Have I Said It? – Bubba Free John

 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 12

Bubba Free John

The Life

Franklin Jones is a Fictional
Character.

 

 

On November 3, 1939, at 11:23
a.m.

In Jamaica, New York,

I was born

Franklin Albert Jones.

 

The sign of my birth

Is Scorpio,

Marked by the images

Of spirit and of sex,

The eagle and the crab.

It is the sign of internal
warfare,

The problem and perfection.

I have played in the dilemma

Of my natural alternatives,

But from my earliest experience of
life,

I have enjoyed a condition

I would call “the Bright.”

 

My life has been an adventure

Of the knowledge and
unfoldment

Of the “bright,”

Which I have known to be

The form of reality.

 

Very early in life

I conceived a purpose

In the “Bright.”

It was to restore humor.

 

My purpose has been

To make this realization
possible

As the real foundation

Of conscious life.

 

Franklin jones

Is a fictional character,

A series of lessons

Consciously manifested

For my devotees.

Franklin jones is essentially

A series of lessons.

 

I have always been

Bubba free john.

 

I had never been taught

My path from without.

The “Bright,”

With its foundation in the
heart,

Had been my teacher

Under the form

Of all my teachers

And experiences.

 

The Heart

Had been my only teacher.

 

There has been only one Guru

In my case.

That Guru has used

Many instruments

All throughout my life,

But that Guru is not separate

From my own state.

That Guru is my own state, my own
nature.

That Guru is the perfect Guru,

The very Divine.

 

It was perfectly obvious to me

That there was nothing to do

But sadhana.

There was nothing else in life

That was worth the suffering.

 

We are all going to die.

We are all going to lose

This awareness, this
enjoyment.

I can’t endure that dilemma

From day to day.

From the moment I was born

That upset me.

I wasn’t the least interested

In tolerating moment to moment
existence

As that kind of suffering.

Life wasn’t worth the
involvement

If its summation had to be death,
zero.

What difference does it make

How turned on I can get

If I must fall out the bottom,
arbitrarily.

Everything is wonderful today.

But you wake up tomorrow

And the world of lovely
friends

Is delivered to you dead,

The insane parcels

Of everything disappearing.

 

I could tolerate

No mediocrity.

 

I sought an utterly

Radical reversal

And transformation

Of my existence.

 

I sought reality,

To be reality,

What is,

Not what is asserted

In the face of what is.

 

I had exhausted my seeking.

I had seen the futility of
effort.

 

I knew reality

As no-seeking,

A motiveless awareness

In the heart.

 

I felt the Shakti

Appear against my own form.

She embraced me,

And we grasped one another

In sexual union.

We clasped one another

In a fire of cosmic desire,

As if to give birth

To the universes.

 

The sensations of the embrace

Were overwhelmingly blissful.

It exceeded any kind of
pleasure

That a man could acquire.

I accepted her as my consort,

My loved one,

And I held her forever

To my heart.

There was no separation at
all.

 

Not separation,

Not even union,

But unqualified relationship

Or non-separation

Arose in me

As the radical

Sense of existence.

 

There was no meditation.

There was no need for
meditation.

I sat with my eyes open.


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