To Date No One – a Beezone Essay

 

n October 2005, Adi Da stated that not one of his devotees had Realized His State of Being. “It is a little more than a third of a century now which I have been activated for this very purpose, to cause Realization of Me, of My Very Sate, in the case of devotees of Mine. And to date, this has not occurred in the case of anyone.

This was not the only time Adi Da referred to the inability (or as He also referred to it as an active, present time “prevention”) of his devotees to Realize Him in the full sense. This criticism of his devotees in many ways is a hallmark of Adidam. (see: Failure in The Way of the Heart)

You don’t have to a beginning student of Adi Da and his teaching to find this failed characteristic. It runs all through his lifetime and the lifetime of his devotees, and it is a significant indicator of Adidam’s inability to grow into a real, attractive, and impactful spiritual path.  What now exists, by many people’s assessment of Adidam (especially after the last year’s cultural challenges) is a stagnant hierarchical, form-driven, protective, and unattractive culture. With a future of who knows what.

At present Adidam, as a very small worldwide culture of practitioners, has maintained a level of integrity, established, and kept many treasures that have been given by Adi Da. So, one can’t call Adidam a complete failure. But, if you take Adi Da’s “Shout” and searing criticisms to heart, you’d be hard-pressed to find any real spiritual growth or developed maturity in Adidam’s present state of affairs.

Two Ways – Practice and Demonstration

There are two ways to look at Adidam. One is from the “practice” aspect, and the other is from the “demonstration” side. What I tend to look at is the “demonstration” side. This is the area that says, “where are the signs.” Where is the “brightening”? Where is Adi Da’s “Transmission” felt? Where is the creative action, and establishment of a culture of attraction?

The other aspect in which to view Adidam is from the “Practice” side; the “brightening” of the Heart, the illuminating of the mind, and the fullness of the navel in those who stand as practioners? This is where the movement into the “spiritual stages of practice”, the fourth stage of life, shows itself and becomes the “spiritualization” of Adidam*.

Premise

Here is my premise. Adidam, as a collective culture and as a demonstration of practitioners, is still within the first three stages of life and therefore still struggling and immersed in psychological, social, and material matters. This is not an indictment but a critical and educated assessment based on the current signs CLEARLY showing themselves.

No Praise, No Blame

I observe two negative and critical signs within the culture of Adidam that are preventing its growth growth: in personal practice, and collective cohesion. These are the prominence of the “talking school.” and the “acceptance and settling” mindset founded in the ‘double-bind‘ of His Call.

In the “talking school” approach, one only has to see the repetition of Adi Da words and the simplification and summary statements in the group-speak, such as “just turn to Him.” Adi Da himself addressed this all the time seeing the “emptiness” and “falseness” of devotional and desperate declarations. (see video below)

In the “accepting and settling” mode, the signs are “all is well,” and “we are doing our best.” This method clearly marks the double-bind and the avoidance its crisis within the first three stages of life. It is the best example of a failure to ‘understand’ and the good-heartedness of having no options. As sorry as it is to say, there is nothing very profound in this “accepting and settling” asana in response to the Face of Fiery Truth.

The Paradox

A third and more subtle obstruction that prevents growth in the individual practitioner and culture as a whole is what I call “the four-leaf clover.” The “four leaf clover” syndrome is where you actually “have” the Truth, THE Way, and THE ONE! And therefore, at some subtle level, you’re let off the hook, you’re saved. It is within the “four-leaf clover” you can ride on the wind. You can hold the “tail of the horse,” and sooner or later, “He” will get you there! And this is where the absolute subtly of Adi Da and his teaching fails most practitioners. Because, as he has so clearly stated, over and over again, “I do not cause your enlightenment, I AM your enlightenment.”

The Fourth Stage of Life

Without growth in one’s individual practice and its “spiritualization” an authentic culture, demonstrating a genuinely spiritual way of life can only develop (however rightly) as a social and earthly religious institution.

Spirit means fire and it is this fire that must be intensified, and its alchemical work strengthened. Honesty, transparency, and truthfulness must come to the forefront. Defensiveness, angularity, and righteousness must be purified and seen for what it is; tightness in the belly, a pain in the head and deep despair in the heart.

There is a call here and its message is: those in positions of “power and control”, open to the possibility that YOU may be the “cause” and the “active prevention” of growth, expansion, and enlightenment, not only yours but others.

So, the question Is: Is Truth on your breakfast plate?!! Are you Radiant, showing signs of “shaki”, do you demonstrate an open heart, an open mind, an open navel, and a discriminative intelligence that will ATTRACT others to the table of His Offering?

May all beings be happy.

Ed Reither
Beezone
November 4, 2019

---

* This should be understood in this context.

No practice of the stages, just radical devotion There is not anything associated with the first six stages of life that is current practice of the Way of Adidam, none of it. There is radical devotion, right life, Perfect Knowledge practice, period. That’s it, nothing else.

Everything else was consideration. Everything else has had its time. It is there as lessons for people to look at, and why it is so, fine. But it is no longer anything of practice. It’s not something to do in My Company. It’s not something to do as the formalities of the Way, period, not. There are no fourth stage practices, no fifth stage practices, no fifth stage practices. There are no first three stages of life growing up practices. For children, in some sense, you could say yes, but that’s a rather ordinary matter.

In terms of practice, it is all one practice: radical devotion, right life, Perfect Knowledge, period. That’s all. There is no working on people’s growing up case. There is simply what is in your face, given. It’s right there. You recognize and respond, that’s it. There is no address to whatever pattern you are carrying around otherwise. It is not it, and so it is not something that requires analysis. All the analysis and reflecting of people to themselves and so forth does not work.

Teaching Work did not work, except in proving that Teaching Work does not work. I am not here to be a Teacher. I am not Teaching anymore. It happened. I proved by it that that kind of approach of people doesn’t work. What works? Nothing but the direct Self-Revelation of Reality Itself by My direct Transmission and My direct Utterance and Self-Presentation. That’s all.

Therefore, there is no dialogue about it, no Me answering questions, no My examining and analyzing people, no My reflecting people to themselves, no My subordinating Myself to people, tolerating people, receiving people on a social basis in any kind of an organizationally arranged program basis. Nothing of the kind has anything to do with Me.” – Adi Da Samraj, 2007