consideration” weak
in your involvement in this serious core “consideration”,
then it wont have done its job for you, or you found your
way out again—became enmeshed in your egoic patterns
again and forgot about it. This is why one has to have a
Guru—obviously one of the reasons. And that means you
have to be attentive to Me. The reason Realizers are called
Masters is because their disciples or devotees are
established in a bond of service to them, the vow of being a
servant in relation to them.

(91) This was literally the case—still is literally
the case, but it was literal in a very obvious,
extra-obvious sense long ago, when in the Upanishadic era,
for instance, if you wanted to enter into a Masters sphere,
you entered into his family, his extended Dharmic family, or
gurukula, and you took a vow to be the servant of the
Master—thats why he was called “Master”—and
completely accepted his Mastery. You no longer have an
egoic, self-“guruing” enterprise with your life. And serving
the Master at the beginning literally had all the qualities
of a life of what you would call being a servant.

(92) And one of their principle occupations, for
instance, was to, early in the morning, go out and cut wood
for the Masters fire—not just his cooking fire, his
Vedic obligation to keep the sacred fire. They would do
that, do his cooking, his housekeeping. They would do
clearly all the kind of things of a menial servant. And it
is forms of association like that that are fundamental to
the Guru-devotee tradition, but tend not to be remembered,
especially when this whole matter is introduced to people
outside that traditional culture, as in the West. To have a
Guru means you have gotten a technique, or it can mean all
kinds of things. But to have a Guru in those ancient
settings meant that you didnt get anything first. You get to
become a servant.

(93) Its in the context of being the servant of the
Master that you get practices or whatever else. So you dont
even get to listen until youre a servant, a bonded servant,
of the Master. You give your life over entirely, and live
the life of a servant. And thats the first instruction. In
that process, of course, you have various opportunities to
observe the Master, how he works and how he relates and when
hes obviously showing the sign of being pleased with you and
when hes not. And theres all that kind of learning in the
context of service. That is the context of the Guru-devotee
relationship.

(94) As I was saying to you, in quoting Shankara the
other day, “From the point of view of the body, I am Thy
servant. From the point of view of the mind, I am a part of
You. From the point of view of the Self, I am You.” Well,
this covers true religion generally, and the first
disciplines are at the ground level of your bondage, at the
level of the body. And the first, or the root, means whereby
life-changes occur in the devotee is that first of all he or
she becomes literally the servant of the Master. Its on that
basis that you add all the life-disciplines—functional,
practical, relational, cultural—by entering into My
Gurukula, entering into this relation where you, as a bodily
individual, are a servant to Me. So all your actions, then,
are done in Communion with Me, ultimately for My Sake, and
handling responsibilities Ive Given you, but always directed
to Me so that, in every moment of the doing of it, you are
Mastered, you are Contemplating Me, you remember Who youre
serving. One who does activities for his or her own benefit
has no Master to serve, and is serving self.

(95) So the ground key to the Guru-devotee relationship
is the establishment of this kind of relationship. On its
basis, you start being moved inwardly, in toward Communion
with Me or being one with Me, until ultimately you can do
the sadhana in My Place, Where I Stand, Where you Stand
Natively, the Self-Domain.

(96) So that quotation I just gave you from Shankara
contains a very similar understanding to what your
relationship to Me is all about, and what the process is all
about. And if you really did understand what this vow of
devotion and perpetual service was about, you would see how
profound it is and what it really requires of you. No more
self-“guruing”. You dont tell your Master what youre going
to do, you ask. But you dont even have to ask a lot of
questions, because its all right there, its all Written, its
all put right in your hands immediately.

(97) So Ishta-Guru-Bhakti, Ishta-Guru-Seva are keys to a
transformation in disposition that is essential to this
relationship. So we began this sequence of “consideration”
at Sugar Bowl talking about some of this matter of your
relationship to Me as My devotees and what its really all
about, what it is to have a Master, a Guru, Realizer. It
requires a complete change in orientation. Its not just
another bit of identity you pin on your shirt—”You have
such and such, hes your guru” stuff—you know?—the
social exchanges of religious affiliation information. But
to actually have a Master is to be Mastered, and to make no
allowance for egoity. So the context for accepting My Word
of Instruction is to take on the relation of servant to Me,
to make yourself, as a bodily being, one whos related to Me
through Ishta-Guru-Bhakti and Ishta-Guru-Seva. Thats quite a
different understanding from the egos point of
view—different from that. The ego is without a Master,
is self-directed by its own patterning. And the current
politics suggests that you are nobodys servant. You bow to
no one. There is no authority higher than Narcissus.
[pause]

 

(98) So you have to prove you have a Master by living as
a servant, utterly devoted to your Master. And the more
pleased your Master becomes with you, the more your
relationship grows into that of Communion—that stage in
Shankaras statement where he talks about from the point of
view of mind, then, “a part of You”—in other words, a
deeper disposition that moves toward a state of Oneness with
the Divine. That grows from being a servant—you
see?—a devotee servant. Attentive to the Master and the
Masters Word, you become more and more directed to your
Master in the most profoundly surrendered sense, so that you
begin to Commune with your Master.

(99) So all of that was understood to be how it is, even
in the ancient days. That is the culture of true religion.
And remarkably I have had to keep reminding everybody in
this gathering about this—that theyre all in My
Gurukula, and they all have obligations to Me, an eternal
vow, which they are to fulfill without fail, regardless of
tendencies, and theyre related to Me as the devotee-servant.
They must cultivate this relationship through service and
devotion—not just by being a member of the club, but by
being known to Me, as the devotee-servant. Show Me the forms
of all the results you create, and let Me see your gift,
your sign that you are there. And make sure you come on
retreat and so forth. And be serious.

(100) So you must understand, then, the true context of
the Guru-devotee relationship, what it has always been and
what it must be because of the nature of sadhana, and true
Realization. So devotees must understand this, so they can
go through this change of disposition and show it through
all of the signs of practice that Ive Given you.

(101) So we talked about these matters at Sugar Bowl. And
then as that kind of relationship to Me is supposed to work,
you clearly indicated that you are taking on all your
responsibilities, all that would be done and so forth, and
you understand now this relationship is one in which you
dont tell Me what youre going to do, you ask, live by My
Word as Law, and practice your vow of devotion. So all that
was indicated. And then spontaneously from that, or on that
basis, we entered into a profound “consideration”. And thats
the way the ancient tradition is supposed to work. Establish
the right relationship to the Master, fulfill your
obligations, and get to know him better. He brings you into
a sphere of “consideration” that makes you even more
profound.

(102) So then thats what Ive been doing this last
week.

(103) And really there should be no question, then, what
youre going to do. You should do what Scrooge must do.

(104) HELLIE KALOGEROS: Beloved, this period of time with
You has been so wonderful. It has truly been like Your
description of the Ordeal of Being Retreat, where you just
drop out like that.

(105) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. Tcha.

(106) HELLIE: And even though Ive been working, Youve
been with me completely, Instructing me and Guiding me. And
its been completely wonderful.

(107) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm, Tcha.

(108) HELLIE: And I appreciate all of the Gifts Youve
Given us, Beloved—The Gift of tapas . . .

(109) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Right diet. [laughter and people
talking at once] Uh-huh.

(110) HELLIE: My body has taken on a natural economy . .
.

(111) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Economy, Tcha.

(112) HELLIE: . . . in terms of diet and all of the
disciplines Youve Given us. In other words, its taken on a
greater intensity. And instead of reacting to it, Im really
appreciating it, because it keeps me connected to You in a
way thats so tangible. Its been truly a demonstration to me,
whole bodily, of what Youve been describing to us.

(113) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm, Tcha.

(114) Is that supposed to be two eyes, a smile, and a
nose? [Beloved is gesturing toward the way the gifts of
flowers and fruits have been arranged on His bed in front of
Him.] [laughter]

(115) DEVOTEES: Brian did it.

(116) BRIAN OMAHONY: I did it that way deliberately,
Beloved.

(117) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Then maybe a beard down here or
something?

(118) BRIAN: Yes, thats exactly what it is. I didnt have
a nose. I didnt have a nose. [laughter]

(119) BETH KANTOR: The mike.

(120) JANIS OHKI: The mike is the nose.

(121) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Nose here, banana mouth, and two
tangerines for eyeballs. Either a garland or a beard down
here. Very amusing, Brian.

(122) Where are My cookies? [referring to the
cookie-art that He made for the celebration of Danavira
Mela]

(123) KANYA NAVANEETA: Right.

(124) ADI DA SAMRAJ: We have Brians sculpture on display
here.

(125) KANYA NAVANEETA: Oh, the cookies.

(126) ADI DA SAMRAJ: None of My Works are here. What is
the story on these cookies? [laughter]

(127) STANLEY: Beloved, the last thing that I was told
was that they were still drying.

(128) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes, yes. And you havent heard in a
couple of days, is that it?

(129) STANLEY: Uhhhhh. Thats correct. [laughter]
Two days!

(130) HAL OKUN: I knew that sounded familiar.

(131) BRIAN: Or two years, maybe.

(132) ADI DA SAMRAJ: So the whole cookie thing may be
actually happening. Youre just not informed.

(133) STANLEY: Yes. Thats probably the way it is.

(134) ADI DA SAMRAJ: When next we meet, later today,
after our gathering, I want you to actually be able to
provide Me with My cookies or, [affecting a very stern
voice] let Me know the reason why.
[laughter]

(135) BRIAN: That is an ultimatum.

(136) RODNEY GRISSO: What time is it?

(137) ADI DA SAMRAJ: 3:30 or something?

(138) BRIAN: 3:30.

(139) ADI DA SAMRAJ: So—what is there to “consider”
then? [pause]

(140) STANLEY: Beloved?

(141) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Hm?

(142) STANLEY: I think theres something interesting in
what just took place when You were talking to me about
cookies. [laughter] Beloved, You just spoke about,
in the Upanishads, the tradition of serving the Master, and
what that . . .

(143) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes. In other words it goes back
that far. Its continued ever since. [a few people
laugh] Westerners dont want to hear about that part.

(144) STANLEY: But its clear what that . . .

(145) ADI DA SAMRAJ: They want the Santa Claus/child
model of the Guru-devotee relationship.

(146) STANLEY: Beloved, its clear that the rela—

(147) ADI DA SAMRAJ: You know what I mean?

(148) STANLEY: Yes, I do. I do indeed. But, Beloved, its
also the . . .

(149) ADI DA SAMRAJ: But its the servant/Master
relationship, not the child/Santa Claus relationship.

(150) NINA: Right.

(151) ADI DA SAMRAJ: You hear a lot of talk these days
about the humor of the Divine Person, and so on.

(152) BRIAN: Only from You.

(153) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Thats all true enough. You also have
to understand that the Divine Person is incredibly serious .
. . [Some laughter, Beloved chuckles.]

(154) BRENDA PHILLIPS: Incredibly.

(155) ADI DA SAMRAJ: . . . fiercely serious.
[pause] The humorous side is friendly enough,
generally speaking. Its just a Play on the very, very
serious Person, and its a Play thats supposed to bring you
into Communion with that Most Serious Person. And so the
humorous Play is not an end in itself. Its the circumstance
in which you feel beyond your limitations.

(156) And yes, you were going to say, then, Stanley?

(157) STANLEY: The Revelation is made, Beloved, in that
act of service, but something more profound is Revealed
through that, also through your Humor. Always that
seriousness is Revealed in this . . .

(158) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes? And what am I serious
about?

(159) STANLEY: Our Realization, Beloved.

(160) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes?

(161) STANLEY: About Who You Are, about God.

(162) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Self-Existing, Self-Radiant Being,
All Love-Bliss is very, very serious. You notice, theres no
other descriptive terms in there like “laughing”, “joking”,
“smiling”. [Beloved chuckles.]

(163) STANLEY: Beloved, its that Revelation that I think
is a profound aspect of the “consideration” that weve had
over these days, because throughout the entire
“consideration” and all of the Samadhis that were Given, the
one thing that is all illustrated very clearly is that
everything I do thats apart from that is self-contraction.
Thats been Revealed in terms of everything that Im
constantly doing, anything that is a “do”, or to do, already
is that contraction.

(164) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(165) STANLEY: And that is the thread that has carried
throughout the “considerations” and throughout the days or
time that were apart from this meeting. Even if it lasts for
a minute or two—maybe something, some kind of action,
lasts—its right away recognition that its again just
that same thing, and the whole entire spectrum of whatever
that can be, from laughing to indulging the body, to feeling
that I am “considering” something, rather than actually
entering into the “consideration”.

(166) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well if youre serious, you
understand Me about all this, then, you know that the
self-consideration is always the happening, unless it is
not.

(167) STANLEY: Right.

(168) ADI DA SAMRAJ: And the only way for it not to be is
if you literally go beyond, flower beyond, radiate beyond
this self-contraction. Otherwise it is constantly active. So
to be serious means that you understand this in some basic
terms. And know that you have to be constantly dealing with
this contraction, engaged in that listening process in
relation to Me in which you are more and more profoundly and
directly noticing this as the root of all of your seeking
and all of your activity, all of your experience—this
knot, this dis-ease, this force of contraction rather than
Radiance in your disposition altogether. So its the
seriousness of examining that, noticing that, understanding
that, in the moment to moment process of this devotional
Communion with Me, yielding all of the faculties.

(169) This is why Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga must be moment
to moment—because without it, all the faculties fall
into their entrapment mode and perform the egoic search. Any
moment in which you do not practice this devotion and are
seriously moved to go beyond self-contraction, beyond
self-reference, any moment in which that is not occurring is
the moment of the dramatization of Narcissus—which is a
vast, complex dramatization. It seems like in all the roles
and patterns of life, in what Ive pointed out to you, that
no matter what the pattern looks like, its still this guy
looking at himself, dissociated from all, and everything, in
self-meditation, meditation on the ego-knot, and its
motive.

(170) So to be serious is to be involved in this thread
which becomes hearing, flowering beyond self-contraction.
That means you have to be serious about the Yoga, the true
Yoga of Ishta-Guru-Bhakti moment to moment. So Ive Shown you
how to have it be so.

(171) Hm? So you do this Ishta-Guru-Bhakti Yoga
constantly in the midst of conditions, all of which have
been rightened by your embracing My Instruction. So every
moment, then, is this giving through all the
faculties—yes, giving yourself into Contemplation of
Me, and doing it in the context of right practice as Ive
Given it to you, under whatever circumstance youre in at the
moment. It is to live the life of the servant-devotee. Not
an employee, but someone who has been “sold” to a Master, so
to speak sold.

(172) If youre doing all of that, and just handling that
basic business out front, those adaptations very directly,
and really entered into this seriousness of disposition
moment to moment, then the “consideration” of My Instruction
relative to hearing—you see, how could it not become
fruitful very quickly with all the signs and characteristics
weve discussed in this week? The only thing that weakens it
is this bad story of Scrooges non-conversion, or his delayed
conversion, certainly. He wants to think about it. Having
started that, its not likely hes going to take it up
seriously.

(173) So thats what interrupts it. You dont take your vow
seriously. You think of yourselves as employees or friends
instead of “Bonded” servants, given absolutely—having
discarded all the options. You do it with utmost seriousness
and no ambiguity, because youre serious about this whole
affair of Communing with the Master, Realizing his
Condition. And the ground impediment is this oblivious
self-contraction which must become your responsibility.
Well, thats what hearing is all about,
then—establishing all the conditions of right
relationship to Me, all the disciplines, obligations, and
seriously “consider” this matter of the
self-contraction.

(174) Rather than addressing your seeking and fulfilling
it, address this root of it, this disturbance, until, in
response to Me, in Communion with Me, and by address to My
Word, this hearing is simply clear, clearly so. After which
you begin to practice on another level of growth, or in a
process of growth on another level.

(175) The first responsibility, however, is for the
self-contraction, if you cant enter into this Spiritual
process with Me when I “draw” you to the Perfect Place of
practice. You must, in the midst of that, be able to feel
beyond the self-contraction in Communion with Me, or you
will dwell on experiences, superficiality, and so on. But
the ground is this responsibility for the self-contraction
in the Samadhi of Communion with Me, or as the basis for it.
The process becomes one of ego-transcendence, then, simply
and directly. But it is all preliminary practice, the
fundamental import of which is responsibility for the
self-contraction such that you relinquish it utterly in
Communion with Me. And that truly established, then, the
“Perfect Practice” is inevitable. Because in Spiritual
Communion with Me, rather than just giving you a bunch of
experiences to expand your sense of egoic self, I “draw” you
into the place of the Heart on the right, and the
Witness.

(176) Because no matter what is arising, even at this
moment, Aniello, you are the Witness of it. Isnt this true?
Isnt it true now?

(177) ANIELLO: Yes, my Lord.

(178) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Even attention itself. Youre
Witnessing it. So youre not the body-mind. You are That
which is Witnessing it. What is that? This is what must be
Realized. This is what must be entered into. So that
profundity begins only when you Stand prior to the
body-mind, in the Witness-Position, and have that become the
ground of your sadhana, rather than identification with the
body-mind.

(179) But even now, its true at any moment that you
respond to the “consideration” of it. Even now, no matter
what is arising, you are the Witness of it. Simply that. It
is object to you. You are in the Witness-Position. It has no
body-mind in it. So even now its true of you, but other
things are curiously true of you, also. Your entanglements
and so forth.

(180) Last night I was reminding everyone of the story in
one of the old Upanishads. I believe the setting of it is
some wise man instructing a potential disciple, walking
along and seeing a tree, or some such circumstance anyway.
But what is described is a tree with two birds in it. One of
them is constantly busy eating the fruits and so forth of
the tree, and the other simply stands by Witnessing.

(181) Theres all kinds of things that can be made of
that, what its suggesting about what to do, be the good
bird, bad bird, and all that stuff. But, first of all, what
it is is a universal description of the human being in the
egoic state. And anyone can notice this. You notice how you
are, if you understand the tree as the body-mind, you notice
how you are always actively involved in it and its
relations. You see that busyness, that entanglement,
everything that that is. But it is also true, in any moment
that you “consider” it, you are simply the Witness of what
is arising. You can feel, observe, or notice something about
this, as now. Its just that you dont rest in that Position.
But its always already true of you because you can relocate
it, if so directed.

(182) So effectively every human being, prior to
Realization, is like this tree with two birds in it. You
seem to be very preferential about wanting to be the busy
bird, but on the other hand, something in you wants to be
that merely Witnessing bird, and be free. So you have both
motivations.

(183) And we were talking about this last night because
after “considering” this “Perfect Practice” and so forth for
some days, those who were in the group were starting to ask
the question—how do you stay in the Witness-Position?
And they were saying things like, in the midst of their
“consideration”, yes, they were in that Stand, but then as
soon as they begin to think about something or “consider”
some other matter, they would lose a sense of Standing in
the Witness-Position. So everybodys presenting Me with this
paradoxical description of themselves. Yes, you are the
Witness and so forth, and yes, you are entangled in the
body-mind and thats something quite different.

(184) Its not that you are in some bizarre state in the
sense that nobody else experiences this. This is what a
human being is like, prior to Realization. Its not like you
have two personalities. You have two positions or
dispositions, lets say, that are possible for you—the
disposition of identification with the body-mind, or the
disposition of the Witness. They are both immediately
available to you as a presumption, at any moment. Its just
that, by tendency of attachment, you tend to be involved in
the entanglement with the body-mind, principally. And any
movement toward the Prior Position is just that. You are
always “considering” it, or conceiving it, in terms of you
are this entanglement of person and you want to get into a
greater condition. You want to move toward it and not be
what you are now, in some sense.

(185) So in other words, you tend to think that you are
not the tree with two birds in it. You tend to think you are
the tree with one bird in it, this busy one. And the other
one is somewhere else. Anyway, its not what you are about at
the moment. So this is how you delude yourself in the midst
of your entanglement. Because that other option is always
there, you can always recollect it, if you used My Word and
directed yourself that way, you could see that it is so very
directly. Its just that you dont tend to assume that
Position. You tend to assume the entangled disposition. And
then about the matter of Realization, you want to know how
to get there.

(186) You cant get there from here, you see?
[laughter]

(187) JANIS: I was just thinking of that Talk.

(188) ADI DA SAMRAJ: You cant get from the busy bird to
the Witness bird by doing something with the busy bird. When
it comes down to it, you can either be the Witness bird or
not.

(189) So you see how you propose religion in the
ego-based sense. You then begin to think in religious terms,
if its this matter of God-Realization, or Communion with
God, or however you want to describe it, as a process of
going toward that, somehow or another. And eventually
achieve some kind of remarkable intimacy with it or
combination with it, having used your busy self as the
means.

(190) Its a sign of relative immaturity, or earlier stage
practice, that you dont do the sadhana of Standing in the
Witness-Position, but instead presume this entangled
psycho-physical existence, and yet have a heart-motive
toward Divine Communion. But you always “consider” it in
terms of the self-reference, the reference to the body-mind.
Whereas the Perfect Position, the only ultimately right
Position for sadhana, for Realization of That Which Is
Beyond, is the Position Beyond. It is the Beyond Position of
the Witness. Thats the ground of sadhana that is most
profound.

(191) And you see how its just an automaticity to assume
that youre the busy bird, so to speak. You know, try to do
something with it to get into union with the Witness bird.
But that, in fact, is the gesture made in the sadhana until
this Great Matter is understood—that you are in the
Witness-Position, and not in the body-mind position.

(192) So first, being ordinary human beings adapted to
the body-mind, you tend to do things in that manner. You
seek. Contraction is at the root, and you seek this, that,
and the other thing—the way of the body-mind, the
problem seeker, problem-based seeker. But then when you have
heard Me, even though the body-mind still continues to be
the mechanism of your Yogic approach to Communion with Me,
the fundamental practice is that of Radiating beyond the
self-contraction. So you do that, but in the context of this
Yoga of yielding the faculties, yielding the body-mind in
Communion with Me. But you see its all still the doing of
sadhana from the body-mind position. Even though youre
yielding the root of egoity, youre still assuming the
body-mind position.

(193) So there must, following hearing and the Spiritual
process of seeing, be the allowance for this Awakening to
the Position in Which you Always Already Stand. So you dont
turn the busy bird into the Witness bird. You spontaneously,
firmly, without effort, assume the Position where you Always
Already Stand. And thats the Witness. Not the Witness
watching the busy bird—of course in some ordinary
life-context that is done—but the great Contemplation,
the great Sadhana done on the basis of the Witness, is
entering into Its Well. The Well of Self-Radiant
Consciousness, by non-“difference” from Me, attracted by My
“Brightness” into that Depth beyond objects, the Infinite
Domain.

(194) So until there is that Awakening, people create
religion—not only on the basis of egoity and the
satisfaction of its seeking, but they create it on the basis
of fantasy. Theres a lot of fantasy in it, or misconception
because its like the busy bird trying, by gesturing towards
the Witness bird, to somehow be magically transformed into
it. Thats not how it works. You have to Stand in that
Position instead. The busy bird can never become the
Witness. So until the Witness is realized, the ego (“I”) is
your position, and religion is full of a lot of fantasy.
Just like this idea of yielding the body-mind until you
become One with That Which is without form. Its
nonsense.

(195) And yet it is a gesture you must make, and then go
beyond it. Because thats how youre structured. You see? But
people build all kinds of fantasies and myths on top of such
things. So in the first five stages of life theres all kinds
of indulgences and imaginings of psycho-physical conditions
that are it, you know? A lot of the imaginings even relate
to the gross physical existence—the Yogic blisses youre
going to enjoy in every circumstance, including sexual, and
meditation, the kind of utopian brightness youre going to be
yourself (alone and together), and all the powers youre
going to have. [chuckles from devotees]

(196) Then you start fantasizing other places that you
want to ascend to, and the fulfillment of your reaching
whole bodily toward God, you see?

(197) STANLEY: Wow.

(198) ADI DA SAMRAJ: We amused ourselves talking about
some of those kinds of fantasies last night. Dennis and some
others, I guess, were talking about some of these fantasized
religious pictures they used to respond to. Just the whole
imagining of the perfect world that somehow, because youre
making this psycho-physical gesture towards God, you imagine
it being glorified, so that ultimately all of your egoic
intention is there to be fulfilled . . .

(199) STANLEY: Utopia.

(200) ADI DA SAMRAJ: . . . by doing all of that, yes.
Utopia here, utopia on some other plane.

(201) STANLEY: Mm-hm.

(202) ADI DA SAMRAJ: So the earlier stages of life, the
first five stages of life, are the circumstance of
illusions. You can use them rightly to be purified and move
beyond the ego-disposition. Thats what I Call you to do, so
that you can take up the “Perfect Practice”. Thats the
purpose of it. So I havent just Given you an idealized outer
life. Ive Given you a profound process at the core, which is
about going beyond all the entanglement and contractedness
of egoic existence, of conditional existence altogether
even. And as long as you maintain the point of view of the
body, you are Don Quixote, you see. An absurd religionist.
[laughter]

(203) DANIEL BOUWMEESTER: Beloved, last night, You asked
us about what beliefs we still carry over from our childhood
religions.

(204) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes, did you remember something?

(205) DANIEL: Well, I know the thing that frustrated me
when I was involved with the Catholic religion was this
indirect approach to God.

(206) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(207) DANIEL: And I now understand, just from what Youve
just said now, what the mechanism of conventional religion
is, and how I aligned myself with that and became frustrated
with it.

(208) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(209) DANIEL: And then Ive also noticed how that also
anathematizes Standing in the Witness-Position.

(210) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(211) DANIEL: That particular religion didnt have
anything to do with the Witness.

(212) ADI DA SAMRAJ: No, its very righteous about not
assuming a disposition of non-“difference” from the Divine.
All the Semitic traditions have this point of view in their
exotericism. So theres this righteous demand that you live
the social personality life, and if you are a kind of an
official mystic, you still have to maintain the
separation-from-God notion and the creator-God notion and a
lot of other things as part of the structuring of your
mysticism. And it must be this psycho-physical mysticism,
like it is always in the first five stages of life—this
yearning toward God through the human things, through the
body-mind, externally and internally.

(213) So those are all characteristics of the first five
stages of life—all those kinds of things. Its a
structuring of approach to the ultimate Position via the
ordinary position. So its a sign of human
immaturity—all the aspects of religion associated with
the first five stages of life are signs of human immaturity.
That doesnt mean that they have nothing to do with anything.
It just means that they describe human beings gesturing in
paradoxical and absurd ways even, because of a fundamental
misunderstanding, which they must out-grow. Theres only one
real Position, and that is the Position of that of the
Witness Prior to the body-mind, and the whole Depth to My
Divine Domain that is the Well of all that.

(214) So in this Way all of this is clearly communicated,
and youre supposed to understand what this process is all
about, what its for. Its not done from the ego-position and
the pursuit, the search, to glorify it here or anywhere
else, but of going to the root of this search, the
disturbance at the root of it, and understanding it, feeling
it. And then understanding and feeling it, you are in the
Position to feel beyond it, the means is clear.

(215) DANIEL: Well, its also how Youre Drawing us into
the Position where we actually Stand rather than believing
in the illusions of who we think we are, where were at, and
all the rest of it. Your description of the practice as it
really is, and being drawn into the Well of the Witness.

(216) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Is that?

(217) DANIEL: Well, as part of the process.

(218) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Of the “Perfect Practice”?

(219) DANIEL: Yes.

(220) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes.

(221) DANIEL: I was feeling how thats where the
seriousness comes from—Your Attractiveness. And also as
You described just before, the characteristic of the Divine
Person is seriousness. And through Communion with You, and
through Contemplation of You, is how this seriousness comes.
I was “considering” it over against how traditionally its
“considered” . . .

(222) ADI DA SAMRAJ: You become what you meditate on. If
you Commune with That Which is serious, you become serious.
If you seriously Commune with it. [laughter]
Seriously! [laughter]

(223) DANIEL: But the traditional admonition is you get
serious through suffering.

(224) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. Thats one of them, yes.

(225) DANIEL: Whereas that still keeps you in the domain
of conditionality.

(226) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes. So, if your religious practice
is one of making gestures with the body-mind—you
already know its mortal and all the rest of it—then it
must be clear to you that this is not it, yet, you see? That
was My disposition in the whole course of My “Sadhana
Years”. Firmly established in the “Bright”, but with all
this apparent entanglement.

(227) The Truth is what is Always Already the Case. Its
one of the ways I described it in the college experience.
There was a basic sense of Reality expressed through that.
And all the course of practice, experience and so on, still
it was always some permutation of the body-mind, or use of
the method of the body-mind. It obviously wasnt it.

(228) This is also My observation after being in Baba
Muktanandas Company in 1968—Realizing Nirvikalpa
Samadhi by the fifth stage means, and then seeing it
disappear. Not only the return of conditions, but still
feeling the glow of that ascent. But with the return, then
just the pattern of the same entanglement. And all of a
sudden it becomes the mood and the sign of
experience—that, along with the fact that the process
itself depended on the exercise of the body-mind. It was
utterly clear to Me that that was not it. But still the
process just had to go on, and didnt come to an end until it
came to an end. There is the Realization of That Which Is
Prior to conditionality, Prior to the body-mind. Truly That
Which Is Always Already the Case, not a modification of It
in time.

(229) So on this basis also, in the Garbage and the
Goddess period, people had all kinds of experiences around
Me, representing all the different stages of life and so on.
And I would constantly address them after theyd come to Me
with their “great” leela of their experience. I always came
around to pointing out, what are you doing? What are you
always doing? What is this? This is not it, you see? This is
garbage. Why? Because anything that is a permutation of the
body-mind, or that depends on the body-minds exercise, is
conditional. It is not satisfactory. The achievements are
all temporary. Nothing final about it.

(230) So the process just went on, in This Case, until
there was only That Which Is Always Already the Case. It is
the context of the Samadhi entirely. [pause] Not
mixed at all, then, with the efforts and content of the
body-mind.

(231) So the “Perfect Practice” is the practice done in
the Perfect Domain, which is the Domain of Non-“difference”.
And the body-mind is not exercised there, except that the
Doorway to it is related to a last gesture at the point of
contact with the body-mind, which is a gesture of
disassociating from it—turning, inverting, so to speak,
on the Self. Thats the last gesture to be transcended. But
only after drowning in the Well.

(232) You cant get to the Divine Domain without your
death. But its not of mere physical death. You can have lots
of those. Its the utter death relinquishment, Outshining,
out-feeling, of the knot of separateness.

(233) So its in that profound depth of Jnana that it
suddenly is noticed that there is this gesture of
disassociation from phenomenal existence. It is unnecessary.
All of this apparent arising is nothing but the Divine
Self-Condition, Self-Radiant, all Love-Bliss. Hasnt the
slightest effect, in the bondage sense, on the Divine
Self-Condition. So it is Recognized in that last conditional
gesture of having to dissociate from it in order to enter
the Well. Its released. Theres no leaving the Well. Youve
drowned.

(234) The Divine Self-Position is not left behind. Its
that all phenomenal arising is Recognized in that. And the
sign in the body is the Yoga of Amrita Nadi in the
body-mind, wherein the Divine Self Radiates from the
Heart-Position through Amrita Nadi into the Circle, simply
Recognizing what arises, not clinging to it at all,
Recognizing it in the Divine Samadhi, the Ultimate Degree
Where that Shining disposition Shines through and beyond all
conditionality. Not by being disassociated from it, but by
being Recognized. No impediment to the Shine. So it
Recognizes all, passes through all, Outshines all.

(235) That is Divine Translation. But in the meantime,
the seventh stage of life is that very Samadhi. And the
apparent arising of conditions makes no “difference”
whatsoever to that. Neither does it make any “difference” to
the Witness. The Witness is not the body-mind. It has none
of the troubles of the body-mind. The Witness must Realize
its Source-Condition Most Perfectly. But it Stands in that
very Position, about to Realize it.

(236) So the sadhana of the “Perfect Practice” is the
sadhana of the Divine Self-Condition, which is not a
psycho-physical exercise. Its held in place yet, though, by
that last gesture made, that holding the world off, so to
speak, to enter the Well. So that is the last
relinquishment, when Jnana Samadhi becomes Sahaja Nirvikalpa
Samadhi in the seventh stage sense. Open-Eyed, infinite
Samadhi. Recognizing all. [pause]

(237) So the beginning of that Awakeness and of Existence
in that Perfect Domain is to Realize the Witness-Position in
the fullest and Spiritual sense, as being the Position that
Is Always Already the Case. Preliminary to this, in basic
terms, is the relaxation of your entanglement, the fixity,
the mechanicalness of your adaptations, so that you have
free energy and attention for this Ultimate noticing.

(238) So you do have to use the body-mind as means of
sadhana during all of that. But its just being a servant in
My house. Its poor practice. You see?

(239) DEVOTEES: Mm-hm. Yes.

(240) ADI DA SAMRAJ: All the first five stages of
life—poor practice compassionately Given because it
serves the Awakening of true practice, ultimately. “Perfect
Practice”, ultimately. But its still silly. Its still poor
practice.

(241) I still see you being deluded there, you.
[DEVOTEES: Mmmm.]

(242) Still functioning under a presumption that is
obviously not true but that you feel somehow forced to
accept tentatively while you enter into this Communion with
Me constantly.

(243) So, except to get a little playful with you in the
midst of all of that, if I werent able to relate to it that
way, I would find you all incredibly boring. [Laughter,
Beloved chuckles.] It would just be—[groans
from devotees] boring. [laughter] Not
interesting.

(244) And it is boring, and not interesting to Me. But
Ive always maintained the disposition of Play, you see? The
Submission to you of Play, allowing that to be the
circumstance of serious “consideration”. But it is all poor
practice—to see you all doing that there like youre
back at kindergarten still. Me showing you how to put your
rubber boots on so you wont get your feet wet on your way
home to mommy and daddy. [laughter] It is something
like that, you see?

(245) So we did seem to have some sort of agreement
yesterday, or the day before, about how I wasnt going to
have to do that anymore. I have made My Revelation about all
that, Given you all My Full Instruction, and now I just
expect you to do that, and theres no reason why I should
have to take on your form or be so congenial with you that I
assume a likeness to what youre about altogether. But that I
will simply show you My Sign, free of that, and if I ever
Talk it will be about the Great Matter.
[murmurs]

(246) So we sort of agreed about that, I thought.
[devotees affirm] And it was only then, having
reached that agreement that you began, much more intensively
than any day before, to start involving Me in the most
extraordinarily mundane conversations. So, in fact, what you
said you were going to do with Me, you did not do. And I had
to volunteer to meditate on these lesser things with you,
and thereby we all become it, you see?

(247) So you all entered into this lower vibratory sphere
here of talking about the local pastorate. [in grim low
voice] Like Frans and Dennis. [laughter]

(248) STANLEY: Oh, boy.

(249) ADI DA SAMRAJ: I suppose the reason that happened
is because you all were showing Me the natural signs I was
talking about earlier, sort of going back to the business as
usual, “consideration” over. And that obviously is not the
right Scrooge ending. And we talked about that you must
leave with this true seriousness and be focused in the
listening-hearing process.

(250) So it seemed like I had to just go through this
banal period with you so that when the “consideration” is
over youll be serious. But nonetheless, you all did this,
even though you made this promise to Me, which is based on
your seriousness. Then you started to suggest to Me you
werent going to quite be all that very much serious, after a
few days. You might think about it or something. Or just in
the natural cycle, move back into your ordinary
entanglement, more or less.

(251) So, in order for you to get serious again, Ive got
to guide you back into this hearing matter. So Ive got to be
talking about all that—and I find this incredibly
boring! [chuckles from devotees] Because Ive already
covered it thoroughly, at the beginning of these meetings.
You swore to hold onto the thread of that, and I dont want
to repeat it! [laughter] If you didnt get it, if you
forgot it now, then youve got to go through the transcripts
of these conversations and re-orient yourselves because I
already did that Play with you. I dont want to do that
anymore. Its boring to Me.

(252) So you may not be ready for the “Perfect Practice”,
but I dont see any reason to talk about anything else,
really.

(253) BRIAN: Right. [laughter]

(254) ADI DA SAMRAJ: But its also not all that amusing to
talk to someone, then, about that Great Matter who isnt up
to it. [murmurs of agreement] So then I just tend
not to talk about it. [long pause]

(255) And if youre always already in a Position that is
Prior to the body-mind, totally apart from the body-mind,
dont you think its not only necessary but profoundly
interesting, then, to find out about that?

(256) DEVOTEES: Mm. Yes.

(257) ADI DA SAMRAJ: But remarkably, then, otherwise you
show the sign of it as if its not interesting. But what
youre really interested in is all these searches,
entanglements, and problem-solving games you play because
youre identified with the body-mind. But youre not even
there. Its a joke. Its a lie. Its bad Yoga. You meditated on
some bad shit and became it. [laughter] And then you
forgot how to do the Yoga, so you cant figure out how to get
out of it. But you got there by Yoga, by concentration to
the point of utter immersion in some thing or another such
that you become it.

(258) So you did that, but then you forgot. Having
identified with that, you forgot how you got there, you
forgot the Yoga of staying loose. And then stuck with it, no
Yoga that amounts to all that much anyway, you try to do
what youre supposed to do, do whats interesting, or fulfill
your aspirations, your searches and so on. And all it does
is get older and sicker and deader, to death. Because you
never get to fulfill all those programs
absolutely—never to the point of absolute Happiness in
any case.

(259) And you were never there, except you believed you
were. You were actually Standing in the Witness Well, and
you never investigated It. You gave it up in order to be
identified with a mortal play, full of fear. You didnt even
have enough sense to leave the door open behind you so at
least you could be Witnessing it. [chuckles from
devotees] You just went through the door, closed it
behind you, and kept on going, and now theres nothing left
but the body-mind. Bunch of dolts scratching their heads,
talking about “matter”! [Laughter, Beloved
chuckles.]

(260) Every school child knows that matter is light,
matter is energy, everything is energy. Everybody says this
over and over again. Its presumed common knowledge, isnt
it?. All these forms are obviously just an appearance in
light, you see? Of course, with all its elements, but when
you get down to it, its just light. A base of light. Light
is not divisible. Its not caused by something. Its
ground.

(261) Likewise, enter into examination of yourself. The
body, youre the Witness of it, its objective to you.
Emotions, thoughts, attention itself—when you get down
to the root of it, theres simply Consciousness Itself, Prior
to the body-mind. It cant be reduced. It cant be broken into
any parts. It has no cause. Its fundamental reality.

(262) Consciousness and Light.

(263) Light, the root of everything objective.

(264) Consciousness, the root of everything
subjective.

(265) And they are One.

(266) Thats Reality.

(267) Irreducible, Always Already Is.

(268) That is Conscious Light. And thats your Position.
Thats where what is Great is to be Realized. Not in the
body-mind itself.

(269) So you have to stop being “Johnny Carson”, talking
about matter. Take your Revelation seriously and enter into
the Domain of Conscious Light. Practice the Law of that. And
remember the Yoga by which you meditated and got caught. Get
out of that.

(270) Radiate, instead of contract on that.

(271) Feel beyond it in Communion with Me.

(272) And enter My Domain of “Perfect Practice” and
Realization.

[silence]

(273) So are we going to have to have a lot of, what is
for Me, boring talk about hearing again?

(274) DEVOTEES: No. No. Oh, no! No. No!

(275) ADI DA SAMRAJ: So in that case, there should be no
question about what are you going to do, now that you have
had this week of “consideration” with Me.

(276) [to Nina] Hm? You making an utterance?

(277) NINA: It didnt come from me. I dont know where it
came from.

(278) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Where did that utterance come from?
It was a kind of a whimpering. [laughter]

(279) JANIS: It was Aniello.

(280) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Did you all hear a kind of
whimpering? [laughter, many talk at once]

(281) JANIS: I thought it was Nina.

(282) ADI DA SAMRAJ: The Blender [referring to
Brenda], was it?

(283) JANIS: Oh, it was Blender.

(284) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes.

(285) BRENDA: [laughing] I was blending.

(286) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes. She blends like the cat purrs.
[Laughter, Beloved chuckles.]

(287) Ive also been talking about how human beings
require this remarkable Revelation and “consideration”, this
complicated process of disentanglement with all the
limitations they put in the way in the midst of that and so
on. And I was pointing out this is a rather unique
requirement, this dealing with human beings. So weve talked
a lot about the non-humans, everything that is not a human
being, including all the plants and trees, and the
chameleons in the kitchen, the birds and so on.
[laughter] Bacteria. Tree moss. All the non-humans.
Everything. All the elemental patterns, including the
atmospheric ones and so forth.

(288) All the non-humans get the point very readily. They
immediately grasp the nature of their situation and dont
come up with vast programs, therefore, about exploiting
psycho-physical possibilities. They live like renunciates
and such. Theyre not trying to build a utopia here. They
hang out in whats here. So you notice theyre not up to any
big creative business like that because they get the point
immediately.

(289) KANYA TRIPURA: [whispering] Thats
right.

(290) ADI DA SAMRAJ: This, you know, this form here, in
which you appear to be appearing, is really dangerous stuff.
This is, [whispering in an exaggerated voice] “Im
afraid!!!” [loud laughter] They immediately know
theyre afraid. This is mortal. And theyre, you know, just a
piece in the food chain. Theres several enemies all around.
They dont look forward to old age or anything. They
generally go earlier because theyre not the best eating,
very often, except when theyre ripe, you see? [Devotees
laugh.]

(291) So they see immediately their situation. Human
beings, they got to read books, talk philosophy, delude
themselves. You know? [laughter] They never get the
point, even coming into My Company. These profound
“considerations”, everything completely obvious. You know?
[laughter] Talk to you a week or two later, you dont
remember anything about it! Still seeking with the
body-mind. Well, human beings are the only ones who do
this.

(292) INEKE VAN AMERONGEN: Why, Beloved?

(293) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Thats what weve been “considering”.
[laughter] And we have covered it very thoroughly,
in fact. [loud laughter]

(294) Its not a “why” like a Cosmic why, or a Divine
decree. Its not outside you. Youre doing it. And thats where
weve located it. If it were universal, all the non-humans
would be confused like you.

(295) DEVOTEES: Right.

(296) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Its not inherent. Its a strange
characteristic of human beings, to play their egoity with
such a free hand. Like fools oblivious to their situation.
So all the non-humans notice this and immediately are
converted to a life of Contemplation. In other words, theyre
not, generally speaking, busy twenty-four hours a day just
doing the business of life sort of thing. They economize
that. They minimize their requirements. When the time comes
for it, they do it very straightforwardly. But always
looking to have it to be as brief an occupation as possible.
And then they go off and find a place, they look around to
make sure, they piss around it or whatever, they make a
territory, shout out some noises so everybody stays away,
seem real threatening, you know. “Ya ya yaaaa yaaaa!!!!”
[Beloved sounds like an animal snarling.]
[laughter] Like youre really a tough son of a bitch,
you know. Where actually all you want to do is enter into
this utter harmlessness of Divine Contemplation.
[delighted laughter]

(297) So you handle the business of life as quickly as
possible, you simplify your requirements so its not a big
deal, and then you spend a lot of time Contemplating,
utterly relinquishing the body-mind, and going beyond. All
the non-humans do this. And the only time you see them not
clearly this sign—if youre observant, youll see this
sign in them—but the only time you see them not doing
so, as weve discussed here, is in situations where they are
threatened or confined somehow, in some kind of way, so that
their usual way of going about things is interrupted and
they feel threatened. So they are always wary instead of
relaxed, and they go through all kinds of changes, as you
see animals in zoos, and even often domesticated animals or
pets or whatnot. But if you find right conditions for them,
or otherwise observe them in their natural habitat,
undisturbed, they are all Contemplators. They can find ways
to be Contemplative even in very difficult
circumstances.

(298) So all the non-humans immediately are converted.
They all do this life of Contemplation—and human beings
do not, readily. And you all are examples of that, having
been, all of you to one degree or another, rather retarded
in your serious practice of this Way.

(299) So what was Ineke wondering about? [chuckles
from devotees] How to what?

(300) DEVOTEES: “Why?” “Why?” “Why?”

(301) ADI DA SAMRAJ: [in an accent] Why? Why?
[laughter] I was trying to imitate a Dutch accent
there.

(302) INEKE: You were very good.

(303) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, as if she hasnt got the
Teaching yet, and the obligation to do just that. Shes
waiting around to be convinced or to find out what it is.
Thats being “Johnny Carson” forever, you see?
[pause]

(304) Do you know what I mean, Ineke?

(305) INEKE: I do, my Lord.

(306) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Ill bet. [in an exaggeratedly
deep voice] Youre not going to get off the hook that
easily, Ineke. [laughter] A little social assurance
and a smile—you saw the whole technique there in one
stroke? Doesnt want to get into any serious “consideration”,
but just here to have a pleasant conversation and be
friendly, right? [laughter]

(307) [Beloved sighs then whispers.] Ayeee, these
householders. What do you do with them? [laughter,
Beloved laughs soundlessly]

(308) Well, do you have anything more to say about
it?

(309) INEKE: I totally feel Your criticism, Beloved.

(310) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. [pause] Well, that
was certainly an elaborate conversation. [laughter]
Really got down to it there. [laughter]

(311) STANLEY: Beloved?

(312) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm?

(313) STANLEY: I think an interesting—one of the
things that Ive noticed as interesting since weve been back
here is . . .

(314) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Back—here in California, you
mean?

(315) STANLEY: Yes, I mean back here in
California—is this common reference to having to
“really hear the criticism”. And then sit in that until you
get it, until you can receive it emotionally.
[laughter] Ive found this very amusing ever since
Ive been here.

(316) ADI DA SAMRAJ: [coughing] What is that
exactly? Im totally involved in coughing.

(317) STANLEY: Well, I was just reminded of it when Ineke
just said that she felt Your Criticism. Theres this
presumption that goes on about how you have to really
receive a criticism and then sit in it and feel it until you
get it emotionally.

(318) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(319) STANLEY: And something about that seems very absurd
in the midst of what weve been “considering” recently. I
mean, it seems like a simple matter of addressing things on
the basis of what You say, and then taking care of business.
But this whole matter of sitting in the criticism and
sitting in this feeling until you really get it.
[laughing] Its is not what you want to get
anyhow.

(320) ADI DA SAMRAJ: What are you going to get
anyhow?

(321) STANLEY: Thats not what you really want to get
anyhow. Meditation on that is not what you want to get.

(322) ADI DA SAMRAJ: No, not just meditation on that, but
you do have to understand it, and not merely as an object to
yourself.

(323) STANLEY: Yes.

(324) ADI DA SAMRAJ: So you do have to get into its
position, and feel beyond it, you see?

(325) STANLEY: Right.

(326) ADI DA SAMRAJ: But you can get somehow close to it
and just look at it. And nothing ever happens in that
case.

(327) MICHAEL: It seems like Scrooge feeling really
criticized.

(328) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Hmmmm?

(329) MICHAEL: I think what he means is, like, as if
Scrooge felt really criticized, instead of making the
conversion.

(330) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Right, yes. And so?

(331) STANLEY: That was just an observation actually.
[laughter] [Stanley laughs] I was just
saying it to be said. [more laughter]

(332) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. [pause]

(333) I told you we were in danger of zeroing in on
Dennis and Joan, Frans and Ineke, and Aniello and Brenda.
[laughter] And limitations that somehow or other you
are identifying with them at the moment. And that if we
werent going to do that, if we didnt carefully make sure we
didnt do that, it would be inevitable.

(334) Remember I was telling you this?

(335) STANLEY: Oh, yes, Beloved. I passed it on also.

(336) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, you see what weve been doing,
then? Just as I said. Hmmmmmm?

(337) STANLEY: Yes, its absolutely true.

(338) ADI DA SAMRAJ: I told you not to allow this to
happen, Stanley. [laughter] Youre supposed to be the
sarvadhikari around here.

(339) BRIAN: He really feels Your Criticism, Beloved.
[loud laughter]

[Beloved and everyone take a break. Carl and Kanya
Tripura are the first to come back into the room with
Beloved.]

(340) CARL PENGELLY: Beloved, Im feeling that I need Your
Instructions in whatever form that is. Its something that I
know that I have to do.

(341) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Whats that?

(342) CARL: I cant think of it now. I
cant—[laughs]

(343) ADI DA SAMRAJ: [laughing] This very
important thing that you have to deal with and you want My
Instructions about, and you cant remember what it is now?
[laughter]

(344) CARL: I lost my mind. [laughter]

(345) STANLEY: [laughing] For the rest of his
life, this thing will trouble him. “I had my moment with
Beloved alone. I had a question. And I forgot it.” [loud
laughter]

(346) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Do you have these kinds of problems
at home?! [loud laughter, Beloved laughs] [to
Hellie] He doesnt start conversations out with you and
then all of a sudden forget about them in the middle?
[laughing]

(347) HELLIE: No.

(348) ADI DA SAMRAJ: This looked like it was going to be
a big one, too. [laughter]

(349) KANYA TRIPURA: Yes, Beloved. He wanted Your total
Instruction on something.

(350) ADI DA SAMRAJ: [to Hal] Did you happen to
leave the tape recorder on when you left?

(351) HAL: Yes, I did, Lord.

(352) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, when I came in here out of the
bathroom, there was no one here but Tripura and Carl,
right?

(353) KANYA TRIPURA: Right.

(354) ADI DA SAMRAJ: And maybe because it seemed like
theres nobody else around, and he has this opportunity, he
was here with Me alone, he, Carl, decided he was going to
initiate a very serious discussion with Me.
[laughter] So he starts telling Me, in a very
serious tone of voice and manner, that he needs My
Instruction about some particular thing. My Help. “Theres
something,” he said, “theres something I have to do.”
[laughter] He sounds very serious.
[laughter] So I said, “Yes, well whats that?” And
then he tells me he forgot! [loud laughter] Finally
gets down to the ultimate question. [pause] Hm?

(355) Well, if you do remember it, youll have to bring it
up here again. Well, maybe people started coming into the
room, and he didnt feel comfortable about others listening
to what he was going to say, . . .

(356) KANYA TRIPURA: Hellie came in.
[laughter]

(357) HAL: Ah-ha!

(358) ADI DA SAMRAJ: . . . and he does indeed remember
what he was talking about, [devotees make noises as if
suspicious] but he would prefer not to mention it in
present company. Is it something like that, Carl?

(359) CARL: No, I think I could follow it through.

(360) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Did something change about your
interest in communicating to Me about this when people
started coming into the room, including Hellie?

(361) CARL: Uh, not with Hellie, no.

(362) ADI DA SAMRAJ: People otherwise?

(363) CARL: Yes, oh yes.

(364) ADI DA SAMRAJ: So you felt less free to talk about
it?

(365) CARL: Yes.

(366) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Do you feel free to talk about it
now?

(367) CARL: Sure, Ill talk about it.

(368) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Oh. What is it?
[laughter]

(369) CARL: I guess what Im hearing is that I have to
turn over my entire life to You. And I was just trying to
just express that.

(370) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. Are there any particulars
about that that youre not certain about or something?

(371) CARL: Well, I felt theres something there, but Im
not quite sure what it is.

(372) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. Well, what is it like, that
[in a low voice] thing. [laughter] You must
know something about it.

(373) What?

(374) CARL: The self-contraction.

(375) ADI DA SAMRAJ: [in an exaggerated voice]
Oh, I know about that!

(376) BRIAN: Speaking in over-all terms.
[laughter]

(377) ADI DA SAMRAJ: I mean more specifically, in terms
of the extensions of that.

(378) CARL: Well, it just feels like a pit in my
stomach.

(379) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. Everybody has a pit in their
stomach, supposedly, but its just that in your case its
uncomfortable? You have some sort of stress in the pit of
your stomach?

(380) CARL: Well, its, a little bit—nothing that I
would feel its a big deal.

(381) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. And what else?
[pause]

(382) CARL: I dont feel much else. [Beloved laughs,
laughter.]

(383) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, that sounds simple enough to
Me, then, Carl. It should be a very easy practice for you.
[Loud laughter, Beloved laughs.] What else?

(384) CARL: But it doesnt feel comfortable at all,
really.

(385) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Hm. Right. What else can you say
about it? [pause]

(386) CARL: Its painful.

(387) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. [pause]

(388) CARL: Its separation. Feelings of separation.

(389) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. [silence]

(390) Anything else about it?

(391) CARL: I feel like, I feel like I have to . . .

(392) ADI DA SAMRAJ: You feel like you have to do
what?

(393) CARL: I feel like I have to respond.

(394) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. And what kind of a thing,
what kind of doing is associated with that—that youre
wondering about?

(395) CARL: Whats associated with it?

(396) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes. Is there something unusual that
you feel that you need to do about all of this?

(397) CARL: I feel like I have to get it to stop.

(398) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Which?

(399) CARL: That feeling of having to do something about
it.

(400) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm. But all of that is busyness,
preoccupation with the sensation itself. Just that. The
process of moving beyond it, and even understanding it in
the process, is simply this Yoga, Ishta-Guru-Bhakti, in
which you take all the faculties that would otherwise be
combining with this, that, or the other thing of self, and
turn them to Me. Forgetting all of that, you see?

(401) So its not by working on the sensation or whatever
that you go beyond it. Its by practicing this
Ishta-Guru-Bhakti. And you will observe some sort of limit
on it, to the point of self-forgetting Communion with Me,
some limit on that. You still must feel beyond it. But in
the moment, you notice some limit, and then you have to
apply the discipline to it thereafter. And whatever
limitations or obstacles are in your life that get pointed
out in this movement toward Me, those are the things youll
have to deal with, make right somehow, including a change of
attitude.

(402) STANLEY: Beloved, You said the other day when we
were gathering here, You said as soon as you feel that you
need to do something . . .

(403) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(404) STANLEY: . . . then this “consideration” has come
to an end.

(405) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(406) STANLEY: And its interesting to see how there is a
constant impulse to actually go out and do something thats
going to make the difference. That is, it seems like an
inherent anxiety that comes up. “I have to go out and do
some kind of practice or some kind of something that is
going to really make the difference.”

(407) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, thats just another way of
describing seeking, you see?

(408) STANLEY: Right.

(409) ADI DA SAMRAJ: In any form, or for any object. If
you examined yourself in the midst of your seeking, youll
see this disturbance thats at the root of it. And its not by
seeking to the point of getting the fruits of whatever that
search may be about, because every time that happens, the
whole thing begins all over again. So you must understand
and deal with this root-disturbance. If you seek, you
intensify it. In any case, its always there.

(410) STANLEY: And if you seek, its as You said, this
“consideration” comes to an end.

(411) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(412) STANLEY: Whereas when you dont, this
“consideration” actually certainly continues even outside
the sphere of this meeting or gathering here.

(413) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(414) STANLEY: But its continuous.

(415) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yeeees.

(416) STANLEY: Yes. [chuckles from devotees]

[silence]

(417) BRIAN: Beloved?

(418) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm?

(419) BRIAN: You were talking, or You asked several times
last night if there was any belief that you had in place
that was an obstruction to our Communion with You, from our
previous religious beliefs. And then I mentioned a few
things that were predominant in my culture when I was
growing up.

(420) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(421) BRIAN: But I didnt really feel into what You were
saying until You mentioned something tonight, and it really
struck a chord with me, which is that any Semitic faith has
this basic presumption or taboo that you cannot become One
with the Divine.

(422) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(423) BRIAN: And I was really feeling that. And I
realized that there is something about that presumption
thats still the case with me in one respect. And I just kind
of got the Revelation from You in the last few moments,
which is that since theres a kind of a hidden taboo against
being One with You, this matter of reception of You gets
obstructed.

(424) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm-hm.

(425) BRIAN: And I realized in these several moments in
which You allowed me to fully receive You, that there was an
effective obstruction there in my case where I felt that it
wasnt right somehow to fully receive You—to allow that
ecstatic full reception of You.

(426) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Because its not only the taboos that
you receive culturally or whatnot—the self-contraction
is the reason why you would seem to be fulfilling those
admonitions, you see?

(427) So, once again you are just suggesting non-hearing
in your own case, then.

(428) BRIAN: [laughing] Every time I open my
mouth! [laughter]

(429) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well good, then you reveal things
you have to deal with, but you may think taboos or whatever
influences are the reason why. Then you can play your life
out on the basis of that presumption, working on this, that,
and the other thing. But its the self-contraction which you
yourself are generating that is dissociating you from Me. So
that, rather than any dealing with the taboos in your head
and whatnot. Just not using that in Communion with Me.

(430) So youre suggesting youre in the listening position
still.

(431) BRIAN: Mm-hm.

(432) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Because relative to these particular
kinds of things, this taboo-mind, youre just without
arms.

(433) BRIAN: Mm-hm. I didnt think it was quite that bad.
[loud laughter]

(434) ADI DA SAMRAJ: But now you know it is.
[laughter]

(435) BRIAN: Im in deep shit now, Beloved.
[laughter]

(436) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Extremely bad. [laughter and
amused comments]

(437) Another amusement is that you have to go through
the discipline of transforming your speech so that it
corresponds to you. Ive had to do this in some unique way
all these years, trying to use the language to communicate
something that the language has never been adapted to
communicating. It has all kinds of rules or shapes in it,
like a house, architecture determines life, you know? So Ive
had to work with all of that to find a way to be fully
communicative. But you all likewise, becoming My devotees,
and then going through—and then certain experiences
developing, and then advancements in your practice, in your
sadhana, in your realization, your understanding—when
these transformations occur at the level of depth, they must
be registered all throughout the life, or itll be rather
hidden and tend to be forgotten. You have to live on the
basis of your revelations, like Scrooge. Not suppress
them.

(438) So part of it, then, is conversion of speech. How
often, even in this period of gathering, has somebody said
something or other and after we discourse about it for
hours, basically claim that it was just a way of speaking,
that they didnt really mean it that way. Its a rather common
experience on the part of you all. Its a common experience I
have talking to you all. In other words, at the core you
feel a basic unique profundity in your life that wasnt there
before, and yet your words and your doings dont seem to
suggest it very much. So you have to go through that
creative exercise of being transformed by your revelations,
making the changes they require. If this is so of you, you
will speak differently, rather than assume another position
or point of view because its common or conventional.

(439) So if you dont convert your own body-mind once
youve gotten the Revelation, then it does not affect your
overall life—Dennis. [laughter]

(440) DENNIS DUFF: Yes, Beloved. One of the things that
Ive really been feeling here tonight, you know, hearing Your
Criticisms, is that the practice in relationship to you must
be moment to moment, or the true seriousness isnt there.
[laughter]

(441) ADI DA SAMRAJ: [to Dennis] Yes? Is that it,
or is there something further? [silence]

(442) DENNIS: [laughing] Well, I feel . . .
[Devotees laugh.]

(443) STANLEY: [laughing] Hes progressing as
planned. [laughter]

(444) [in a Scottish accent like Scotty in Star
Trek] Right on course, Captain! [loud
laughter]

(445) ADI DA SAMRAJ: [mimicking the commanding voice
of Captain Kirk in Star Trek] The thermal bollux
stimulators need to be checked, Scotty.
[laughter]

(446) STANLEY: [in the same Scottish accent] Aye,
Captain. Right away! [more laughter]

(447) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Get a message to cojones control!
[laughter]

(448) STANLEY: Chief Engineer OMahony! [laughter]
[Beloved laughs.]

(449) HAL: Thats the liveliest theyve ever sounded!

(450) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Ramming speed, Scottie! [loud
laughter]

(451) STANLEY: We have no more shields, Captain!!
[laughter]

(452) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Try Trojans. Theyre just as good.
[laughter] [Beloved laughs.]
[pause]

(453) And so?

(454) BRIAN: Beloved, one of the things that I felt very
clarified . . . [laughter]

[Aniello is pouring some espresso out of a thermos,
Beloved notices and raises an eyebrow at him.]

(455) ANIELLO: I knew it, I knew it.

(456) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Is that something your Mama made for
you? [loud laughter]

(457) ANIELLO: Introduced me to it. Its espresso.

(458) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, you see? A little contact with
Mama going on here right now. [loud laughter] A
little rush to security. [laughter]
[silence]

(459) I saw in a book that I reviewed recently for The
Basket of Tolerance—Desmond Morris, you know him?

(460) DEVOTEES: Yes, he wrote The Naked Ape.

(461) ADI DA SAMRAJ: It was in a book about—I guess
its general subject was intimacy, I think was the word he
used. He analyzes human beings with reference to the
approach that would be taken by scientists to study animal
behavior. He presumes human beings to be animals, as weve
been discussing here a few times. And so, why not observe
them just with that kind of an eye—as animals. Talk
about their behaviors the way you would talk about animal
behavior and some such. So his books kind of have this
quality, then.

(462) And in this particular book that I reviewed, he was
talking about intimacy and the need for contact and so on.
And he was talking about the gestures people make touching
their own bodies, under all different kinds of
circumstances, different emotions, or just patterns of
speech where they use physical gestures, touching themselves
or doing this or that with their hands. His point of view
about that, it seems, is that because human beings
systematically seem to be depriving themselves of touch, of
intimacy, that when people are touching themselves in
various ways, they are giving themselves the feeling of
contact. Its like having a teddy bear. It gives you the
impression of relatedness, in My language. The illusion of
relatedness.

(463) Of course his point of view is a critical one of
all kinds of things, but ultimately a criticism of the
distance that gets created in bringing up children or living
human life according to convention. There is a basic
requirement for the human animal to have a ground of
physical openness with others—physical touch, not just
verbal association and speech mannerisms and adjacency. And
that one of the signs of human beings needing that and not
having it, not getting straight with that, is so much of
this touch-your-own-body kind of fidgeting to generate, in
effect, the illusion of relatedness, through contact.

(464) Heres another example of someone like Freud, who
made over much of one aspect of things and misinterpreted
everything as a result. [laughter] It produces some
interesting insights and so forth, perhaps, on some level,
but also its a false view, a wrong way of viewing human
beings. Yes, there is the dimension of the animal, clearly.
Thats not whats wrong about it. But its reducing the
examination by assuming that point of view. Human beings
viewed in totality cover much more ground than a variety of
ape form. Even the apes have a lot more to them than apes as
they are studied. They are great Contemplatives, for
instance. [pause]

(465) So there could be a lot of ways to account for
gestures people make, including touching their own bodies.
But as an element of it, its true enough. Even bodily, in
other words, you show the sign of disconnection or the
avoidance of relationship. You feel separate, and you show
this by all kinds of illusory contact you make on your own
body—what games you play to enjoy the feeling of
relatedness without actual open association with anything or
anyone.

(466) Also, you show the signs all over your body-mind of
the absence of contact with God. There are all kinds of
symptoms of that. You see? You show as much symptom relative
to that as you do relative to touch deprivation. More so, in
fact. So youve been acculturated and adapted and “ego-fied”
to the point, not only where youre showing all kinds of
physical dissociation, absence of touch, but youre showing
utter dissociation from the Divine Condition. Youre out of
contact, missing the mark, relative to your own condition.
So you show all kinds of signs in the body of that, and all
of the other things, interior, so to speak, just as much as
you show signs of reactions, adaptations, and so forth
relative to what is gross and exterior and all the rest. But
its universal to the person. It cant be accounted for by
external interactions between the body and its environment
and others. The whole thing is true. The contraction, then,
is the source of all of these—from the grossest
dimension to the doorway of God-Realization.

(467) So youre showing the signs of self-contraction, of
the avoidance of relationship. And thats relative to other
human beings, but its relative to the Divine. Its relative
to Me altogether, in all forms. But its not going to be
cured just by making sure that, from the time you are an
infant, your relations always touch you physically and show
you affection. Oh, that would be nice. You should try and do
that. But still, youll be showing all kinds of signs of
separation from Me, among all kinds of other signs of
separativeness from all kinds of sources,
apparently—but ultimately just this one source, which
is your own self-contraction. It binds you to the body-mind
and it separates you from the Divine Condition. [long
pause]

(468) Last night I was talking about Dennis and Frans.
[Devotees laugh as Dennis and Frans groan in
anticipation.] The symbols of evil here.
[laughter] And I was particularly elaborating on it
with Frans, but I was talking to both of them, and others to
whom it applies. In fact, I even associated it with
something about the male character in general. With this
strategy based on reactions in the physical, emotional, life
dimension, the bodily dimension and so forth—you dont
want to be there, you dont want to be just that. So you
withdraw to the intelligent observer kind of
think-or-figure-out-problems position. And may even in all
those cogitations there “consider” Samadhi, Divine
Realization, and so forth. But basically, youre fascinated
with the grosser dimensions of your existence, experiences,
and relations associated with all of that. So that youre
really working on some sort of way to have a comfortable,
pleasurable association with physical existence, and being
emotionally open in it and so on, and improving your overall
life kind of stuff, altogether. [laughter] Always
anxious, always troubled, always in this high-up-there
intelligent observer position, but not really making the
choice to go beyond.

(469) Your real fascination, when it comes down to it, is
with that place where youre feeling troubled. And you have
the feeling though that there is a lot of enjoyment that you
could get out of having a different way of involving
yourself in all of that [that you are troubled
with]. So youre working on that all the time. Working on
utopia, or a perfected physical life where youve got no
problems.

(470) So this is a way I had of characterizing something
the two of you are showing us. Theres something about it, as
I said, that is rather characteristically a strategy that
men assume—women tending, generally speaking, to rest
in an emotional solution rather than a mental-discriminative
one. Rightly, anyway.

(471) Its also interesting that the two of you are
physically very similar. Both tall, lean, rather elongated,
stretched out vertically rather than horizontally.
[laughter] And rather generally lean of body. And
you have a very similar manner in all kinds of ways
otherwise.

(472) Its interesting that their physiognomy corresponds,
dont you think? [devotees agree] Because there are a
lot of similarities between them which weve been observing,
and its curious. Its a whole kind of guy. Its a pattern, you
see?. [laughter]

(473) DENNIS: [laughing] And it doesnt feel very
good! [laughter]

(474) ADI DA SAMRAJ: That stretched out, tall maleness is
a sign of the yin male. I dont mean effeminate, but I mean
yin-dicked, yin-typed, rather than yangish, more yangish,
robust, horizontal about it all. You see? And you function
psychologically like I just described, and this is your
game. And it seems to each of you to be a very personal
matter, a very personal invention. [laughter] Its
just your particular thing, so to speak. You see, youre not
perhaps so sensitive to the fact that there are large
numbers of human beings who are doing exactly that same
thing. And in none of your cases is it because of
associations and familiarity during your present lifetime.
Thats not what determined it. The structure determined it.
You, apparently alive in the body, got involved with it,
entangled yourself. But the pattern enforced itself.

(475) If you show up in a shape like this,
[laughter] its very likely youll have qualities like
the two of you guys. [pause]

(476) Hals another example. Just looking at the
physiognomy of them. Those three in particular have this
quality among all the men here. And they also have a lot of
similarities, then. We havent talked about Hal in relation
to—Dennis and Frans. [Beloved says their names in
an exaggeratedly “bored” manner.] [laughter]

(477) BRIAN: They were the “Meditation Bros.”

(478) ADI DA SAMRAJ: But you could just as well look at
Hal and his manner, his qualities, his assumption of the
intelligent observer kind of thing, and being fascinated
toward the physical and all that, just like you two
guys.

(479) So theres a structure associated with the
patterning, that you think is personal. Its a structure that
enforces itself, like the DNA enforces the structure in
terms of the physical form. Theres all kinds of structure
associated with your appearance in this Great Unity. And
there are a certain few, discernible few, basic kinds of
structure, although there are lots of combinations that make
it seem a little more complicated. But there are very basic
possibilities.

(480) And its interesting to observe yourself in terms of
that structure thats enforcing your life, rather than
thinking of it as all this personal stuff. And see what that
pattern is in your own case also. Not so you can meditate on
it, or dwell on it, or identify with it further. But so that
you can apply further discipline knowing more about how the
pattern operates in your case. Youre bound to the pattern
once you make the self-contraction. Its not that once you
make the self-contraction you are infinitely creative about
manufacturing psycho-physical associations that work just
right, you know? [chuckles from devotees] The
pattern takes care of all of that. But you signed up—by
identifying with the self-contraction. [pause]

(481) So what we see in the case of Hal and Frans and
Dennis is a similar physiology to begin with, physiognomy,
body form and all of that. Even similarly made faces. There
are some little bits of differences because of particular
physical inheritances, but overall very similar
heads—and bodies. So thats already there. Its
interesting then to notice what the other similarities are
and see what that pattern is like by seeing it in more than
one example simultaneously. There are some other types in
here, men and women.

(482) ISABELLE ROCHER: Beloved, I was noticing that Your
three sarvadhikaris [Stanley, Brian, and Dan] also
have the same type of features.

(483) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes. [laughter] But its not
like the three men we were just “considering”.

(484) JANIS: More square.

(485) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Quite different, in fact. Theyre all
relatively short, [laughter] rather than tall and
stretched out. They are even foreshortened! [loud
laughter] Theyre not midgets or anything, but they are,
as is usually said, below average height. So they are a
shorter type, first of all.

(486) BETH: Vertically challenged.

(487) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Vertically challenged.
[laughing]

(488) JOAN HAMMERSCHMIDT: Thats a new term. [Loud
laughter, Beloved laughs.]

(489) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Vertically challenged!!! Give Me a
break. Being short is called vertically challenged?
[loud laughter]

(490) BRIAN: Horizontally challenged would be
overweight.

(491) ADI DA SAMRAJ: Theyre all basically trim and in
good health, but they all have more of an expansion in the
mid-section of the body. They dont have that characteristic
leanness that the other three do. But nonetheless, theyre
not tending to be very large, either, which is another
possibility, but they dont display that. All three of them
are more expansive in the horizontal than the tall guys, and
theyre shorter, which is another sign of that. And theres a
certain quality that they all have in common relative to the
kind of energy they have—that short people have, you
know? [laughter] So theyre very
compact—vertically and horizontally. The other three
are compact horizontally, but theyre not at all compact
vertically. [laughter]

(492) And then of course, theres the . . . ideal form.
[loud laughter] Neither too tall nor too short. But
quite expansive. [Beloved chuckles.] Well, thats
another type, you see?

(493) And its the same, male or female. I mean there are
the male-female differences to take into account as well,
otherwise, but physiognomy, as weve been looking at it, the
physical form, does have significance as a sign of what the
person is about altogether, what pattern they are basically
associated with—horizontally and vertically, in the
form of the body.

(494) So its immediately obvious to you at a deep level
of sensitivity, which you may not notice very much, but its
there. You do make an immediate judgement just seeing
somebody. Its not a snap judgement, like an arbitrary thing,
though. You read the physiology at a depth level. You know
whats in front of you. Just by that. Because everything
about the person is otherwise an extension of that or part
of the same pattern. And so if you know what youre looking
at when you see the form, you know what all the rest of it
is. And you can be, to varying degrees, sensitive to that,
all the rest of it.

(495) So people do make a basic judgement, then, whenever
they encounter anyone—any form for that matter. Because
on some level they read the signs. And then you immediately
lock in the methods you have devised to deal with that kind
of type. Sometimes those methods work well, sometimes they
dont, you see. But the adaptations to that type immediately
click in. Its all very mechanical. So you find yourself
habitually relating to certain kinds of people a certain way
and others another way, right?

(496) You can know where anybodys at if you just look at
them. At least thats how I do it. It must be the salesman in
Me. [laughter] You gotta know the territory, and you
gotta know your customer, know what I mean?

(497) ANIELLO: [laughing] Youve got it down, my
Lord.

(498) ADI DA SAMRAJ: So, the more you understand
yourself, the more familiar you are with all the things that
there are to be observed. Well, the more you notice things
like this, too. But you can know anything about what
anybodys about just by looking at them. If youd allow
yourself that luxury of using that law, which has all kinds
of machinery behind it, youd have a basis for much clearer
judgement, and straightforwardness and everything about your
overall life. [Devotees chuckle.] But that would be
all that you would have, so far. [laughter]

(499) So there are these interesting insights and whatnot
that can develop. But they are just stuff of the pattern to
which you feel bound, you see?

(500) So what are we “considering” about that? Oh, the
three Sarvadhikaris. They look very similar to one another,
dont they? [laughter]

The “Brightening” Way
Talk Series – Index