The Way of the Heart, Chrisitanity and the Sacrifice of Self – Beezone

Adidam and Christianity and the Teachings of Jesus

There is a likeness between my Teaching and all of the
high and great and radical Teachings of the Great Tradition.
I explore and examine all of the traditions (and also
suggest) a congenial likeness to be found between my own
Teaching and the great or high Teachings of all the
traditions (and in) Christianity particularly.

Christianity is historically the dominant religious
tradition of the Western world over the years I have also
considered Christianity—actually not so much
Christianity as the Teaching of Jesus—in terms of its
likenesses to my own Teaching.

In ‘The Rising Messiah’ an unpublished talk (March 20,
1978) Bubba Free John (Adi Da) talks with devotees about a
book he is considering about Jesus. In the discussion he
says, “this book has got to be…a presentation of the point
of view of this Teaching or Bubba Free John relative to this
individual (Jesus)”.

Bubba (Adi Da) goes into many historical references about
the teaching of Jesus and then describes the fundamental
teachings of Jesus and Christianity as it developed in many
lands. He divides Chrisitianty (and religion in general)
into two faces. One is outward, religious and moral
(exoteric) and the other is inward and subtle (secret)
esoteric. He says it’s important to discriminate between
these two faces or approaches.

The outwared or exoteric approach is the one the church
and people in general have is that of a religion of faith
and a saviour. It’s about a relationship to Jesus as son of
God, one that will save him and make certain things
unnecessary. Jesus has done certain things (The Great
Sacrifice) and now you don’t have to do them. This exoteric
approach is one I don’t want to discuss in this essay. I
would like to see how the esoteric approach to Christianity
is similar and different in the Way of the Heart.

In the inward or esoteric Teaching of Jesus, Bubba (Adi
Da) describes it as a way of sacrafice. In Christianity the
sacrifice which needs to be performed is done by Jesus
alone, which is The Great Sacrifice of Jesus. The
fundamental teachings of Jesus and Chrisitanity can be
summarized in the great commandment is Sacrifice, sacrifice
of self through love toward the Divine. It also includes the
life in the world, the life among one’s neighbors (Love thy
neighbor as thy self).

The sacrifice that Jesus teaches (and IS) how does it
differ from the teachings of The Way of the Heart which in
many ways is about The Way of Sacrafice.

If you read the epilogue from ‘The Way That I Teach’,
Religion Is Sacred Activity, Bubba Free John writes:

Religion is sacred activity. It is a formal,
specific…sacrifice. It is a total, whole, and present
sacrifice or offering of that which is oneself…religion or
sacred practice is inspired and communicated via human
agents who already abide in the ecstasy of this sacrifice.
One who is such an agent becomes attractive to others, so
they become polarized to him through love…as Master of the
sacrifice. He is their advantage, whereby the way of
sacrifice is not only learned but quickened.

This is the ancient secret that few have heard. It is
the hidden part of all the cults and institutions of
religion. It is absolutely so.

Epilogue
– The Way That I Teach

The problem for people who try to understand Adi Da and
his teaching of the Way of The Heart is their absence of
‘inclusivity’, incorporating everything into The Great
Sacrifice, the true sacrifice that Jesus taugh, the
sacrifice of themselves (and their ideas) into the Living
One. This Sacrifice (which everyone must make) has to be
made on the alter, the alter of life (not just on Sunday or
special sessions) in every moment, big and small.

When you take a look at some of the Sacrifical teachings
in The Way of The Heart. You can easily mistake it for
Christianity.

“The Way of Divine Ignorance involves worship of the
Divine in Spirit and in Truth.” It is total and radical
worship, or most profound sacrifice of self”
Whole Body of Enlighenment – Chapter
6

“The Sacrament of Universal Sacrifice, which all
devotees in our Church engage daily”
Renouncing
the Search For the Edible Diety

“the Law will be fulfilled. We are obliged from birth
to be a sacrifice”
The
Law of Sacrifice

The Way of Divine Communion (The Way of The Heart)
depends on devotional sacrifice
Breath
and Name

There are many other references in the teaching of The
Way of the Heart (or The Way Divine Communion) that Adi Da
teaches. They are very similar to Christianity and the
teachings of Jesus and can be easily dismissed or
misundersood if not properly comprehended.

Isn’t Adi Da saying the same thing as Jesus? Yes he is,
but there is a difference in the Adi Da’s communication.

Bubba (Adi Da) talks about how Jesus doesn’t just belong
to a time and place in Israel 2000 years ago but to Great
Way of Life, a figure that belongs to a Way all over the
world, in all religions and Ways of (to) God. He says the
the book and the ideas he is developing should show what
Jesus was up to and how “his great demonstration, is in this
Teaching, the Way of Divine Ignorance (The Way of the
Heart).

Bubba (Adi Da) goes on to say that the Way of Divine
Ignorance is a summary and a criticism and a reawakening
..of a tradition that’s all over the earth, hidden ..” The
religions all over the earth are like the story of the blind
man and the elephant. The religions all over the earth are
like a piece of the elephant and the Way of Divine Ignorance
(The Way of the Heart) is the whole elephant.

So you can see, that if someone doesn’t see the Way of
The Heart or the Way of Adi Da to be whole they will take it
like any other religion and see is as a piece of the
elephant and take it as ‘THE Way’, excluding other paths and
traditions.

You can also see why people misunderstand or only
partially understand Adi Da and others who cry out against
cults and truly spiritual ways are like the Jews of Jesus’
time.

Adi Da teaches that when not properly understood
‘sacrifice of self’ is an expression of ego or the self it
wishes to sacrifice!

“(Sacrifice of self), when presumed in itself, is
binding, limiting, an expression and an agent of suffering.
Manifest or conditional existence then, under any conditions
gross, subtle, or causal is, in and as itself,
suffering.

This realization is profoundly disorienting and
disturbing, since it convicts the living being of
irreducible dis-ease and hopelessness¹, which
cannot be dissolved by any consolation or change of state,
and it is also profoundly liberating, since it brings an end
to the distraction by any kind of action and experience and
allows the effort of being to come to rest in the intuition
of its true, real, or prior Condition.”
How
I Comprehend My Work

Adi Da further comments, “So, what is going on here?
This manifestation is a plane of universal sacrifice. It is
a process in which all forms appear, continue for a while,
are subject to intrusions, apparent differences, effects,
and then die-but without bringing an end to life or the
process itself, without bringing an end to Consciousness
Itself. And there is nothing you can do about it-not
absolutely, to the point of perfection, to the point of
moral righteousness-absolutely nothing .

So, to understand the “meaning”, so to speak, of
cosmic existence, in which beings die, you must examine all
of this and be intelligent about it. You must accept the
fact that the cosmic domain is a realm of universal
sacrifice. It is Wisdom to appreciate this. And True Wisdom
is to appreciate it to the point that you transcend all
negativity about it. But to do that, you must transcend your
own self-contraction, your own separateness, your own
egoity, and become Godward and Drawn into that Domain in
Which there is no fault, no death. You must accept that your
own body-mind is a sacrifice, the body-minds of all are a
sacrifice. And even though you can be gentle to some degree
locally, you cannot avoid death, or sacrifice.

Death is essential to the reality of this cosmic
process. Every apparent form, although in Reality not
differentiated, nonetheless in its appearance goes through
changes, suffers influences, exists for a time that cannot
be predetermined, and then is disintegrated. Yes, there are
continuations on a subtler level, and so forth, but it is
still the same process: endless changing, endless change,
process, endless sacrifice. Reality is sacrifice. The cosmic
reality is sacrifice.”

“God simply stands, eternally free. The relationship
between the unconditional reality and the conditional
reality is, inherently, a mystery. That inherent mystery is
made evident in every detail of conditional existence, but
the secret of that mystery is perfectly obvious only when
consciousness participates in the great sacrifice of every
detail of conditional existence”
The
Dawn Horse Testament – Chapter 18

1. Double Bind