This
is Part 1 of Chris Tong's six-part article, Why
Great Spiritual Realization Requires a Spiritual Master.
Question:
I'm not sure why a Spiritual Master is necessary. What would you say about
someone who had experienced a wordless, thought-less, unthinking awareness that
everything is perfect, unfolding exactly perfectly; and who had tapped into, knew,
felt (words are so useless sometimes), *experienced*, a pure joy and absolute
love for all of existence, an altered state of consciousness where everything
was suddenly perfectly understood, not in an intellectual way, just a wave of
pure awareness that Everything is right and perfect and everything is love, and
this occurred spontaneously, quite by accident, and in the absence of any "Spiritual
Master"? I'm
very glad to hear that you had such an experience! There are some key points worth
mentioning as a follow-up to your experience. None of these are meant to take
away from your experience, which is wonderful. Rather, this article is intended
to explore your experience further, and consider where you can go from here. The
key point of the article is this: an experience is temporary, but a Realization
is permanent. And the greatest Spiritual Realizations require the steady, ongoing
help of a Spiritual Transmission Master. - Having
a Revelation allows us to talk about what kind of Revelations are possible altogether.
- Many people have some kind of Spiritual
Revelation.
- Such Revelations tend to be relatively
rare "million dollar moments", not permanent Realizations.
- Sometimes
even "apparently individual Revelations" are actually assisted by Spiritual
Masters.
- There are a variety
of different "great Realizations" or unitive experiences of various kinds.
- The
difference between a Revelation and a Realization.
- Revelation
opens the door to the possibility of Realization.
-
Summary
1. Having a Revelation allows us to talk about what kind of Revelations are possible
altogether
A lot of people are so reactive to
even the thought of a Spiritual Master (their stomach ties into a knot at the
mere mention of the word, "Master"!) or even anything "spiritual"
that they close themselves off to the very means that can grant them a Revelation
of the sort you describe. But because you have had such an experience, we can
actually have a meaningful conversation. Our conversation can be much more fruitful
than when one person has had such a Revelation and another has not and is consequently
very much in doubt that such a thing could really occur. It's
a little like when people who have had sexual experience try to talk about sex
with children . . . who not only have not yet had any experience of sex, but don't
have the hormones yet to support it or be attracted to it. Consequently, many
children find the whole thing somewhat "yucky" or at least, incomprehensible,
and generally not believable ("They do THAT? No way!"). But of course people who
have had some sexual experience are able to talk about it in a very different
manner!
2. Many people have some kind of Spiritual Revelation
As it turns out,
many people have one or a few such Revelations or spiritual experiences in their
lives.
Everyone
feels the Truth. Everyone receives the Shock of God everyone. There is no living
being, from the mosquito to the human being, who does not receive the Shock of
Divine Intervention. All beings know It. All beings experience It. It is Given
to everyone. Divine Grace is Given to all beings eternally in all worlds, visible
and invisible. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The
Baptism Of Immortal Happiness |
But we tend not
to talk to each other about such experiences, for fear of being ostracized, so
most of us don't know how many others have had such an experience. However, that
fact has now become even "mainstream" enough to attract pollsters
to capture it. For example, one
recent Pew Forum poll (2009) indicates that nearly half of all Americans have had what
they consider a "religious or mystical experience — that is, a moment of
religious or spiritual awakening". (The number of people acknowledging this has steadily increased over the last half a century.)
3. Such Revelations tend to be relatively rare "million dollar moments", not permanent Realizations
Even though a lot of people have such Revelations,
they don't tend to have very many of them. These "openings" or Revelations tend
to be relatively rare "million dollar moments" in people's lives, because they
are not the result of a personal Realization or competence (yet), but rather,
the result of a relatively rare conjunction of circumstances that leaves one open
to such a Revelation. Sometimes, it's a moment of profound relaxation. Sometimes
it's right after one has accomplished some major goal that one has struggled for
for a long time and the spontaneous letting go of all that struggle
leaves one more open. Sometimes it's in the middle of profound difficulty or tragedy,
and overwhelming emotion (fear, sorrow, or anger), and one just is forced to spontaneously
let go because of the overwhelm and the Revelation comes in that
"letting go" moment . . . including the moment we die [1],
or a near-death experience.
4. Sometimes even "apparently individual Revelations" are actually assisted by Spiritual Masters
Other times, one just can't account
for why such a Revelation happened in a particular moment. Or maybe one can account
for it only years later. For example, the happiest moment
of my early life which strongly resembled the experience you describe occurred
when I was thirteen. My family and I had just moved into a new house in a new
town. I was setting up and cleaning my new room, and was listening to a song on
the radio, when a Revelation similar to the one you described washed over me.
I was incredibly happy! And that moment was imprinted on me, to the point where,
whenever I would hear that song in later years (including now), I would reconnect
with that moment and that happiness. Naturally, at first I attributed the experience
to the circumstance itself. But, these many years later, I can look back and see
quite clearly that just having a new house and listening to particular songs doesn't
automatically send everyone into ecstasy!
These circumstances were incidental,
or at best, supportive of the Revelation, perhaps allowing me to relax and be
open to It. It would only be years later that I would realize that the day I had
that Revelation, September 10, 1970, was the day my Spiritual Master, Adi Da Samraj,
re-Awakened to Divine Self-Realization and it was clear in retrospect that His
Realization washed over me in this way. I was not yet His devotee, of course
He would not begin formally accepting devotees until 1972. But from that moment
on, He began meditating His future devotees, and He clearly was meditating me
that day:
| Adi
Da, Los Angeles, 1971 | |
In
this most perfect Realization of Non-separateness [on September 10, 1970], many
extraordinary Divine Siddhis
suddenly, spontaneously appeared, and also many unusual natural (or "ordinary")
siddhis (or uncommon psycho-physical abilities and processes). . . Perhaps most
fundamental, and most necessary to the fulfillment of my "Bright" Purpose in this
world, was the spontaneous Awakening of the Divine Guru-Function (or the Divine
Guru-Siddhi), Which manifested in me in a unique manner immediately after the
Great Event of my re-Awakening. Now whenever I would sit, in any
kind of formal manner, to demonstrate the meditation, or the (now) Divine Samadhi,
that had become my entire life instead of confronting what was
arising in (and as) "myself", I "meditated" other beings and places. I would spontaneously
become aware of great numbers of people (usually in visions, or in some other,
intuitive manner), and I would work with them very directly, in a subtle manner.
The binding motions and separative results of my own apparent (or merely
life-born) egoity (or psycho-physical self-contraction) had been transcended in
my re-Awakening to my Original (and Self-Evidently Divine) Self-Condition (Which
is the One and Only Self-Condition and Source-Condition of even each and all of
everyone and everything). Therefore, in the spontaneous Awakening of the Divine
Guru-Siddhi, instead of my own life-born forms and problematic signs, the egoic
forms, the problematic signs, the minds, the feelings, the states, and the various
limitations of others would arise to my view. The thoughts, feelings, suffering,
dis-ease, disharmony, upsets, pain, energies none of these were
"mine". They were the internal, subtle qualities and the life-qualities of others.
In this manner, the process of apparent meditation continued in me. It was, in
effect, the same "Real" meditation I had done before the Great Event of my re-Awakening.
Therefore, "problems" (of all kinds) constantly appeared, and numberless complexities
and contradictions arose in every moment, but the content of the meditation was
not "mine". I found that this "meditating" of others by me usually went
on with people whom I had not yet met. But, soon, some of those very people came
into my physical company and all the rest are yet (but certainly)
to come, to be my devotees, and (thus) to practice the only-by-me revealed and
given Way of Adidam (which is the only-by-me revealed and given way of radical
understanding, or the one and only by-me-revealed and by-me-given Way of the Heart).
In some cases, the individuals I "meditated" in vision were people I already knew
and I would "meditate" them in that subtle manner, unobserved by
them, and then watch for signs in their outward lives that would demonstrate the
effectiveness of my "meditation" of them. In this manner, I spontaneously
began to "meditate" countless other people, and also countless non-human beings,
and countless places and worlds and realms, both high and low in the scale of
Reality. I observed and responded to all that was required for the Awakening and
the true (and the Ultimate) well-being of each and all. And, each time I did this
(and, in fact, the process quickly became the underlying constant of all my hours
and days), I would continue the "meditating" of any (and each) one until I felt
a release take place, such that his or her suffering and seeking was vanished
(or, at least, significantly relaxed and set aside). Whenever that occurred, I
Knew my "meditating" of that one was, for the moment, done. By such means, my
now and forever Divine Work (by Which I must Teach, and Bless, and Awaken all
and All) began. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The
Knee Of Listening |
I had read these words
in Adi Da's biography, The Knee Of Listening, many times before I suddenly
realized one day that I had been one of those people Adi Da had been meditating
[2], and that His meditation of me had resulted in the
specific Revelation I described earlier. Another devotee of Adi
Da, Donald Webley, had a similar experience around the same time, and, like me,
only connected the experience with Adi Da many years later:
One
evening in October or November 1970, I was alone in my room [as a student at Yale
University] when I was suddenly moved beyond body and mind and dissolved in Bliss
beyond words. It was a complete dissolution. I have no memory of the event itself,
and I remember its Perfect Bliss only as it faded and as I returned to my "normal"
state. But a lifetime of accumulated mind had fallen away in a moment, and I knew
that I had glimpsed and been touched by the answer to my question. And even though
I had read nothing about the esoteric spiritual traditions of the world, I somehow
knew that my life's purpose was to find a spiritual teacher who would make this
glimpse my stable realization. . . . It was some fifteen years later that
I realized what had happened that night at Yale. After I had been a devotee of
Avatar Adi Da Samraj for some time, I came to understand that moment as my first
contact with Him. Across the apparent barriers of space, I had been touched by
the One who was to be my Guru. Thus began the long, only partially conscious process
of finding and approaching Him. Donald Webley, Beyond
All Doubt |
So we never know what other helping
forces (including "Spiritual Masters") may actually be serving us, when we think
we're "alone" or "doing it ourselves" or when a Revelation appears to
have just "happened" by itself. I'm not insisting
your Revelation was "assisted" in this way. But I am pointing out that possibility.
We are not separate, we are all interconnected, Reality altogether is a nonseparate
Unity; so when you or I have a Revelation, it wouldn't be all that surprising
to discover that other forces helped us in that as I discovered, only when I
made the connection thirty years after one such Revelation.
5. There are a variety of different "great Realizations" or unitive experiences of various kinds
You are right in suggesting that trying to
put these kinds of experiences or Revelations into words is difficult. Indeed,
some languages are better than others at it, because the cultures associated with
those languages have a history of greater spiritual sensitivity. For example,
Hopi (curiously) seems to be much better than English at communicating spiritual
concepts that resonate with contemporary quantum physics. And Sanskrit is much
better than English for communicating Spiritual Revelations of various kinds.
An entire classification system of various "samadhis" has been developed
in Sanskrit, because of its association with Indian Realizers.[3] A number of Westerners have tried to do the same. The psychologist
and philosopher William James was one of the first Westerners to try to categorize
some of these unitive experiences, in his groundbreaking 1902 book, The
Varieties of Religious Experience. A few decades later, John Lilly (influenced
by his spiritual teacher, Oscar Ichazo) tried to lay out all human experiential
states on a numerical scale, with negative, neutral, and positive states.[4] Perhaps
it's a typically Western conceit to try to "linearize" everything into
purely quantitative distinctions. In contrast, the Indian tradition of spiritual
realization using Sanskrit terminology lays out a variety of "samadhis" (states
of spiritual absorption), and makes qualitative distinctions among them. These
include: savikalpa samadhi (mystical phenomena, visions, or cosmic consciousness);
nirvikalpa samadhi (or perfect union with, or absorption in, "God"
which correlated with Lilly's highest state); sakshin chaitanya, the state
of Witness Consciousness (in which all is noticed, but nothing is problematic
because what is witnessed is not "oneself"; one does not identify with
it it is merely "witnessed" by Consciousness); jnana samadhi
(perfect absorption in Consciousness); and sahaj samadhi (which is understood
to be greater than all the other samadhi states). Adi Da takes this to
the limit with His (nonlinear) "seven
stages of life" framework, which: - categorizes all the various
religious and spiritual traditions by the Realization they (potentially) provide
the means to Realize;
- shows that the various Realizations correspond
to various openings or events associated with different parts of one's esoteric anatomy. Thus, the awakening of the psychic
heart corresponds to one Revelation; the ascent of the kundalini energy to infinitely
above the head leads to a different Revelation; the falling of attention from
the head into the right side of the heart corresponds to yet another Revelation;
etc.
- shows that there is an ultimate Realization
Divine Self-Realization that doesn't depend on any aspect of one's
esoteric anatomy, but is the Realization of what is prior to association with
a body, mind, or self. This Realization is humanly Realizable by the appearance
of an
Incarnation of the Divine in human form.
6. The difference between a Revelation and a Realization
A Revelation occurs
in a moment. It can have a profound effect on one's view of life and reality.
But one recalls it as a memory, whereas a Realization is a permanent change of
state, and therefore also one's present-time experience. The state you describe
would be your constant state, not simply a life-transforming moment you
remember if that Revelation were also your Realization. Also,
Revelations tend to be intuitions of Realization, whereas Realization is
the "whole thing". Think of it this way: You are in a dark room, and a door opens
a crack, and you see light pouring in from beyond the door:
a door opens a crack
(from: A Horse Appears In The Wild Is Always Already The Case
from Spectra Two, 2006
156 x 312 inches / 396 x 792 cm)
You get an intuition
of what is beyond the door, through that door opening a crack for a brief time. But if the
door opens completely, and you walk through, and now that
Place Beyond is your permanent residence — it is so much more than just a brief trickle
of light, much more than just an "intuitive flash". You're surrounded by the Place Beyond,
immersed in It, constantly — you live there! So Realization also tends to differ from Revelation
not only in permanence, but in extent (transforming you and everything around
you) and in depth (transforming profoundly).
7. Revelation opens the door to the possibility of Realization
Revelation
opens the door to the possibility of Realization of making
the Revelation one's permanent state. But that one moment, or those few moments,
are a free gift, not one's own doing (except for one being open). We ourselves
don't have any personal means to convert such a momentary Revelation into our
permanent Realization. The sun comes out from behind a cloud, and then is covered
by another. The moment of Revelation remains merely an illuminating memory. For
example, a near-death experience relieves many people of their fear of death
which is a good thing! But it doesn't give them permanent, "any time"
access to the greater-than-material dimensions, or to the Being of Light that
they saw at the end of the tunnel, which they had just the slightest "taste"
of during that near-death experience. That's where the Spiritual Master
or more precisely, the Spiritual
Transmission Master enters the picture. It is very important
to understand the difference between a "Spiritual Transmission Master" and someone
who is a "spiritual teacher" who writes books, gives
lectures and workshops, etc., or even someone who is a crazy-wise teacher (like
George Gurdjieff or Chφgyam Trungpa) who creates unexpected incidents for disciples
aimed at transforming the disciple in specific ways (e.g., by creating moments
of self-understanding). The "Spiritual Transmission Master" is a functional
entity in the universe for enabling not just Revelation but Realization, by granting
steady, ongoing access to the Revelation. So you have an extraordinary moment
of Revelation. Then it's gone, just a wonderful memory. But Spiritual Transmission
Masters restore you to that Revelation over and over again, because it is their
permanent Realization, and because they have the capability to directly Transmit
It to their devotees. And through this ongoing access to the Revelation, combined
with your self-transcending, moment-to-moment practice of meditation on the Realization,
eventually your awareness of reality shifts, ultimately to the point where it
becomes your own steady and permanent Realization.
Realization
is a Transmission. Various apparent efforts can be made to serve it, but no one
can Transmit or influence others with anything other than the state of Realization
or the limit of existence that is real for that one. Everyone transmits. All of
you are transmitters. You reinforce these limitations in one another and you transmit
them to one another. Each one of you emits invisible forces that are locked up
in limited messages that reinforce the same limitations in others . . . Realizers
of one or another degree of Spiritual development likewise by nature spontaneously
Transmit what they are. . . . Those less evolved Transmit their Realization, and
those more evolved Transmit their more advanced Realization, and those who have
Realized That Which Is Inherently Perfect Transmit That. It is inevitable, and
it is an absolute law. That is why it is said in the traditions that the best
thing you can do, among all the things you must do and you must
do many things but the best among them, the chief among them, is
to spend time in the Company of a Realizer. Everything is transmission. The stones
transmit, the sky does, the TV does. Since everything and everyone transmits states
of existence, since life, or existence itself, is participation in transmissions
of all kinds, the best thing you can do is to associate with the greatest possible
Transmission above all. . . . That is the great rule, the Great Law, the Ultimate
principle of the Great Tradition. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, See
My Brightness Face To Face |
Spiritually
Realized Adepts (or Transmisson-Masters, or true Gurus and Sat-Gurus) are the
principal Sources, Resources, and Means of the Spiritual Way. This fact is not
(and never has been) a matter of controversy among real Spiritual practitioners. Avatar
Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening |
So
that's the point: to consider "Spiritual Masters" particularly
Spiritual Transmission Masters from this functional standpoint.
The
Guru is a Function, a Siddhi, a Process, an Activity available to human beings.
Individuals must make themselves available to that process, not just to philosophies
and "external" matters but to the Guru. The form of that relationship is love,
devotion, attention. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, My
"Bright" Word |
They are the means that
allow you to convert a momentary Revelation into a permanent Realization, with
time and your own commitment to practice based on the principle,
"You become what you meditate on".
Of course, the principle, "You become what you meditate on",
cuts both ways. So even if one has a momentary Revelation that Reality is something
other than the usual worldly, mortal, limited vision of reality, the fact
that, from then on, one will be tending to "meditate on" the ordinary,
materialistic world view will tend to reinforce that world view (and the human
destiny with which it is associated), and not reinforce your momentary Revelation.
Only steady meditation on that greater-than-ordinary Revelation (not just the
memory or idea of it, but the actual recurrence of the Revelation Itself) will
change one's destiny, and not reinforce the usual mortal destiny. So
why settle for a momentary Revelation when permanent Realization is also possible? Why
settle for just an extraordinary, one-time experience, and a story you can tell
a few people (those you trust not to think you're crazy) for the rest of your
life? Why not permanently transform your Realization of Reality altogether,
so that that Revelation becomes your reality in every moment? That's where
the Spiritual Transmission Master comes into the picture. Your momentary Revelation
was: "Everything is right and perfect." As Adi Da puts it, such Revelations
are true but they are not factually true, they must be Realized
to be true:
There
is a profound sense in which everything really is all right
even now, regardless of conditions. But to understand that profundity [i.e., to
Realize it as one's permanent state] requires the most penetrating kind
of humor, intelligence, and discipline.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj,
"Money, Food, and Sex" My
"Bright" Word
|
The reason [some people] can
so easily dismiss the Spiritual Master is because they have already dismissed
the whole process of spiritual practice. And all that's necessary for them is
this kind of analytical effort of identifying with Consciousness. It is true that
our own consciousness, that which is at the root of attention is ultimately, even
inherently identical to the Transcendental Being. But this must be Realized
to be so. And it cannot be realized to be so until energy and attention are
free for that most profound and radical intuition. It's not merely factually so.
. . . The inner self or Atman is not identical to the Transcendental
Self (Paramatman or Brahman) unless it is Realized to be Such. (Just as Nirvana
and samsara are not identical until they are Realized to be So.) . . . Real
spiritual understanding requires a practice and discipline and is a hard school,
well as being a life of Grace, a life in which there is Great Help. This Help
transcends the limits that you would bring to practice ordinarily. It is also
a hard school or a difficult affair. It requires great responsibility, great attention
for this exercise. . . . Therefore, do not think you can "take
Heaven by storm."
Avatar Adi Da Samraj, What
Is The Conscious Process? |
The necessity (and the True Nature and Great Function)
of a Realized Adept (or true Guru, or Sat-Guru) is inherently (and gratefully)
obvious to any one and every one who is truly ready, willing, and able to embrace
the esoteric Ordeal of Real-God-Realization (or Truth-Realization). Any
one and every one who doubts and quibbles about the necessity (and the True Nature
and Great Function) of a true Adept-Guru (or Adept Sat-Guru) is, simply, not yet
ready, willing, and able to enter the esoteric (and, necessarily, ego surrendering)
Ordeal of the advanced and the ultimate stages of life. And no mere verbal (or
otherwise exoteric) argument is sufficient to convince such doubters of the necessity
(and the True Nature and Great Function) of a true Adept-Guru (or Adept Sat Guru)
just as no mere verbal (or otherwise exoteric) argument is sufficient to make
them ready, willing, and able to truly embrace the ego-surrendering esoteric Ordeal
of the advanced and the ultimate stages of life. Those who doubt the Guru-Principle,
and the unique value and ultimate necessity of the Adept-Guru (or the Adept Sat
Guru), are those for whom the Great and (soon) Spiritual Way Itself is yet in
doubt. Therefore, such matters remain "controversial" (and access to the Spiritual
Way and the Adept-Company is effectively denied to ordinary people by popular
taboos and the psychological limitations of the first three stages of life) until
the truly developmental and (soon) Spiritual Motive Awakens the heart's Great
Impulse to Grow Beyond. Avatar Adi Da Samraj, The
Knee of Listening |
8. Summary
So here are the key points:
- You never know when
what seems to be "your own" Revelation may have occured with the (intentional
or unintentional) aid of other beings, particularly, Spiritual Realizers.
- There's not just "one Revelation" of the nature of Reality. Your
Revelation extraordinary as it was is one of a
number of different unitive experiences or "samadhis". And there is some use in
knowing where it "fits" in the scheme of things (i.e., the
seven stages of life), and in knowing what other even more profound Revelations
are possible.
- Revelations are free gifts of Grace, circumstance,
and one's own relative openness in a given moment and for this
reason, they are also relatively rare: the "million dollar moments"
in one's life. But Realization is the fruit of personal responsibility,
through:
- associating with a Spiritual Transmission Master (who has Realized as a permanent state what was only a moment of Revelation
for you);
- having ongoing access to that Revelation (via the Spiritual Master's Transmission);
- steady, longterm spiritual practice (drawing on (1) and (2)) founded on the principle of "you become
what you meditate on" — over time, you Realize your Master's Realization.
That Realization is the fruit of "responsibility" in the root sense of that word:
an "ability" that develops through continual "response" to That which is great.
Part
2: The Need for a Devotional Relationship
| For
more about this, read Chris Tong, The
Secret of Surrender. | | | | I'd
be interested in knowing how many other devotees of Adi Da had extraordinary experiences
on September 10, 1970. I have a feeling the answer is "many". If any
devotees reading this can confirm this, please
let me know. | | | | he Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (or the related Linguistic
Relativity Hypothesis) suggests that words and cultures mirror
each other. So for example, English might be poor at expressing states of ecstasy,
oneness, "alrightness", etc. because WASP culture has not been very interested
in, focused on, or sensitive to such spiritual states. For more on the expressiveness
of the Hopi language for quantum physics-like concepts, check out the documentary,
The
Language of Spirituality, or click
here. | | | | The
1980 movie, Altered
States (starring William Hurt), was based on Lilly's work. Lilly laid
out his spectrum
of states in his 1972 book, The
Center of the Cyclone. |
|