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.
THE “BRIGHTENING” WAY TALK SERIES
The Yajna Discourses of Santosha Adi Da –
Volume , Number
The Paradox of Entanglement
A Gathering “Consideration” with Beloved Adi Da Samraj in the Manner of Flowers on January 11, 1996
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Maybe we could start off by one of you explaining everything. [laughter]
DEVOTEE: Good luck! [pause]
ADI DA SAMRAJ: In one brief paragraph. [laughter]
DEVOTEE: A few words or less.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Im serious!
DEVOTEE: Yes!
ADI DA SAMRAJ: So start explaining. [laughter] This is your final exam for the week. [laughter]
DEVOTEE: You are here. Were going to die. And practice.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Well, that’s one way of summarizing it. Anybody else got a total explanation to add?
DEVOTEE: Radiant Life-Consciousness.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Mm. [to Devotee] Do you have one there?
DEVOTEE: I’ve got to finish appreciating what Devotee just said. [laughter]
DEVOTEE: How about, You are the Divine Person, Beloved, and we are Contemplating You.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: “How about”? [laughter]
DEVOTEE: As an entry, as an entry.
DEVOTEE: As a suggestion.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: It sounds very tentative.
DEVOTEE: Beloved, I was struck by . . .
ADI DA SAMRAJ: A truck. [laughter] Is that what you’re about to tell us? That’s all he had, anyway. No, you werent struck by a truck, that’s good.
DEVOTEE: How what You allowed us to witness and participate in is the ancient practice of Sravana and Manana and Nididhyasana, because that was exactly the process that You have shown to us. Listening at the feet of the Great One, and the whole meditative and Contemplative process that Youve shown us. And then the immersion in the Great Well of Being that You allowed us to experience.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Ah, Tcha. You all have total certainty that you are the Witness?
DEVOTEES: Yes.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: And the Well Exists? [murmurs of agreement] And That’s all there Is? But you haven’t Realized any of this, is that it? [laughter] Hm? You have or you haven’t?
DEVOTEE: My gosh, Beloved, we have.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: We? [laughter]
DEVOTEE: He realized beyond himself. [laughter]
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes, what were you going to say?
DEVOTEE: We have realized it. [more laughter] I mean, I have.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: What is this “we”? Youre talking about Realization and right away you give Me the “we” word. The “we” word is just a lot of “I” words.
DEVOTEE: It’s the “us” of “I” words.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: It doesnt sound like Realization to Me. What?
DEVOTEE: By Your Grace Lord, I have Realized it.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: [Devotee laughing.] This is funny?
DEVOTEE: Devotee looking forward to Your Response, I believe.
DEVOTEE: No. It was the “through Your Grace [Devotee says the next words with Devotee] I have Realized” that seemed humorous.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Yes. Several curious choices of his words. And several paragraphs, which could be used as a matter of convention of course, but in his case? Naaaahhhh! [laughter]
Well, it seems like you just illustrated the paradox that you all seem to have agreed to.
DEVOTEE: Contradiction.
ADI DA SAMRAJ: I mean, I’ve been listening to your expressions the last few nights, and we’ve of course discussed various things about this. My impression, as I said, is that you are paradoxically on the one hand saying you’ve Realized all of these, all of this, and yet you haven’t. Which says something about you, and it may be interesting to “consider”. But Realization being what It is, it would seem that either It is or It isnt. But paradoxically you all claim both. [murmurs]
DEVOTEE: Uh-hah! Ha!
DEVOTEE: Ha!
ADI DA SAMRAJ: Even the suggestion you make every time we finish one of our meetings and you say youll examine yourself during the day and see whether this continues or changes or goes away and so on, suggests something paradoxical about whatever it is that you feel you’ve Realized. In other words, you’re right there saying it is so, it is completely evident to you, but youll observe yourself [People begin to laugh and Beloved speaks with a smile in His voice.] during the day today and see.
Realization It’self is not something that requires a test. It’s just self-evident. In terms of whether It’s going to last or not, theres no question about it. It’s not of the nature of a characteristic experience of the body-mind, where its kind of an object, kind of a mysterious object that you’re associated with and like your experience of conditional objects in general, they pass, change and pass and whatnot. It’s not like that.
To Realize, the body-mind must be transcended. All of its means are transcended. Realization is then a direct matter, not via conditions, not held in place by conditions. So it is not something about which there can be any doubt. And yet, as I said, paradoxically you all appear to affirm that you followed this “consideration” fully and entered into these Samadhis and such. But on the other hand, you suggest theres something possibly tentative about it. Maybe or maybe not its actually Realization. Maybe it’ll be true of you tomorrow, maybe it wont. And even while we’ve been here having discussions, well go off on some matter or other, and I’ll ask you about this matter of the Witness again, and generally you all said you had passed away from it, you had forgotten it, and gotten involved in the mechanics of the body-mind and such.
So as I said, you seem to be collectively making a paradoxical confession that all these matters of Great Realization I’ve “considered” with you are true of you and yet they are not. Or in some sense there seems to be, in each of your cases, two of you, as in the Upanishadic story. There are two birds in a tree. And one is busy devouring the fruit and such, and the other simply witnesses the event. That was written a long time ago, perhaps twenty-five hundred years ago or so. Not a sophisticated TV-minded bit of noticing.
You could say that what’s being illustrated there is two different kinds of people. You know, the kind of people who just become involved in conditional existence, and those who become detached, even stand prior to it. In other words, you could say this was a lesson somebody was trying to give to somebody else. You can be either one of these two. So its that. It was intended to be a lesson in that manner. But it also is an illustration of the paradox of human beings.