The
different types of human destiny and Spiritual Realization
— What
Spiritual Realizations are possible? How does Spiritual Realization
relate to ordinary views of human potential? What is the ultimate
Spiritual Realization? Is there such a thing? If the ultimate
Spiritual Realization is our aim, it is very good to know the
final destination before setting out, both in order to choose
a vessel capable of getting us there, and to avoid sidetracks
(leading to lesser Realizations) that prolong the journey, even
indefinitely.
Why
settle for less than Perfect Happiness? —
Most of us are not aware that Perfect Happiness is actually possible.
And so instead we throw in our lot with one of the common alternatives
of our time: materialistic self-fulfillment; some kind of religious
belief system; or some kind of do-it-yourself "spirituality".
But which of those common alternatives actually leads to much
happiness now, let alone Perfect Happiness? Commenting on the
mindless adoption of one or more of these alternatives, simply
because they are the familiar ones, Adi Da Samraj puts it this
way: "If you go with the flow, you go down the toilet." Created
by Adi Da Samraj, the Way of Adidam is a lesser known alternative
that makes Perfect Happiness possible for ordinary human beings
like ourselves.
The
Nature of Reality: Perfect Happiness is Perfectly Possible
— Every tradition
— whether religious, spiritual, philosophical, or scientific —
is associated with a particular view on the nature of reality.
Just so, Adidam is associated with a particular view on the nature
of Reality, which we summarize in this section. This view is not
an intellectual synthesis of previous traditions and viewpoints.
Instead, it is the view of Avatar Adi Da Samraj as Fully Awakened
Spiritual Master, describing Reality directly from the Ultimate
Vantage Point. And in this view of Reality, Perfect Happiness
is perfectly possible through
Perfect God-Realization.
Spiritual
Realization requires a Spiritual Master — The highest
human potential is God-Realization, the complete awakening from
this "dream" of limited existence, awakening as
the One in Whose Consciousness the dream is arising. And the way
to perfect Realization of God is through a moment-to-moment process
of communing with God, by feeling God and self, and feeling beyond
self to God. But how does one find and feel God for
real? All the wisdom traditions of humankind point
to a single answer: we locate God through the Transmission of
a Spiritual Master. So the "how" of Realizing God actually has
a simple answer: find a genuine Spiritual Master and become a
devotee of His or Her Spiritual Transmission. To Realize God most
perfectly — to awaken completely from the dream of limited existence,
rather than moving to a somewhat better "realm" within the dream
— requires linking up with the Transmission of a Divinely Realized
Spiritual Master.
The
devotional and Spiritual relationship to Avatar Adi Da Samraj
— True
Spiritual practice that leads to actual Spiritual Realization
is not based merely on a belief system, and a set of rituals or
do-it-yourself techniques. Spiritual practice that bears fruit
is always based on the Spiritual relationship between the Spiritual
Master and the devotee. The liberating relationship between the
devotee and the Spiritual Master is by nature, a devotional relationship.
Love Itself, Happiness Itself, God Himself, is appearing through
the form of the Spiritual Master, and the devotee very naturally
and spontaneously falls in love with That One — not the human
being in himself, but the One Who is being Revealed transparently
through that egoless human form. The character in the dream is
more and more distracted from the dream by the supreme Attractiveness
of the Awakened State, in the form of the Master and His Spiritual
Transmission.
The
Spiritual necessity for self-understanding and self-transcendence
— Even the relationship with the Divine Presence through the
Agency of the Spiritual Master isn’t sufficient, by Itself, to
Fully Awaken a human being. This is so because both our awareness
of the Divine Presence, and our reception of It (our ability to
be Melted in and Awakened by It), are cut off, hindered by the
ego. Therefore it is essential to Spiritual growth that we understand
and transcend the "ego", the "self", as it is the primary obstacle
to Spiritual Realization. We conventionally view the ego as a
given; it simply goes without saying. "Obviously", there’s “me”
here, there’s “you” over there, etc. But what is this “me”? We
are literally re-creating our sense of being a "separate self”
in every moment through a separative activity
of self-contraction, that
is something like making a fist. As soon as we understand that
we are doing this activity of self, we can stop
doing it.
Practice
in the Way of Adidam —
In order to fully receive Avatar Adi Da Samraj's
Transmission, the body-mind has to be in a very specific position
and disposition. Avatar Adi Da Samraj describes this “surrendered
position” in terms of a specific orientation for each of “the
four lower faculties” of the human being: mind, body, emotion,
and breath. Adi Da Samraj calls the practice of turning the four
faculties of the body-mind to Him in every moment, Ruchira
Avatara Bhakti Yoga. Practice of Ruchira Avatara Bhakti
Yoga is assisted and deepened by engaging disciplines that curb
our otherwise endless and overt seeking, and require us to feel,
rather than to immunize ourselves from feeling. Through Ruchira
Avatar Bhakti Yoga, one becomes absorbed in the Divine. With steady
practice, in time, there comes a moment of Grace when we stably
shift from practicing absorption
in the Divine Being, to practicing Identity
with the Divine, standing as, what Avatar Adi Da Samraj calls
“The Witness-Consciousness”. Thus begins the first stage of the
Perfect Practice. The Perfect
Practice has three stages, all taking place in the Domain of Consciousness,
that is, in direct relation to the Awakened State and the Divine
Person in His Ultimate Identity as Consciousness: Be Consciousness.
Contemplate Consciousness. Transcend everything in Consciousness,
Recognizing all objects in and as God. The third stage of the
Perfect Practice is Divine Enlightenment:
complete Awakening from the dream of limited existence.