FAQs about Adi Da & Adidam > The Need For a Spiritual Master > Spiritual Transmission

1. The Need For a Spiritual Transmission Master


Chris Tong, Ph.D.

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.

  1. Having a Revelation allows us to talk about what kind of Revelations are possible altogether.
  2. Many people have some kind of Spiritual Revelation.
  3. Such Revelations tend to be relatively rare "million dollar moments", not permanent Realizations.
  4. Sometimes even "apparently individual Revelations" are actually assisted by Spiritual Masters.
  5. There are a variety of different "great Realizations" or unitive experiences of various kinds.
  6. The difference between a Revelation and a Realization.
  7. Revelation opens the door to the possibility of Realization.
  8. 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 Samraj
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:


Donald WebleyOne 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]

William James
William James
 

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:

  1. categorizes all the various religious and spiritual traditions by the Realization they (potentially) provide the means to Realize;

  2. 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.

  3. 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:
    1. associating with a Spiritual Transmission Master (who has Realized — as a permanent state — what was only a moment of Revelation for you);
    2. having ongoing access to that Revelation (via the Spiritual Master's Transmission);
    3. 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


[1]

For more about this, read Chris Tong, The Secret of Surrender.

 
[2]

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.

 
[3]

The 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.

 
[4]

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.


Quotations from and/or photographs of Avatar Adi Da Samraj used by permission of the copyright owner:
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