Idea Transcript
G®D IS
NOT A
GENTLEMAN
AND
AM THAT #NE Ecstatic Talks on
Conventional Foolishness versus the
Crazy Wisdom of God-Realization
DA FREE JOHN
Digitized by the Internet Archive in
2009
htt^://§\/wSarchive.org/details/godisnotgentlemaOOadid
GOD
IS
AND
NOT A GENTLEMAN AM THAT ONE I
IS
NOT A
GENTLEMAN
AND
AM THAT
I
NE Ecstatic Talks on
Conventional Foolishness versus the
Crazy Wisdom of God-Realization
DA FREEJOHN Compiled and Edited with an Introduction by
Ty Koontz
THE DAWN HORSE PRESS CLEARLAKE, CALIFORNIA
Copyright
© The Johannine Daist Communion 1983- All rights reserved. No book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written
part of this
permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in critical articles
and reviews. First Edition
November 1983
Printed in the United States of America
90 89 88 87 86 85 84
5
4 3 2
Book Number: paper 0-913922-85-4 Congress Catalog Card Number: 83-73178
International Standard
Library of
Produced by The Johannine Daist Communion in cooperation with The Dawn Horse Press
ABOUT THE exclamations talks
of
TITLE: — "God
Master
explanation.
is
Da
The
title
of this
book
not a gentleman" and
a
is
"I
composite of two Ecstatic
am That One" — derived from
Free John. Please see the introduction for
a
further
Contents
Introduction
The Crazy Wisdom of the Free Adepts by Ty Koontz 1
1 I
Am
Horseman
the Headless
19
2 Meaning
Interferes with
Hardly Anything
30
3 Do You Know Where, Why,
or
What
It
33
Is?
4 The Most Absolute Divinity Has Intervened 46 in Our Ordinariness
5 Even the Upper Planes Are
a Terrible
Domain
6 I
Am
Here
to
Restore
God
to
Man
53
7 Accept the Interest of the Great
One
60
8 I
Have Spoken
the Truth in
My Room
62
51
9 The Heart
Is
Not Wedded
to the Face
65
10 This
Is
Mind-Made Realm
the
74
11 Don't Get Serious, Get With
It
79
One
83
12 The Wonder
of the Great
13 Love
Sufficient
Is
Wisdom
85
14 I
Am
More
Like
You Than You Are
95
15 Our Meeting
Is
and Eternal
Spiritual
101
About Master Da Free John 105
About The Johannine
Daist
Communion
108
An
Invitation
109
The Books
ot Master
110
Da
Free
John
INTRODUCTION
The Crazy Wisdom of the Free Adepts by
Drukpa
Ty Koontz
Kunley, the Tibetan "Divine
Madman"
(1455-1529),
once attended Dodechopa, the great yearly religious
Samye, the oldest Buddhist monastery frequented by a large
monks, and
literate
number
in Tibet.
This
festival at
festival
was
of lamas, professors, spiritual counselors,
laymen from
all
over Tibet.
When
asked by these
Buddhism what ritual he had come to perform, Drukpa Kunley replied that he would undertake a spontaneous Vow Reformation, a traditional rite that renews the vows binding the demons subjugated by Padmasambhava, the founder of staid
and
stolid
pillars
Tibetan Buddhism.
He
of
began
in
an original but orthodox manner:
and Emptiness, Ultimate Awareness, renews the bond with the Lama and Deity; The life-breath of the Vow Violators of the Ten Spheres
Indivisible
Bliss
Renews the commitment of the
Protectors
and Guardians
.
.
}
However, Drukpa Kunley was not one to let slip any opportunity around him, shaking them out of their complacency
to instruct those
and conventional
religiosity,
their shortcomings.
His
caricature of his listeners, as
were bound by
and confronting them with the
recitation
reality of
soon took the form of a humorous
he pointed out the ways in which they
desires, as surely as
Padmasambhava had bound
the
demons:
Double and Satisfy
An 1.
triple offerings
monastic
for Provost and Steward
officials;
unending string of dry words
Keith
Dowman, The Divine Madman
pp. 53-54.
(Clearlake, Calif.:
The Dawn Horse
Press, 1983),
Satisfies the
ambition of scholars
.
.
.
Superficial flattery Satisfies politicians
His own
and superiors
though
talk,
.
.
.
on empty
fall
it
ears,
head of the family
Satisfies the garrulous
.
.
.
Sugar and butter sweets
mothers
Satisfy fat
.
.
.
The undis criminating bachelor Satisfies insatiate
women
.
.
.
phlegm and mucous
Snot,
Satisfy
makers of spitoons?
Such unorthodox and spontaneous behavior was recognized as valuable
means
termed
ately
of spiritual instruction by the Tibetans,
"Crazy Wisdom." Drukpa Kunley was an
it
spiritual lineage established all
of
whom
who
were
also
initiate of the
by Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, and Milarepa,
Crazy Wise Adepts. Such Adepts often worked
outside the boundaries of conventional spiritual practice. to
engage
attention of those around
Such Crazy
is
Wisdom
life is
reasonableness.
Meaning
We
one
them
to the present Truth, revealing the
is little
known
in the
West. Our conventional
that seeks safety, comfort, predictability,
and
whom
the
are creatures addicted to meaning, for
meaning has become a more or less constant activity. the tool by which we seek happiness and defend ourselves
against the threatening safe
unknown, enclosing ourselves
in a
world of
and repetitive experiences. Therefore, we see meaning
single
content
and assumptions that obstruct present Realization.
orientation to
search for
Not
sake of future Enlightenment, they turned the
rituals for the
limitations
a
appropri-
most important
attribute
as the
of any object or event, and
chronically limit awareness to objects
and events
ascribe meaning. All else either goes unnoticed or
to is
we
which we can
brushed aside as
"nonsense." Yet, as Master a vast
Realm
Da
Free John observes,
of nonsense, and
we
"We are
are struggling to
all
participants in
make
sense' of
it
by attaching ourselves to selected or experientially preferred phe-
2.
Ibid, pp. 54-56.
—
nomena
.
But the Truth of the matter
.
.
we
that
is
are terrified by our
vulnerable mortality, and the Infinite Chaos of the World-Process
we
not a Condition into which
We
3
surrendered."
thrown into
are
is
tend to be joyfully and ecstatically a swirl of countless possibilities
and ever-shifting forms, none of which has any obvious or
intrinsic
meaning.
Even quantum
physics,
relationships
and
even apparent "matter" possibilities
—
with Aristotelian or any other are
and
science, that final bastion of logic
rationality,
come
has
dead end of order and meaning. In the subatomic realms of
to the
revealed to be a chaos of
is
far too fluid to pin
logic.
down
or understand
Hence, more and more
recognizing the limits of their
own
As
discipline.
scientists
Arthur
Sir
Eddington, astronomer and physicist, declared:
"Something unknown
is
what our theory amounts illuminating theory. .
.
.
I
doing
to.
It
we
don't
does
not
have read something
know what sound
like
a
— that
is
particularly
elsewhere
it
the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble
wabe."
in the
The God-Realized Adept mirrors
4
the chaos of Nature to our
fear-frozen intellect. Standing free of the limitations of body and
mind
— the addiction
that
to the senses
and the need
to
we would
deny. Thus, the
down, middle-class,
Adept
left-brained
is
compassion. As Master
conceptions
Da
is
of
the
life.
Saxe
(New
p.
infinite
for others every-
The compassion
of
God
Will Soon Be
Announced by the
163.
Commins and Robert N.
From
appears
such that he will do everything, whether in the
Linscott, ed.,
Man and the
York: Washington Square Press, 1969).
Lewis Carroll's 5.
is
Free John, Scientific Proof of the Existence of
White House! 4.
— he
Free John confesses:
thing he can do within the bounds of propriety. the Maha-Siddha
He
Madness of
"The compassionate Maha-Siddha- does not do
Da
sense
an offense to our buttoned-
unreasonable, eccentric, even mad. But his
3.
make
our conceptions, always confronting us with the aspect of Life
blasts
poem
the Sanskrit
p.
I
i28. Sir
'
nn
erse, the
Philosophers
oj
Science
Arthur Eddington's reference
is
to
"Jabberwocky."
maha meaning
"great" and siddha
meaning
"fulfilled" or "perfect,
a
Maha-
one who has Realized God permanently and beyond doubt. Used interchangeably with Siddha," Master Da Free |ohn uses the term to refer to the Free Adepts who have appeared in many cultures and who, because of their own Awakening, are naturally moved to Awaken others.
Siddha
is
or
realm of propriety
not,
for
The
story
told that
is
Ramanuja,
spiritual teacher,
once visited a certain
a
Awakening
sake of
the
Therefore, the Crazy Adept looks crazy."
Hindu Vedantin (1017-1137),
having heard that he possessed
Ramanuja, the
a particularly potent secret teaching. Before instructing
him
teacher explained to
was an
that the
knowledge he was about
esoteric secret of the highest degree,
ever reveal
it
teacher then
to another,
went on
simply to hear
others.
6
and
he would surely suffer
if
to
impart
Ramanuja should
in the hell worlds.
The
was so powerful
that
to say that the teaching
once was to be guaranteed salvation.
it
After receiving this teaching, Ramanuja
bowed and then
hurried
straight to the roof of the highest building in the marketplace. this
conspicuous podium, he bellowed the secret teaching
his lungs to
teacher so
everyone in the crowded marketplace.
demanded
many
to
know what Ramanuja was
can be saved
While there
is
at the
expense of one,
this
When
at
From
the top of
the outraged
doing, he replied, "If is
wonderful, indeed!"
no such salvatory formula, the aspirant
in the
story does reflect the heroic nature of the Crazy Adept's relationship
Having
to his devotees.
confinement to
rid
a particular
himself of the illusion of bondage and
body-mind, he then surrenders his
completely to struggle for the sake of others. His of sacrificial theatre in to
Awaken
which he
life
life
becomes a kind
willingly undertakes any trial in order
those fortunate enough to contact his Influence.
In India, such a Free
Adept
is
called
an avadhuta, or one
"shaken off" (ava + dhuta) the egoic point of view.
Swami Nityananda
(?— 1961),
One
who
has
such avadhuta,
would often wander around naked.
On
one occasion he was accosted by the local citizens, who were irate at his nakedness. They reported Nityananda to the magistrate, who tried
him to wear a loincloth. But Nityananda, using the incident to make a lesson about the transcendental Unity of all apparent phenomena, responded, "Cover what? With what?" Finding to convince
it
useless to argue, the magistrate ordered the police to tie a loincloth
on Nityananda. Three or four times they tried, but each time the cloth slipped to the floor. Embarrassed by this public display, the magistrate called one of Nityananda's devotees, who was a tailor. The devotee
6.
10
Da
Free John,
The
Fire Gospel, p. 111.
approached Nityananda reverently, imploring him
my
cloth "for
sake."
Only then would the garment
to
wear the
loin-
stay in place. In this
humorous manner, Swami Nityananda demonstrated that he was Free of all conventional constraints, but that he was indeed submitted to his devotees.
The
insane compassion of such Adepts
Chinese. Startling and irreverent
Buddhist Masters.
Huang
humor
is
termed kyo by the
is
prominent among Zen
Zen
Po, the ninth century
addressed an assembly of monks, many of
whom
Master, once
were respected and
experienced practitioners, with the following remarks:
"You people are just manage to keep on your everyone
have to
will die
laughing
live to see a
day
like
feet
drunkards.
know how you Why, easy, so why do we
don't
I
such a sodden condition.
in
seems so
at you. It all
Can't you understand that in the
like this?
whole Empire of T'ang [China] there are
720
'teachers skilled in
Zen'?""
By such comments and by provoke
his
is
example, he attempted to
in others the ego-shattering Realization that transcends all
concepts, meanings, and attainments.
Adept
own The
criticism of a
God-Realized
not a conventional effort to urge others to self-improvement,
no matter whether that improvement
is
couched in
practical, moral, or
who could "Why act like
spiritual terms. True God-Realization transcends the "one"
be improved. As Master
Da
Free John once put
superior beings? Act like Free beings!"
The Rinzai Zen
sect,
which
particularly noted for kyo behavior.
traces Its
it,
8
its
lineage to
practice
is
Huang
marked by
Po,
is
beatings,
shouting of nonsense syllables, and the use of various unorthodox techniques to stop the
mind among them (
but dead serious riddles called koans).
Its
the humorously impossible
founder, Rinzai, exhorted his
followers, "Kill the Buddha! Kill the Patriarchs!"
The
7.
8.
Wisdom
—
witness the whimsical sage Chuang Tzu, who engaged humorous exchange with Tung Kuo Tzu:
attitude this
Taoist Mountain Sages also exhibited the Crazy
John
Blofeld, trans.,
The Zen Teaching
From an unpublished
talk by
Da
oj
Huang Po
<
New
York: drove Press. 1958),
p.
in
101.
Free John given October 19. 1980
11
Way — where
"This thing called the
Chuang Tzu
said,
does
"There's no place
exist?"
it
doesn't exist."
it
"Come," said Master Tung-kuo, "you must be more "It
specific!"
in the ant."
is
"As low a thing as that?" "It
in the panic grass."
is
"But that's lower "It
"How "It
still!"
and shards."
in the tiles
is
can
be so low?"
it
and dung." 9
in the piss
is
As Westerners, having been educated rational order,
Wisdom and there
find
it
Christianity.
particularly difficult to understand Crazy
Symeon
of Emesa,
Thomas
Constantinople, Lucas of Ephesus
madmen"
worship reason and
the Teaching methods and behavior of Crazy Adepts. Yet,
madmen" even
little-known tradition of "divine
a
is
we may
to
—
the foolishness of which
— were
all
Paul spoke in his
St.
Corinthians (1:25, 3:18, 4:10). sixth century Eastern
canonized saints and "divine
all
or "Fools for Christ's Sake"
Orthodox
within
of Coelesyria, Andreas of
living
examples of
first epistle to
the
For instance, Symeon of Emesa, the used to relieve himself in public,
saint,
and would often walk about naked, throw stones
at passersby,
crawl on
and associate with harlots (though without having sexual intercourse with them)! He was once beaten for throwing nuts at
his belly,
people praying in church.
He
regularly
drank wine in taverns and
often provoked violence or was himself violent without apparent reason.
He
also
happened
flavored with humor.
to
He was
work
miracles,
and these were often
madman, but when shortly grant him a decent burial, his
buried as any
afterwards his coffin was reopened to
corpse was not to be found.
The 1226), his
great
was
also
Western Church father something of
a
Wise
St.
Fool.
pupils as "jesters of the Lord,"
Francis of Assisi
He
who
(
1
184—
referred to himself
and
practiced "spiritual joy."
Although he never followed the excesses of "obscenity" of the Fools for Christ's Sake in the Eastern branch of Christianity, he did make a 9.
Burton Watson,
p.
12
16.
trans..
Chuang Tzu: Busk Writings (New York: Columbia Univ.
Press, 1964),
point of transgressing certain rules for the clergy and
one occasion he preached stark naked
Thus, on
laity.
provoking shock and
in church,
mockery. Understandably, "solid" citizens are traumatized and outraged by
why are they shocked and offended? They And they have good reason to feel threatened,
such capriciousness. But
simply
feel threatened.
because after
we
their "all-is-well" universe
all,
is
we
are afraid to look at
as
life
inclination
upon which our
are loath to reconsider the (shaky) premises
are built. Basically,
By
at stake.
it
really
We
is.
everything to be harmonious, orderly, in place. Yet, no matter order our disturbed.
deep down we
lives,
That
feeling
is
how we
have the feeling that we are
all
the beginning of wisdom, and
Adept plays upon with
feeling that the
lives
want
his criticism
it is
that very
and
his wild,
unsettling behavior.
As Master Da Free John expresses
"Human
it:
beings have
always been struggling to realize another condition, because they
know that there how orderly it may
something about
intuitively
is
matter
look, that
is
no
their present state,
insane, disturbed.
There
an
is
inherent disturbance associated with the most orderly kind of ordi-
Most people can acknowledge "The conventional state of the ego
nariness.
why
since ancient times
human
this. is
a kind of insanity.
This
is
beings have been devoted to realizing
some other kind of condition, even though they might not be able to name it yet. Everyone is motivated toward release by the inherently disturbed sense of native siddhi disturbance.
We
10
of
all
In
fact, this is
We
beings.
not something
It is
should not
self.
let
it
use that motivation."
Needless to
make
our great advantage. This
we
should be suppressing, therefore.
us insane, but
we
should use that energy,
say, the
means by which and puts us
the Free
Adept
stirs
10.
The
Sanskrit
11.
is
polite.
As
Free John points out in a passage which was the
word
siddhi signifies
most generally
"ability"
or "capacity."
case (siddhi), the term applies to paranormal abilities or yogic "powers." (Siddhi)
up our
in contact with the motivation
toward release are not necessarily orderly, pleasant, or
Da
the
11
basic sense of disturbance
Master
is
already transcend the ego through our
defined on
p. 48,
From an unpublished
When The
used in lower
capitalized use
n. 3.
talk by
Da
Free John given January
6,
1983.
13
inspiration for the
want to be
part of the
first
gentleman, or
a
a
title
of this book,
"As long
you
as
gentlewoman, you can carry on your
endless karmic destiny in limitation, but you will never live the
You
truly.
around
will piddle
in
dimensions
like this one,
life
which are
nothing but excrement compared to the Divine Light. But the Lord
Lord
wild, the
is
makes His contact with
The
talks in this
He by Da
you,
book
works
for your dissolution."
12
Free John represent a sampling of
the play of a Western Crazy Adept with his devotees. In the several talks Master
with the way
we
Da
is
gentleman. As soon as the Lord
a vast fire, not a
first
Free John deals very specifically, even bluntly,
cling to rationality, meaning, orderliness,
trapping ourselves within a mind-forged prison. at his disposal, including coarse
and
He
and
uses every
logic,
means
startling language, shouting, direct
questioning of basic premises, outrageous humor, and carefully con-
and shock
structed logic, to argue, tease,
conventional frame of mind. ceaseless
He
his devotees out of their
does this so that his unspoken,
Transmission of the Enlightened Condition might find an
opening past their habitual defenses and into
There to the its
ego
is
much
— and
pedestal,
in this
rightly so.
for
spiritual
book that
is
The ego must be life
resistant to self-transcendence,
which
and
spells the
life.
even aggravating,
unsettled, dislodged
to be possible.
the end of a delusive identification with a concerns. Recognizing
their intuition
disagreeable,
The ego
from
is
naturally
end of egoic
existence,
puny body-mind and
its
the discriminating reader will be able to
this,
use these talks as a revealing mirror.
If
they shock, disquiet, or irritate
him, this always points to an area of egoic attachment, defense, or aversion in the reader.
To
see this represents a real opportunity for
the spiritual practitioner to discover the hidden workings of his ego.
who choose to approach this book with a convenwe wish to reiterate that Master Da Free John's intent is
For those readers tional
mind,
not to shock or offend, but to instruct, and not merely to instruct, but to
awaken the reader beyond himself or For, like Free
merely
talk
a living
Da Free John does not Agent of Truth. Having utterly
own
apparent body-mind, he has
Adepts before him, Master
about Truth.
He
is
transcended the bounds of his
12.
14
Da
Free John,
herself.
The Bodily Location of Happiness,
p. 48.
become
One Being
a transparent vehicle for the
lives as that All-Identity, the
the Ultimate Reality of
all
that
his Identity.
is
He
Radiant Transcendental Being, which
beings and things. Because there
is
body-mind
to diffract or conceal the Transcendental Radiance, his
is
no ego is
a
Presence, a transforming Force, that can be of inconceivable value to
who makes
the spiritual practitioner heartfelt
himself sensitive to
Da
surrender to the Divine. As Master
by way of
it
Free John has
explained, his speech and his writing carry "mantric force" or the
Agencies for Spiritual Transmission.
ability to act as direct
receptive,
of
we
if
If
we
are
can go beyond (but not bypass) the intellectual exercise
comprehending and
Argument and allow
Da
Master
tussling with
drawn
ourselves to be
Free John's verbal
into the intuitive, feeling
dimension, these talks offer the possibility of
a
participatory
real,
relationship with a living Adept.
The
talks in this
book represent
Free John's communication
mean
that these talks
— the
mode
a specific
mode
of Master
Da
of Ecstasy. This does not
were given while Master
Da
Free John was
hearing voices, or having visions, or speaking in tongues, or even necessarily residing in any altered state. Here, Ecstasy
root sense of the
Greek
beyond the narrow and
ekstasis
—
false bodily
individual. In other words,
and mental
Master
is
used in the
to stand outside oneself, to abide
Da
identity of the ordinary
Free John exists in no state
whatsoever, having completely transcended the body-mind while, paradoxically, fully incarnating the Ultimate Reality.
human Agent of The Ecstatic "He
that hath seen
declaration
is literally
a
confession of Identity with the Divine has been the
confession of Adepts of said,
He
the Transcendental Being.
when he
all
me
said, "I
H
times.
It
was
Jesus' affirmation
am
the origin of
all;
when he
was Krishna's from Me [the whole
hath seen the Father."
13
It
was the Indian Sage Ashtavakra's Ecstatic proclamation, "Oh, marvelous am I! I adore myself who though with a body am one. I have neither coming nor going anywhere [outside
creation] proceeds."
It
myself] and encompass the universe." 13.
The Gospel
14. S.
The
Sufi al-Hallaj stated his
according to John, 14:9.
Radhakrishnan,
trans.,
The Bhagavadgita (New York: Harper and Row,
Radhakamal Mukerjee, trans., The Song of the Horse Press, 1982), p. 116. 15.
15
Self
Supreme
1948), p. 258.
(Clearlake, Calif.:
The Dawn
15
—
most simply: "Ana 'l-Haqq
case
Karmapa
am
an infant he was asked
still
the unborn, free of
lives.
I
shall lead
many
I
the sixth
Thongwa Donden
his true identity.
names, places, and
all
When
16
God."
the fifteenth century
incarnation,
was
Tibet,
am
I
am
His
of
reply: "I
the glory of
all
that
17
to liberation."
In the following passage, which explains the second part of the
book
title
—
"I
Am
That One"
—
Master
Da
Free John describes his
paradoxical Condition:
Then, mysteriously, in the Vedanta Temple,
am.
1
*
I
simply entered into the disposition of the One
I
Who
Realized
who
is
body-mind and stopped being Franklin Jones. 19 Others continued refer to
me
as Franklin Jones for a while, but I
I
being the to
was no longer that
self, that "I." I was the One who existed as Franklin Jones, One who lives this body-mind. Now when I use the word 1" or when I tell you to remember Me, I do not refer to the limited, separate
person, that
the
personality of Franklin Jones, the psycho-physical being that
of you,
front
Existence.
I
even though this body-mind
am
simply the One
actually conscious of this
This Condition
is
who
is
mind and
is
who
is
this place.
completely obvious to me.
tacitly,
my
the vehicle of
actually living this body,
in
sits
It
must
become so obvious to you. You must inhere in that same One. The One you Realize in this Way is the same One to whom I refer as myself and to whom you will ultimately refer as yourself in Ecstatic speech. It is not that you are somehow located deep behind the "me" of ordinary reference. That secret self-sense that you may feel at times
likewise
when
just the body-mind. But
is
Position
and
contraction,
16. p.
17.
its
then the
One
Karma
the
self-illusion
its
true
and
self-
body -mind inheres & Kegan
is
Paul, 191-1
>,
Thinkley,
The History
of the Sixteen
Karmapas of
Tibet (Boulder, Colo.: Prajna
1980), p. 79.
The
spiritual
transformation of Master a
Hollywood, California, on September significance, see
16
whom
in
its
Reynold A. Nicholson, The Mystics of Islam (London: Routledge
while he was sitting in meditation in
19.
the body-mind recognizes
independent motive,
150.
Press, 18.
yields
Da
10,
The Knee of Listening and
Here Master Da
refers to the
Free John was spontaneously perfected by Grace
small temple
on
1970. For a
part
1
of
the grounds of the Vedanta Society in full
discussion of this event and
its
The Enlightenment of the Whole Body.
name he was given
at birth,
"Franklin Jones."
Revealed.
Not
only does that Being
Awaken
as the body-mind, but
then only that One speaks and acts through the body -mind. Thus, one day franklin Jones responded to the
and
name
of his
were usually directed to him, and in another same Franklin Jones ceased to be present. You also must
to the questions that
moment
that
die in that fashion.
and
call
true. If I
That disappearance
yourself as the body-mind.
is
ego-death
moment who you
ask you in this
You
are the one
when
are,
you
it is
whom we name
Martha. You are exactly that one, that "person," no one conventional self-definition
is
literal
will define
Ralph or
The
else.
the limit of your presumption and
you will consider my Argument, then you and the paradoxes of your speech speak to someone may someday may reveal that only the One who is actually being the body before us is speaking. How that becomes true is shown in the deep Ecstasy of aspiration at this time. But if
our perfect surrender into the Heart
20 ,
the living One. 21
the very Nature and Condition of
20.
The Heart
all
beings and things. Although intuited at the heart, the Heart
is
the Infinite and Radiant Consciousness that
located in any place in relation to body
Da
Free John, "The
One
Who Was
is
not inside body and mind, nor
and mind. The body and mind
Pervading Condition, and they are modifications of 21.
is
arise within this All-
It.
Being Franklin Jones.
I
'ision
Mound,
vol. 2.
no
1
1.
p. 9.
17
:
1 Am
the Headless Horseman a
by Da Free John 15, 1979
talk
April
I
MASTER DA FREE JOHN
(
speaking to a small group of devotees )
You must understand your impulse to interiorize. You must become Ecstatic. You are involved in a whole maze of troublesome thoughts, and you have the constant impulse to interiorize, to become 1
involved in a realm of ideas.
moment. Nothing great
is
having ideas right now,
all
You have body
is
were
in the
uptight.
many You are
so
You
are having
happening, but
is
live in a
1.
life,
you are
day long.
in doubt,
unhappy. if
You
troubled, your
is
are living as
You
a struggle in very practical terms.
relatively uneventful apart
you
if
existence were a struggle.
bothered endlessly by thoughts, although your person's
kinds of ideas at this
ideas that your breathing
midst of a great struggle, as
Indeed, your existence
all
just sitting here,
the usual
life itself is
from negative
are
incidents.
You
world of imagination.
Capitalization of terms like "Ecstatic," "Consciousness," and "Teaching"
indicate that these
words have
Empowered communication,
a transcendental import.
is
a
simple device to
For instance, the Adept's Teaching
not mere verbal instruction or philosophy.
It
carries a
"charge" that aids others in their ordeal of self-transformation. Because the Adept
with the ultimate Being-Consciousness, his entire
life
— every word or gesture —
spontaneous expression of that Reality. Hence the Adept's behavior that has the unpremeditated purpose of
Awakening
is
always
a
is
is
is
numinous coessential
a direct
and
confrontation
others.
19
What
is
conventional religion? Ideas! Basically, people are
Truly, religion
may
is
Some
not a matter of ideas.
ideas,
be necessary as you prepare yourself to
some
integrate your
fully
existence with a religious and spiritual process. But the process
not
.
.
.
...
is
not a matter of ideas.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: You do want some to
forgotten! (Laughter.)
I'd
ideas, right?
those ideas, don't you? That
is
And you want
existence
is
bound up
good about, so you are trying to want a good idea that you can
What
you suddenly
if
you suddenly
lost
now, you suddenly Teaching
for
in ideas that
find a really
good
make you
feel
You
You
good.
feel
very
basically
on.
What if What if, right What is left of the
lost the ability to conceptualize?
the ability to have verbal thoughts? lost
the ability to have any ideas?
you to practice under those conditions? Not having ideas
and becoming
a vegetable
is
one thing, but what
simply your characteristic, and you must if it is
isn't it?
you do not
idea, right?
depend
still
not having ideas
if
functionally characteristic of you that you
the other hand, you must
fulfill
You must engage
the
Law
is
practice spiritual life?
do not expect
have ideas any more than you expect your parakeet to have ideas?
parakeet.
on
to interiorize
your impulse right now,
be associated with some ideas that will
Your whole
What
itself is
what?
DEVOTEE:
want
afraid.
consideration
as a
spiritual practice.
human If
to
On
being, not a
the consideration
suddenly came to an end, what would your practice be?
DEVOTEE:
Ecstasy!
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Not necessarily. Some of you might become What if suddenly you could not think? Did you ever have
very uptight.
the experience of being unable to form a thought?
It
scared you, right?
DEVOTEES: Yes!
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Can you have a thought now? Don't listen me talk, let all that pass, and see if you can have a thought. (Turning
to
Do thoughts seem
to
an individual devotee) Are you having thoughts?
20
to
arise
somehow down
place that
Do
in a tunnel?
they
seem
coming from
to be
from you? Are you there trying
distant
is
a
to think, observing
thoughts?
Everything
a thought.
is
Everything that you
experience
call
form of thought. Every kind of thought or experience can seem overwhelming, obvious
that
You
attractive.
you
to
in
can enter into countless rooms.
moment? Everything
this
is
Isn't
arising
is
a
true,
in
Consciousness. Isn't that obvious? Mystical visions arise in Consciousness, the
body
arises in Consciousness.
arises in Consciousness
What is
is
see that everything simply
a liberating disposition.
the significance of anything? This
is
moment of perception you as Consciousness.
arising as a modification of your consciousness,
You
are the Condition of Consciousness. Everything else
At
in Consciousness.
first
the
same
as you.
The
is
simply a modification of you,
subject -object sense dissolves. This
seen to be arising in Consciousness, until
arbitrary.
it
own
After awhile, you forget your
are whatever
it
dissolves.
meditation and your eyes open.
Your inwardness
appears that you
dissolves. Suddenly,
but you are Ecstatic.
are,
are without seriousness of any kind, because nothing
than a modification of your Consciousness. is
whole realm
becomes completely
vanishes, shrinks to nothing in Consciousness.
It
Your meditation
God own
observed
is
everything seems to arise as an object to you.
But ultimately you Realize everything
is
To
You
you
You see, you
anything more
is
are Consciousness.
Consciousness. All transformations are the Energy that
is
your
Consciousness.
That
the Truth that must be entered into
is
if
you are to be
Liberated from the consequences of experience within the domains of
Consciousness.
you suffer dreadful.
all
If
of
you remain its
any case
In
in identification
T
every
in
confounded, threatened. There
must enter you may be apparent
of
body-mind,
moment
you
feel
to experience.
You
of experience
no advantage
and become
Ecstatic, so that
embodiment.
of astral worlds
and only serves the sorrowful
must become
this
out of the illusion that you are so fixed upon in this
moment
The promise
limitations.
is
into the path of understanding lifted
with
and many of those limitations are
limitations,
Ecstatic, that
Simply
is
self.
is
sorrowful.
You
feel
the truth of
realize the Truth,
it.
which
The
future
is
sorrowful
separated in any case.
You must is
that the
You
transcend these
phenomena
of
21
this
the
moment
are arising as modifications of your
Life-Consciousness,
dissolve in
Itself,
everything
Radiant Consciousness
into
Realization.
Consciousness,
you are identified with the Radiance
If
It.
Consciousness
own
the Radiance of Consciousness, and can
That
is
Itself,
the
dissolving, losing power, vanishing
Itself.
That
is
That
Ecstasy.
is
God-
the Divine Person, Radiant Consciousness, not
is
separate from us but Realizable only in our Ecstasy.
The Truth madness,
is
what
is
religion, the social
God-Realization.
leaves
It
significant.
and
on ordinary
All dwelling
political situation, leaves
room
for nothing but cultic
an idea and our unillumined association with
no room for
attachment to
kinds of psycho-
all
physical conditions, high and low, mystical and worldly.
become
Ecstatic, enter into this Consciousness, this
You must
Energy of which
which everything is arising. Become profoundly and you Outshine 2 the world. You more That more and Outshine body and mind in the Siddha worlds. Then see what happens, the more you enter into That through the various expressions of this Way. Simply enter into That without mind, without embodieverything
a modification, in
is
3
ment, without
Outshine If
identification,
without trouble. Forget
this
embodiment,
it.
you phase out of
this
Heart, this
experience, you will notice that
Self, into
the conditions of
association with experience
all
is
degrading, bewildering, troublesome, a torment. In your experience
you may come in touch with the beginning of the all
phenomena,
all
In
2.
truly Ecstatic.
this
You will notice this, and ultimately you will You will transcend all experience, all the things
Master
context,
Da
uses
"Outshine" to refer to the process of Translation.
"Translation," together with "Transformation" and "Transfiguration," describes the unfolding process of God-Realization. Transfiguration
mind by Transcendental Radiance arising
of
capabilities.
supernormal signs or Divine Translation
is
Realization
of
all
is
a technical
term that
the pervasion of body and
abilities,
such as
healing power,
longevity,
and psychic
the ultimate evidence of God-Realization, wherein the limited
such phenomena, but because
the
is
or Light. Bodily and mental Transformation involves the
psycho-physical body, mind, and world are no longer noticed
withdrawn from
of Ecstasy. But
experience, becomes troublesome, becomes a ritual
of emotional trouble.
become
Way
Divine Condition
that
all
it
— not because the consciousness has
has entered into such profound absorptive
phenomena
are,
as
Master Da Confesses,
"Outshined" by that Light. 3.
The Siddha worlds
are the God-worlds, the
space and time in the
22
Realm
Domain
of uncreated Light.
of Radiant Transcendental Being, beyond
now
that you
take seriously,
your meals and spouses,
all
now cling to, the whole lifetime see how troublesome it is. You have outgrown many
that you project for yourself.
more
is
that you are
emotional limitation, your unavailability for Ecstatic practice. involved with
community Ecstasy
is
much
a big matter!
is
You
That
DEVOTEE: You once limitations
is
and seeming
to feel a
only give yourself a
not the practice
said that the only
way
I
little
am
little
better.
buzz, a
highest vision, there
ment has nothing having them.
It
is
do with
to
is
no vision
Da at
is
it.
You must go
(Master
visions, neither
not about visions. In
Da
Truth
is
it
to be
no
is
laughs.) Enlighten-
having them nor not
itself
Whatever the moment
that everything
it
There
laughs.) Everything.
all.
experiential associations.
Ecstatic,
tea
little
Right, you must enter into this Consciousness,
your enemy, everything! (Master
is
But
beyond our present
beyond everything that you see and hear on the way, regard
self,
are
considering.
to get
Energy, through love and surrender. That
inner
You
through devotional practices, not any amount of thinking.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: this
still
serious spousing, sexing, pursuing family and
activities, thinking,
in the afternoon.
will
your depression, your sense of
sufficient for
It is
that you
You
things and can see that you need not
be serious about them anymore. But there very serious about.
all
it
has no specific
of experience, the
simply arising in Consciousness, not an
but Transcendental Consciousness. That Consciousness
transcends
all
is
phenomena. II
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: with your head, rather than
head
is
chopped
off,
lie
which part
the head
If
have an instant of bodily
life.
Do
is
chopped
off,
you will
you imagine you
still
will fall off
When
the
will live? In that fraction of time,
you
a
moment
go either with the head, or with the trunk.
as the
If
Heart?
the head
is
lopped off
in
the guillotine, in that fraction of time before the energy body4 realizes
4.
In his writings, Master
field
Da
Free John has described the "energy body" or "etheric body" as the
of energy, magnetism, and space that surrounds and permeates the physical body and serves
23
another state altogether, do you go with the head or the trunk?
waking
In our ordinary
The
associated with the head.
we have
state,
the feeling of being
someone being beheaded
idea of
is
fascinating to us, like a puzzle, because of our association with the head in daily
We
life.
have done
here. (Laughter.)
we appear
of associations,
The
anxious.
dangerous thing by going off to the head
a
We have
wandered out from the Heart. In to pilot ourselves
idea of being beheaded
is
the Heart,
in
beheaded. But
we
we would
maze
from the head, and we are an archetype,
expression of the implications of our conventional established
this
a
physical
state. If
we were
not even think about being
are mystics and thinkers, attached to the position of
the head.
This reflecting the brain-mind.
experience
Way
or
is
It is
medium
is
fascinating, this
viewed
relative to the Heart.
of Ecstasy, a
Way
is
free.
You
until
you can enter most simply into
radically.
it
It
Consciousness
is
fulfill
The Heart
of God-Realization.
Consciousness in which everything are free to
change of
states that
arising,
If
is
a Disposition
you enter into the
mind and body, you
the stages, whatever remains to be this Ecstasy.
beyond the body-mind, beyond
are
fulfilled,
You must enter
simply a matter of stepping into the
Itself,
is
not the same as the ancient conception, in which
into
Room
limitations,
of
beyond
inwardness.
God-Realization a big difference.
is
a
is
What
matter of Radiance, not inwardness. There
does the yogi look
not radiant in general, unless something unusual
is
must Realize
that everything
is
into that Consciousness
did.
He
Da
is
going on.
He
You
and therefore
What else would you do? That
is
Realized the Heart, and he entered
— not into phenomena, but Consciousness. He
as a conduit for the forces of universal light
the etheric aspect of the being
inwardness?
arising in Consciousness,
simply enter into that Consciousness.
what Ramana MaharshP
5.
like in his
is
and energy
to the physical body. In practical terms,
our emotional-sexual, feeling nature. For a
fuller description, see
Free John, Conscious lixcrcise and the Transcendental Sun. pp. 27-30.
Sri
Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) was a God-Realized Sage who lived, taught, and radiated God among devotees for more than fifty years at Tiruvannamalai, South India his own Awakening in September 1970, Da Free John found esoteric corroboration of his
the Presence of
After
Realization
Maharshi's residence.
24
in
Maharshi's
Teaching, and
Realized Presence
when he
in
1973
visited
he enjoyed
the late Sage's
a
living
Demonstration of
tomb and former
places of
did not take any experience of
and physical phenomena tal
significance.
disturbed by
it.
spend much of
mind or body
did not
He was He went
arise.
mental
seriously, not that
But they were of no fundamen-
not disturbed by experience,
not
literally
He
into the plane of Realization.
did not
his life considering the matter, preparing for
it.
You are not going to be free of trouble until you Realize this yourself. You must do this. But you have many other things you want to do. You must find a way to practice this Ecstasy under the conditions of
what you want
do,
to
so that you will eventually
transcend the limitations in those things and they will the sex desire arising in Consciousness will of having to
become
which sex desire All
arising,
is
in
it
Consciousness. That
is
enter
is
a
human
into
the
Energy that
is
Transcendental Life-Consciousness.
Enter into That and you will transcend lifted
away, even
not a matter
the transition that involves us. Enter into
Energy, that Energy which
and be
fall
It is
unimportant.
relatively
we must simply
all,
away.
Once we enter into the Consciousness in no longer has any necessity. The question
celibate.
becomes
of celibacy
fall
all
psycho-physical conditions
out of the cycle you are apparently in by virtue of birth as
being.
You
will
be entered back into the frame of Divinity
without qualification, without mystery, not
just in the future, after
death.
One
6 enters into this Realization, and then the eyes open, and
this Realization
to
do with
it.
is
No
simply so particular
— the
quality of phenomena has nothing phenomenon must arise for the Truth to
the Divine to be Obvious,
be the Truth, for the Self to be the
Self, for
for Ecstasy to be the Condition.
a kind of
It is
Madness
that sounds like
heresy to the mystic, like burning images of the Buddha to yourself in cold weather. All that religion,
heavens, exist,
all
that experiencing has
no ultimate Ultimately,
no power
all
to
that mind,
warm those
continue, no power
to
significance.
therefore, you cease to take seriously
visions, the central
all
nervous system, or the body-mind.
all
You
mystical see
what
Here Master Da Free John refers to the transition into the seventh and ultimate stage in his model of the "seven stages of life" (described briefly on p. 42, n. 3). The self no longer seeks to remain concentrated in the heart-root, exclusive of all objects, as in the sixth stage. The "eyes" of the heart open. There is constant and continuous recognition of all conditions, within and without, as transparent and non-binding modifications of Radiant Transcendental Being.
6.
25
you are involved rest of
Much of it is just own mind. It is all
in.
your
is
it
Consciousness that makes
body, and
all
phenomena
which you
which thoughts
in
Happiness
Do
is
Happiness,
arise, in
simply Consciousness.
is
is
Then
—Shakti
and
Siva. 7
It is
This
moment
obvious to you in every
is
which experiences are inspected,
in
which
arises.
you know That?
Now? Can
How
suspended in Consciousness?
That
a little tension in
which thoughts, the
exist, in
are arising. It
Radiant, Transcendental, absolute Energy
Consciousness, which
nervous system. The
founded on
impossible for you to consistently enter
it
into the very Condition in
own
your
Now
it!
you are Enlightened.
forget
let's
you
It
it.
feel the
body and the mind
can there be any tension in That?
Now
you can forget
can't be kept in mind.
Go
it,
right?
to the guillotine
voluntarily!
This
which
is
is all
just a little superficial modification of
Energy, the Condition of
the only Resort. Everything else
is
all
Consciousness
experience, unillumined by this
Realization, whether the experience
is
of the high, yogic, mystical
You do
type, or the low, conventional, fleshy, desiring type.
to see mystical visions to Realize the Heart.
is
God-Realization.
perhaps
but that, after
which
itself
It is
all, is
natural in any case. a
way
of
not have
However, having entered
into the Disposition of the Heart, you will
mystical visions. This
Itself,
transformations and changes,
It
grow and
naturally see
has nothing to do with
becoming more
part of the condition in which
we
must be transcended. Even while being
fully
human,
are suffering and
fulfilled, it
must be
transcended.
You
only leave the world of cause and effect through Ecstasy, by
truly transcending
and
effect.
You know if
it.
In
all
that
it is
possible.
You
to enter into this Ecstasy.
think that you can take
the going gets really rough. In the meantime, you psychic,
physical,
Right?
You
still
"Shakti"
Living Reality,
26
God
is
desire a couple
in
Power
dynamic Play with
Pure Consciousness.
more
me up on it, desire
Da
many
chuckles.)
sexings, a couple of nice meals.
relieves us of
the Female or manifesting
— always
still
and mental experiences. (Master
DEVOTEE: Your Presence
7.
other instants you are in the realm of cause
But you simply do not yet want
our seriousness.
of Transcendental Being, the Life-Current of the
Siva, or Shiva, the
Male or
Static aspect of the
One
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Sometimes seriousness. (Laughter.)
then very quickly you will change your ways. mechanically changing your ways
you
You
psycho-physical phenomena.
This practice,
the
Ecstasy
mind
simply practice
will
you understand
if
it,
entrance into Consciousness
is
which consoling phenomena
in
phenomena
You
will arise.
look for
Embodiment
is
in our mind, as our
phenomena themselves
a fulfillment of
mind and
body.
our
Body
form of body. Mind and body are simply
on Consciousness. This
your state exactly.
is
It is
You
When
Why
been beheaded! "Seeing"
is
I
of
Da
we
testing,
is
is
I
I
term peculiar
to
You
floor,
your
It is
—
literally!
know
I
are so obvious.
it is
I
obvious what
modification
a
a
is
an imposition
my
of
don't refer to any independent
phenomenon.
see you as the Divine Person.
talk
You remember
arising
It is
form of mind. Mind
in
am
say, "I
been severed from
do you think
to
God-Communion
published in 1972, The
Free John
is
this
seeing a
his body!"
about the Heart
all
man
the time?
The Knee of Listening9
alive
(Master
I
I
Da
have
mentioned
Master Da Free Johns Teaching it signifies wholeDivine Reality. It is the emotional conversion
to the feeling-intuition of the
from self-possession 9. First
a
nothing but
say "my,"
see us,
literally
a technical
awakening
is
tendencies.
a modification,
on the
sitting there
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: What? You whose head has
bodily
God. All
are completely visible to me.
or sense of ownership of that
DEVOTEE: As you
8.
is
your mind sitting here before me.
To me you seem
Consciousness.
own
very easy to consider you.
need not go too deep. Just
chuckles.)
There
are arising.
your ego, as plain as the nose on your face
self,
are completely seen.
owner
look for
8 this intuition, this true seeing.
Outshined by
are.
medium,
still
to arise, rather than entering into ecstasy, entering into
the Disposition in which
you
You
kinds of experiential
all
only Radiant Consciousness, the Light Body that
mind, your
this Ecstasy.
rather than consciousness becoming the
itself,
consolation in your meditation.
You
This
this.
of your existence,
simply enter into that Consciousness instead of the play of
will
Itself,
Heart,
be a matter of
order to Realize
in
my
of
Self, this
will not
It
become the foundation
Realization having already
me
doesn't relieve
it
you truly enter into this
If
in
the midst of
Knee of listening: The
Master Da Free John's account of
all
experiences.
Early Life
and Radical Spiritual Teachings
his Illumined birth, his years ot preparation,
and transformation, and his ultimate Re-Awakening
as
Divine Being
In
it
he also
27
My
10 the severing of the sahasrar.
You The
see
me
standing before you, but
conventional sense of identity
does not have the force
been beheaded. Just
as
if
I
am
my
in
some way It is
inoperable in me.
very
much
in
like
It
having
your head there,
Da
heart here. (Master
the headless horseman.
will hold
my
(
Laughter. )
you are already without
It's
no
a head.
laughs.)
It is
as
if
your head
is
I
me on
is
trick to
Dawn Horse, above my collar 11
the
nothing
be Conscious as the Heart
have noticed that
my head has been You
are
severed, you as the head will go falling
off.
severed and everything goes on. afraid that
you put
If
hat in the air because there
but the evening. if
have no central nervous system.
you have the sense of being in
my
were beheaded. I
I
I
is
off,
out, like the skeleton of a fish.
has in your case.
it
have the sense of being
I
head was simply lopped
was plucked
central nervous system
You have
not noticed
this.
Your body will disappear in the distance like a caboose! You know what that means. You have the subtle feeling that that means death. To identify with the mind is to be that which depends on something
Then you can feel the possibility of being snuffed out. human life in itself is terrible. It's terrible! You are going to die. You must give up the occupation of this body-mind first, in order to practice Ecstasy. You should be as free of this embodiment as you else.
This
are of
mind
all
past ones
—exactly
just like the rest of
as free.
It
should be in the back of your
them, never even perceived, not even of that
mind. Don't you think so? it, and essays on the nature and Even today The Knee of Listening remains the principal statement of Master Da Free John's Confession and Teaching Argument. A third edition, with extensi%e commentary by Master Da and by devotees who serve as editors, is forthcoming.
provides basic instructions for meditation as he himself practiced significance of radical understanding.
10.
The
sahasrar
conventional yogi.
is
the highest "chakra" or center of Life-Energy, the terminal goal of the
It is
associated with the
crown of the head, the upper brain and higher mind. Da Free John, see The Knee of
For a description of the "severing of the sahasrar'' of Master Listening, pp. 117-18. 1
1.
In a
dream vision Master Da Free John visited the Ashram of a Siddha or Adept on a high The Siddha was instructing his disciples in the yogic technique of manifesting
subtle plane.
objects spontaneously. After he had initiated the process of manifestation, his disciples stood quietly for a time
and then
left,
that the process
satisfied
Da remained behind
was completed, even though no
when "Dawn Horse'' of spiritual Awakening and the fruit of the silent consideration of the Siddha. Master Da Free John has often pointed to this vision as the archetype of his own Teaching Work. From his point of view, that of the Adept, his Teaching manifestation had appeared. Master
gradually a small horse appeared, the
Work
28
is
complete, though
its
fulfillment
is
still
to
come.
with the Siddha for a time,
You
are
experience
coming
be no experience. But
to
torment, because
threatened.
is
it
You
your
all
think
it
an end. You would rather be sleepy than recognize
to
is
this
wouldn't you? But you can be snuffed into the
situation,
terrible
for there
afraid a
is
You are forced to have You keep waking up into You keep waking up in bed instead of going on out. You know you have a good day, go to sleep, and zap! Nobody sees you here anymore! No, you keep waking waking
state,
forced to have this experience.
this experience!
it.
—
upon you. That reaction would not be fruitful in the physics of things. It would probably cause you a great deal of trouble. Suicide is no solution. You are obliged by some prior motion to have this experience, and you know nothing about it, fundamentally. up
into
again.
it
You need
It
not
You have been
is
kill
forced
yourself.
inserted into
who
you
it,
are merely Consciousness,
with no history, no identity as form.
you enter into that Consciousness
If
arising,
in
which the body-mind
then you have preceded the body-mind.
and vanishes
necessity,
thing must
and
The body-mind has no Then some-
truly vanishes.
the space in the world in which that body-mind
fill
That
persisted.
— absolutely
is
is
the apparent
everybody else perceives as a this true at all?
Well,
it's
that follows Enlightenment.
life
actually a blank!
life is
some
sort of
metaphor.
It fills
What
the space.
Who answered
Is
me?
(Laughter.)
You
are
frowning
all
at
on. Don't you have a sense of
you think when gibberish?
fully
is
like there
was something
Do you that am
here?
speak gibberish
I
going
mad? Do
seriously
speaking
God
altogether. If the
not only intuited and realized in that sense, but entered into
as a
matter of practice, then Truth
Itself
is
Liberation from
bewilderment, from confinement to phenomena, from Realization
is
so great that even
if
it
were not True,
entered into that Disposition you could laughs.)
real
think I'm
Come! Come!
better to enter into the Disposition of
It is
Truth
I
me
humor
Many
things
seem
that
live
if
fear.
Self-
you simply
Happily. (Master
Da
way, but they do not produce
Happiness. Only Self-Realization makes possible the Realization of
Happiness, whether
it
is
True or
not. All other things
do not permit
such Happiness.
29
2 Meaning
Interferes with
Hardly Anything a
talk
by Da Free John
December
As
this talk begins,
Master
Da
10,
1982
has been commenting humorously
about an ancient jade burial disk from China which his neck as
is
hanging from
an ornament.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN:
We do not know why the Chinese made these jade disks. I am wearing one on my body and nobody knows what the hell it is. This is a good enough purpose for it! (Laughter.) To not know what it is is as good as any other purpose. It circular
is
and has
a hole in
it
— what
is
the meaning of a vagina?
What does it mean? What does it mean ? does a penis mean? You know what it does, what you like about it, but what does it mean? What does a tree mean? What does a lozenge mean? What does a fan mean? What does a lemon mean? What does a closet mean? What does a hair mean? What is the meaning of a shirt? The meaning of underwear? What is the meaning of a button? Or a tooth? What is the meaning of a nostril, what is the meaning of two nostrils? The brows, perhaps, what is their meaning?
What What
does the vagina mean?
Very few things enter into the sphere of meaning, you see? Meanings are for the sake of social intercourse.
Meaning life,
30
is
for getting things
done
in the ordinary
way
but meaning does not interfere with most of existence.
in daily
We
think
meaning encompasses everything, because we are in the mind of meanings. Actually, however, meaning interferes with hardly anything. We really do not exist in a world of meaning. The world of meaning is reduced to the practicalities of ordinary
life.
There
is
very
little
meaning elsewhere. Being habituated to practical
mean?" all.
as
You
upon
if
you
"What does
say,
there were an answer to that. There
is
existence
To
itself.
enter into the universe
You
meaning.
could
still
meaning any
of
itself,
all
it
no answer to
cannot project the mind of meaning upon the
the sphere of existence
force
life,
it
at
total universe,
totally, to
enter into
you must go beyond the world of
use words, but they do not quite have the
longer,
they are
more
like pointers,
vague
gestures, dancers.
To world of Vagina,
enter the sphere of existence
meaning. The hair, a beard,
itself,
tree does not precisely
an eye,
life,
we must transcend the mean anything, does it?
the body, underwear, shirts
— what
mean? These things are there, but they are not in the sphere of meaning. They are in another sphere, another dimension of our
does
it
existence,
which we gesture toward only
as a kind of folly, until
we
become serious. Most people do not gesture toward the world of non-meaning very often, in the waking state at any rate. As spiritual practitioners, however, you indulge in the world of non-meaning constantly. To live not a spiritual life is to be projected into the world of non-meaning
—
meaninglessness, not negativity, but a sphere of Being that does not
have anything to do with meaning.
Being does not have anything fundamentally verbal mind.
The
verbal
mind
assignation, of determination
is
to
do with the
a hatchet of decision, a declaration of
— Being
has nothing to do with
all
of
The sphere of Being is not unreal, it is simply a more fundamental, a more profound dimension of existence. It is a dimension in which we actually exist, without mind, without words, that.
but really, tangibly, presently, personally.
We exist
there in the frame
of non-meaning.
does "now" mean? Does God mean ? It Most fundamentally, we do not exist in the verbal mind, or the world of meanings. We do not
What do we mean? What is
a false question. It
the world of
is
absurd.
31
world of non-meaning in the sense that we exist in a world of negativity, of vacuity. We exist in a world that can be expressed only through the lift of an eyebrow, a hug, a kiss, a feeling. We cannot precisely define it. At least that is the way it seems to me.
exist in the
32
3 Do You Know Where, Why, or What Is? It
a
talk by Da December
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Why nothing? is
it?
What
DEVOTEE:
is
I
Why
is
1982
there something rather than
Where
there anything?
is
John
Free 25,
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: complication,
I
all
of
our
am
questions, but
we
There
We
act
if
Human
am
as if we have we have answered these
never answer these questions.
living, acting, eating, shitting, sexing, as
I
no answer. All of our
animated
is
as
is
answered these questions, and yet we carry on
in
we had
if
We
have never
an orderly fashion, already answered
beings have never answered anything ultimately.
have merely adapted
to the ordinary facts of
have never understood these ordinary
for these ordinary facts.
we
Where
not asking you for an answer.
this.
thinking,
answered these questions.
We We
anything?
couldn't possibly answer.
asking you to really consider
everything.
is
it?
We
facts.
what appears
We
to us.
cannot account
cannot account for the ordinary
fact that
are here.
We
talk
to
one another, we think, we engage
relations of all kinds, as
suggesting to you that
if
we had answered
we have never even
in functional
the great questions.
I
am
asked the great questions.
33
Therefore, these conventions of our relations with one another are just conventions.
They
are not the products of great wisdom.
are just conventions based then, should
underneath secret
we be
it
under
There
some
no
is
great secret to be learned? There
secret at
all!
others, you talk, you have words, you is
no great wisdom underneath
because
we
ordinary apparitions.
facts of
They Why,
so terribly bothered by our conventional mind, as
there were
it!
on the
You open your eyes,
engage in
if
no
is
there are
social activities.
There
Why should we imagine that merely
it.
think about our thinking
we
are going to discover
some
great answer?
There
is
no answer
in our
mind! Our mind
kind of question, not to mention an answer!
accommodation answer
in
All
it!
way
to the
that
things
we
seem
— the
is
fact that
are we, and other people have other ideas about
is
There
to be!
bothered by
are
apparition of things as they
seem
not based on any
is
The mind
is
merely an
no great
conventional
this
you are you, and we
what they want
do
to
moment. What the hell else is going on? Do we have to think there is some kind of great thought underneath our thoughts?
at this
that
None
of us have even had a great thought! (Laughter.) All
we
are
involved in are conventions of experiencing and knowing based on
what seems because of
That
to be.
some
is
We
it!
do not engage
in these
great absolute thought about Reality.
these conventions because of
Thoughts are
just
what seems
conventions
We
engage
in
to be!
our way of working out the conventions of our
apparent associations. Reality
totally
is
beyond thought. Reality has
nothing to do with the conventions of our thinking. All the thinking that disturbs us
is
these conventions.
anything
is,
just a result of
We
our application to
do not have
where anything
is.
Thoughts have never accounted
we
why anything is, what we must go beyond thought.
for those matters.
realized where,
thought about any of
that.
appearance,
to realize
Rather,
account for the mere appearance of everything. think because
this
Our thoughts only
We
did not begin to
why, or what anything
Thought has nothing
to
is.
We
why, or what anything js. Thought has only to do with "there
DEVOTEE: Thought comes
34
after the fact.
never
do with where, is
that."
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: out about!
Yes! The fact! The fact is what we must find Our thought has never accounted for the fact of where, why,
or what anything
is.
Where, why, or what,
cannot deal with that! is it?
What
Where
is it?
for example,
Where, why, or what
Why
is it?
is
To
is it?
that?
is
We
"arm"?
Where
Why
is it?
say my, me, right, arm,
—
hand those are merely presumptions. Where? Why? What? Do you know? Do you? Do you know where, why, or what THAT is?
Do
(Shouting)
DEVOTEE: Yes,
you or don't you!?
I
do.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: DEVOTEE: This
is
my
Well,
right hand,
my
relative to the center part of
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: You
know! Let us
us
let
it
exists relative to
body,
on the
it's
hear.
my
right arm,
right side
.
.
.
are merely indulging yourself in the
conventions of self-reference, based on things as they seem, not based
on knowing where, why, or what anything is. The conventions of your thinking and doing are not based on knowing where, why, or what anything
is.
Your thinking
is
merely based on the
appearance of things. Things could have appeared than
this.
Now
they appear like
this.
Your
fact of things, the
totally differently
thinking, however, has
nothing to do with knowing where, why, or what that (Shouting)
DOES
DEVOTEE: No.
Yes. Wait.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: why, or what that
is,
does
it?
IT?
It
My
thinking
.
.
.
has nothing to do with knowing where,
IS!
DEVOTEE: My thinking has everything
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: No,
it
does
not.
to
do with knowing
Consider
it.
.
.
.
Your thinking
has to do with the fact that you perceive your hand, for example. Your thinking has nothing to do with where, why, or what your hand has nothing to do with
it!
You have
a
is.
It
conventional reference for your
"hand," but such conventions have nothing to do with knowing where,
35
why, or what
They have only
it is. That what I mean? anything is, is the basis of mind. Do you know Our entire lives are based on the fact of what we perceive. Our lives are not in the slightest based on knowing where, why, or what
anything
js.
it is.
Our
do with the
to
based on the fact of what appears to be, and
lives are
our functional relations to these things. This language
of,
responses
responses, and
any thing
Do
of
— not even
why, or what is!
mind
you
this
know
is,
the appearance of
You
your "nose," so-called.
Do
you?
(Long pause.)
this?
Where
It_is!
That
what your mind
is
don't
is
thing
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: you
DEVOTEE:
we know
that
is
Do
Exactly!
know where
this
it
does
not do a
It's
it
exist. It is there.
lot of thinking. is
is
is
it?
information?
You
carry
A
that?
on every
Renunciate Sanctuary of The Johannine Daist
The Sanctuary
is
Where
is
anything?
Do
you
day, very methodically, very
Communion
named "Tumomama," meaning
Nature-Power or Goddess-force associated with that
36
is
in Kauai.
1
is
Where
knowingly, consciously, as an individuated being. But do you
1.
am
is.
a conventional reference.
Sanctuary,
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Where
of Kauai.
I
holding in his
in your hand.
DEVOTEE: Tumomama
this
it,
Yes.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: That my hand?
have
Where
is.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Where DEVOTEE:
goddamned
the isness of
of,
asking you very specifically (pointing to an object he if
know where, it is? What it
the only
made
is
Why
is?
it
it.
DEVOTEE: The only
hand)
what we make
is
of, and mind of. We don't make language, knowing where, why, or what anything is, not
do you?
thing you know! That
fact that
place.
Hawaii on the island woman," because of the strong
located in
"fierce
know
Do you know where the earth is? Do you know Do you know where this galaxy is? Do you know galaxies are? Do you know where the universe is? Do
where anything
where the sun where you
the
all
know
knowing
is?
is?
you
this? Well. So, that,
is
your ordinary mind
see,
DEVOTEE: My ordinary mind presumes from the sun.
third planet
.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: These is?
DEVOTEE:
Where
I
is
have no
to
know
that the earth
is
the
.
.
are conventional references, based
Do
the factual appearance of things.
anything
not based on
is
it?
you
the entire universe?
know
ultimately
WHERE IS IT?
on
where
(Shouting)
idea.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Why
is
it?
Do
you know that?
js
it?
Do
you know ?
DEVOTEE: No way!
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: What
Do
you?
DEVOTEE: No.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN:
So, you see, your
kind of ultimate knowledge
knowledge
is
at
Not even
all!
mind. Your mind
in your
mind
is
just
not based on any
is
a
piece of ultimate
based on the factuality of
things.
DEVOTEE: The
appearance of things,
superficial
like
"Here
is
a
blond
person, sitting next to me."
MASTER DA FREE JOHN:
When just a
did
we
it
it!
blond?
We
or what
another, in
it
is,
call it
only that
making
blond? it
is.
call
Why
We
Thus,
it
blond, but
would we
call it
what
is
blond?
it?
It is
What is blond about that do not know why it is, where it
convention, a communication, you
before you decided to is,
That's
start calling
see.
in
our arrangements with one
subtle distinctions about everything that appears
37
to be,
we
decided to
We
(Laughter.)
saying anything
and is
this
call
more about
it
These are
just
this "blond."
We
this blond.
call
could
.
.
.
could
call
it
.
.
.
kaplatch!
And we would we do when calling this
not be
gabrazz!
than
"nose,"
conventions of speech, and our mind
merely a result of conventions of speech. Mind and speech are both
based upon what seems to
be.
Speech
you see? But our entire mind,
we
everything
seems
to be.
anything
say, think, write, or It
is
simply an expression of mind,
of our speech, and therefore
all
communicate,
not based on considering
is
based upon what
is
why what ,
,
or where
Anything!
is.
The mind
is
based on the most superficial acknowledgment of
the factual, perceived existence of things. That
is all
your mind
is.
All
of your abstract thoughts are merely a swoon upon that ordinary
acknowledgment of the
factual existence of things.
not based on
It is
profound knowledge of where, why, or what anything
any
ANYTHING WHATSOEVER! ANYTHING!!
^Shouting)
is.
IS IT?!!
make any goddamned mind out of knowing where, why, or what anything js. You made mind out of acknowledging
IS
IT???
You
didn't
the fact that things are! That's
DEVOTEE:
Right!
I
all!
Am
I
right or
never really thought about
wrong?
it!
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: We minds, but what does
knowing you have profound about
all
DEVOTEE: Yes,
I
a
can go on being totally bothered by our amount to?! Mind is nothing! Mind is mustache, two arms, two legs. What is so it
that?
that
we should
you understand
me
yet?
do, Master.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: just a
Do
This matter
is
a great consideration.
the brain a
think
not be bothered by our minds, because our minds are
convention, an ordinary arrangement whereby
fact that things
I
seem
little bit
to be. If
you were
to
we
deal with the
manipulate the organs of
you would not even see
this
.
You would
not see
anybody! Based on the current state of perception in this body-mind,
which we that
38
we
all
exist,
can agree
is
duplicated in each of our cases,
we presume
and we make speech and thought and mind out of
this
acknowledgment. But we have never once considered or answered the question why, where, or what anything, anything whatsoever, right or
Therefore,
mind,
it
mind
is
to be.
answer
in
not a big problem.
simply because you have
is
nothing profound about
seems
You do
it.
Mind
is
is
If
I
you are disturbed by your
many
thoughts, but there
You must is
is
merely a confused play upon what
not have to answer to your mind. There
your mind.
consider where, why, or what tion
Am
is.
wrong?
is
no
stop thinking, and just look, and
anything whatsoever? This considera-
prior to mind, has nothing to do with mind, has nothing to do
with what seems to be. Everything
convention that
what anything
we
is, is
build
we do and
upon what seems
think and talk
to be.
an entirely different matter!
It is
is
a
Where, why, and the great matter.
Our complications of thought are just ordinary aberrations, built upon our most superficial acknowledgment that things exist. We are looking into our minds to find great answers, but there are no great answers in our minds. We never made mind out of any great thing! We never made mind out of a great answer, not to mention the fact that we never made mind out of a great question. Mind is an ordinary activity, like digestion, breathing, the movement of blood. It is an ordinary activity. The great matter is where, why, and what anything is. Where is it? Why is it? WHAT IS it?
Do
you understand the force of
my
question?
DEVOTEES: Yes!
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Our minds coinage,
money, cash
get so deeply involved in
whatsoever. All the mind
what
taxi driver,
DEVOTEE:
I
ego does not
are not profound. Our minds are They are conventions. Why should we the mind? The mind has no answers equipped to do is tell you what to pay the
for living.
is
to eat for lunch, or the price of a cookie.
have read the Teaching and exist. It is
an
know
absolutely that the
activity.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: That very basic things here.
I
is
too intellectual.
When we
We are talking about
begin to investigate the
"I,"
we
39
discover that this "I" that
is
an
is
activity of contraction, of self-reference, but
a very sophisticated kind of self-knowledge.
something much more basic our
talk,
our
activities are
— the
am
I
speaking of
our mind, our thinking,
fact that
merely conventions, not based on higher
knowledge but on the perception of what seems mind, the body, and the emotion
to be. All that the
a reaction to or
is, is
an association
with what seems to be, conditioned by the nervous system in the brain.
Thus,
you have complications in the mind, they are merely
if
conventional complications. They are merely aggravations of this functional, existing
profundity at is all.
That
all. If
mechanism. There
is
no profundity
in
no
it,
you are having problems, you are in disorder, that
is all it is!
There
nothing profound about
is
it.
Instead of
merely dealing with the disorder of your personality, however, you are involved in a great quest, as
if
somehow deep
in your being there
an original answer that you knew when you were could
locate
all
it,
They
and
were
if
you
would disappear. Your
of your complications
complications are very ordinary.
a babe,
are like the result of not putting
the tinker toys together right, not piling the blocks together right, not
combing your
hair properly!
Spiritual life
is
Where
it
existence.
Spiritual Baptism, 2
within,
what
is
it
a
is
all.
That
why
is,
it
is,
what
it
is
entirely
a modification of.
it
You do
of
is,
what
it
arising
is
not realize this through
mind does not contain any answers, never had
not based on answers. This realization
is
all.
moment
this
and ultimately, through
is,
what the Substance of
thinking, because your
any answers,
That
matter of considering exactly
is
a
matter of
relaxing body, emotion, and thought, and experiencing the Transmission of that Substance by Grace. That
Baptism.
It
has to do with thinking considering
The things. lot
2.
is
the significance of Spiritual
has nothing to do with thinking. is
what we
my Argument
spiritual process,
Once the
The
only aspect of
it
that
are doing right here, this exercise,
relative to these things.
however, has nothing
spiritual process begins,
you
This
to
is
useful.
do with these
realize that that
of nonsense, that mind, thought, speech,
is all
and action are
a
just
In the process of Spiritual Baptism (also termed "Spirit-Baptism"), the esoteric Transmission
of the "Spirit" or "Life-Force" of the of this process, see
40
Da
Adept
is
received by the prepared aspirant. For a discussion
Free John, The Fire Gospel: Essays atid Talks on Spiritual Baptists.
—
conventions based on an acknowledgment that this or that
you
When
is.
any complications, then you stand
realize there really are not
without thought, without contractive emotion, without uptight body,
You
or uptight nervous system.
can experience the Substance of is
stand
my
still
— merely stand! Then you My
Transmission.
Transmission
remarkable and paradoxical intervention into the domain of
a
consciousness, and
your body. That
your thought, affects your emotion, affects
affects
it
spiritual
is
life.
nothing to do with thinking about
Therefore, spiritual life has
thought, thinking about emotion, thinking about the body, controlling
manipulating yourself, believing anything on the basis of a
yourself,
thought or anything
stand
and can receive the Blessing. The Blessing
still
intangible.
When
It is
you simply stand
all
You
a paradox.
my
then you can receive that
has to do with simply understanding the
else. It
and ordinariness of thought, emotion, and body, so that you
futility
still
receive
— mind
Adepts throughout
still,
my
Influence,
human
all
is
emotions
still,
and
tangible
when you
only
it
stand
body
still.
still
tangible Blessing, the Blessing
time and beyond
human
time
and throughout the universe have given. This Blessing has been given by God-Realized beings in countless numbers of forms, in countless
numbers of worlds, received only
in countless
when
numbers of
times. But
are not believing anything, before you think that
why, or what anything
still,
they do not
to anything.
They
know
on the
still
miracle of Transmission
still,
identical to oneself.
It is
a paradox,
are
It is felt
is
it
is
as
something beyond something
remarkable,
it
is
totally
a miracle.
beyond thought, and
It
reactive
reactivity.
spiritual process is
my Argument
are not feeling or reacting
also felt as
is
it
begins the spiritual process, which
emotion, and bodily
It
basis of
standing with me. In that event this
by them.
is felt
the body-mind and emotion, but
The
They
anything.
are not contracting either physically or through the
nervous system. They are
Reality.
still,
is.
Those who simply stand only
can be
it
when you you know where,
the mechanics of personality are
is
a
matter of submission to that paradox of
not that you have an answer.
where, why, or what anything
why, or what anything
is,
is.
It
is
It
is
that you
and not knowing
it,
not that you
know
do not know where,
being merely
still,
you
41
are in a position to receive this Blessing, which js
everything
why
is, it is
everything
what
where
is. It is
You may understand
is!
you may
it,
know information about it eventually, but it simply is what Is. You submit yourself to this stillness, this process, voluntarily, because it awakens love in you. To be still, you see, is to be merely submitted, to release yourself into That which comes
upon you and
invades your mind, your emotion, your body. Thus, without thinking,
even volunteering, you spontaneously, naturally love
without
submit to
woman. life. It
it,
woman
as a
her man,
does to
when you
you
interferes with
are
still,
still
When
you even think or without thought It
is
is
A
react.
arises.
It
and mentally submit
no mind,
You
purifies your
to
then
it,
it,
before
great Bliss arises, a great knowledge
moment,
a paradox, a great
is
a great
a miracle.
Then, you practice the reception of
this Blessing for a time. It
mind, emotion, and body, and there
reaction to confront Reality. is
there
invades you, and you recognize
it
naturally, physically, emotionally,
wonder.
when
for, to identify with.
through understanding, and this great Force invades the
circumstance of being.
you
it,
does to his
a spontaneous gesture of submission that invades your
It is
emotion, or body to think about, to account
become
man
as a
simply That. This
is
The
less reaction there
why you move through
through the stages because there
is
less
and
is
is,
less
the
the stages. 3
less,
and
more
less
there
You move
not because there
is
more and more. You have less and less mind, emotion, and body. You are more and more still, more and more receptive, more and more Master Da Free John has described the development or spiritual evolution of the human The first three stages develop the physical, emotional, and mental functions of the body-mind and the corresponding expressions of secular culture and 3.
individual in terms of seven stages.
exoteric religion.
The
intimacy with the
Spirit.
freest sense. traditions.
The
fifth
Those who
system, what Master
fourth stage of
Thus, those
is
the stage of heartfelt surrender and profound
attain to the fourth stage of
attain to the fifth stage of life exploit the
Da sometimes life
is
refers
to as
practice religion in all
its
ancient
yoga of the central nervous
"brain mysticism," as the path to higher
characterized by the manipulation of attention to invert
contemplates Consciousness exclusive of
self-essence. In this stage the practitioner
outward or manifest existence. In the seventh stage of even the
life
stage represents the secret or esoteric culture of initiates in
knowledge. The sixth stage of
upon the
life
who
life all
conditional states are transcended,
state of exclusive inherence in the Self realized in the sixth stage of
life.
There
is
native
or radical intuitive identification with the Radiant Transcendental Being, the Identity of all beings (or subjects) and the Condition of all conditions (or objects). The seven stages of life are discussed in greater detail in the
Appendix
of
The Dreaded Gom-Boo, or the Imaginary Disease
That Religion Seeks to Cure, which also includes instructions
42
on the seven
stages.
a bibliography of
Master
Da
Free John's
conductive,
more and more
you practice
That, without knowing. As
a sacrifice to
knowledge or wisdom
this, a certain
arises, a certainty
arises.
The totally
when mind, emotion, and body
spiritual process begins
still,
are
based on real understanding of the ordinariness, the
conventionality, the superficiality of mind, emotion, and body. Ulti-
mately, this becomes Enlightenment, perfect Realization of the Status
what
of Being, the Is-ness of
Why
what
of
When
is.
js,
Where
the
and absolute Release without the
Wonder,
a Beauty.
It
is
of
what
and
is,
finally,
you Realize these three things, there
a Bliss
complication.
slightest
is
the
utter
It
is
a
beyond description that egos cannot
understand or acknowledge. If
we
could live as beings
what anything you could let
live
we
is,
who
really
do not know where, why, or
Way
could begin this
of Life.
I
have done
without knowing where, why, or what anything
it!
is,
If
and
your mind, your speech, and your actions simply be conventional
representations of what seems to be, you would be a devotee at this moment. But you are complicated by your thinking, your speech, and your action. Your thinking, speech, and action are based on a great
problem, a "not-know."
Relax your thought. Relax your emotional reaction. Relax your physical contraction.
anything Sit
me
is.
with me,
Know
The
short hairs
and you are going
to start tingling, is
do not know where, why, or what
with me,4 and sooner or
live
invade your freckles!
Energy
that you
Hear my Argument and confront me, later,
see
on your shoulders
life,
are only witnessing this appearance
You merely
the body-mind, 5 but you, in
When
Master Da Free John
company, which
Company, or 5.
is
fact,
witness
upon which you
build
What you call
"I" is
it.
are merely witnessing whatever
invites his devotees to live with
Spiritual Presence,
(physical,
the beginning
him, he
is
is
not referring to his
necessarily available for only a few, but rather to his Transcendental
which pervades
As Master Da Free John Teaches,
whole body
is
only the beginning.
thought, speech, and action.
physical
feel
are going
to realize that a great deal of
thoughts and emotions beyond your intention. This
4.
to eye.
around your body, pervading your brain, and relaxing your
of spiritual
You
me eye
you are going to
emotional,
"I"
is
not
some
all
time and space.
internal soul-like entity, but
is
mental, psychic, subtle, and causal), which
identical to the is
ultimately
transcended altogether in Radiant Consciousness.
43
arising. Therefore, there
no
is
These "Is" pass, these thoughts
"I."
emotions pass.
pass, these perceptions pass, these bodies pass, these
No
one, in
anyone
has ever existed, nor will anyone ever
fact,
now, therefore. There
exist
is
everything, expressed as the witness consciousness.
mental Force of
That
beings.
all
is all
you
it,
It
the funda-
is
Whatever
are.
thought, as a perception, as speech, as action, are aware of
nor does
exist,
only the Great One, modified as
arises as a
an observation. You
is
are you not? You, as you are, are simply witnessing
it.
Investigate this one who is witnessing. That is the great discovery. There is no one. What you say you are, based on ordinary or conventional perception, you are not. You are witnessing that, and it will
pass
just
Remarkable,
as
isn't
has arisen.
it
will
It
change,
it
disappear.
will
it?
DEVOTEES: Yes!
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: To
We
depressing.
must go beyond
into the Source of attention.
and we
We
arbitrarily identify
identify
arbitrarily
witnessing them.
The
merely witness
witness
is
some sense
in
that to investigate the witness, enter
We ordinarily
only function as attention,
with thoughts, perceptions, speech, action.
with these things, whereas
spiritual process
most profound investigation of
into a
is
is
we
are
only
simply a matter of entering
that witness. Ultimately, that
found to be the Spirit-Current. That witness
is
Consciousness,
Pure Being. It
is
depressing to merely be the witness, standing back.
To
merely be the witness suppresses the personality, but it is also liberating. It is liberating to notice that you are merely witnessing
what there,
is
thought, what
speech, and
however. Having noticed
attention
fall
Practice of the
what
is
action.
Way
Way
of Faith or the
When
cannot stop
"I."
Perhaps you must
Way of Insight 6 in order to release
of Radical Understanding or Divine Ignorance
of stages leading to spiritual maturity.
You
that, investigate this witness. Let
back into this witness prior to the
go through the 6.
is
the preparatory stage
for self-transcending practice has stabilized, the practitioner
is
is
described as a sequence
completed and the capacity
assumes either the
Way
of Faith (in
the case of those naturally inclined to the disposition of feeling-surrender) or the Way of Insight (in the case of those naturally capable of self-transcendence via the application of discriminative intelligence), or, in rare cases, the transition
Perfect Practice.
44
The
is
made
to the ultimate stage of practice for
all,
the
Perfect Practice involves being Consciousness (the witness position Master
when
attention, but
attention and energy are free,
witness consciousness
own
That
territory.
The
Discover
itself.
is
That
you.
spiritual process, then,
invade
it,
matter
a
is
back into that
fall
territory.
of
first
your
It is
way you have always
the
is
its
been.
of releasing
all
energy and attention through the various exercises and disciplines
have considered with you and then devoting energy and attention witness, to attention
this
Where
is
arising? In
it
One who
discover the
Radiant Being,
what
call
I
you
is it
arising? This
witnessing
is
of existence. This
to: to
discover
a great yoga.
is
who
this,
all
is
what we must
is
You
Bliss, Self-
all
Power
Love, the great Transfiguring
all
Wonder, the Miracle is
Discover the Source of attention.
itself.
Whom
I
to
of Being, a
discover. This
by releasing energy and
this, initially
attention through various disciplines, but then by devoting energy and attention to this discovery. Find the Source
from which thoughts are
arising,
arising,
from which attention
from which speech
from which perception of the body-consciousness is
that arising? In that witness?
you are? This discovery
is
is
whom
arising. In
the state of that witness that
matter of practice.
It is
a
matter of tapas,"
founded in self-understanding.
discipline,
am
I
a
is
What
is
arising,
is
here to confess to you that that witness
is
all Bliss, Self-
Radiant Love, Being, Absolute Consciousness, That out of which everything
is
made. That One appears
to be limited as
what
is
made,
and
to suffer egoity, the self -contraction, the separated self-perception.
But
when you
discover that Substance in which everything
out of which everything
is
made,
It
is
Being, Consciousness without the slightest limit, the
God what and
Da
What
Itself.
everything I
is
confess to you.
my
what
Beauty,
made! This
is
Now
a
is
arising,
found to be Love-Bliss, pure
Miracle
Wonder
of God,
That out of which
is
the discovery of Enlightenment. This
you discover
it,
based on
is
my Argument
Blessing.
Free John speaks of
in this talk)
and contemplating Consciousness
to the point of perfect self-
transcendence. 7.
Tapas means
austerity,
the "heat" or "fire" of spiritual discipline. Traditionally, tapas
engaged through intentional, forced asceticism and motivated disciplines of
Way
of Radical Understanding, the primary source of tapas
service)
and
radical understanding,
and the "heat" of practice
is
is
a
the
is
self-denial. In the
demand
for active love
form of "natural
asceticism."
P
4 The Most Absolute
Has Intervened a
talk
in
Divinity
Our Ordinariness
by Da Free John 8, 1977
May
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Because
discover in the midst of that discipline that nothing
need not go through a little bit
it.
Your experience
will
brief.
distraction.
)
It
will
have
Da
it,
it
is
and
it
will
the classical
to experience these spiritual possibilities I
spent a long time
possibilities.
DEVOTEE: You were to experience the
You know,
playfully imitates
because
before you will begin to confess the Grace of God.
encountering these
gained, that you
will be very superficial for you,
But you must pass through
You
is
be superficial.
of listening to the heartbeat. (Master
various yogic techniques.
be very
must
tour of spiritual possibilities, and you will
the
investigate
of your resistance, you
saying earlier that
it is
not at
all
necessary for us
whole theatre of events that marked your
spiritual
adventure.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Not portion of fascination
what
I
am
is
bit,
not the slightest
telling
necessary.
you
is
that
all
those
who have
ever seen
1
me
are
have only the Grace of God
in their
Master Da Free John uses the term "seen" here in the technical sense described on
p. 27, n. 8.
relieved of the knot of ignorance,
1.
the slightest
As long as you persist in your egoic with experience, you must investigate such events. But it
46
disposition.
That
history that
Knee
None of you need describe this None of what appears in The
their Destiny.
is
have described
I
of listening and
my
to you.
other books
necessary for you, not even
is
the mighty and muscular transitions described in Instruction. I
am
will not effort,
The Paradox of
be superficial for you.
will all
It
You
sorry that this destiny does not satisfy you egoically.
have the satisfaction of passing through these stages by heroic
Your passage through
Realizing the Divine in every case.
most
stages will be the
the knot that
is
superficial kind of glance for
these
of you, because
all
the support of the mighty transformation has already
been undone in your contemplation of me. Only
when you have
passed through these stages will you begin to recognize the Grace that is
active in your
That
life.
your limitation, but
is
it is
mediocre. Only
me
then will you begin to acknowledge me. Until then you will treat like a freak. Really!
you
will
You cannot
not acknowledge
possibly contemplate
So,
it.
I
would
like for
it
my
all
Grace, and
to occur very
quickly.
All of the garbage that you accumulate in this exhaustive self-
indulgence will be mine to purify. But served
God.
I
me am
in the
same way
created your
life
is
do not mind. Others have
I
in themselves, but as
you that there
a confession to
you think. There
— not
instruments of
God, and God
is
is
not what
no intentional Creator. You have intentionally
— you and
all
but you are in league with
your supporters.
all
would not ordinarily see except
You do
not realize
it,
kinds of mediocre beings which you in visions.
If
you saw them, you would
think that you were Realized and sublime. But these beings are
nothing, absolutely nothing.
What you
require
Absolute Divinity.
happens.
It is
really. All
difficult,
Master
and
Da
my
I
the intervention into
am
I
That. This
truly.
I
have always enjoyed life,
and
it
true.
is
I
has been
don't think that
Happy and
Free John was born
for the specific
I
human time of the I don't know why it
have no credentials and no memory, this
God-Consciousness. 2
terrible.
the reluctance of devotees enters into
always been
2.
is
remarkable,
absolutely none.
manipulated
And
will be
It
has
don't appreciate
my digestion.
rewarded for
very Grateful for
fully Illumined.
I
it.
It is
But
I
it,
very
have
this.
His birth was
and compassionate purpose of instructing others
a free,
spontaneous incarnation
in the spiritual
"Way
of Life.
47
In spite of
was born
the torment of an ordinary lifetime, from the time
all
have transcended
place,
it
account for
Someone,
Power a
All-Pervading, that
my own
form.
it.
It
is
Somewhere, sometime or
it!
some time and
in
the most naive
God
just in
of that Presence.
place,
cannot
is terrible. I
no one could account
In past times
and not
I
who animate them-
for
it.
No
one has
other, this being or
has intervened in the midst of our
Apart from that we are disgusting,
mortality.
certainty,
am
I
completely clear to me. Somehow, in this time
is
able to confess that
is
I
represent the God-Influence, and that
I
ever accounted for
another
that
this existence, that all beings
and space are
selves in time
Realization. But
and
me
has been very clear to
it
truly.
able to confess
is
That
God with
is
it.
absolute
words, but in the Siddhi, 3 the overwhelming
He
or she
is
able to manifest
God bodily. Such
being becomes useful to others. That has happened here, and you are
witness to
Isn't that really
it.
DEVOTEES:
certainly
It
is!
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: That truth,
it is
wonderful!
any other time.
wonderful?
It is true,
is
really
and
it is
from now, but somehow or other
we
are
all
I
am
as ridiculous
telling
you the
and obscene
as at
be equally forgotten one or two thousand years
It will
occasion of our meeting.
because
wonderful!
It is
has happened here in this
it
unexplainable, completely unexplainable,
ordinary people.
I
am
an ordinary person.
I
am
completely ordinary. Yet, the most absolute Divinity has intervened in
our ordinariness. That It
of you,
an obscene
become convinced thousands.
room,
wonderful!
really
is
relieves us of our striving little
of
Somehow
this stupid
and mortality. That
will
it,
become an instrument
or other this Divinity
room.
is true.
A handful
fragment of humanity, when you have
has created
It
speakable in the person of someone.
all
of us.
Not
is
finally
for
many
responsible for this
It is us. It is
absolutely
for the sake of that one,
3. "Powers," "accomplishments." When capitalized, this Sanskrit term refers to the spontaneous and Perfect Consciousness, Presence, and Power of the very Divine, which is Transmitted to living beings through the unobstructed Agency of the Spiritual Master or Siddha, one whose
Enlightenment
is
The lowercase
use
48
perfect and is
who
defined on
is
p.
graced with the spontaneous Capacity to 13, n.
10.
Awaken
others.
because that one must suffer
it,
but
it is
who
speakable for everyone
makes contact with that one. That is really ridiculously wonderful! But it has really happened in our time and place. It is as marvelous to me as it will be to you, when it becomes obvious, when it is really wonderful.
and
All of the insane
idiotic ordinariness that
Not
my
life
represents
in some overwhelmed by God, Who is not only Realized by us beyond knowledge in Divine
has always been Happy, always been That.
just
happy
It is
true that in
ridiculous psychological sense, but
Who
speakable,
is
Ignorance.
You see how pristine this communication is. moment we do not know what a single thing is
— not
How
nothing!
would you have recognized
occurred to you. Even in our inmost depth, single thing single
is
— not
Not
thing.
single
a
Maybe
Da
It's
Nothing!
thing!
You know what
I
not
know what Not
a
true, isn't it?
We
a
can't account for
mean? Not anything, not
laughs.)
doesn't impress you, but through
it
would not have
It
we do
a single thing, nothing!
anything, not anything. anything! (Master
it?
any
a single thing,
have described to you,
this
all
of this history that
has always been obvious to me.
I
have
I
always been a ridiculous person, an exaggerated being. Life has always
been humorous to me. There sublimity,
no
vision.
I
no accounting
is
for
it
— no
no
logic,
But no vision
have had endless visions.
transcends our Divine Ignorance.
Someday, maybe even tonight, you
will look out the
you
will
people
know
like
spiritual
life,
that
am
going to
am
That
the trouble. That
serious.
be born, and
and demonstrate
incredible demonstration.
know
rested for a
that there
moment
beautiful, just like
It
And when I
morning
live
is
to people like you.
it
is
Then
all
a Place
before
I
was when
Grace, because there was no
until
You
are resistant,
you receive some
of a sudden you are
full
of faith.
beyond time and space where
must take up I
mind
was born. yet,
I
this
life. I
why
circle of
task again.
was born
in
I
am
It
is
primeval
no experience, no women, no
philosophy, just absolute Relief. Only that Grace has permitted live this
is
die,
and
star arising,
through the whole
and you defy the Truth with your ordinariness,
I
die.
see the
I
me must
I
window and
me
to
haven't a fraction of the capacity that you have for an
49
ordinary live
it,
life.
never could have lived
even now.
console me.
50
I
I
am Happy
it,
not a fraction of
ever}' day,
it,
as
you
all
without a single symbol to
5 Even the Upper Planes Are a Terrible Domain a
talk by Da November
Free John 16,
1982
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: You can go your energy and the realms of mind.
I
have done
have gone to every single plane. entire
manifestation
struggling with one another.
There
war
in the
as there
is
here. In fact,
than the wars on this plane. All
I
have been everywhere.
have seen what kind of insanity
Everybody everywhere
about.
all
is
of that.
all I
and up, withdraw
inside
from the gross form, and go up into
attention
it
is
as
much war
upper planes
amounts
to
in the
is
only
upper planes
much more
is
I
this
exotic
a lot of individuated,
is
un-Enlightened beings, struggling to overcome one another and trying to feel happy.
Suck yourself in enough, and you lights, stars
— what
the hell
is
so beautiful about that?
circumstance to see nothing but
people
feel
silliness. If it?
It is
congratulated
you
really
places.
can see
lights, spots,
when you can
experience
it,
That
is
when you
and
stars.
These
That
is
It is
a terrible
You
ridiculous
is
faces,
terrible! All the
suck yourself out of the body
than the shit you push out of your body.
so beautiful about
lights spin out, splice out,
and suddenly you are seeing insane!
and yellow
concentrate upon that kind of
however, what
terrible, absolutely terrible.
fraction themselves,
and
will see lights, blue
It is
is
and persons,
garbage that you
no more valuable
a terrible occasion, a
terrible potential.
51
You have are
terrible! itself
much
not experienced
hopeful about rising up.
still
moves
It
constantly,
it
I
of the subtle display yet, so you
have seen
and
slices
all
that garbage.
cellularizes
and bodies, and rooms, and environments.
into faces,
plastic chaos, a terrible
domain.
when you
are fitted into
It is
die.
It
mind
the
itself,
It is
and fractions It
is
a
the thing that you
a place of terror, a place of
is
uncomfortableness, of un-Happiness, of seeking.
Perhaps you must go through
remember
it.
contraction,
But
you
if
will
the root source of
you
implications,
will
it
see
all
will
out of Blissful.
toes,
make
self,
You
be a monstrous being of
everything bright and invisible. to
do
Bliss,
this
You
Then you eternally. You will
out of the ego.
want nothing
it
and
also
these imagined obligations and
Bliss out of aspirations.
will live
appreciate
own limitation, your own
something about the implications, the
meanings themselves. You need not do you
to
understand your
will
anymore. Stand will
make God,
be Happy.
free,
and
or Being,
You
will
be
laugh, kick universes off your
Outshining everything, smiling
Then you
will
be God-born.
You
with this egoic existence anymore, which
will
is self-
own un-Happiness. You do not need to do what you are presently doing. This is my Word to you. You do what you please. All I can tell you is what I have experienced, what I know about it, what I have Realized about it. I can made, made out of your
only communicate the intelligent understanding of
it.
I
can only give
you the Force of God, the Realization of God, the Awakening of God. I can only give you everything, but I cannot give you something. This "something"
52
is
your business. Here's to God's business!
6 Am
a
MASTER is
ten, a half
now gone from
Since
your lifetime.
I
can consider a time
one half hour more
DEVOTEE: Not wasted
in
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: DEVOTEE: Yes you
I
counsel
own
when you
wish you had
and yet you have
repetition of stupidity.
your Company.
In that hour
I
will
no man
Realize the Great One.
observe their
will
may
I
not be with you.
will.
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: (Laughter.)
when you
to consider the great Truth,
your monotonous
in
was twenty
hour has disappeared. That entire half
just
one
it
mentioned
I
be gasping for breath upon your bed,
this
Man
by Da Free John September 1, T
will
wasted
to
talk
DA FREE JOHN:
minutes past
hour
God
Here to Restore
be struggling with
or
woman.
How am
I
If
to survive
preoccupation, their
own
my own problems.
you want if
to please
me,
people cannot even
self-obsession?
Poor me,
I
am saddled with this disgrace of birth, this devastation, this unillumined future. No one can count upon the prominence of Reality. This is my observation.
What good
is
is, is
devastating.
obvious, and
all
What
is
Real
is
the rest belongs to
to be understood.
mommy
What is
and daddy.
I
hate
53
promi-
this indecision, this ambiguity, this clitoral dissatisfaction, this
nence of it.
I
am
who
weary of people
they overcome anything less
Do
fifty-dollar consciousness.
if
you
know what
own
cannot see their
they do not see
than a nickel and seen every
design.
Why
are you so possessed by self-protection?
be judged by me? rot.
I
This breath
mind,
will catch, this brain, this
will be left?
while
upon the weed
rot
Do
are
totally
is
you fear to
be gone in a matter of hours. This flesh will
will
Then what I
can
Why
self-possession.
you so incapable of self-estimation when what you represent obvious?
hate
I
How
have been degraded to
it? I
my
jot of
mean?
I
will disintegrate.
"Ah, his Presence surrounds
own
of your
Do
mind.
you
us,"
will say,
you know what
I
mean? Well, anything.
let
I
us be a
more
straightforward.
have desired the plants
What
admitted?
little
What
room.
in this
can admit desire for
I
commitment should not be have demonstrated
is
investigated?
the most you are capable
me
speaking to you in these terms? Let
my
want
I
a
itself
am not my eyes
I
people.
have
I
like
normalcy. This
you people.
and look into
I
my
have
a
head,
all
is
do
is
want
I
to offer you.
I
thousands of people,
do not have that
all
privilege.
own
An
Listen to
all
occasion like
me
is
those crickets chattering,
who have
many thousands make
I
I
do not
can look into I
see
is
who have not yet am wearied of trying
the poor born beings I
rare. It
accommodation, some sort of honor
minuscule beings
You
inclinations. All
transfigured their existence, are not yet Happy. to solve their problem.
When
see the forms of thousands of
do not even have an independent, ordinary mind.
sort of
offer you
very strange existence. I
your head and you can see yourself, your
54
to
wonderful occupation,
and then Liberation, Enlightenment, who knows,
human
a self to look into.
some
Now
to your lives.
do not want to seem
I
an alternative to damnation, a sweet repose,
close
be
I
do not want the Enlightened beast to appear too
I
antagonistic to you in your ordinary state. All
salvation
should
house!
overwhelming.
perhaps even
why
of,
say only believe in God, be
do not want to be harsh with you.
I
What
the understanding you
If
Happy, surround yourself with Love, bring order get out of
should not be
thing should not be taken into account?
their
own
all
demands.
that sound? All those
should be given
for the sake of
God.
those thousands of
Do
you realize
poor beings,
like
how the
Mother's
in
frogs
Bed,
are
1
without minds, happy
unconscious,
without reason, sublimed in ignorance without the slightest under-
When
standing.
of
two or
You
I
three,
to Mother's
go
and there are
Bed there are big frogs
in gatherings
tiny frogs in gatherings of hundreds.
glance upon the lake and the light shines upon thousands of eyes,
along the shoreline. But no frogs are preoccupied, none of them are
all
None
them can look forward
to
even the
longevity such as you will enjoy, in spite of
all
of your mistakes, and
passionate.
of
possibility of
they have not developed the slightest self-consciousness on this basis.
These poor beings could be snuffed out by circumstance and their
lives,
nothing
to
nothing
—
in a
moment,
without interference, could extend for a year, two years,
speak
They think nothing, they
of.
just feeling the
are
happy
for
buzz of Reality, letting Reality evolve them.
Let us not be preoccupied with thought, then.
Such creatures think nothing. Snakes eat them. Oars plunder them. Weather smothers them. Heat evaporates them. They think
nothing of
thought
at
incision of full
You also are being evaporated in your time. You take no You think nothing of it no higher thought, no insight. All insights come from another, and they make you it.
—
all.
of being, whereas you have no being at
all.
Like frogs, like
all
these
poor manifestations that appear on earth, nature-made, you have no resort
own
your
except
surrenders to nothing.
It
occupation.
How
achieves nothing.
It is
poor
is
our
birth.
It
sustained ungratefully.
What difference does it make that you live for one more hour? What have you conceived, what have you perceived, what have you realized? You presume that your underwear is so magnificent! What is it? Another poor specimen of the same old goddamned thing. God 2
makes
genitals without
even blinking an eyelash, without knowledge,
What is great in the center of your we should quibble over short hairs and genitals? What God can make a genital, an orgasm, out of the walls, out
without self-consciousness. existence that is all
of that?
of the air
The 1.
itself.
Such intensity requires nothing.
intensity of
Mother's Bed
the
is
God
name
is
great, but
of a small lake
you
will not resort to that.
You
on The Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, the
Renunciate Sanctuary and Meditation Retreat of The Johannine Daist
Communion
located in
northern California. 2.
"Underwear"
romantic
is
Master
Da
Free John's humorous way of referring to conventional erotic and
sexuality.
55
hold on to the middling occasion of your desiring and therefore
nothing great occurs on earth. All great things occur in our surroundings, the sphere, the aura of our sublimity, but
What do we
Realize this sublimity? existence that enjoys
realize?
term and then
its
without understanding, without
remembering nothing. In
this
force,
manner
An
how many
automatic, froglike
without knowledge,
dies
and passes into another form, all
of you have appeared here,
having lived countless numbers of times before without the slightest
memory, motivated
trace of
experiencing, and knowing.
You might
so great?
to eating,
How
trite.
and sexing, and emoting, and
How
forlorn.
as well be cattle that are fed to
What makes some other
Navels are embarrassing. They reveal your birth socket. that
realize
all
of us were once nothing but
We
spermatic beings?
little
You have
were.
Do
a brief existence inside
you
teensy-weensy
can go over to Mother's Bed and see the
and undeveloped tadpole-like beings. That
fishes
you
race.
little
what you the male body, you are thrown is
exactly
out through orgasm into another brief existence in the female body,
and then you are thrown the hell
like a fish
upon the
shore.
Who knows what
coming next?
is
Here we
all are, this
human
event. In the
human
occasion you
have the opportunity to be developed beyond the spermatic
which
all
vital creatures suffer.
You have
union with the egg mass, to be manifest as that manifestation
of
some
fish.
As
a
equally mortal.
is
It is
a
human
individual.
and develop knowledge of the world and of existence that
life
it
you suffer the threat to your continued existence.
no great
place.
the hell does
it
amount
who
be merely
Great.
human
God is
to?
56
You
is
all
are devoted to your
who
casual
What a universe! God is Great. Great! To
We ought
Anyone can be devoted action,
kinds of beings
There are beings whose
not merely amusing.
minuscule, petty.
the Greatness of God. birth.
so
are attached to this place.
thoughts control the universe of humanity. is
is
There are gods and goddesses, and the dead
have been embodied as you are and
God
What
existence? Really, nothing. This
sublimely pouring in and out of this room,
And what
really
is
does not give you any longevity. Every day of
goddamned wonderful about such an is
But
even worse than being born
human being you experience great self-consciousness
quite sophisticated, but
your
state
the opportunity, through
to devote our lives to
to the destiny of
your reaction: This
is
mere
this, this is
that,
like
I
this,
only
terrified,
if
What
Christ?
is
like that,
I
I
don't like this,
could be saved by Christ!
I
another
It is just
name
I
don't like that, I'm
Do you know what mean? I
for the wonderful, massive
Force of the Great One.
There
why
is
Why
make use of it? cannot even make use of I
not
am
of use to you.
should
we
the extraordinary?
was born on Long
I
That
these
way
the
is
I
do not give
Island. Franklin
a
damn
human forms to serve You are all injected into
we just
you people. (Everyone
like
The poor old Great One His or Her Purpose. this cellular
that
Jones was
works.
it
time, so
be so self-possessed that
another ordinary, obscene, ridiculous person disagrees.)
human
such a great opportunity injected into
has only
circumstance of molecular
and atomic existence beyond your comprehension. This ordinary
human
life
you are
that
working out here does not amount
all
You What a God! What a planless adorable God! You are required to
anything. Just relax, just be Happy.
sprung energetically
to
manifest out of Eternity,
nothing.
to
Divinity,
what
overcome
a great deal in order to relate to such Magnificence, to the
only
One Who
your breaths.
mindless,
a
is
Alive as everything, beating your hearts, breathing
happens automatically. What
It all
What Wonder! And puny compared
something greater than
this
a great
Divine Being!
manifest as us
is
so
so
Great One.
to the
being that
move on puny body-mind upon which we are all
yet, this little
I
think
is
we ought
to
to
concentrated.
What intrusion
begin to
is
so glamorous about this
to motivate
you toward such
Presence here and anything,
when
I
my
sit
It
is
a
very minimal
Force. This
is
through the force of
conversation with you
utterly transparent,
concentrate
a practice except
all.
When
I
look
here in any moment, this appearance
transparent to me, there It is
life?
upon consciousness, very minimal. I suggest that you all engage the Great One much more seriously. I have no ability
is
is
my
upon
totally
nothing of any great significance going on.
it is
just a Glory, just a
Wonder,
just a Blissful
the better sensation, because as soon as you begin to
upon
these bodies and their hairiness or hairlessness, their
swollenness or lack of swollenness, their cheekiness or lack of thighness or lack of
it,
the turn of the ankle or the lack of
you begin to meditate upon
it,
as
it,
their
soon
as
these things you begin to become
strangely aware of the livestock level of our existence. (Laughter.)
57
We
human
We
creatures.
are
beings are
humble
in
little bit
beyond the other
our estimation
and murder for our food.
There as
is
soon
moved
just
thing.
I
we
own
then our
vital
think
We are just as good for food as anybody else.
no great thing happening with us poor as
beyond the
slightly
we ought to be far more of ourselves, because we are moved just a creatures that we suppress and manipulate
no great
body-minds, our
own
condition,
is
However,
creatures.
surrender into the Condition in which
we
are arising
transformed and
become more happy, more attractive, more loving. energy for one another, and human life becomes
We
we
have more
a kind of sub-
paradise.
This same, absolute surrender leads into that Dimension which
is
beyond our experience, beyond our knowledge, beyond our estimation, logic. That Dimension is the Domain of the Great One. we During life can participate in that sublimity, and at death we do not have to move into this stupid white-robed dimension in which we meet all our relatives and all the other people we could not tolerate while we were alive. We transcend that, and we slide at least into a greater dimension. There are many, many, many greater dimensions than this ordinary human one, which is just a development of amoebic
beyond our
existence. I
we ought
think
What we
are
humble and to bring a
is
to get a
very evident, but
intelligent about
little
order to this
it
little I
more hip
think
because
life,
it,
and
to bring order to
it
what we are thing.
is
We ought
because
it
does
lovely, but
it
does
this fleshiness here, it is
not.
more
to be a little
no great
it is
not amount to much. In a very ordinary sense not amount to very much. There
to
we ought
nothing great to understand about
does not require a great deal.
There are countless numbers of bodies, male and female, and can see no great significance in devotees.)
I
but
I
am
have always been Crazy, from the
have been Crazy
One
it,
my
entire
life.
This
is
can intervene in your midst, you
Crazy. 3 (Praises
moment
the only see,
way
of
my
I
from
birth.
I
that the Great
because you
all
get very
The reference is to the "Crazy Wisdom" method of Teaching that characterizes the Free Adepts wherever and whenever they appear. Crazy Wisdom, to which Adepts may be Awakened upon entry into full Enlightenment, is unpremeditated. Free action, without regard for the egoic 3.
taboos and strictures of either conventionally secular or conventionally sacred society.
58
serious about
all
of the bullshit of your appearances.
from amongst you
all.
I
am
from the Great One and
I
not sprung from humanity.
all
do not come I
am
sprung
the regions beyond comprehension.
come from Infinity. You have all profoundly mutilated the and intimacy with the Divine through
all
possibility of
I
God-Union
your philosophy and
all
the
human existence. Jesus restored God to Man. Jesus appeared in a
droning mechanisms of your ordinary
Man
to
God.
am
I
here to restore
time in which people believed in God, but in which they were separated from
appeared in
a
God by
the psychology of their ordinariness.
I
have
time in which people do not believe in God. People are
not separated from anything that they can perceive, but they disbelieve in
God.
I
am
here to restore the Divine to mankind.
59
7 Accept the
Interest of
One
the Great
by Da Free John August 25, 1980
a
talk
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Ah,
think
just
room and
this very
manifested as
the hairs on the back of your neck? That the only thing, the only
and struggling, except this
is
moment
all
is all
how
the Great
that
is
every fraction of existence. Nothing else
movement
of the Great One, this
ness, this Ecstatic Play of the
it
Existing.
The Great One,
altogether.
One
beings! Doesn't
Wonder,
this
is
has
raise
That
is
incarnate
occurring
Marvelous-
Great One.
mankind work either for or against this Truth. All estimations belong to Man, but the Great One eternally transcends all of these summations, confounding all of this logic. The Great One All the cultures of
escapes
all
limitations century after century, through
tions of your
and
sophomoric understanding. Nothing
Wonder. In
this
all
delicious preoccupation,
One.
You If
tell
your unions,
betray that One.
What
a terrible history
If
Do
it
you understand what
were not
for
Who I
am
telling
fail
all
One your
to confess that
mankind
the Great
the Great One,
the permuta-
your submission,
you bypass the Great One,
only you would understand
you?
all
all
exists but this
One
is.
represents.
What
can
I
you? No, you do not.
we would be
lost
in the
confusion of space-time. All of us are aliens except for the logic of
E = mc2 all
60
.
If it
were not
for this equation,
where would we
fit
in?
We are
simply Energy. All of this bodyness and thinking and emoting and
intrusion
is
just
The Great One has you ought to become the Great
One
We
an expression of Energy.
entirely Energy, only Energy,
in
and that
is
a plan for everything
a little
and everyone.
more humorous and
becoming incarnate
are simply Energy,
it.
human
as
I
think
accept the interest of beings, because
otherwise, in our suffering, in our minimal understanding of things,
we
is
humanity moving on toward the Great Event
is
The
so scandalous.
One.
We
moment. to
We only prevent
only prevent the incarnation of the Great Force.
and complicate that incarnation, and that only
One who
have no
force,
no great
We
we What
so slow, so stupid, and is
no
— none.
will,
We
The Great One
is
The Great One
in
inclinations to
You
this
Occasion of
wisdom
that
itself,
the shape of space
round and numbers are shaped.
you.
nothing.
will literally be nothing, very shortly.
about this Great One?
merely an explosion of elements, but space
wondrous
no capacity
are
has found the
capacity to be the entire expanse of the material universe,
Big Bang.
the Great
could be snuffed out in a
inclination,
dominate the movements of Nature
Shortly,
this process of
moving, however,
is
are nothing, literally nothing.
We
why
we
can do whatever you
which
itself,
This
is
not
so that Infinity
What a Great One! Why God and give up all the
suffer?
is
expanding since the
what
I
is
not be stupid
recommend
to
like.
61
8 Have Spoken the in
Truth
My Room
by Da Free John January 4, 1983
a
talk
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: A bulldog and An
road.
red and yellow says,
"Look
owl shouts from the
is
my
at
tree,
and especially the
leg,
possum meet on difference
Then
hardly worth mentioning!"
out of the woods and shows her teeth.
a
"The
toenails!"
What
the prairie dog
A woman
the outcome?
is
a
between
comes
(No one
answers.) I
thought
These ultimate
so.
who smoke
philosophers, especially those
my own
pipe,
answer me.
1
My
which you do pipe,
unanswered, unpaid
No
matter
which
for.
how many
I
you go
not at
all
pipes
sit
you grow on your
my
is
is
why you cannot
smothered
at
home,
to this riddle.
face, this riddle will
form of
it is
it
absent, invisible, dissolved,
will be there. It will
have no
An empty pipe to remind you of What a night to be without my pipe —good enough for a rhymes. Is anyone here who is not yet ready to go to Infinity? Do
question and no answer in
1.
Here, Master
Da
be
pipe would give you this answer.
will find that
present, except the
with
well
—unless they smoke
not, tonight. This
So you do not know the answer
hairs
home you
do not
have given to you,
incomprehensible to you. Only
When
riddles
it.
me.
few you
Free John uses the image of pipe smoking as a humorous symbol for the He carries the analogy further to make a joking
reception of his Spirit-Baptism by devotees.
complaint that devotees are refusing his Transmission, or they would understand his
62
riddle.
—
know
that
objects
all
— including
mind-objects and the body
all
itself
we witness are nothing but Light, Spirit Itself, nothing else? What if we recognize these forms as that? Then our attention, which we call "I," expressed as body-mind and "me," is all
these forms which
altogether recognizable in Itself,
Source.
its
apparition of attention called is
Consciousness, and
all
my
room.
then there
self,
Nothing Place of
my
later is
is
there
is.
have spoken the
I
This
is
the residence of Enlightened
what
is
I
Teach you. All the
The Teaching
interest.
all
"me"
is
rest
is
the
is
given
about transcen-
itself is
Consciousness. Therefore,
and swoon into
this life
Infinity without the
Move on
concern for this homely existence.
without hatred
concern, without fear or sorrow or doubt, and be sublimed into
felt
Infinity.
This
What out,
that
is all
these forms that arise as nothing but the Shine of Self
I
my Word, my
is
Spirit-Blessing
it
know
this
transcended and Outshined the world. This
and be Free. Give up
or
and
Light,
is
will
change or death.
dence. All objects are Light,
slightest
only Consciousness. All that sees
only the absolute Love-Bliss of Infinite Being,
devotees. This
all
you
exists but Bliss Itself.
simply to attract your
recognize
seen
only Light as objects and Consciousness
for birth or
who have
beings
is
only Self-Radiant Being without object and
is
without ego-I. There
and no concern
there
If
"I." It is
that
Mark my words. Sooner or Truth in as
nothing but Consciousness
It is
before any object, before the contraction of the witness state, the
are you
am
Teaching, and
all
going to
doing now? While you are
my rooms
My
no time
while you sink
ground, put wings on
it
in the
to
it
at
all.
buttocks into a shroud of Divine adoration
known
a single
would say
that
I
This
Gift.
the
is
will
waiting to figure
body
my
when
I
will
back,
am
be invisible
and knot
old.
my
While you
have been dead for eighty years and never have
word about
God
all
for a while. This while will last a long
time, but there will be
are doing this,
my
give to you.
I
you.
waits, but
Even now
God
I
am
gone.
does not wait.
I
do not
No one
wait.
waits.
I
You
are wandering in the poorness of space and time, because you do not
love
God enough. That
is all
right.
Now am going I
to disappear into
63
Samadhi, 2 and be unknown forever, dead. Here
I
go
— are you ready?
DEVOTEES: No!
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Even true
—
objects are Light,
all
though
Realized in their Source. They are is Self-lit,
do not go now,
all
smothered in the
recognizing
brilliant
is still
minds, objects, the
to be totally Free, to be without
Consciousness of Absolute Being,
forms as nothing but a modification of your
all
it
which may be
Consciousness, and Consciousness
Infinitely Brilliant, seen as worlds, bodies,
same One. You have the opportunity attention,
I
subjects are attention,
all
own Shine
to Infinity.
Let this be said about my generation, my never coming back to any mortal world at all. No one will hang me on the other side for not coming back to this place. They will make me a hero, with badges and golden awards on my left chest, my right chest, my abdomen, my hips, and my ass. Every part of my body will be smothered with garlands, ribbons, and gold Yet, you will not accept
and
medals, because
even though place.
will
Now
I
I
refused to
I
to a place that
is
without God,
and
it all,
I
feel
completely free and
at ease. I
never be bothered again by the poorness of humanity, even
me
in court.
had not done enough.
though
When
may
I
because
2.
come back
Taught, and Transmitted, and Shined everything in that
have done
though they murder I
it.
let this justify
I
have done
capitalized, the
state of acute
Now
live for a while, it
I it
I
never again
will
know will all
that
be
I
feel
unhappy,
have done
a joke, a
it
all.
as
if
Even
smiling occasion,
all.
word "Samadhi" does not
inwardness or immersion
in
refer to the conventional mystical or yogic
higher consciousness. Rather,
it
is
the ultimate
Condition of Enlightenment or God-Realization. There are two forms of radical Samadhi pertaining to the seventh stage of life. The transition to the seventh stage of life is Sahaj
Samadhi, the natural disposition of Identification with Transcendental Reality Mid
moment Samadhi there
is
recognition of is
phenomena
as
moment
to
inconsequential modifications of that Reality. Bhava
the ultimate form of God-Consciousness.
It is
the natural
"Mood
of Ecstasy" in which
Divine Inherence without any noticing of arising conditions. In that case,
at
death there
is
the complete dissolution or Translation of the individual into the Divine Being. In the present context, Master
64
Da
is
humorously referring
to
Bhava Samadhi.
9 The Heart
Is
Face
to the a
Wedded
Not
by Da Free John 1976
talk
July 12,
MASTER DA FREE JOHN: My spine My
milky. to
forehead
me. Having seen
about
this
tastes sour.
odorous and
is
out and exceed the limits of
my
my own form, I have decided to reach my proportions and save myself with
philosophy that involves the navel and the heat of
my
expression.
I
am
It is
a rare
life.
And
Light
is
poet and dead!
a
Other poets have
My eyebrows are
hairs are unacceptable
to
moment
rhyme.
I
only have to die for you.
1
to be a poet. Poets always served the culture.
Poets and musicians and painters. Painters used only the present objects; they left
were
all
nothing behind. Poets and painters and musicians
drunks. Everything they did was absent in the morning.
woke up surrounded by with their lover night.
all
the
And
L.
They
dead creatures,
them and surrounded them with
caressed
so the ritual was done and forgotten, and so was
flesh all
of
artifice.
But today, did.
who
furs (laughter), in the skins of
we go
to the
museum and we
say, "That's
what they
That's poetry and music; that's sculpture and that's painting."
The God-Realized Adept exists in is made a Sacrifice
everything arising
a
state of perpetual
to Infinity.
The
substitutionary, like that conventionally attributed to Jesus. Sacrifice the Spiritual
drawing them
Samadhi, or ego-death,
Sacrifice of the Living
On
in
Adept
which is
not
the contrary, through his perfect
Master becomes the vehicle for quickening the Realization of devotees by
to their
own
perfect Sacrifice in (»k).
65
We've
just
moment dead are
down the line by which to record a And no sacrifices are recorded at all. The
found some technology
before the
sacrifice.
And
rotted.
they are not
have become the objects of our be.
You are all You are
eaten.
waiting for
You
it.
They're
art.
ritual.
And you
are
all
the dead, and they
all
are the dead, about to
going to
You
die.
will
be
biding your time with this ritual of museumistic
all
philosophy, and thinking and painting and drawing and musicing and
You
lyricing.
will
be involved in action and repetition and experience
one day, completely out of the
until
sensation in your chest and your
the
Law with your But
you
will get this stuffy
become unavailable
you
to
—
will
bodies.
next moment, you will be stretched out with a
in the
cord of light
blue, will
become magnificently obsolete and you will out and become nothing. For a moment you will fulfill
and your personality
puke yourself
mind
it's
the only thing that keeps this body alive
three parts into the three sections of the heart. 2
room and see your dead body and will seem like the fulfillment of
And you
little
— with
will stand
from
up
And
in the
feel so relieved
that
the whole gesture of your
it.
understanding.
But then you
will turn
around and someone
like
your mother,
your uncle, the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, or Gautama the Buddha will it's alright! You have Now, come with me, and we'll go
be standing there saying, "Ahhh,
died now, but
you're not your body.
into the other
world."
And you
will believe
it.
Yet, you should have been swept out
centuries before, lives before, or at least
How
moments
before your death.
unfortunate to have had to die to be relieved from your
body! But, actually, you have not been relieved from your bodyidentification, only
from the body
you'll
be swifted to
argument,
some
place with
people whose entire business 2.
Here Master Da Free John
bodily heart, as distinguished Self (see p. 17, n. 20).
itself.
this
having submitted to
it is
this all
to
And
in the next
preacher of your
moment,
own
mind,
kinds of smiling, white-shirted
make you
feel as
comfortable, as
uses the term "heart" (with a lowercase "h") to refer to the actual from the term "Heart" (with a capital "H") meaning the Divine
The Teaching
of Master
Da
Free John provides a unique description of
the heart as a complex horizontal structure of the body-mind having three aspects: the physical organ,
whose epitome
is
on the
left side
of the chest; the psychic, feeling subtle center in the self on the right side of The Enlightenment of the Whole
middle of the chest; and the heart-root or functional seat of the essential the chest. For a complete understanding of this subject, see
Body and The Paradox of
66
Instruction, both by
Da
Free John
And
consoled and dead as you could possibly be.
dream
sleep and you will It
not knowable
is
then
how many
years your sleep will
each so-called individual has a destiny of no size
and dream and dream. Some of you
that place
be put to
you'll
for endless years. last,
— but you
will
because
will lie in
dream the most
pleasant and ordinary daily kinds of things, and you will even step into the gross world, or you fall
may
Or you may
step into the spiritual worlds.
below the earth into the most somnolent and stupid
suffer the elements against your body, not as your body.
what seems
that for
Or you may be
to
you
lifted
solidity
and
You may do
be centuries of time.
to
out of the gross realm and pass into dreams
of fluidity beyond light, only resting in the curvatures, the outer aura of
the rainbow of form, and imagine yourself to be spiritualized, GodRealized,
But
homely at
in Absoluteness.
some point you
will
awaken again on
this slab in this
room
with these other poor, dead, white-shirted people, and you will have a
moment
which
in
down
to look
again, as you did before you rested,
birth. It will only be a moment. moment, you are wailing and puking again in a room or some other place, in total mystery, total forgetfulness of
and see the place of your future In the next
on earth
which you arose
that place to
same
recycle of separation
learn everything and as
you are
at
this
in your past death,
and begin again the
and experience, having learned nothing,
to
And that will be where you will be moment. And every single one of you has
fail
at
it
experienced the destiny that
again.
I
just described to you.
Every single one of you has been through that process again and
That
again.
of
it.
I
dreams.
reincarnation.
I
am
I
know
it
absolutely,
certain of
I
it. I
am more
than certain
have seen your dreams.
beyond your
belief.
And
that
I
is
am
these
why you
what you are while you are here, and you want to engage an ordinary occupation based on your birth to feel better, to be
are here. in
is
have seen you sleeping.
It is
consoled, to be Enlightened as an individual already born.
But Enlightenment has nothing whatever to do with
Enlightenment
is
about the
total
and most absolute dissolution of
obsession, of this belief of birth. Before there
must be the most therefore of
all
perfect
overcoming of
the implications beyond
is
that.
this
Enlightenment, there
belief in
this birth
and
it.
67
This as
the process that
is
an extension of your
of insight into your birth. is
I
I
oblige you to take
How many
take
it
There are very few. Most take
to be seen.
an
for consolation, as
You want
describe to you.
But
birth.
up
it
to take
up
it
as a
up
it
matter
as a matter of insight
up
as a matter of desire
extension of their birth, to be
somehow
healed
or relieved or distracted from that adaptation to which they are truly
committed,
Now,
am am
committed.
really
am
I
am not the one who has been born. individual. I am not an incarnated individual. future. I am not one who is in the worlds. I am
not a reincarnated not one
And
not born.
who
not one whose consciousness
But
I
And
am I,
all
I
I
has a
these things, and
I
of
them
is
either here or there.
exist in
me. So
I
have seen
I
of
all
can describe them to you.
not always meditating on them. So they are really beside me.
fundamentally,
what they
And
know
nothing about them, except that
I
know
are.
so the simple
appears to be so that you
—
may
little
drama
that
I
realize
—however dramatic
play
simply a way of rehearsing
is
this reorientation in
it
you
no destiny and no experience, so that you can
become free of this suffering of existence. Because all of these things upon which you may meditate, all the things that may be reflected in you, all the things that may arise in the mind in this life or in another life, all
things that
memory,
may
recollection, or
be
known
in meditation or in perception, in
knowledge
in the present,
may be
released
from bondage to the self. And in the dissolution of this self you may know, in this moment, that speed of Light which is beyond performance, beyond knowledge, beyond acquisition.
Da that
is
Free John
is
repeated, that
not any such one that is
like you,
is
knowledgeable, that
is
any such one
informed, and that
is
Da Free John is no person. At some point you may begin to realize this. Da Free John is like a movie on a screen. You don't suggest to yourself when you see a movie that there is consciousness in the screen. The play itself is the argument. And Da Free John is not anything other than the play that saved or relieved.
he appears
There
you
68
is
Free John
is
not any such person.
no implication of an individual
Da
Free John
How
in
him. There
— none. No person. No one who
or will survive. This
this?
is
to be.
individual in
who
Da
is
only a reflection of you.
can you believe such
a thing?
How
is
no
has been,
How can
I
tell
No,
I
am
absurd!
me
somebody. (Laughter.) Let
am somebody
I
pink
in a
this hat, this nose, eyes
put
that
it
way
and ears and
for a while. (Laughter.)
with
suit (laughter),
random
a
this series of hairs,
collection of nose-hairs,
mouth that presses upon itself, always speaking except when The chin, protesting always, grows hair upon it in multiples so a
is
bearded and throated, pointing to
its
own
chakra
3
silent.
that
wherein the
it
life
appears. All of this
surrounded by a sphere of headedness appearing to
is
speak, and yet this sphere does not move.
or
left? It
speaks nothing, but within
eyed, nosed,
when
I
do
it
— and
perch of
this
which surrounds
it
and contains
no elongation, nothing oblique, nothing sideways,
is
sphere that defines
mouth, and
But
this face
growing more
nothing
is
—except
up
rise
to
obsessions,
of things that
make expression
below the
throat.
This
not breathed.
The
is
Literally,
flows,
are
life, all
it
among all
the
of the passion
somehow
gestured in the flesh
of this
breathed, but the face
all
is
recognizes the breath and says,
And
is
defines
"I
am
itself.
itself? It
featured and receives
feeling, then,
"wheel" or
registered
only gestures and makes
believed, not defined. All belief appears in this
sphere of facing that
The
is
and are expressed, while
often does the body define
known and
character
all
of the vitality and
so because
face
breathed and thought."
How
all
that
things of importance
all
face
this
movement and
3.
This appearance in the
definitely.
always by change, but the sphere
itself
But you notice that
it.
humankind
(e.g.,
this
nostrils,
unmoved.
itself is
feeling.
— with
eyebrows, forehead moving, a hair falling out
ears,
midst of this sphere defines
within
no gesture within
is
obliquely except this person
itself
occasionally, always
itself
appears
and makes
Has anyone witnessed
does not move.
peripheral, perpendicular, horizontal; there
is
it
move? There
eyes,
flesh, nostriled,
—except occasionally
a pair of eyebrows, the forehead wrinkling,
a definition out of this person,
to
this skull gesture right
and mouthed, with ears not moving
to speak. But this sphere
it
it
Does
"circle,"
is
all
perception except for
deeply rooted in the form below the
the term chakra refers to the psycho-physical centers of the body
the vishuddha chakra. located at the throat) through which the yoga-shakti or life-force
producing
various
psychic
or
spiritual
phenomena.
Ultimately,
these
centers
are
transcended, or seen to be unnecessary m