Adi Duh's Mid-Life Career Shift
File under: Gurubusting and Wackadoo Gurus
Adi Da never made it as the world savior he predicted he would become in his "mark my words" fantasy, given as a prophetic talk to a few devotees in 1983. Most people just think he's a loon trapped on an island on Fiji smoking lots of the kind bud as he fucks his devotees' wives. [Ed.note: Sounds like a sweet gig to us!] What's a failed avatard like this to do? Why... fall back on a career as an artist:
So let's assume the [Beloved Adi Da Samraj] is in, as his people assure us he is. What's his art look like? Da-da-da-da-damn! To us it looks like technicolor vomit after 10 tabs of "sunshine," but we are proud Philistines in such matters. Judge for yourself -- go to daplastique.com, or take a trip to the Westhaven Center for the Arts on Sunday, Apr. 15, 7 p.m., when some of his work will be exhibited (and, incidentally, offered up for sale).To us his art looks like something produced by a brand-new Adobe Photoshop user. Think bad rave flyer design from about 1991; long on facile manipulation of scanned material and very short on any actual artistic content.
But maybe this will bring the fat man back down to this plane. We get the feeling we'd enjoy hanging with the Da once he realizes he's just another fool like everyone else. If and when that happens, we have a foldout couch-bed he's welcome to use if he decides to come for a visit.
posted by guruphiliac @ 8:48 PM
13 Comments:
If anyone wants to research Adi Da
further, here are some good places to start.
Da is still recruiting--he goes by the name of Adi Da Samiraj. His recruiters do not tell newbies about the full history.
This letter from a former disciple, Mark Miller, is a small and brilliant gem. His remarks on mythologizing apply to other guru-student relationships, as well as to Adi Da.
http://www.lightgate.net/boards/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=5c81e70eb8bea5534ca3cf41542527ea
The Daism forum on Lightmind
http://www.lightgate.net/boards/viewforum.php?f=7&sid=5c81e70eb8bea5534ca3cf41542527ea
The Lightmind forum lists additional URLs on its left hand sidebar. All are fascinating. I especially draw reader's attention to the blog, Broken Yogi
http://brokenyogi.blogspot.com/
BY blog is owned by Conrad G, a former DA devotee. Conrad turned down an all expenses paid scholarship to Columbia, and was a Da devotee for decades. By his own admission, he defended Da for a long time--until he finally had to face that Da was not worth his loyalty. In earlier articles on his blog, Conrad describes how members of Da's entourage rationalized lying about what actually went on. I recommend staring with the article 'Rejoining the River of Life' posted on January 2006
Conrad wrote: "That is the problem with the cultic tendency in religion. It uses the positive aspect of religion to achieve a negative result of bondage and self-abasementIt convinces the cultist that all this is for their benefit, such that they actually praise the process that has bound them, rather than free themselves from it."
and
"I also know what MJ is referring to on an “esoteric level”.
" I know the experience of being up against Adi Da's demands, and feeling that tension between one's tendencies and Divine Communion, and feeling that there is a conflict there which has to be resolved on the side of “Divine Communion” rather than the side of giving in to one's tendencies.
"I know the inner “heat” that arises in that process, and the transmission of Adi Da's spiritual force in the midst of that. And I know that the devotee is supposed to allow this purification to take place by staying in the heat, and letting it burn away all impurities. This is also something I saw through. I realized at a certain point that all that conflict and tension was a pointless waste of time and energy. It was simply an illusion generated to maintain a relationship of bondage. The energy itself being transmitted in that conflict was not liberating energy at all, but a form of bondage. Not that it didn't also feel very good at times, but good feelings are just as binding as conflict. "(excerpt)
http://brokenyogi.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html
Also in January 2006 see BY's article
Adi Da: Raging Alcoholic or Out of Control Alcoholic?
'Truth Wins Out'
and
In the Kali Yuga, Everyone Gets the Guru They Deserve
Adi Da was the first guru to be endorsed by Ken Wilber, who himself has begun to function more and more like a remote guru. Ken later claimed to repudiate Da and then waffled on that. Ken picks teachers who have trouble using power responsibly--Adi Da, rabbi Marc Gafni, Andrew Cohen, associates with them, giving them tacit endorsement--yet never has lived under their authority.
David Lane made some interesting remarks here:
http://vclass.mtsac.edu:940/dlane/wilb1.htm
Lane wrote: (small exerpt)
"Wilber expresses wonder at how his numerous fans balk at his
praises of Da Free John. I am not surprised. I don't even think
Wilber is surprised. If Wilber really believes that Da is the
greatest spiritual master of all time, then why did he refuse to do
Da's official biography? A job which would have allowed Wilber
direct access to Da for a long period of time. In private
correspondence with me (and in person), Wilber has admitted that
"Da is a fuck-up" (his words, not mine).
Do I see any indication of that in Wilber's overly-enthusiastic
gushes? Yea, there it is, Da is the Supreme Avatar of all time,
but he is also a major fuck-up...... Talk about Paradox!
In more simple terms, if Wilber really believed what he was saying,then I would venture that he would want to "hang" with the Supreme one. But guess what? He has only occasionally seen the Big Boy.
"
LA di Da never made it as the world savior he predicted he would become in his "mark my words" fantasy, given as a pathetic talk to a few devotees in 1983.
..........
Wouldn't it be great to get La di Da, Me She Rabid Shankar, Kracki, Sly Baba, the 666 anti christ Jesus, and all the hundreds of other self declared human Gods into a wrestling ring. They could tag team with the various Ammas. The last man or woman left standing could be proclaimed God Almighty!
I put my money on semblance!
Ooooooooh, Psychedelic!
I'm rolling on the floor, holding my sides. I haven't seen work like this since 1972! Maybe he should check out what's been happening in the wide world of art since Flower Power was in vogue. But wait, maybe he's just "appropriating"...lol!
anon
If La Di Da doesn't turn out to be the avatartist that he and his devotees think he is, he'll probably call this stage his "Artistic Ordeal." Mark THIS.
Choosing A Guru
When choosing a guru you should ask yourself the following questions:
1. Does he bite?
2. Is he good with children?
3. How much does he eat, and how much will it cost to feed him?
4. If he isn’t neutered, and you don’t intend to have him neutered, are you willing to put up with a guru that tries to hump everyone in sight?
5. Is the guru you are considering well-bred, and does he come with papers?
(And not just a Post-it note from Muktananda that has to be translated ad nauseam to try and make it sound more significant than it was intended to be).
((This alludes to the time that Da went to India expecting he would be endorsed as a real guru by Baba Muktananda. He was so sure of the endorsement that all his devotees expected it to happen as well. Turns out Muktananeda refused to endorse him. Da and his entourage slunk home from India and had to work very hard to put a positive spin on the situation.))
(From a memoir entitled 'Beware of the God' written by a former Da devotee:
http://bewareofthegod.blogspot.com
This thread gives a good example of former Da devotees who are in recovery, dealing with a Da advocate who has never lived with the guru and refuses all suggestions that he go live with the guru and see things first hand.
Yet this gentleman insists on dancing around jeering at those who have lived with the guru, helped recruit for the guru and who now regret what they have done.
http://www.lightgate.net/boards/viewtopic.php?t=6255
'He jests at scars that never felt a wound.'
.."((This alludes to the time that Da went to India expecting he would be endorsed as a real guru by Baba Muktananda. He was so sure of the endorsement that all his devotees expected it to happen as well. Turns out Muktananeda refused to endorse him. Da and his entourage slunk home from India and had to work very hard to put a positive spin on the situation.))"<<
Considering the people muktananda DID "endorse", it's pretty pitiful that "Addendum" couldn't even wrest THAT from the sleazoid muktananda! I mean how bad do you have to be to be worse than some of the "carriers of the flame of $idda yoga"?
just curious
I went to a video showing about 5 years ago in Sydney. A sexy woman did full body prostrations to the TV picture of Adi Da.
A guy from Fiji was there selling Daism. He did the usual talk along these lines: Da is wonderful, and we never understand. Tee hee hee.
I pointed this behaviour out, and he said that he could see what I mean, then he went on to selling to the others.
The sexy woman said to me, "Sometimes I wonder if I'm in a cult."
I said, "I think you are. This is exactly what a cult looks like."
I think she has quit now.
Martin Gifford.
About 20 years ago, I went to some HUGE, PACKED theater in NYC to watch Sri Chinmoy create dozens of pieces of music and art thanks to the magic of his meditative accomplishment.
About 20 minutes in, I turned to my girlfriend and said, "Either this guy is so beyond me that I can't grasp the depth of what he's doing... or, the only thing he's REALLY creating is the idea in people's minds that he's not 120% full of crap. I'm going to assume the latter and go get some pizza."
Proving that one man's art is another man's Famous Original Ray's (the REAL one, on 11th & 6th).
I went to a temple in America and outside of the hall where someone or another happened to be speaking (I had gone for general worship, and was unaware of the hall program), were some very pasty, pale, sad looking middle aged ladies selling some books and tapes and what-not. They identified themselves as followers of Adi-Da, running some center for him in that city, and invited me there to learn whatever it is they teach. They looked very dazed, had weird energy (weird as in cult groupie type feel), and seemed generally desparate for attention. I passed on their offer. I asked where their Guru was located, and they said Fiji, and could not easily be met, he's so great, blah blah blah, the usual stuff. They got pretty ramped up as they spoke, white hair flying, saggy dresses shifting around while they gestured wildy about their beloved 'Ru. Yuck. Looked like a sick bunch to me.
This post detailing the worst of Adi Da's excesses circulated on Usenet in the late 1990s:
The Scandals of Adi Da Samraj
You've got to admit though, when it comes to attracting the classiest looking lady devotees, La Di Da definitely has something. You kind of look at the pictures of Fiji and you think "what the hell has that fat slug got that I haven't?" :)
I think there are 2 things at work here.
1) It's clear that he "got" something at some point (his first book is actually really good). It's also clear that, as people say again and again, a "glimpse" or a satori experience isn't itself enlightenment, which has to include some kind of "purifying of the vasanas". i.e. while a "glimpse" doesn't change anything, and reveals something that's always already so, and while that kind of "glimpse" is quite enough for the average person to feel at home in their skin and in the universe, if you want to be a "specialist" in this business, i.e. truly an avatar or a teacher for others, the glimpse isn't enough, and you (the psycho-phsyical organism) have to go through a kind of training that's even more rigorous than the training that got you the "glimpse".
IOW a teacher (as opposed to just a friendly hand on the way, someone else who has had a "glimpse" and is unpretentious about being a teacher) has to be somebody who has gone through the mill of all possible trainings, pitfalls, etc., so he or she is able to fit the teaching to the person. In the course of this, the teacher has to have purified the psycho-physical organism to the extent that it is, truly, a Temple.
So in a way a true teacher has to manifest these signs: has to be actually a really nice person with high moral standards, and no hypocrisy, no "side" to him, etc.
Clearly such a teacher, of such a high standard, is going to be extremely rare, and you won't be likely to find one teaching yoga at your local mall.
(A good question at this point would be: ok that's in theory, but do any such people exist in reality nowadays; are even the stories about past teachers at such a high level mere exaggerations, covering hypocrisy, etc., etc., all good questions. I'm just putting forward that high standard for consideration. It's certainly a theoretical possibility - i.e. there's logical space for it to be true.)
2) The other point is that it takes 2 to tango. The main "sin" of people who get into this is (I think) simply ego, the same kind of ego that con artists use to trap people all the time: "I can't be so stupid as to fall for a con trick".
I was going to say more about this second point, but I realised this is probably enough to get the point across. Clearly "suggestion" (same as in plain old stage hypnotism) has something to do with it, and possibly "charisma" (whatever that is) too - and people have varying degrees of susceptibility to that.
If ever there were an avatard whose fart chakra is fully and permanently wide open (sorry facedog), it is La di Duh Pay Toilet (Free John). You'd think that even an avatard would get tired of hisself but he keeps reinventing hisself like a poor mad dog in an asylum sculpting busts of hisself out of his own shit. If ever a man NEEDS to wear bib overalls, it is this perverted ball of blubber.
thats so funny la di dah, me she rabid shankar etc, can you think of one for prem rawat? he looks like a cross between a toad and a fish by the way, if you thought la di da was ugly, you aint seen prem and you dont want to either
Post a Comment
<< Home