The Knee of Listening (Adi Da Samraj)
The Greatest Spiritual Autobiography
[My five-star Amazon review (May 9, 2008) of "The Knee of Listening: The Divine Ordeal of the Avataric Incarnation of Conscious Light: The Spiritual Autobiography of The Ruchira Avatar, Ad Da Samraj" by Adi Da Samraj."]
The Knee of Listening is, hands down, the best spiritual autobiography ever written. It is a quantum leap beyond Paramahansa Yogananda's classic Autobiography of a Yogi, which is generally considered the top book in this genre. While Autobiography of a Yogi, a moving story, is certainly worth a read, it doesn't even begin to compare to The Knee of Listening as a demystifying and enlightening account of the spiritual awakening process. Adi Da Samraj (Da), though a controversial figure because of his personal behavior, was one of the most profound spiritual gurus in history.
In The Knee of Listening, Da discovers and discloses the "method" of radical understanding that enables a spiritual disciple to directly and immediately transcend the egoic activity that causes his suffering. According to Da, a man's suffering is caused by his moment-to-moment avoidance of relationship, which generates a self-contraction, the enclosed separate-self sense, or ego. Da's account of his spiritual ordeal, his struggle to understand and transcend the ego, the psychical activity of un-en-Light-enment, is a fascinating story by a gifted writer. But most importantly, it is an unprecedented and unequalled autobiographical description of the "mechanics" of spiritual awakening.
I am a spiritual teacher, and I'm critical of many of the things Adi Da did, taught, and claimed. But despite my differences with Da, I recognize, and am forever grateful for, his radical spiritual insights, without which, from a Dharma standpoint, I could not have put it altogether. If you read this book and "hear" what Da is saying, you too will to benefit from his seminal psycho-spiritual insights.
[My five-star Amazon review (May 9, 2008) of "The Knee of Listening: The Divine Ordeal of the Avataric Incarnation of Conscious Light: The Spiritual Autobiography of The Ruchira Avatar, Ad Da Samraj" by Adi Da Samraj."]
The Knee of Listening is, hands down, the best spiritual autobiography ever written. It is a quantum leap beyond Paramahansa Yogananda's classic Autobiography of a Yogi, which is generally considered the top book in this genre. While Autobiography of a Yogi, a moving story, is certainly worth a read, it doesn't even begin to compare to The Knee of Listening as a demystifying and enlightening account of the spiritual awakening process. Adi Da Samraj (Da), though a controversial figure because of his personal behavior, was one of the most profound spiritual gurus in history.
In The Knee of Listening, Da discovers and discloses the "method" of radical understanding that enables a spiritual disciple to directly and immediately transcend the egoic activity that causes his suffering. According to Da, a man's suffering is caused by his moment-to-moment avoidance of relationship, which generates a self-contraction, the enclosed separate-self sense, or ego. Da's account of his spiritual ordeal, his struggle to understand and transcend the ego, the psychical activity of un-en-Light-enment, is a fascinating story by a gifted writer. But most importantly, it is an unprecedented and unequalled autobiographical description of the "mechanics" of spiritual awakening.
I am a spiritual teacher, and I'm critical of many of the things Adi Da did, taught, and claimed. But despite my differences with Da, I recognize, and am forever grateful for, his radical spiritual insights, without which, from a Dharma standpoint, I could not have put it altogether. If you read this book and "hear" what Da is saying, you too will to benefit from his seminal psycho-spiritual insights.
