Have I Said It? – Ignorance

 Have I Said It?

Franklin Jones, 1973 (Adi Da Samraj)

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 create an index of his early books. I found these writings to be compelling, along with some of the 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


 

Bubba Free John, 1974 – Adi Da Samraj, 2008

 Chapter 10

Ignorance

Considerations

You Do Not Know What Anything
Is.

 

 

An enlightened lover

Cannot be bothered

With subjectivity, fear or
concern.

How boring!

Such a one is only busy

With the affair of his or her
loving,

Which extends into every area of
life.

It is all a delicious
exploration.

It is profound, ordinary,

But full of magic.

Who knows what will happen
next?

That is not the lover’s
concern.

Suddenly it strikes you that you
are

Present as the body totally,

Not just as the flesh

But as everything arising.

You are space. You are light.

Enter the garden with your
lover,

Sit intimately and breathe

Your mutual presence together.

Who starts where,

And who stops anywhere?

The world is full of

Endless possibilities for us
all.

This is the kingdom,

This is that very garden.

How could it be someplace
else?

We are here!

It never began,

And it never

Can come to an end.

It is endless,

Mindless,

Deliciously paradoxical,

Unreasonably happy.

 

The self reference

Is a convention of reference

For getting things done every
day.

But the self never appears

In our experience.

It is a symbol, a bit of
language.

It is not a description

Of how it is.

It is an advertisement.

The “I” never appears in the
event

As it does in sentences.

The “I” appearing,

Or the “me,”

The self reference,

Appears constantly in speech

But it never appears

In experience.

Don’t you think

That is remarkable.

It never does!

The ego

Does not exist.

It is a model

Of interpretation.

It is a way of

Making sense out of nonsense.

So if you remain

True to your experience,

You must begin to operate

In quite a different way.

This begins to become

Fully apparent to you,

Certain to you,

It is fundamental

To every moment of

Your consciousness.

You must be transformed,

Don’t you think?

Yes!

Do you think it is time for
you!

 

No one

Has ever had a thought.

Something arose.

You know what I mean?

There are only things arising.

No knowledge.

As soon as you

Get used to it,

If you do not forget it

And if you oblige yourself

To live with such
understanding,

Things begin to go on

Quite differently

For “you.”

Do not thing back,

Get into it

Right now!

Do you know

What consciousness is?

Is knowledge what it is?

And do you ever experience

That which you are?

That which

Observes Consciousness

And all other things,

Do you ever know that itself?

You do not know it,

You are not a thing apart

That could know it.

You are it, altogether.

No matter what arises,

As experience, thought,
emotion,

Circumstances, action, self
sense,

World, relationship, whatever,

We do not know what it is.

Our fundamental position

In the midst of arising things

Is utter ignorance

Or non-knowledge

Of the existence of anything.

We can and do very naturally

Gain all kinds of information

About things, people, events,

But we never know what they
are.

This is always and eternally
true.

We are already eternally happy

In our ignorance.

No matter what forms of

Knowledge we may acquire,

Even the highest so-called

“spiritual”
realizations,

We never know what it is.

There is no such knowledge!

There is absolute ignorance of
it.

Absolute ignorance of it.

Absolute ignorance

Of what you are

Or what anything is.

That is Nirvana.

And yet you see

At the same time

All this can occur,

All these so-called phenomena

Do not interfere

With this ignorance.

You are never in danger

Of knowing anything!

 

Nirvana is eternal,

And yet everything arises.

There is no one

Making it arise,

No one watching it arise.

Nothing is known,

And yet everything

Is going on,

And can be done

Exactly as it has always

Been before.

And yet when this

Is fully the realization

In Consciousness,

This will make

A great deal

Of difference.

It is not knowledge at all.

It is profoundest ignorance.

Adaptation to this ignorance

Is the highest wisdom.

Wisdom is adaptation.

Total ignorance.

You can see how this is so?

Yes?

So all of this and Nirvana

Are exactly the same.

No knowledge, no knower,

Only arising.

Nothing ever to be known

About that.

There is no cause of it.

It does not even exist.

Not stupid,

But complete ignorance.

Completely unqualified,

Without qualification,

And also not qualified to
know!

Absolutely unqualified

By any knowledge whatsoever,

By any specific definition

Or modification

Of consciousness.

The illusion of knowledge,

The illusion of knower,

Of some knowledge to be
attained,

Is suffering.

When the illusion of knowledge is
gone,

Suffering is completely gone,

All knowledge is completely
vanished.

There is no mind, no form, no
thing,

And yet there is everything.

This paradox is as close

As you can come

To pointing to the Divine,
so-called.

The paradox of this moment,

Unqualified and yet qualified

At the same time,

Well, this is enlightenment.

This is total, unqualified

And absolute enlightenment.

You are now enlightened!

All of this is obvious,

Isn’t it?

The whole secret

Of spiritual practice

Is the freeing of attention,

To the point where

That single gesture of
attention,

In which there is no
knowledge,

In which everything becomes
obvious,

May be made.

Most of your attention

Is being played on

By ordinary concerns

And points of view,

Beliefs, fears, and so forth.

Your attention must be

Freed up from that,

Fully, absolutely,

So that this simple gesture

Can be made.

 

Do you know

What anything is?

Is knowledge what you’re up
to?

Do you know anything?

This ignorance

Is your eternal,

Natural and Divine state.

That is the Truth.

That is the Divine form,

That ignorance, perfectly
enjoyed.

The illusion of knowledge

Is suffering.

That is it.

That is all there is to it.

 

At every moment

There is some new form of
knowledge,

Some new certainty

That this is your experience.

You see what I mean?

You think you are knowing
something.

But you are not knowing anything.

You do not know what it is.

In any case you do not know what it
is.

Ignorance is your natural
state.

All this knowledge

Is very complicated and
disturbing,

It involves you in an
adventure

That qualifies you and threatens you
even.

But you are not in a body,

You are in a state of ignorance.

Grasp this with your whole being

Entirely.

Make this your body, this
ignorance,

And all wisdom will appear

As nothing! As nonsense!

Nirvana is ignorance.

Realization is release from
knowledge,

The illusion of knowledge.

And all knowledge is an
illusion,

Because it does not actually

Amount to knowledge.

There is no reduction of the
mystery

Or the paradox.

All things arise and nothing is
known.

That is Nirvana.

 

Rest in your ignorance,

Any you are completely happy,

Completely unthreatened.

You are completely free of what
arises.

It never implicates you for a
moment.

You know nothing about it.

Knowledge is not your connection to
it.

There is no connection.

There is no “you” to
find.

There is ignorance, only,

Absolute ignorance.

Well, that is enlightenment.

That is it!

Now you must live it in every
moment

And you will see how mad you
are.

At any moment feel and see

If you know anything.

And then return to your natural
state.

Ignorance is it, you see.

That is it.

Have I said it?

 

There is only this ignorance,
eternally.

You relax into fully feeling this
ignorance.

Absolutely blissful.

It is perfectly obvious, isn’t
it?

There is nothing to be
realized

Beyond it.

It is the one thing that is
Truth.

It is very Truth.

It is the absolute experience.

It is the only knowledge, this
ignorance.

It is never touched, never
touched.

I am that ignorance. You see?

And so are you, aren’t
you?

That same ignorance.

You imagine that knowing

Is what you’re up to.

You imagine that enlightenment

Is some knowledge.

But that is not what it is.

It is this ignorance.

You are without motion,

Without place, without fear,

Without extension,

Without quality,

Without liberation,

Without bondage,

Entirely without knowledge.

And everything is simply
obvious.

It is perfectly obvious.

Fall back into your natural
condition

Of complete ignorance,

No knowledge,

Everything becomes obvious

And there is no illusion

And so suffering.

 

You will not acquire any
knowledge

Through any meaning
whatsoever.

Whatever it means,

You still do not know what it
is.

You are released from knowing
that.

Abiding in that ignorance

Is release eternal.

If you consider this argument
constantly

Then you will always be
enlightened.

It is always there.

Always has been there.

This has always been your
condition.

And at the same time

That there are all these things
arising,

Apparently,

There is nothing.

So-called.

Even if you fail to understand
that,

It is still the same
ignorance.

Look at one another

Realizing that you are not
looking

At anything that is knowing.

There is no knower there.

You have not the slightest
idea

What you are, what another is.

Look at it directly.

You are completely ignorant of
it.

All of you

Will be completely enlightened

Eternally.

 

How can you forget ignorance
again?

This ignorance is your only
experience,

Truly.

It has nothing to do with
anything.

Do you see?

There is only ignorance.

Only ignorance.

There is no knowledge.

None!

Complete ignorance

Of anything whatsoever

Is your nature.

Not ignorance within,

Or ignorance anywhere.

It is only ignorance.

That is it.

Only!

No single gesture that arose

Could possibly make it

Anything more than ignorance.

Everything arises

And you know nothing about it,

Not even the slightest

Hint of what it is.

No way to describe it,

It is completely awesome

And absurd yet workable.

It is all of that.

It is a paradox.

And you know nothing.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Nothing!

Nothing!

No knowledge whatsoever,

Complete ignorance.

Nothing!

And yet nothing disappears.

It is completely coincident

With absolutely any moment
whatsoever.

Nothing that arises

Has the least effect upon it

And it causes nothing.

Everything is it.

Everything is this same
ignorance.

Everything that arises is it,

It is that ignorance.

 

You say it is a modification

And yet it is still the same
ignorance.

It makes no difference
whatsoever.

There is no knowledge arising

At any moment, only arising
itself.

No knowledge whatsoever.

Even so-called knowledge is only
arising,

And you know nothing about it,

You haven’t the slightest idea what
it is.

Independent of what you are thinking it
means,

You haven’t any idea of what it is.

So you exist in this complete ignorance,

You are this complete
ignorance,

Everything is this ignorance,

There is only this complete,

Absolute ignorance

That makes no difference
whatsoever.

What it is

Is not the kind of thing

That makes a difference

And yet it obviously makes

All the difference,

You know what i mean?

Play it then!

Nothing is realized.

You do not know what anything
is

After that experience

Any more than before it.

Nothing changes or qualifies this
ignorance.

 

Look at all of this and you
realize

That there is nothing knowable about
it.

All this is not a something

About which knowledge can
appear.

There is no knowledge.

Never.

You never could grasp this
ignorance.

You see you never could.

Only this ignorance, then, and that is
it.

And this paradox is completely
obvious,

Isn’t it?

There is no knowledge,

Only complete ignorance.

And that is the Truth of it.

You know nothing.

There is no knowledge.

Profoundly realized,

You are absolutely released

In this ignorance.

This is perfection.

You see how the recognition

Of this ignorance

Is itself meditation.

This is the only true
meditation.

This must become ordinary,
constant.

This is Samadhi,
Enlightenment.

The whole matter of
Enlightenment,

Of Perfect Realization,

Is instant.

It does not require

Years and years of training.

It is a direct confrontation,

In which the individual must have

The available attention.

But it is most simple, most
direct.

It is exactly as we have considered
it,

And nothing more.

 

After all is said and done,

You do not know what anything
is.

You are completely ignorant

And nothing has ever been
knowledge.

So, consider that and do what you
will.

I am completely satisfied

That that argument

Is entirely sufficient

To enlighten all beings

Who can consider it.

You do not know what anything
is.

Even the knowledge you seem to
have.

There is no such thing as
knowledge.

It is just the illusion

At the end of seeking.

Realization is that

All that is fruitless,

And that there no knowledge

That can even be attained.

But that very ignorance

Is precisely your condition

And the condition of
everything.

And it will make no difference

Whatsoever.

You will still know nothing about
it.

You know nothing more about the

Absolute, Divine Vision

Than you know abut this glass of
water.

And vice-versa!

You are completely ignorant of what it
is.

It may mean a lot,

But you do not know what it
is.

You do not know what these meanings
are.

You do not know what they are.

You see? You are completely
ignorant.

This is absolutely true.

And that is the Truth.

And there really isn’t
anything

Else to Realize.

 

And one day it will be suddenly
obvious.

Your experience is complete
ignorance.

You do not know what anything
is,

You do not know what a word
is,

You do not know what anything
is.

It does not make any
difference

What happens, you still do not
know

Anything about it.

It is the noticing of this with
the

Full force of one’s being,
so-called,

That is enlightenment.

Enlightenment is so brief, so
simple,

It is only a matter of knowing
this,

So-called knowing of this.

 

Realizing ignorance brings the
whole

Thing to an end even while it
continues.

It does not become single,

It becomes a paradox,

A condition of which

There is no knowledge
whatsoever.

Do you know what I am talking
about?

Good! I suspected as much,

Because in saying all of this

I have not known anything
whatsoever.

So how could you know anything
more

As a result of listening to
me?

You do not.

You are as ignorant now as
then.

You have understood nothing.

Even if you had understood
something,

It would make no difference

Because you do not know what it
is.

Not just thinking about it

But realizing this ignorance

Is what I am talking about.

 

Spiritual discipline

Is essentially consideration

Of the argument

Until there is enough free
attention

That it becomes completely
obvious.

And the argument appears in many
forms,

This is just one of the versions of
it.

Do you know what anything is?

Do you know?

No.

Not at all.

In fact, there isn’t
anything

That is anything like a thing

About which knowledge

Could be possible,

Knowledge of what it is.

Existence of something

Is not anything that has to do

With knowledge.

There is no such knowledge

And never could be.

When you realize

That this ignorance

Is the same as your
Consciousness,

And are completely Realized

In this ignorance,

Then all this begins to become

Obvious in a remarkable way.

Even when you seem to know

What something is,

You are still completely
ignorant

Of the knowing and the thing.

Knowledge has nothing whatever

To do with it.

You are not something

That has knowledge or requires
it.

So what is wrong?

Make no assumptions

About knowledge whatsoever.

 

Know that you exist

As a complete mystery.

And that is precisely what you are, in
fact.

It is a complete paradox

Because everything arises in any
case,

Not for ignorant reasons, you
see,

Except perfectly ignorant
ones.

Arising has no cause
whatsoever.

True, it does arise in
ignorance.

Perfect ignorance!

So you can bypass all the
argument,

All the consideration,

If you realize that you are

Simply ignorant of it,

It could not be otherwise

Because it is not a something

About which knowledge is
possible.

Asking, “who am I?”

Is not a matter of

Finding out who I am.

It is a matter of realizing

You are completely ignorant of
it.

The “I” is not something

About which there can be
knowledge

As to what it is.

Who am I?

What it is cannot be known.

And yet that ignorance

Is also Consciousness.

Your very condition

Under all conditions

Is this ignorance.

It is not stupidity.

And it is not unconscious.

It is not anything

That you know about.


Have I Said It?

Franklin Jones, 1974 (Adi Da Samraj)

More:

The Teaching

Reality

God

No Dilemma

Seeking

Suffering

Spiritual Life

Realization

Understanding

Ignorance

“I” Am the Body

Bubba Free John

The Guru

Satsang

The Devotee

The Community