2. Self-Discipline is Necessary Prior to Hearing
(and even All the Milestones of the Way of Adidam)

For a period during Adi Da's early work with devotees (as the person who asked the question that prompted this article pointed out), He made the milestone of hearing a prerequisite before devotees could take up disciplines, on the presumption that hearing would be generated simply as a free Gift by being in His Company.

The advanced practice of the Way of Adidam depends upon this hearing and seeing. You cannot fully practice Ruchira Avatara Bhakti Yoga, or the conscious process, conductivity, service, the disciplines of money, food, and sex, or any other aspect of this Way without listening to the point of hearing, without observing to the point of understanding the mechanism of un-Happiness or self-contraction, and without seeing, or being turned about, or being converted in your attention to Happiness rather than un-Happiness. . . . Understand your un-Happiness. Then you will be capable of locating Happiness, and, having located Happiness, you will be capable of practicing the Way of Adidam, which is nothing but the devotion of life to Happiness. The practices of this Way are not methods for attaining Happiness, but they are the expressions of Happiness. The disciplines of money, food, and sex are not a way to become Happy. Discipline is difficult enough — why should we also burden it with the obligation to make us Happy! [Laughter.] Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The Bodily Location Of Happiness

But He later went on to reverse that order. Based on observing what actually happened with His devotees, He concluded it was highly unlikely that hearing would ever occur without an intensive, discipline-filled "listening process" complementing the reception of His Transmission. That listening process was associated with ever-increasing disciplines that systematically covered the remaining "loopholes" through which the ego was continuing to escape, preventing hearing from occuring — because hearing can occur only when the "whole guy" is covered.

* * *

The evolution of Adi Da's Work with devotees can be looked at as an ongoing experiment with how two forces "stack up" against each other: the Force of the Divine, and the force of the ego. It's like that old puzzle of medieval Church philosophy, poetically restated by songwriter Johnny Mercer as:

During an early period of His Work, Adi Da experimented with the presumption that the Force and Attractiveness of the Divine was great enough to generate the initial milestones in devotees (like hearing), and that the disciplines would then naturally follow — i.e., once you have fundamental self-understanding, you are standing in the "place" prior to seeking, so you no longer need to activate all the various forms of seeking. Or to put it another way, if you are already happy, you no longer need to seek happiness (through money, food, sex, etc.), and so you are naturally inclined to keep your life very simple.

But when devotees did not hear through the Force of His Grace alone, Adi Da was required to adjust His presumption. The following observation from Adi Da pretty much sums it up: "God is great. Unfortunately for you, bullshit is greater!" And that conclusion (about which "force" was greater: God or the ego) has a very different set of implications: despite whatever challenges are associated with taking up disciplines prior to hearing — and we will discuss these in the rest of this article — even so, disciplines are necessary to free up the energy and attention needed for hearing to occur. (As with recognition of Adi Da as the Divine, the disciplines don't cause hearing; but they do generate free energy and attention, which is a prerequisite for hearing. In other words, the disciplines are necessary but not sufficient for hearing.)

disciplines are the essential support for hearing
(locating, understanding, and transcending the self-contraction) to occur

* * *

We mentioned earlier how the evolution of Adi Da's Work with devotees can be looked at as an ongoing experiment with how two forces "stack up" against each other: the Force of the Divine, and the force of the ego.

We mentioned how Adi Da's observations of the force of egoity (in His devotees) led Him to add disciplines to the pre-hearing practice.

But the experiment continued. That other force — "the Force of the Divine" — was not a "fixed quantity" in Adi Da's ongoing experiment. His own unfolding seventh-stage process led to breakthroughs that made the Force of the Divine available to devotees in ever more potent form.

The Ruchira Dham Event (in April, 2000) made the Divine available in the most transparent, most potent form possible: through a human body in Divine Translation (the ultimate phase of the seventh stage of life).

I Affirm and Confirm to you: Divine Translation Is Real — and Divine Translation Is the Ultimate and Perfect Reality-Demonstration of Real God. . . . In some sense, I — As I Am — First Appeared here in the year 2000. In some sense, I — As I Am Was only "on the way" to here before the Ruchira Dham Event..... A Profound Process Began, Which has Been Unfolding since That Great Event of Yogic Death.... The Happenings That have Occurred since the Divine Avataric Event at Ruchira Dham Hermitage Are All ‘Outer’ Signs of the Divine Avataric Process That Is the Direct Self-Revelation of My Divine Self-Nature, Self-Condition, and Self-State. Avatar Adi Da Samraj From "The Boundless Self-Confession" in Part 24 of The Aletheon

As a result, Adi Da began communicating in ways that emphasized the Force of the Divine again. Now He spoke of the Gift of "recognizing Him" (as the Divine Person), and how all practice (including disciplines) in Adidam was enabled by the response to that recognition of Him. In some sense, this was a return to His early manner of speaking (based on the presumption that the Force of the Divine was greater than the force of egoity). But now instead of saying that hearing was necessary before disciplines could be practiced rightly, He indicated that recognition of Him was necessary before disciplines could be practiced rightly:

If I am whole-bodily-responsively devotionally recognized, the Divine "Bright" Spherical Self-Domain Is The Case — and not the "world". . . . In the "Radical" Reality-Way of Adidam Ruchiradam, there is no "technique" to be applied by an ego-"I". In the "Radical" Reality-Way of Adidam Ruchiradam, there is always, simply the Mere Sighting of Me. . . . The Perfect Freedom That Is Adidam Ruchiradam Shows Itself through the intrinsically ego-transcending process of "radical" (or always "at-the-root") devotional surrender to Me, right-life obedience to Me, and Transcendental Spiritual Awakening to the "Perfect Knowledge" of Me. The entire Way I have Revealed and Given Is simply the Perfect Happening of the Perfect Freedom of devotional Communion with Me, based on whole-bodily-responsive devotional recognition of Me. . . . Recognition of Me is all. Recognition of Me is Liberation. Recognition of Me demonstrates all of devotion, renunciation, and Realization. Avatar Adi Da Samraj From "The Boundless Self-Confession" in Part 24 of The Aletheon

Part 3: The Ego Will Always Find Another Door To Escape Through