God and Guru

Being a Libra I am often ping-ponging notions back and forth. One of these notions that gets batted back and forth (all around really) is the context of this blog. I don’t want to come across from up on high as I am just an ordinary man. I don’t want to come across as some big brain as I am not the sharpest tack in the barrel. But I have been fortunate, very fortunate in my life. A great deal of this life has been in pursuit of understanding the spiritual nature of life in hope of gaining spiritual freedom. This is where I have been extremely fortunate. To try and convey this facet of life is difficult. Starting with the word ‘spiritual’ and what that means can fill pages. And every word following amounts to thousands if not millions of pages extant in well written books defining, detailing and describing thousands of claimed ways to become free.

I don’t know the nature and experience of you. You may be surfing for information about Adi Da. You may be surfing for information about yoga or maybe a search about Scientology brought you here. You may be young or new or a seasoned seeker, so it is hard to know how to speak to you. I was born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon. Dragons can be clumsy. Please forgive my clumsiness as I tell you of my life in this way- It is The Way of The Heart. The word heart here goes beyond the heart of emotions. That opens the door to a many branched essay that I am not sure of how to begin.

So let us start at the beginning. When I was 16 I read the Upanishads- Breath of the Eternal. The Upanishads are ancient scriptures from India. Much of Indian religious beliefs are founded in the Upanishads. On the very first page are the words “Union With God”. On the very last page is this “ If the truths of these scriptures are meditated upon by a man in the highest degree devoted to God, and to his Guru as to his God, they will shine forth. They will shine forth indeed! OM … Peace – peace – peace.

There was something very profound about these scriptures but I didn’t know what to do about it. I was a very young, immature, red blooded westerner full of myself and worldly desire. This opens the door to all the experiences year to year of joyous adventuring, stupid moves, sufferings and salvation from them. Lets close that door.

The keywords God, Guru, and union seem good ideas to discuss. In the Upanishads the summary concept of God is that God is everywhere yet seen nowhere. God is not a big guy living in the clouds, doesn’t have a scowl or long beard, doesn’t have a digestive tract or even finger nails.

I recall a long time ago reading that yoga means yoke. Yoga is to be yoked with God, meaning union or communion. These are relatively palatable philosophic concepts but now we get to Guru. I always thought the word guru meant teacher. I had some inkling that there were gurus that were considered great teachers and leaders of schools of thought- A Guru is much more than that. The idea of Guru is foundational in the spiritual path. It is prevalent in Tibetan Buddhism.

There was a guy named Naropa. He lived in India around 1000 AD. Buddhism was big in India at that time. He was born a Buddhist. Naropa only wanted enlightenment his whole life. He practiced the Buddhist Way exclusively. He became a monk. He became as high ranked as you can get. Yet he still had not attained enlightenment. He was given the task of bringing Buddhism into India. Along the way he met Tilopa, a guru. Naropa became enlightened. This story illustrates something key- the need of a Guru.

We exist in a state that is not our Native State. We are full of desires, fears, struggles, conflicts, sufferings. Adi Da teaches that all of this stems from our sense of being a separate self. Simply we are a point of view. By ourselves we can only change our point of view. But we can not get out of being a point of view. The enlightened state is point-of-view-less. This is our Native State. It is Consciousness. Being but not an individuated beingness or persona.

This is where we need help. It is where a thousand paradoxes arise. A paradox is when two different things do not agree and yet are both true. It is where we can chase the tails of our own ideas forever. Paper beats rock, rock beats scissors, scissors beat paper… which do we want- Big brains? Big heart? Big muscle? – to divide our energy doesn’t fuel us very far down the road of enlightenment.

It can be said that Consciousness is awakening Itself to Itself. Our essence is our Native State, which is Consciousness, that is layered over, or veiled, by our sense and activity of being a separate self- this is ego. Ego, self-importance, self-concerned, self-involved, self-centered, armored, yearning suffering can be described with solutions sought forever, to no final resolution.

In physics there is something called Sympathetic Vibrations. If you walk into a piano store you can hear a note played on one piano reverberating in sound from another piano. Similarly, if you strike a tuning fork of the key of C and hold it next to a unstruck tuning fork of the key of C the unstruck one will sing. The Guru is a struck tuning fork and we are silent ones. We need to be next to The Guru and we will start to sing. This is the simple explanation. To be more precise, we are bent tuning forks that first need to be straightened out. The story of Milarepa, who gained enlightenment is a great tale of what a real Guru is about and the result tells the tale.

Greatness

Hubbard wrote very depthful dharmic essays in the language Americans can understand. I find this one to be very relevant.

http://www.lronhubbard.org/articles-and-essays/what-is-greatness.html

His Blessing Sphere

I had a brain operation in 2007, I almost died then. It is now 2012 and I am incapacitated on differing fronts of the mental and physical. Yet, I am happy, feeling freer than I ever have. The story of my brain operation and current state dovetail with the story of the life changing process of being a devotee of Adi Da Samraj and living in His Company. It is a story of a confrontation with beliefs, assumptions about life and death, of who I am, what I am. An ordeal about feeling special and being shown that isn’t the case. The process led to bewilderment about whether there is a certain ending death or if I am an immortal spiritual being. The process led to gaining certainty of understanding of the nature of human life. It was an ordeal always wrapped up in a blanket of Divine Love, Peace and Happiness. A process of straightening out conflicting intentions of war versus peace, love versus hate, and infinite strategies stemming from the core of the assumption that I am a separate person and how can I survive. This straightening process doesn’t include hugs and coochie coo, it is the toughest love there is.

I’m guessing that I should describe the removed tumor in more detail. It was called a meningioma. The meninges is a system of membranes that envelope the central nervous system including the brain. Mine was enveloping the brain stem- it meant to cut off all life functions. I feel that this would have been the outcome if Adi Da had not intervened. I believe the conflicting intentions of war versus peace, hate versus love manifested the tumor in my skull. Normally we feel that we are good. On one hand we are. But there are our dark sides. One time during a Scientology session “kill em all” flew out of my psyche. I thought this was ridiculous, I don’t want that. But over the years of having my social face and mechanisms dismantled I am aware of my karmic past. A past shared by all of man, a past of war and hate. It is the dark side of impulse and feelings that lies under the surface of conscious awareness.

I had a seizure in the early part of 2007. This was on the island of Naitauba, Fiji. A CT Scan revealed the tumor. I flew to LA. Normally you have to go through a lot of red tape, time, and money to see a specialist. I was seen right away by a neurologist that had operated on Beloved. I had an MRI done that he showed to some of his colleagues. One of them said the tumor was in 'pricey neighborhood'. I spent about 5 months getting insurance. I had lost a lot of money in the stock market some years earlier. I spent just about every day for years bummed out about it, feeling that it was a crime. Because I didn’t have much money I was eligible for medical. The government covered the operation that cost 100s of thousands of dollars. This is an examply of His Blessing Sphere. Things work out as well as coud be possible. The hospital that provided the service was UCSF. The operation was performed in a world renowned surgical facility and one of the countries best surgeons- Michael McDermott. I had the operation scheduled in June. One of the doctors said that I should wait as long as possible to have the operation. It was in such a delicate place the chances were that I wouldn’t come out of it in good shape, if at all. It didn’t take me long to decide. My life was about serving the Guru. I was just spinning my wheels and the surgery would decide what my life was to be about. The operation was scheduled for 8 hours. It went 14. The reason that it took so long was the two nerves and an artery had grown around the tumor. If I had waited much longer the tumor would have been inoperable. Every once in awhile the impetuous nature works to the advantage.

Lisa Lurie saved my life. She is an advanced practitioner and had been my intimate for many years. After the operation I was in such pain it can’t be described. I had to stay heavily drugged. The right side of my body was totally paralyzed. I couldn’t speak. I could only see out of one eye. Some swelling was noticed on the side of my head. Lisa points this out to one of the doctors at the recovery hospital. He says this is normal. This isn’t good enough for Lisa. She calls Dr McDermott. He says that I should have an MRI. The MRI at Saint Mary’s wasn’t working. She arranges to have me taken by ambulance to UCSF. Dr McDermott looks at the MRI images after hours. He sees that I have a hematoma. Blood was building up inside my skull pushing the brain over. I would have been dead or vegetated by the time it was obvious to the doctors that something was wrong. I had an emergency operation the next morning. Lisa has been involved in the process with Adi Da for many years. She exemplifies the exactness and ability to confront life that Adi Da shows is necessary to live a fruitful spiritual life. Adi Da’s Blessing is not just some subtle unseen unfelt force. You feel it tangibly and see how it manifests in the physical world. You learn how to deal with life.


Life has continually become less and less of a problem as a devotee of Adi Da. Laying there paralyzed wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t fun but not a problem. Reality simply Is. Fundamentally we really don’t and can’t know anything about the essence of Reality. It can only be experienced in truth as a mystery. Living, dying, what all of it is can not be known. When the seizure was happening fear arose. It was big. I have a family history of heart disease. I felt that this could be It. I was able to turn from the fear to feeling the Divine Condition that Adi Da transmits. It is a feeling of peace, of no problem, of ‘not knowing’. I had this event of “this could be It” reoccur a half of dozen times before the operation.

“When you are free to know nothing and be nothing, then you may hear what is Truth…” Adi Da.

God is no thing. To commune with God we need to become no thing. Praise to Adi Da for giving me the ability to commune with God.

A Brain Tumor

I was diagnosed as having a tumor inside my skull. It was pressing into the brain stem. One surgeon said that it was in 'pricey neighborhood'. This was 2007. I had an operation to have it removed. When I came out of the operation the right half of my body was completely paralyzed. I couldn't speak. My left eyelid wouldn't open. Yet, my overall feeling was that there was no problem. This has become a fundamental feeling in me: there is no problem. Adi Da has brought this about in me. Normally, there is a fundamental problem in life. There is death. The problem is often avoided. When confronted, this problem is most often solved with beliefs in Heaven or reincarnation- meaning that you aren't really going to die. Adi Da knew and taught the hightest Truth. We are going to die yet there is no problem. Beloved lived in a house that He called The Manner of Flowers. Our lives are in the manner of flowers. Flowers bud, blosson and bloom- they wilt and fall off the bush. They have died. But the bush does not die. The bush flowers making the same flowers over as before. The flowers are aspects of the bush. We are flowers on a bush. Not separate from the bush. Not separate from each other. And there is no problem. We will die but what we are will never die.

The Talking Dog

A guy is driving around the back woods of Tennessee and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: 'Talking Dog For Sale .'

He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.

'You talk?' he asks. 'Yep,' the Lab replies.

After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says 'So, what's your story?'

The Lab looks up and says, 'Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA.

In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.'

'I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running. But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down.

I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.'

'I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired.'

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.

'Ten dollars,' the guy says.

'Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?'

'Because he's a liar. He never did any of that stuff !

How The World Works

I have this inherent feeling that I can figure out how things work. I am cracking up thinking that I could figure out how life works - But I have spent my life trying. I crack up thinking that I have actually made progress. Adi Da knows how life works. He proves this by the miracles that He performs. He would speak and write at length about it for over 35 years only to be despaired and frustrated that we didn't understand Him. Yet, He still tried. His purpose was to free us. His progress is undeniable. All we have to do is love him and He can make it happen.

"That is a bold statement", John Travolta, Pulp Fiction. I'm guessing that it is one hell of a bold statement to say all we have to do is love Adi Da and we will be free. Devotion to a Guru is said to be the way to sprititual freedom. Love of Christ does free souls to an extent, though many of them got their heads on backwards. What happens is that we awaken to our native state. Our native state isn't the state of ordinary human existence- full of desire, feeling survival can be threatened and all of the complicated solutions to this threat, creating a mad world. We are not aware of our native state but do have intuitions of it, responses to it, attractions to it, yet, we do not see how we have adulterated it.

To be married and do the dirty boogie with someone that you are not married destroys marriages. In essence, as spiritual beings that is what we are, aldulterers. We have made love to the world of separate things. We want to have things. We want to be loved by "things" that are alive. We love to be things. We have poo'd in our pants. We need to change what we love. What we love with our heart creates our lives. If we love our native state we are drawn into it. Adi Da is that. He is here representing our Native State.

Darkness

Demons within curse eternal the angels above
Beaten down tenacious tempered miscreants abide the roost
And rule it hard- no remedy known to boost
A worn out suffered soul

Doubled over bent and spent
The war scarred soul can
Only beg and pray for peaceful breath
If only few or even one