Common Mind and Social Order
Adi Da Samraj
October 29, 2004
The absolutizing of stories is, however, the method of a lot of means used to create social order. This happens, all kinds of social mechanisms and institutions and political methods, propagandizing of any mode of ideas, religion, for instance, both exoteric and esoteric, tends to get communicated in the form of a certain limited gathering of fixed ideas that has a social function ultimately to create a common mind, and therefore a social order.
So, even where, in the terms of esoteric communications for instance, you would think the purpose is Realization. Fundamentally, it’s about social order–common mindedness, not Realization. Otherwise, there’d be a lot more Realization going around. So, even esoteric doctrines tend to be commercialized, or made into religion business, institutionalization, and they become transformed into the process, into common-mind messages that wind up doing nothing but keeping people in order. And they’re not really about Realization, even though [when?] they talk it.
Now, you might guess that I am completely opposed to that, and this Way has nothing to do with that. This Way is about Realization, and not about compromising with the Truth. So, it’s not about a commercialized, religion-speak product for consumer-minded egos, you see. I want nothing to do with that kind of nonsense. So, I have made it very clear by putting it down in writing, establish means of Authority in perpetuity, and so forth, to make this Way clear so that it can’t be changed, at least it can’t be changed and justified, because My Teaching and the mechanism of Authority I’ve established is always glaringly there.
So, it’s not there to be, the Way is not there to be invented by anyone, and it’s not merely a kind of fixed mindedness or doctrine for keeping people orderly in some social, religiosity sense or social ego sense. So, it’s not merely stories then. It’s not even reducible to My Words, because it’s a process, and the Words orient devotees to a process, not merely to a mindset in which they presume Realization without it being true.
The Way is not reducible to some changes of mind or some belief system, you see. It requires a total psycho-physical participation, and the transcending of egoity as a whole in its psycho-physical totality, not merely thinking your way out of it, like fighting your way out of a paper bag, you see. So, it’s not merely a talking school matter.
And I’ve distinguished realization in this Way from all other ways indicating how it transcends the six stages of life or the total psycho-physical structure of the ego-“I”. If it could have that dis – differs from six stage presentations of ways of realization or any of the six developmental stages. I’ve indicated how they all are built upon the structures, and therefore the limitations and therefore the illusions, associated with conditional existence or the psycho-physical entity.
There are all kinds of stories associated with the first six stages of life, and people who represent modes of Realization or practice or participation in traditions associated with virtually all of those stages of life. You’ll find summaries of all that in The Basket Of Tolerance, in the form of the bibliography there. My Indication of the literature of all these traditions, you see. They speak for themselves through the literature I point at in that book.
So, are they untrue? Are those traditions not true? In the sense I’ve just indicated, yes, they are not true. That doesn’t mean they’re not usable in some cultural context, and so forth. They don’t create order or common mind or give practice to people that’s got something honorable or virtuous about it, and so forth. No. It may be the case, often, and so on. But that does not make them true in the ultimate sense. That doesn’t make their truth the Truth, because what is called “Truth” from the perspective of any and all of these six developmental, six developmental stages of life is based on limitation, egoity, conditionality, structure that can be pointed at that clearly determines presumptions. And therefore even what is true is just a story, just like what is untrue is just a story.
Egoity is not merely a state of mind. It’s an activity. It’s not a real separate entity. It’s an activity, a psycho-physical activity. It has no ultimate existence, but it has conditional existence, and Realization requires the transcending of that, and not merely the philosophical ignoring of it or playing some trick with the body-mind by manipulating its potential for experience and calling that Realization.
You all know of Ramana Maharshi. I refer to him often as an exemplary sage or example of a Realizer in the tradition of the sixth stage of life. And you probably know something about the way he recommended. No matter what proposition anybody would make or question they would ask him, he would say, “Who is asking this or thinking this” and so forth. “I” – so the “I” is the root of any thought or conception at all. So, think of the “I” and locate its source.
Well, there’s something true enough about that as a way of describing some kind, something that has to do with the nature of Realization, certainly it’s an orientation that characterizes sixth stage teachings, very often. It’s a variation on the sixth stage strategy. Nonetheless, if you presume the ego is just a thought, and the “I” thought in particular, and all you have to do is locate the sense of the indefinable self from which this thought is arising, you’ve not dealt with the psycho-physical activity that is egoity. It has not been dealt with in the process.
When asked, for instance, what’s the difference in the behavior of an ordinary person, or yet ego-bound person and a jnani or one who has realized the Self, Maharshi said there is no difference. The difference between the two is the matter of one Realizes the Self as their condition, and the other does not. But if it doesn’t change anything about the apparent activities of the body-mind, no process of transcending the ego act that is the body-mind has happened in the case of the jnani. Merely somehow feeling the locus of the “I” thought is not perfect or ultimate Realization.
It’s a similar–it’s similar to My saying to you no matter what arises–Notice: No matter what is arising, even now, you’re the Witness of it. Just that–Witness–not active observer, not active anything. Whatever is arising, even activities, or even attention, you are the Witness. Generally speaking, people always nod and indicate somehow or other that they somehow or other notice or are feeling that that’s true, you see. But not a single one of them has Realized the Truth, you see. Not a single one of them has Realized the Witness. Not a single one of you has realized it as a result of My just pointing this out, you see. You are already on to your next thought, the next moment of psycho-physical self-contraction.
The activity, the total psycho-physical activity of self-contraction is the ego or the ego-“I”, not merely “I” thought or any other thought. You could tacitly feel anything arising–anything, any thought, any experience whatsoever and feel it’s some kind of fundamental source, what could be called the Self, you see, somehow notice that as you could by just making use of the noticing I’ve just called you to make about the Witness, you being the Witness, you see. You can carry on such a procedure in any moment and get some kind of a tacit feeling-sense of what from the sixth stage perspective might be called the Self or whatever language of any tradition might be used. But it’s not Realization. You’ve not gone through any process. You’ve gone through a mental exercise. You have thought about it for a moment. You, momentarily, felt something as tacitly, something like Self about that, whenever that was, because –
[Laughter]
AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: But you didn’t transcend the ego to locate that tacit sense of being the Witness. You haven’t transcended the ego to feel the locus of the “I” thought. ‘Cause the ego is not an ego. The ego is an activity. It’s not an entity. It’s not a spark of the Divine. It’s not some separate something, for real. It can be conceived as such–“it”, you see. There is no “it”. There is a process, the body-mind process. The ego is the contraction of the total body-mind in every dimension, every faculty in every dimension of its apparent existence–gross, subtle and causal. The totality of that, that activity itself must be transcended for there to be Realization of Truth or Reality or Real God or the Real Divine Self-Condition. It cannot be realized by such simplistic gestures as locating the source of the “I” thought, or any other kind of program characterizing any of the first six or the six developmental stages of life. They are all modes of egoity, and therefore, they are all untrue in that sense. They’re only true with respect to their own tradition and circumstance and social purposes and cultural purposes and so forth. Relative to Truth, it’s a great matter, a great process. To package it in the form of “locate the source of the ‘I’ thought” is the commercialization of esotericism, to put it crudely.
Ramana Maharshi’s way became more and more this simplistic thing as it became popularized, and so forth. In other words, he or they found their gimmick. Not to put Maharshi in a category of deceivers or mere salesmen, because he, or huckster, he wasn’t that kind of an individual, and his own Realization was a genuine form of sixth stage Realization, but it took place in the context of a process far greater than “locate the source of the ‘I’ thought”, you see, just as it was far greater than the usual story he allowed to be told or agreed to, about he was suddenly got anxious and lay down and imitated a corpse and figured it out somehow. That’s not how it works, and that’s not how it worked in his case, you see. It’s just a legend he agreed to. It’s a story. The real process is really unspeakable, and you could see the evidence in his own life, what went on with him afterwards. He didn’t just get up and start giving lectures, you see. He would start speaking after a period of time, but he did what would otherwise be called sadhana for some period of time and also got some book learning and some, it looks like some advice from some other people like Ganapati Muni, and so on, about how to describe all this in some kind of terms that was usable. And his original descriptions are far more complex than the “locate the source of the ‘I’ thought” which could be told to anybody, and sounds like instant Realization for all. And it’s not Realization at all. It just makes it saleable or makes a way saleable and makes it able to be popularized as a way of getting people in and out of the ashram. No you don’t have to stay here, and you don’t have to do anything profound. You don’t have to change your life. You don’t have to change what you do. Just locate the ”I” thought, now get the hell out of here. [Laughs]
And if you showed some signs of being more profound than that, you might be invited to stay awhile. It was a religion business that started to happen around him, as has happened, happens again and again and again around even authentic Realizers, you see. And to bring it to Westerners, all you have to do is get on an airplane, you see, and start selling it, or print it in books and you start selling it, you see. Just being associated with the means of communication in the common world is to be by that association involved in this extraordinary herd of liars that is the human world. And you have to–I have had to struggle profoundly to keep from being falsified by that association.
So, I don’t mind speaking in very straightforward terms about the lies of religion. They’re not what I’m about, and I’m not a huckster, and, or a faker. I expect you to know the difference between shit and shinola, not to be a bunch of cultic dolts, you see.
And you must do real sadhana. If you don’t show up with any greater intention than a beginner, than would characterize a beginner, than you don’t get any more gift than that, you see. It’s impossible to give you any more. It would just fall out of your pockets, you see. You can’t receive it.
So, when I speak of the seventh stage Realization, you’re not Realizing the seventh stage of life listening to Me about it. You are not Realizing anything more than where you’re already existing. Perhaps moved somehow by My being here and communicating to you and moved to participate in that practice that does transcend egoity through a real process, but you must live it. You must carry on with it, persist in it. You’re responsible for the integrity of your practice and if you’re a faker, you’re not fooling Me.
The commercialization of religion both exoteric and esoteric is a profound problem. When hasn’t it been commercialized or fitted to egos, you see? It’s always put under foot. It’s always given over to purposes that are less than truth. But that is the danger. That is the tendency. That is something I cannot allow, but it is not missing from the traditions. In fact, it is fundamental to the traditions because they’re all based on conditionality to begin with. They’re based on the modes and limitations of egoity.
I’m not speaking in mocking terms about the traditions. I’m simply speaking directly about the source of conventional truth, conventional ways, conventional presumptions about truth. To realize Truth, you must address those limitations and not be limited by them. They must be transcended. That’s all there is to it. So, I cannot speak the Truth or speak of the Truth to you without addressing the falseness of mind, the falseness of egoity that characterizes mankind and every fraction of human activity, therefore, and all of its traditions and all of it stories, all of its histories, you see. Relative to Truth, it’s all lies.
In their own context, they have varying degrees of virtue, within a culture. Take them out of a culture and just start selling it, what integrity is there left? You see, these days of mass culture, everybody basically looking for some–if they’re even interested in anything you could call religious either exoteric or esoteric–they’re looking for some sales job to be done on them in which they get told that you can buy it or you can get it for free. It’s readily available. You don’t have to do anything much at all to get it. You certainly don’t have to do more than you want to. You certainly don’t have to really discipline yourself significantly. You don’t have to change your life. Because what’s being sold to you is not going to change anybody’s life! It’s going to make the huckster rich, rich and famous, or whatever, you see. It serves the interest of the huckster.
You watch TV commercials. Whose interests are being served: yours or whoever’s selling it to you? They’re in business. They’re trying to make money. They’re trying to convince you of something. Who isn’t? It’s how the world works, one could say. Just to speak to you, I have to participate in that, in the language of the world and to worldlings, to egos, right here. You’re devotees, but egos, worldly people by patterning, you see. I cannot agree to be what you intend or want Me to be.
It’s like Raymond caught at Saint-and-Ear, you see. I can’t be that. I’m caught in the midst of something here, you see. But if I’m going to Instruct you, I have to be present in this situation and break through it somehow, break through the limitations in the game you’re all playing, and not lose Myself. Not lose the Truth of My Own Person and Realization by associating with worldlings, with egos and the game that egos play, the game that you are all playing even as the culture of Adidam, you see. I have to somehow survive it, be authentic within it, break through your game, even while you’re playing it on Me.
So, you see what a difficult situation it is and how you are always spinning a yarn of your own revisionism all around Me, you see, while I have to be free to just all of a sudden say “bullshit”, you know, booop! [mock moralism:] Local pastors don’t say bullshit, you see. If I put Myself in a position where I can’t say “bullshit” any more, you see, I can’t relate to you with any real integrity. So, I have to stand free of the mold that you want to make and the ritual you want Me to play out. I’ve got to be free within it, function freely within it even while you’re playing it and I’m suffering it.
So, which is My History? The one you’re thinking or the one I’m actually engaged in? Which history is history? Well, even the facts about something that is false is still history. So, your history of egoity around Me is still your history. And it’s a kind of a piece of a pattern that could be called real history. And My real Activity and Intention, what I have to do to maintain the integrity of My Person and Speech here, and so on, for the sake of Revelation and Transmission Work and Blessing Work, you see, is also history.
And I, remarkably, because of the disposition even of you all who are My devotees, I must tell you what I am Doing. Because if I leave it up to you, you will tell a mummers tale and the Way will not survive My Lifetime. If I left it up to you to orally remember and pass on My Teaching, My History, the true description of My Person, My Nature, My Activities, you see. If I didn’t speak all of that and record it and write it and carefully express Myself and do so without bullshit, you see, if I didn’t take care to do all of that, then mummery is all that would happen, all that would survive this. And fundamentally, that’s what survives mankind is that revision of Truth and revision even of conditional reality that egos make.