Question:
Will "Realizing God" require giving up my ordinary life
and viewpoint? Will it "ruin" my life?
Answer: Yes! There can be no Realization of God — the
Divine Self — without complete transcendence of the limited, egoic
"self".
At some point, we realize our "precious" ordinary lives are pretty
"low" on the scale of possibility, as we start to really suffer
their limitations (often as we age). Such positive
disillusionment opens us to being Awakened out of this
mediocre destiny, which otherwise keeps repeating mechanically,
lifetime after lifetime.
He who desires a comfortable and nice life and at the same
time wants to realise the Self is like the fool who, wanting
to cross the river, caught hold of a crocodile, mistaking
it for a log of wood.
[Adidam] is not a message for consumers, it's a wake-up
communication! You don't get to be the same. You get to
be told you are full of it!
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, September 19, 2008
Most Perfect Realization of Reality Itself utterly destroys
your egoic life — so watch out! The "trouble" with seventh
stage Divine Self-Realization is that there is no "one"
left over to enjoy "It"!
You should not approach Me unless you are willing to be
undone. The Guru is only interested in utter, radical dissolution
of that whole limitation that appears as His disciple.
Only Real practice undoes the psycho-physical energies of
bondage — the practice that coincides with Transcendental
Spiritual Blessing, profoundest devotion, Real Transmission,
real "self"-discipline, endurance of often intense
difficulties, going Beyond "self", becoming a
"self"-ruin in the course of practice — until
by uncommandable Grace, there is Revelation which is Undeniable
and Absolute, and Which never could have been thought before.
Adi Da Samraj, part VI of
"The 'Perfect Practice' of 'Perfect Knowledge'
Is The Avatarically Given Divine Way of Adidam" "Radical"
Transcendentalism
Question: But didn't Adi Da say that Adidam is life-positive?
Answer: Yes, indeed! But "Adidam is life-positive" does not mean
"You can play it fast and loose, and indulge in as much money, food, and sex as you want and
still Realize God". Adi Da uses the term "life-positive"
to contrast the Way of Adidam with certain traditional spiritual
practices that could be called "life-negative": ascetic
spiritual practices, religions with puritanical dispositions, etc.
Adidam is not an ascetic practice, and its view on life is not
puritanical. But neither is it oriented toward self-indulgence
or self-fulfillment.
[The] By-Me-Given Foundation Disciplines Of The "Radical" Way Of The Heart Are Not ascetical. They Are Not At All A Matter Of Dissociating From the body-mind or Of Disconnecting the body-mind From its environment Of Participation.
Rather, These By-Me-Given Foundation Disciplines Are Entirely Life-Positive — and Entirely A Matter Of Establishing The Right (and Necessary) Equanimity Of the body-mind (or The Total psycho-physical Complex Of the individual being) Through Disciplines Of Basic Right Life (Understood Not In moralistic, or puritanical, or merely behavioral Terms, but Understood In Spiritual and Divine Terms). . .
Right Practice Of The By-Me-Given Foundation Disciplines Of The "Radical" Way Of The Heart Is Simply The Living Of Right Life, Through The Establishment Of Participatory Equanimity, For The Sake Of Devotional and (In Due Course) Spiritual Communion With Me (and, Ultimately, Most Perfect Realization Of Me) — Not In The Mode Of A Seeker, but In The Mode Of A Non-Contracted Participant. . .
If Such Is The Case, Then There Is (More and More) The Developing Evidence Of Profundity Of life and (Ultimately) Of Realization.
The Way of Adidam is not about self-denial or self-fulfillment.
The Way of Adidam is not about self — period.
The Way of Adidam is about God.
The primary impulse of practitioners of the Way of Adidam is
the impulse to self-transcending God-Realization, based on devotional
recognition of and response to the Divine Person, Adi Da.
It is possible to include money, food, sex, and relationships with others into the
life of practice as Adi Da's devotee — but one must completely
transform one's association with money, food, sex, and human relationships altogether into Communion
with the Divine; otherwise one is bound karmically by these elements of ordinary
life.
Is the body-mind-complex leading you to Real-God-Realization?
The body-mind-complex is a "guru" that leads you
toward karmic destiny. It is the ego. The body-mind-complex
is the ego. The body-mind-complex is the "self"-contraction.
The body-mind-complex is what you are transcending in the
Great Process, then. It is specifically just that. In the
course of ego-transcending practice, then, there are increased
dimensions of the body-mind-complex for which you become
completely responsible, or at least fundamentally responsible.
You cannot simply fulfill your destiny in life and Realize
Real God at the same time. It is not possible. You must
put yourself to work. You must transcend your limitations.
You can practice the Reality-Way of Adidam in the
context of household living. This is certainly possible,
if you bring the discipline of the Reality-Way of Adidam
to household living. I have made it very clear to you how
you may do so. But if you simply will not do it, you are
just stuck with the "householder's" destiny. Then
you are just fantasizing Real-God-Realization — in some
fashion that consoles you, perhaps. What you have is the
"householder's" destiny — just that. And what
will you have twenty years from now? What will you have
after this lifetime? What is existence for — altogether?
If you are going to get involved in intimate relationships
and make babies, and so forth, you better take practice
into account! — so that you have fullest energy and attention
available for the Great Process. Otherwise, that is just
a ticket into the "world".
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