8c. Divine Heart Master Adi Da:
The Surrender to Love-Bliss & Way of the Heart
"This is the Highest and most Radical Teaching. Only Love, the Heart,
or the Unqualified Radiance of Unqualified Consciousness, fulfills and
transcends all inward paths, all experiences, and all relations of the
self. Therefore, grow in the Way of the Heart until the Perfect Identity
Shines as the Consciousness that transcends all bodily and mental states."
(1978, p. 512)
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Adi Da is a contemporary spiritual
teacher, an Avatar, a living master of the Great Tradition of esoteric
teachings. Born as Franklin Jones on Long Island, New York in 1939,
Adi Da has experienced, throughout his life, profound spiritual realizations,
states of samadhi and enlightenment. These are documented in his
autobiography and are evident in his many illuminated talks and writings.
In 1970, Adi Da is said to have permanently entered the condition of Sahaj
Samadhi, recovering that Identity with the Transcendental Being-Consciousness.
Throughout his life, Adi Da has experienced an inner
condition which he calls “the Bright.” He elaborates upon the nature
of this state:
"Even as a little child I recognized It and Knew It, and my life was
not a matter of anything else. That Awareness, that Conscious Enjoyment,
that Self-Existing and Self-Radiant Space of Infinitely and inherently
Free Being, that Shine of inherent Joy Standing in the heart and Expanding
from the heart, is the “Bright”. (1995, p.34)
Adi Da’s heart was open to the Love and Bliss of the Heart, the Infinite
Life and Identity, from the earliest years. Over time he explored
all possible realms of experience to arrive at a more complex understanding
of what this condition is, and the dynamics of its deep nature. Although
Adi Da states, “I have always been Seated in the ‘Bright,’” many years
of mystical experiences, further enlightenment and attainment, were necessary
for the nature of the Bright to become apparent to Him, and for its potentials
to be fully realized. He recounts:
"The “Bright” had seemed to fade, progressively, in childhood and adolescence,
but It had only become latent in the heart, while I followed my adventures
from the viewpoint of the mind. The Heart Itself had been my only teacher,
and It continually broke through in various revelations, until I finally
returned to It, became It, and rose again as the “Bright.” (1995, p. 382)
As a God-realized individual, Adi Da teaches and transmits to others
the “way of the heart,” helping them to realize the divine
identity established as the All-Pervading Reality at the core of their
Being, as the heart centre. The Way of the Heart is the path towards
recovering the “Perfect Identity,” which is “shining as a Consciousness
that transcends the body/mind complex.” The heart embodies the “Unqualified
Consciousness,” and the individual can recover awareness of this lost identity.
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Adi Da describes spiritual
transformation as depending upon the emotional conversion of the
human heart from a condition of narcissism and self-possession to one of
Divine Communion, and the realization of the Light, Love and Bliss inherent
to the Heart. In the normally subjective and identified state of
waking sleep, the individual is contracted at the heart, and tied up in
by the “knots” of the heart. The Heart is the centre of the
Real, of the Self, and this supports the ego differentiation, which connects
spirit to matter. The knot (or granthi) is the means by which ego
differentiation occurs, and one then becomes steeped in ignorance.
The individual is self-divided and dissociated from his/her deep inherent
feeling-intelligence. The body-mind complex–the psycho-physical being–differentiates
itself from experiences, separating self from the emotional demands of
life and relationships. Thus, individuals avoid deep relationships
which require free emotional association and the opening of the heart in
love.
The heart contraction, as explained by Adi Da, entails
a contraction from the All-Pervading Life Principle which is established
as the root condition within the Heart. The resulting emotional dissociation
cuts off the individual body-mind complex from awareness of the Universal
Life Energy, one’s primordial condition.
Adi Da refers to the teachings of Ramana
Maharshi and the Vedic teachings, in explaining
the nature of the heart, the heart contraction, and the “knots” of the
heart. Ramana elaborates upon these mysteries explaining how consciousness
emerges from the point within the heart and is then circulated through
various nadis, or channels, within the subtle dimensions:
"The effulgent light of active-consciousness starts at a point and
gives light to the entire body even as the sun does to the world. When
that light spreads out in the body one gets the experiences in the body.
The sages call the original point ‘Hridayam’ (the Heart). ... The Individual
permeates the entire body, with that light, becomes ego-centric and thinks
that he is the body and that the world is different from himself. ... The
association of the Self with the body is called the Granthi (knot). ...
the light of active-consciousness passes through a nadi (a channel) in
the body. ... When the very bright light of that active-consciousness shines
in the Amriti Nadi alone, nothing else shines forth except the Self. ...
When Atma alone shines, within and without, and everywhere ... one is said
to have severed the knot ... . There are two knots. One, the bond
of the Nadis and two, egoism. The Self even though subtle being tied up
in the Nadis sees the entire gross world. When the light withdraws from
all other Nadis and remains in the one Nadi alone, the knot is cut asunder
and then the light becomes the Self." (1995, pp. 292-4)
Adi Da depicts the process of self-examination and the
change of heart required for spiritual practice and awakening. The
mind-body or psycho-physical being is transformed through the relaxation
of the heart contraction and the subsequent awakening to the Heart.
In this case, there is a profound realization of the Transcendental Being,
Radiance and Bliss which is the true root and origin of consciousness and
being. Such a conversion involves a living realization that our lives
and the world arise each moment within the Spirit or Being of that Living
Transcendental Being. Adi Da explains:
"The heart of the usual Man, or the emotional-psychic root-being of
the unawakened individual, is chronically disturbed, contracted upon itself,
dissociated from the Universal Life-Principal that is its own Condition,
Help, and Origin. ... The Salvation or Happiness of Man is in emotional
conversion, or the conversion of the heart from the automaticities of self-possession
to the conscious Realization of Ecstasy, or self-transcending Love-Communion
with the Universal Principle of Being that is Life. ... We must surrender
to Life in order to be full of Life. The Life-Current is the “Holy Spirit,”
the Divine Effulgence or Grace whereby we may be Transformed and made One
with the Living and Eternal Divine Reality. (1978, pp.13-5)
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In Adi Da’s teaching, the individual Self is the Conscious Life and Light
existing prior to the nervous system and the extended material body, and
it radiates or expands from a fixed point in the region of the heart, identified
by Adi Da with the right side of the heart, and chest. This is beyond
even the witnessing consciousness of the body-mind, underlying the usual
ego condition. The Free Soul intuits its Identity with the Transcendental
Self, and can abide in its own prior state of Bliss and Unqualified Consciousness.
At different periods within his teaching work, Adi Da describes his teaching
as the Way of Divine Ignorance, of Radical Intuition, of Whole-Body Enlightenment,
and as the Way of the Heart.
The True Self is the Transcendental Heart within
the Divine Domain. When the I of the Heart opens, all phenomena appear
as illusory modifications of that Radiant Self. A devotee, Bonder,
elaborates upon Adi Da’s revelations:
"“The Heart” is God, the Divine Self or Reality. The Realization of
the Heart is fully Conscious Awakening as the Self-Existing and Self-Radiant
Transcendental Divine Being and Person. The psycho-physical association
of Transcendental Self-Realization with the bodily heart gives rise to
the capitalized term “the Heart.” The Awakening to Transcendental Self-Consciousness
is associated with the opening of the primal psycho-physical seat of Consciousness
and attention, in the right side of the heart. One who thus Awakens generally
becomes sensitive to the Current of Spiritual Energy at that location in
the chest and feels the mind, or attention, falling into its point of origin
there.
"Heart Master Da distinguishes the Heart as the ultimate Reality from
all of the psycho-physiological functions of the organic, bodily heart.
The Heart is not “in” the right side of the human heart, nor is it in or
limited to the human heart as a whole, or to the body-mind, or to the world.
Rather, the human heart and body-mind and the world exist in the Heart,
the Divine Being. ... Heart Master Da proclaims and always lives
... the God-Intoxicated Realization of the Heart." (1989)
The point of origin of consciousness does not exist within the physical
heart, but the heart, the mind, and the world, exist within the Heart.
This mystery teaching is based upon an alternative understanding of Space,
wherein all things in the outer world are projections from a Divine Realm
which underlies and sustains all things. The world is within the
Heart instead of the Heart being contained within the physical body.
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Adi Da compares the teaching of the Radical Intuition
of the Transcendental Heart to other mystic teachings which involve raising
the Kundalini energy through the spinal cord to the higher chakras.
According to yogic teaching, there are seven chakras or subtle energy centres
within the subtle anatomy of human beings. These include the crown
and brow chakras associated with the crown of the head and the third eye,
the throat chakra, the central heart chakra, and three lower chakras associated
with the solar plexus, the naval and the base of the body, the root chakra.
There are three chakras above the Heart Centre, and three below.
Kundalini and other practices may allow the individual to awaken the higher
chakras, and thereby “attain the subtle body in the sky of mind,” experiencing
diverse subtle realms of nature and acquiring various psychic powers.
Adi Da describes this process as ultimately leading to the same Enlightenment
as the Radical Intuition of the Heart, but only after long cycles of birth
and death within the material and subtle realms of existence.
The Way of the Heart is the most direct route to
Self, penetrating immediately to ultimate realizations:
"One Path proceeds by mystical ascent of the illusory inner self, or
mind, via the Chain of Creation. The other proceeds by direct intuitive
submission of the entire body-mind into the Radiant Source and Transcendental
Matrix of all phenomena." (1978, p.107)
The former path is a more gradual process of enlightenment, moving through
the levels of phenomena composing the chain of creation, and the different
worlds of the higher psyche. Adi Da states that this route will ultimately
bring one to realize the Divine Condition of the Heart. However,
in Adi Da’s view, the yogic and mystic teachings which focus upon the opening
of the third eye, (or ajna/brow chakra), involve a lower order teaching
than does the ancient Heart Doctrine: “A yogi who has fixed his Life-Force
and attention into the brain-mind has not realized God or the Self.”
His/her attention has simply moved into the subtle dimensions of the Realms
of Nature.
States of samadhi, or enlightened consciousness,
are rooted into the dimensions of the Heart. Ramana Maharshi explains:
"When the yogin rises to the highest centre of trance, Samadhi, it
is the Self in the Heart that supports him in that state whether he is
aware of it or not. But if he is aware in the Heart, he knows that whatever
states or whatever centres he is in, it is always the same truth, the same
Heart, the same Self, the Spirit that is present throughout, eternal and
immutable." (In Adi Da, 1995, p. 390)
Adi Da, since his Divine Re-emergence, exists in the state of Sahaj Samadhi,
and manifested various extraordinary Divine Siddhis (supernatural powers)
enabling him to perceive various realms of nature and to “meditate” other
beings. He writes:
"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." (1995, pp. 371-372)
Adi Da has realized the “Divine Guru-Siddhi,” able to
meditate others and to transmit directly the awakened condition of the
Heart. Thus he carries on his Divine Mission of Teaching, Blessing
and Awakening other beings. The leelas–the accounts and stories–of
his devotees attest to Adi Da’s state of enlightenment, and his capacity
to envelop others within the “Bright,” throwing them into states of ecstasy
and entering them “in the form of light.” Wes Vaught,
a devotee, recalls:
“Adi Da lifted his Feet and placed them on my head. All stress left
my being. A golden balm of sweet light poured through every cell in my
body. A knot opened. I let go and His brilliant Radiance washed through
me. I was home.” (In Lee, 1998, p. 79)
The devotee “lives as the sacrifice of the whole body-mind”
in love and service, and this creates a “superphysical and higher psycho-physical
link” between the devotee and the Heart Master. “By means of the heartfelt
regard or loving glance of the Spiritual Master, the devotee is Awakened,
by stages, to the process of Initiation and Sacrifice into the Divine Radiance.”
(1978, p. 253) |
All of these processes involve forms
of a higher physics and science, beyond the understanding of the contemporary
sciences. Adi Da explains:
"... there is something in the physics of the universe that makes it
possible for a single or random individual to pass through the entire affair
of Transformation in God, and then to bring others into the sphere of his
existence, so that they may duplicate his Condition and be drawn into that
entire and ultimate evolutionary cycle." (1978, p. 247)
Enlightenment is a literal change of the whole body/mind and involves
some form of higher physics, especially the physics of light, zero points
and higher dimensions. All of this is part of what Adi Da labels
“the superphysics of literal God-realization.”
Adi Da’s world mission is to awaken humankind, through
his illumined talks and writings, through his world Blessing work, and
through the Grace of his direct Heart Transmissions. Through surrender
to the Divine Guru and meditation on his forms, devotees experience the
radical awakening of consciousness and the deep dimensions of the Transcendental
Heart.
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Footnote: Dr. Holmes is not a devotee of Adi Da, nor has
he ever been involved in that circle. However, he has found Adi Da's
writings and teachings most profound among contemporary spiritual teachings,
and congruent with his own experiences and realizations.
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The Heart Doctrine
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