Have I Said It?
Bubba Free John (Adi Da
Samraj), 1973
Bubba Free John
(1974)…..Adi
Da Samraj (2008)
Chapter 7.
Spiritual life
Spiritual Life is a Spiritual Relationship.
God performs this work.
This way is fulfilled
By grace.
It is made perfect
And true
By grace.
What’s true about
Spiritual life
Is that there is God, Truth and Reality.
And there is Grace.
Spiritual life
Is a spiritual relationship.
It is an involvement
With Grace.
It is life in God, Truth and Reality.
It is a Graceful Process.
Because the spiritual process
Is Divine business,
It can be done very easily.
It is already done.
We are not talking about
Some condition that is
or can be
Accomplished.
We are talking about
The condition
That always and already pertains.
The foundation of spiritual life
Is not the absence
Of the intuition of the Divine.
The foundation of spiritual life
Is the intuition of your Real Condition,
The intuition of the Divine Nature
Of this moment.
I don’t mean life evolving
Toward the Divine,
But life presently founded
In the Divine.
Life isn’t intended to be a mystery
That leads to the discovery of God,
Truth and Reality,
At enlightenment,
Or at any other point in the future.
Life is founded in God, Truth and Reality,
And is meant to be lived in God,
Truth and Reality,
Happily and without mystery.
Life becomes a drama that is not
Leading to the Divine.
It is leading Nowhere.
Life is not leading anywhere.
Truth or Reality becomes
Not the goal
But the very principle of life.
Spiritual life
Is the company of truth.
It is a relationship to one
Who lives as Truth.
It is the very nature of life.
It is the form of existence.
Spiritual life
Is not the activity of spiritual seekers.
Spiritual life begins
When the spiritual search
Is abandoned
And Communion with Truth is begun.
It is a matter of living
In Divine Communion
From the beginning.
It is the assumption
Of the Divine
As the active principle and condition
Of your life.
Then you begin in utter freedom,
In the infinite intensity of God.
The True Way
Is to Realize God in Truth.
It is God first, not God as the goal.
God, Truth and Reality first,
as the principle of life.
Then the world is known in Truth.
Then all the psycho-physical
Manifestations are known in Truth.
The real or true way
Of Spiritual Life
Is to assume the condition
That is Divine Communion,
To live that condition constantly,
Now, in this moment,
And now in this moment.
The Truth is this condition,
And that’s the good news.
The real good news is that
None of that seeking is necessary
It is all nonsense!
The good news is that the condition
That is happiness is free of this dilemma
And all motivated existence,
That all of that is completely unnecessary
And can in this moment be side-stepped,
Obviated, undermined, and completely
By-passed in the way of real Spiritual Life.
The Divine Power of this work
Is perfect.
There is no obstruction in the cosmos,
No obstruction in a human being
That can stand up to it.
It is nothing.
It is just a ride.
It is no big deal.
It’s nothing, it amounts to nothing.
You’re very serious about it,
But at some point
It won’t mean anything to you.
This way is simple and easy,
Because it does not take
Billions of lifetimes,
But it requires a hell of a lot
In one lifetime.
And yet some day you will look at it
And see that it required
Nothing at all,
That you did nothing.
It all seemed very dramatic
At the time,
And yet it involved
Nothing at all.
The true way
Is the one that is blissful now.
The true teaching
Turns you to present bliss
And does not require you to create it.
The condition of relationship
Already exists as your condition.
What has to be added for that
To take place?
Nothing!
All that is required
Is relationship itself,
The condition
That is always already the case.
Allow it to develop
And reveal the Divine to you
According to its own pace.
Live by faith,
Not by design.
You cannot overcome this world,
But the Divine has already
Overcome this world.
The grace of Reality itself
Absorbs ego-consciousness
And makes it identical
To absolute Consciousness.
And it is all done
In a very natural, easy transition.
You couldn’t do it yourself.
You would refuse to do it
As soon as you realized
What was actually required.
The individual cannot do understanding,
Nor can he do no-seeking and no-dilemma.
Spiritual life is not about winning.
There are no winners in God.
None.
Know that you cannot
Be responsible for it.
Know that you cannot figure it out.
You do not understand it.
You cannot understand it.
That is the truth.
Here is spiritual life, Divine Communion.
Live it. Be happy to have discovered
That you cannot figure it out.
Allow the Divine
To create your event.
The Divine is always creating
A perfect event.
If you live by faith,
In other words,
If you live always already
In Divine Communion,
And allow the manifestation of your event,
Your life in any moment,
To be the Divine occasion,
Perfection will always be manifested
In the form of conditions
Appropriate to this moment in God.
Nothing happens to you
That is not appropriate.
All events serve truth.
Everywhere
Everything combines
For the sake of truth.
Nothing happens arbitrarily
To those who live truth.
The radical point of view
Is not one of seeking,
Step by step,
Through experiences,
But by penetrating,
Prior to any movement at all,
The present condition.
If you always move directly
To that condition,
That happiness,
Prior to your games,
Your separateness,
Your fulfillments,
Then you have already passed through
Everything necessary
For your dissolution in God.
You will never gain anything
Again by experience.
So if it has become complicated,
Return to the basics,
God, Grace, Truth and Reality.
There’s no meditation technique
For you to acquire.
I do not recommend
That you meditate.
There is only understanding.
Therefore, understand.
There is no right motive
For adopting it,
There is only the discovery
That you are
Already doing
Self-contraction.
It is not a matter
Of your meditating yourself
To the point of realization.
The actual power of the Divine
Is activated in understanding,
And that power does the meditation.
That power is the meditation.
The Divine power
Is greater than anybody
Could possibly comprehend.
It is not itself
Experiential or yogic in nature.
It is not even mystical in nature.
But it is perfect nonetheless,
And more than sufficient.
It is real, absolute.
It is present in silence.
It is immediate, direct.
The power of the Heart manifestation
Is a moveless intensity
Without center or periphery,
That grasps consciousness
And draws it into itself.
In the condition
Of Divine Communion
You are meditated.
Meditation is not your concern.
The Lord is the Great
Master of meditation.
He alone is the meditator,
And he alone is the Supreme
Object of meditation.
In the process of this meditation,
Only the Lord is known.
The Lord must meditate you.
The Lord must enter.
And when the Lord enters you,
He makes you ecstatic.
Intelligence is the fundamental
Meditation.
Consciousness is itself
The meditation.
Real meditation
Is an expression of that
Rather than a way
To get to it.
Real meditation is already
A radical activity.
It is not purposive.
It has no dilemma to solve.
Real meditation is an intense fire.
It is a marvelous intelligence,
A brilliance, a genius, a living force.
It is not a pious attempt
To quiet your little thoughts.
It blasts the hell
Out of these thoughts!
The most intense meditation
Is one in which the Form of Reality
Itself absorbs consciousness.
When consciousness
Moves into relationship,
The mind falls away.
The mind is replaced
By a form of intensity.
It doesn’t make any difference
What is inside.
It all has to go.
It is really very simple.
You just throw it away.
The key to the matter
Is not how to throw it away.
The key to the matter
Is recognizing that it is
Just stuff
Garbage.
As soon as you see it,
You know immediately
That you should throw it away,
Drop it.
You are just looking
At a lot of garbage
And thinking it is the precious
Instrument of God.
But I’ll tell you right now
It is all garbage!
Everything you are given is garbage,
And you are expected
To throw it away,
But you meditate on it.
None of it is the Divine.
It is garbage.
You are being asked
To sacrifice everything!
The Divine vision
Is just a pimple on the Goddess,
Except it is not recognized
As such by seekers.
They think, “oh, it is the Lord.”
They couldn’t care less
About the Lord,
Because to know the Lord
Would require them
To be obliterated.
The Lord in Truth
Requires the sacrifice
Of self-existence.
Nobody wants such a thing.
They want the Goddess,
Who will pamper them,
And delight them.
That is what people want.
The usual meditation
Is only a consolation.
The ordinary yogi or religious man
He may think he is looking at
The blue of Krishna
Or the white of Jesus,
Until he loses face.
Until the sudden zero,
He looking at Krishna
Or the Christ.
He is only consoled,
Only distracted.
His realization and his death
Are kneeling in one another.
What are you looking at
In this turning inward?
The same thing
That you are always looking at!
The same obsession.
The usual meditator
Is just another obsessed man,
Unaware of relationship
As his actual condition.
Fulfillment isn’t worth squat.
It is not a matter
Of the quiet mind,
The empty mind,
The blissful mind,
The transcendent mind,
Or even the Divine mind.
Truth is of a radical
And most prior nature.
It would be better
To be cooked alive
Than to gain a little peace
By method and trickery.
And even if
There is a little quiet,
Real spiritual life
Must begin at last.
Spirituality is not the way
To Truth.
The cultic path is not the way
To God.
No spiritual process
Makes you realize God.
There is no such process.
The Divine already enjoyed
Is the foundation
Of any genuine spiritual process.
All these ways of realizing God are false.
The traditions have only felt
The comedy that men may attain.
All those ways are absolutely false.
There is absolutely no way.
There is no way.
There is no path.
None.
In order to know that
With certainty
You must realize
That all paths are
Fruitless.
All paths are
Suffering and avoidance.
Spiritual life is not the extraordinary.
Spiritual life is not sitting in the cave,
Reciting the mantra.
Thirty years of Shakti experiences
Will occupy a fool,
But they will not awaken him.
In the presence of the Divine Person,
There is nothing to be attained,
There is no state to be attained.
There is no God-union
Until God is there to be unioned with.
And when God appears you are not going to
Have to do your spiritual breathing!
It will all be very obvious.
You won’t have to think about
What is necessary to be done
To become one with God.
All righteousness,
All ordinary spirituality
Or the search for consolation
Is nonsense.
It is a refusal.
It is unreal.
All separation is an illusion.
And all attainments are an illusion.
There is no separation,
And there is no attainments
Of union.
No process,
High or low,
In any plane of manifestation,
Is Truth or leads to Truth.
The only way to Truth
Is Truth itself.
Truth is the way.
Spiritual life
Is a relationship,
A living demand.
The Way
Is the condition itself.
The relationship itself.
It already exists.
It is the spiritual discipline,
The meditation.
There is nothing else
That needs to be added to it.
The condition itself,
The relationship itself
Is the spiritual discipline.
Spiritual life
Is a relationship.
It has always been so.
Nothing apart from
That relationship
Is offered.
Spiritual life
Is simplicity,
It is relationship,
Relational life.
It is your conscious humanity.
You must live it.
You must become a human being.
To be intelligent,
You need not first realize
Absolute truth.
But no one can realize absolute truth
Who has not first
Become intelligent.
You must become
Masters of the ordinary.
Truth is resurrected
From the ground up.
Spiritual life
Is not a form of consolation.
Its foundation is not
A fascinating promise.
Spiritual life is threatening.
Spiritual life is not leading
Toward your fulfillment
In some great vision.
Spiritual life is leading to
The absolute undermining
Of your separate existence
Absolutely.
Spiritual life
Is not a cure.
There is no remedy.
Spiritual life
Is the life of truth.
Spiritual life
Is a demand,
Not a form of therapy.
It is the practice of life
In a world where the Living Heart,
Not your dilemma and search,
Is the condition.
Real spiritual life
Requires everything
Of a person.
Spiritual life
Is a crisis!
The crisis in Consciousness
Is spiritual life.
The suffering and the intensity
Tapas
Is spiritual life.
Spiritual life
Is living intelligence,
Conscious in dilemma,
But with intensity.
We begin
Spiritual life
Only when we have
Already discovered
The “terrible truth.”
It is because
You are sensitive
To the fact
That you are disturbed
That you become willing
To engage
Spiritual life.
It is better to be disturbed.
It is right to be disturbed.
In your condition,
One should be disturbed!
It is quite correct
For you to be disturbed, because
In fact, you are disturbed.
To be disturbed
And yet not to feel disturbed
Would not be appropriate.
It is much more intelligent
To realize that you are disturbed.
That is the beginning
Of spiritual life.
At least that sensitivity
Affords the possibility
Of spiritual life.
No one begins to live
Spiritual life
Until he or she has suffered.
Life is suffering.
Suffering is the first form of grace.
Suffering has released you
Into your own depth.
Come into the presence
That is God
When you are already happy.
It is not a matter of
Any experience whatsoever.
It is a matter of
Falling out of the
Conditional and conventional
Representation of existence
Into that prior, absolute enjoyment.
It is all garbage.
Throw it all away.
Only God
Is the condition
Of Consciousness and Life.
Spiritual life
Is life in the condition of Truth.
Spiritual life has to do with
Continuous happiness, continuous bliss,
Continuous freedom, continuous relationship.
To live that Divine Communion
Under all conditions
Is the discipline of our work.
Happiness is the responsibility.
Freedom is the discipline.
To be free
Is the ultimate discipline.
Happiness is
What it’s all about.
Unhappiness is
The highest crime.
Spiritual transformation depends
On this realized, ecstatic condition
In every moment.
A spiritual life is one in which you
Lose face in each moment, in which you
Are the servant of God, in which you
Are dependent on the services of God.
Unless such a literal and conscious
And ecstatic and face-losing affair
Appears in every moment as your life,
You are not living spiritual life.
If that glorious, ecstatic kind of
Happiness and distraction is not present,
Spiritual life is not possible.
There is no call
For seriousness at all.
There is never any call
For seriousness.
There is no reason
To be serious about anything
Whatsoever.
You must already be happy,
Already full of humor.
There is no reason
Why you have to be extraordinary.
Be ordinary, be happy.
Before you started imagining
A program for your
Ultimate victory or defeat,
By desiring and creating circumstances
For yourself,
Just before all of that happens
In this moment,
Just before you believe all of that,
You are happy.
And it is better to be happy.
That happiness is your condition.
All of the rest of it is an hallucination
By which you program your life.
Be easy, be full of enjoyment.
It is not to annihilation
That you are invited.
It is to the fullness of God
That is happy and free.
There is only this humor, this freedom,
As the radical foundation
Of conscious life.
And it makes no difference,
Except that every other state,
Object or form of knowledge
Makes a difference.
Universal modification, as a functional
Rather than a conventional condition,
Known in truth, is wonderful!
All human possibilities, if they are
Managed in God, are enjoyable.
Life is, fundamentally, delight,
When released from the strategic destiny
Of narcissus and the conventional cult
Of this world.
Life or the cosmos is a modification
Of the great Divine.
What heresy to assume
That the Lord’s power of modification
Is false or to be gotten rid of!
It is all God’s work, God’s happiness.
It is to be known and lived in truth.
Therefore enjoy it,
For you alone
Must live your ends
And all the stages
Of time.
Enjoy and create
According to the wisdom
Of your own form.
All that arises
Is to be realized
As the conscious theatre
Of God.
Not any yogic bliss
But to be already and presently happy,
Regardless of the apparent condition,
Is spiritual life.
All the manipulation of the life force
Is God’s concern.
Life in truth
Is to be already happy
Without any reasons whatsoever,
Not to be hoping to be happy
By moving into Samadhi.
This enjoyment
Is the principle of life,
Not its goal.
True Bliss
Is the enjoyment
Of your condition
In Truth.
It requires
The most perfect sacrifice.
Truth is Life
Is to live the primary
Condition of relationship
Under all conditions,
At all times.
Live this
Conscious relationship
Always.
You should just
Live that relationship.
Live that forever.
A lifetime of truth.
True spiritual practice
Is to live the condition
Of that Divine relationship,
Divine Communion,
For a lifetime,
Even eternally.
Spend no time whatsoever
Analyzing yourself.
No time.
I mean no time!
Don’t spend any more time
In your little
Self concerned life.
Turn yourself completely
Over to that process,
Withhold nothing,
And every moment throw away
Everything that you’ve withheld.
You must make every moment
An involvement in that process.
Every moment must be realized
In this form of service,
Every moment must be realized
As the sacrament
In which the self is yielded,
In which all content is yielded,
And in which grace is received.
You are under
An obligation.
You must go through it.
You must maintain the form
Of spiritual life eternally.
Having begun, never abandon it.
Never.
Once having found it,
To abandon it
Is the height of foolishness,
Worthy of what it realizes.
Now you must do it,
And if you don’t do it,
Then you will suffer.
If you do it,
You will enjoy God.
Enjoy the condition
Of spiritual life
With open intensity,
And you simply won’t be
Obsessed anymore!
The fact that any of that remains
Is not really any concern of yours,
Because it belongs to God.
So fine, now it belongs to God.
It is a matter of living the truth,
And truth obviates
What is not truth.
Do this always,
Freely,
And with humor.
Just do what you have to do
And get it started.
Then it goes on forever.
Everything else is quick.
It seems
That talking about
Spiritual life
Tends to make it appear
A very complicated process.
It is here!
This relationship
Is a real condition.
You must be
Very simple
And very direct.
True spiritual life
Is much more practical than that,
Much more direct than that.
It must be.
It is here.
Bubba Free John
(1974)…..Adi
Da Samraj (2008)
More:
Note to reader:
As a member of Adi Da’s (then Bubba Free John’s) community from about 1973-1975, during which time I lived for nine months in Persimmon, the sanctuary where he lived. My service was to creating an index of his early books. I found these writings to be compelling, along with some of outrageous talks that have not found their way into print. Around his birthday in 1975 (to the best of my recollection), Adi Da was planning on moving with a small group to Hawaii. For that occasion, I arranged a selection of his compelling words by topic (mostly selected from his books) and hand wrote them in a blank book for his enjoyment. As far as I know, nothing ever came of that compilation. That became Book One of two parts, the second of which I completed some time thereafter. Now through the Internet, I make both parts available to interested readers. These blank books (I made a copy for myself) have been sitting on my bookshelves all this time, and after Adi Da’s passing, it occurred to me that this compilation would be very useful to many readers.
Enjoy,
Ed Hirsch
presenceofone@yahoo.com
Ashland, Oregon