Robert Adams on Freedon

The only word Robert Adams spoke during his last Satsang was, "Freedon, freedom, freedom," over and over.

Robert was not about repression, denial of the external world, denial of responsibility, denial of the body, denial of sex, denial of anything.

But many of his current followers look to Robert and Ramana as exemplars of denial of the flesh. 

There is a strong anti-life negativity in current spirituality that was absent in Robert.

Robert embraced everything.  He specifically had no proscriptions against sex or of living with wealth, but was a Vegan out of concern for the suffering of animals.

He told people to ignore the world because it was the lowest of hells for just one reason: he wanted people to stop looking outwards, to stop being concerned with their problems and problems of the world so that they would turn within and find the Self, the heart of life within the hearts of each of us.

How he did this was to repeat over and over that the world was illusion, Maya, not important---compared to the Self within.

Therefore he directed us all to look within for the I thought, or the I-feeling, find the emptiness within, and then looking deeper with loving awareness, to find the Self within.

Ramana called this Self within the Atman, the individualized embodiment of God in the individual fleshy body.  Nisargadatta and his teacher Siddharameshwar called it attaining Krishna Consciousness, immersion in Turiya, the fundamental base Consciousness that pervaded the waking, sleep, and dream states.

Chritian mystics call it the realization or descent of Christ within.

Everyone will describe that initial awareness in different ways according to their culture and the words, concepts, and paradigms of their time.  Buddhists will speak of the Void while Shakti worshippers will speak of ecstacy and bliss, love and surrender.

But the end result is all about freedom: freedom from concepts, freedom from culture (although no one really escapes entirely from culture).  Freedom!!  Freedom!!   Freedom!!

But the edeal of many who follow Robert is really another form of repression holding that "transcending" sex, being able to live without eating, being able to live without sleep, being selflessly giving are behavioral ways of acquiring Self.

Not so.  I repeat, Robert said to ignore the world, eat moderately and not to pay much attention to the body, not to be too concerned about sex in moderation, or anything in moderation, only to get people to let the world alone and look within, feel within.

One can be a drug addict, an alcoholic, bulimic, a sexaholic, chain smoker, even a criminal of the worst sort, But if one merely turns within and descends that long thread of the I Am until it leads to the Self, one can eventually find it in your heart of hearts.  

Even now it is there buried under 10,000 rules, 1,000 desires, 1,000 spiritual concepts, endless guilt, grief, depression, and rage.  All that you need do is look and feel within, gently and with love, trying to see and feel the Self.

Once the Self is seen, even just once, everything changes.  One cannot stop looking at the Self wherever it seems to hide.  With intense gaze and intense feeling, one just continues to fixate on that source of Life within that is continuously burning, overflowing with love, energy, and divine embrace.

Youfeel that God is living through you.  More tha that, as Nisargadatta stated, for the awakened one, who Nisargadatta called "the Saint," their life is all about justice, service, and worship of all that is living.

To really understand Nisargadatta you have to read his first book, Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization found on the website http://wearesentience.com which is quite a different take than his later books where he denies the reality (because it is temporary) of the manifest Self--the divine Self of Shakti, Christ, Krishna.  Yes, when the body dies they are absorbed back into Shiva, the Witness, yet continue to live on in trillions of life forms.

So, do not obsess about what a guru eats, drinks, meditates on, techniques, or about your own perceived faults of loving too much or too little, drinking too much, eating meat or being Vegan.  These are all outward manifestations of your individuality and are not of the prime importance to finding the Self.  Turning within is the only important thing related to finding the Self.

When the Self--God, Shakti, Christ--is found, then you have freedom.  God acts through you. Eats through you.  Drinks through you.  Has sex through you.  Teaches through you.  Sees Him or Herself through you.  Worships the Self, Himself, found in others, through you.

One can become a roaring lion at this point, wild, perceived as a threat to all, or, according to his or her nature, perhaps entirely withdrawn in Self-contemplation.  But even the wild one is acting through God teaching all about Freedom.  Freedom! Not repression, not rules, not concepts and limitations.

The God-intoxicated awakened being is not about to go out and kill, rape, murder, steal, etc., for his or her behaviors are always directed towards love of Life and of all sentient beings although maybe in ways that others, because of all their rules and spiritual concepts, regard as non-spiritual.  

But Robert was all about Freedom!  Freedom from the wold by finding your own Self and God, but also freedom within the world once you decide to reenter and participate in the world.