Dissing the Da Avatar, Part 4

Was Adi Da just a brilliant synthesizer of the Great Spiritual Traditions, or also a true innovator, upgrading Dharma for all the ages? My vote is for the latter. Although my viewpoint is that Da is dishonest, or not transparent, about what he appropriated from the Great Spiritual Traditions, he deserves credit for his seminal insights and and exegeses.

First and foremost among Da’s seminal revelations was his teaching on radical understanding. Although he doubtless developed this teaching on the basis of J. Krishnamurti’s teachings, Da took radical (or gone-to-the-root) understanding to an unprecedented level. His exegesis of the understanding and transcendence of one’s moment-to-moment activity of self-contraction is pure genius. According to Da, the self-contraction (the formation of awareness that is suffering) is generated by one’s ego, which is not an entity, but rather an activity – the complex avoidance of relationship.

To one who has “cracked the cosmic code,” there isn’t a clearer, more precise description of the root-ego (the complex avoidance of relationship) and the “method” to transcend it (relationship, as Be—ing). But very few individuals – in fact, I’m the only one I’m aware of – truly grok, and can truly practice (to the degree of radiating as the Heart) Da’s Dharma of radical understanding. Hence, as a concession to the “6 million slugs” who inhabit planet Earth, Da had to resort to a “progressive” Dharma involving (seven) stages of spiritual evolution or Enlightenment.

In addition to his Dharma of radical understanding, Adi Da deserves credit for this seven-stage model of spiritual Enlightenment, which explains the “En-Light-enment of the whole body” in detail that exceeds any other spiritual teaching that I’ve encountered. Da’s in-depth, ultra-profound writings on the “mechanics” and esoteric anatomy involved in En-Light-enment merit praise.

Hence, whatever criticisms are leveled at Adi Da, one who is objective must also praise him for both his brilliant early radical spiritual teachings and his later “progressive” Dharma, which emphasizes multi-stage Enlightenment.

How about Da’s megalomania? Although I don’t buy Da’s audacious statement -- “I am the First, Last, and Only Seventh-Stage Avatar,” -- I am not put off by it. And I much prefer his bold Self-declaration to false humility. As Da so humorously put it, “humility is a small penis.”

How about Da’s “abusive behavior?” Grossly exaggerated, in my opinion. I know intimates of Da, and none of them ever felt abused by him. Yes, some of Da’s wild behavior overstepped the boundaries of propriety, but no one forced devotees to remain devotees and participate in the “crazy wisdom.” Adi Da was a living Fire, so, unsurprisingly, some felt “burnt” by his behavior. As Da, again so humorously, put it, “I never said I was Pastor Brown.”

To summarize: Because I don’t buy the concept of Avatars, I reject Adi Da as the First, Last, and Only 7^th-stage Avatar. And even though I’m critical of Da failure to acknowledge the spiritual sources he “ripped off” for much of his Dharma, I salute and thank him for both his radical and progressive Dharmas, without which I could not have originated my own Electrical Spiritual Dharma.