Finding Adi Da > Chris Tong > Part I, Chapter 19

"Upon This Rock, I Will Build My Church"

This is Part I, Chapter 19 of Chris Tong's book, Finding the Divine In Person and Waking Up From the Dream. Recognition of Jesus as the Divine Recognition of Adi Da as the Divine

Recognition of Jesus as the Divine

In a real sense, prior to his death, Jesus's disciples were not yet his true devotees. Indeed, they showed all the signs of weak human beings, particularly in their betrayal of their Master in the moments just before his arrest and death. But prior to his death, a crucial exchange occurred between Jesus and the inner circle of his disciples, over the matter of recognition — the very same recognition that Adi Da emphasized so much to His devotees:

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked his disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are "Peter" [1], and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:13-18

So in the New Testament story, recognition of Jesus as the Divine was the foundation for the Christian esoteric tradition. The story continues: Jesus dies, and after his death, eventually, all his disciples recognize him as the Divine. On that basis, they are able to be "possessed by the Holy Spirit", and are transformed from weak men and women into extraordinary men and women, able to bring about the flourishing of the Christian church, and ultimately even able to endure horrific deaths brought on them by their advocacy of Jesus and his Way, in a time and place where that was taboo.

Recognition of Adi Da as the Divine

You may recall in the New Testament, Jesus of Galilee asks, "Who do you say I am?" And his disciple Peter responds and essentially acknowledges the Divine status of Jesus. Then Jesus says, "Upon this rock I will build my church." Well, in the beginning of the Ruchira Avatara Gita, I am referring to something similar. This gathering of My devotees, and the mission of the gathering, must be founded on My Divine Avataric Self-Revelation and the full receiving of It by one or many, so that the devotee's voice can speak the Truth. Until there are such devotees like the one in the Ruchira Avatara Gita, the mission does not begin, and right relationship to Me as the Divine Avataric Master does not begin. As long as I am some kind of "other" to you, there is no great mission. The mission begins when you get My Divine Avataric Self-Revelation of Myself and become converted and your throat opens and your heart opens and you speak the Truth of Me. Then, the gathering of My devotees authenticates itself through that confession, others respond likewise, and the "world" becomes a field of missionary work. Avatar Adi Da Samraj

I can never think about that story of Jesus without remembering a particular moment in my relationship with Adi Da.

It was 1996, and Adi Da was in the Netherlands, visiting the European community of Adidam.

Adi Da visiting the European Danda in 1996
(click image to enlarge)

Only a few days earlier, He had endured an ordeal of penance for the sake of purifying His devotees and the world altogether, during which He had stayed out in the woods behind the European Danda (the European community center and ashram). It had been a very difficult time for Adi Da and for all devotees, especially those at the European Danda.

the location where Adi Da had stayed out in the woods,
now commemorated as "the Da Peace Site"
(click image to enlarge)

And now was another difficult moment with our Beloved Guru. The devotees taking primary responsibility for the success of His Work (the work of liberating all beings) were all gathered in a room at the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in northern California, the room at the very top of Huge Helper.

We were on the phone with Adi Da (in the Netherlands), and it was an extremely difficult and fiery conversation, because we were having to report to Him our lack of success.

On the one hand, it was not too surprising: A seventh stage Way appears on earth for the first time in human history, during a period when civilization is at its most materialistic, and anything greater-than-material is in doubt, let alone an Incarnation of the Divine! And those of us gathered in the room had no special spiritual maturity or special abilities or influence in the world — like the disciples of Jesus (who were fishermen, tax collectors, and so on). So apart from our devotion to our Spiritual Master, we were eminently unqualified for being responsible for Adi Da's Great Work. And yet the necessity for that Work to succeed was absolutely clear to all of us, as was our responsibility to make it happen, both in our identification with Adi Da's Own Purpose for incarnating, and in our gratitude for all the Gifts He had given to us.

Even so, the conversation was so fiery and unrelenting that devotees began leaving the room, burnt out. Finally, only two of us (James Steinberg and myself) were left. We took turns trying to tell our Spiritual Master what good news we did have to tell, but we knew — and He knew — it wasn't nearly enough. What Adi Da was trying to accomplish here (in the short span of a single human lifetime) was an extraordinary Vision and unprecedented Opportunity for the world (and the creation of a corresponding Vehicle of liberation for all beings), but there were key elements of that Vision and Opportunity for liberation which had yet to manifest (I felt this very personally and painfully), over and against the shortness of the time remaining. I reached a point of complete despair, and stopped talking on the phone.

Suddenly, I felt Avatar Adi Da descend Spiritually into the room with overwhelming Force. An instantaneous recognition of Him overcame and overpowered me, and — feeling Him before me — my hands spontaneously lifted up, palms facing Him, and I began mindlessly and spontaneously confessing that recognition to Him, as His Force and Person took over body and mind:

"You are the very Divine, here and alive in human form!"

There had been non-stop shouting. Now there was absolute silence on the other end of the phone.

And then something totally unexpected occurred — without any further comment whatsoever, Adi Da suddenly began making plans to come to the Mountain Of Attention!

His "mood" had completely changed. All the fieriness had disappeared. He was now completely expansive. He instantly changed the subject — it was as though the previous difficult conversation had never taken place! He instead went into detail after detail about the upcoming trip to California, about creating His "Dasya Mandala" (He named me as the first member, listed all my responsibilities, and then started adding other devotees),[2] etc.

I came away from this moment with a very personal understanding of the importance of recognition of Adi Da as the Divine — not only for one's own growth in the Way of Adidam but as the necessary foundation for the success of Adi Da's Work altogether. It was "upon this rock" alone that He would build His Church. Things that were impossible for us to achieve through "creature power" alone could become possible through His unlimited Divine Power — which we could drawn upon if we were recognizing Adi Da as the Divine and were thus in Communion with His Divine State.

That is the secret of the Way of Adidam — not self-applied techniques, but this relationship, this participation in Me, whereby you are granted more and more responsibilities, even relative to the kinds of things that you know (by virtue of the observation of My Siddhis) that I am doing. The gathering of my devotees will do these things — not as individuals, or as an ordinary human group practicing techniques, but because you are transparent to Me. In this way, you become the mechanisms equivalent to this Body. You become the means whereby my virtues are exhibited in this Cosmic Play. To Me, there is no difference between My passing on to you responsibilities for management and My passing on to you responsibilities for the weather. You know how I respond when I get weather reports. . . I really do expect you to assume responsibility for the weather! There is no difference, in My view, between the weather and the head office on the Island, or this Institution. It is all the same, in My view. Because it does not depend on you to change it, you see. My virtue will change it, whatever is appropriate to change. But you are the mechanisms given over to Me whereby that will happen. You will be the mechanisms, rather than you just obliviously laying things onto My lap here and expecting Me to do something about it. Avatar Adi Da Samraj

I also learned that moments of recognition are unearned gifts from Adi Da. It was the Force of God descending on me in that moment — out of God's Own Urgency for the sake of His Work — that granted that Revelation, not any qualification of my own. Indeed, all I had presented to Him the moment before was failure! (And more importantly, complete surrender, stemming from that failure and my utter despair.) As it turned out, I would not be able to sustain that moment of recognition forever. I had not yet developed the capability for moment-to-moment recognition of Adi Da as the Divine. But I now understood the significance of that recognition, and the importance of developing that capability.

Chapter 20

[1]		"Peter" ("Petros") is Greek for "rock" or "stone". From it come English words like "petrified" ("turned into stone") and "petroleum" ("rock oil"). Jesus called him "Simon" when he was not recognizing Jesus as the Divine, and "Peter" when he was. I was struck reading this section of the New Testament again, because Adi Da did something very similar with me: He called me "Tongue" when I wasn't recognizing Him as the Divine, and "My Tongue" when I was.
[2]		An amazing (and humorous) footnote: Since becoming Adi Da's devotee in 1989, I had served His Work in many different ways. When He named me a member of His Dasya Mandala, and listed my responsibilities, He enumerated all ten of the ways I had been serving Him — without stopping once. That He was able to "access" all that information instantaneously was amazing to me! The humorous part: He then said, "And I also want Jonathan [Condit] to be in the Dasya Mandala. He should have all the functions that Chris has. . . and add on to that his editorial work for Me."