Extraordinary Eyes

 

There is a meditation hall on Naitauba called Extraordinary Eyes. Adi Da’s Eyes were extraordinary. One time my eyes met his and this world vanished. It was as if I was falling into a pool of Infinite Bliss and Peace. It didn’t last though.

 

Reports of visions, revelations, and a host of metaphysical whatnots abound with seeming little impact on the everyday world of humanity. What grows is Mammon: The world of “Wordly”. According to Webster, in the New Testament of the Bible, Mammon is commonly thought to mean money, material wealth, or any entity that promises wealth, and is associated with the greedy pursuit of gain. "You cannot serve both God and mammon." Why is it that Mammon is more real to people than God? Most everyone I know can relate to Oreos and a BMW with familiarity, whereas, God is “ah, I hope he isn’t too mad at me” with vague ideas and feelings full of angst, bewilderment and hopeful statements of “father”. We want what we see, feel, or touch. We normally don’t feel God in that way. Therein lies our baited and sprung trap.

 

To see our existence as a trap, spirit trapped by matter, “this cage of bone and flesh” as Ramakrishna said is a workable framework of logic. To see and understand what we are and how we are trapped earmarks the Way.  

 

We are boats moored in some advertised safe harbor never free to sail the open water. Our moorings are made of what we want and what we believe. The outlandish metaphysical reality is that this world is made of what we want and what we believe. And, that is the trap we live in, one that we’ve made. Fashioned out of ourselves and not seeing it as us.  

 

Adi Da opened the first ashram, which he was to be Guru of in the early 70’s. After one year he notices that there didn't seem to be signs of advancement. It wasn’t as if no one had changed, in that straightening up diet and doing meditation will do anyone good but he didn’t see the fundamental changes of being that he was looking for. One night he asked some of the men, “what do you want to do tonight?” “Oh study, meditate…” to which response Adi Da asks “What do you really want to do? Want to go to a strip club?” they were like Yay Whoopee “Oh Yeah!” The rubber meets the road where one want is opposed to another want. “It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere” – Voltaire. Yet, what is binding us isn’t easy to understand…. Does that make us fools or simply human?  

 

“There is the underlying suggestion that spiritual life has something to do with separating from vital and physical life. Indeed, in many of the ancient traditions, spiritual life was exactly what that notion suggests - An exclusive (and eventually terminal) inward-turning, and attempt to get away entirely from the life-force, the life-form, the life-mind, the life-appearance, the life-sensation- into some inward, subtle, non- life perception or vision or heaven or whatever”. Adi Da, My “Bright” Word; Money, Food, and Sex.

 

Even though we have the ability to corral life-force and its ensuing forms it remains alive. It grows in strength wanting to break free. This is because this life-force is us followed by us not recognizing it as such thinking it is against us and we must fence it, control it, and dominate it. This becomes ultimate meditation, to see this, to understand it.  The Way that Adi Da teaches is about functional understanding, what makes what happen. Uncovering this uncovers what is Sacred. Understanding the “how to” of this process of recognizing the Truth is described in detail by Adi Da. The aforementioned book “My Bright Word” is chock full of Truth. The chapter I mentioned “Money Food and Sex” is wonderful. It describes how conflicted and pinned down we are in this world. Even when we end up with as much money, food, and sex we can imagine. Living lives of the rich and famous, although not all that happy.  

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