(from The First Three Stages of Life)

 

Here, Avatar Adi Da talks to a teenage devotee about the importance of “self”-understanding:

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AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: [Y]ou must observe that you are the “self”-contraction. Of course, you are the “self”--contraction. However, generally people do not understand this about themselves. They are full of desires and thoughts and “problems” and fears. And they think that they can find Happiness by seeking all the time, as if they will feel Happy when things go the way they want them to. They think that, in order to be Happy, they must satisfy their desires. So they spend their time thinking, reacting, desiring, fearing, and struggling to satisfy some impulse.

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And, every now and then, they feel a little Happiness. But the reason that they feel Happiness is not that Happiness is actually “in” what they were seeking. By getting what they were seeking, for a moment they are free of seeking, because they got what they wanted. They are free of desire for the moment. For that moment, they are not contracting—and, because they are not contracting and are not seeking, they feel the Mystery and they are Happy. But their realization of Happiness is over very quickly.

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Desire is contraction. Being afraid is contraction. Thinking is contraction. Every now and then, you may be released from your search by obtaining something that you sought. But such release is actually very rare. Most people feel this Happiness for only a very few moments in an entire lifetime. You may enjoy other middling moments of pleasure, depending upon how healthy you are, but Real Happiness is very rare.

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I Am the Divine Avataric Master, and I have Appeared to Show you that Happiness Is Always Already the Case. I Am the Realization of That Happiness (or Love--Bliss), and I Transmit My Divine State to you and to all others. I do not just say “Be Happy” or “Feel the Mystery”. You do not get to feel It by My telling you such things. Only through ego--transcending devotion, service, “self”--discipline, and meditation do you get to feel It—not just through thinking about It.

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As one of the children in the culture of My devotees, you must find out that you are contracting all the time. Children feel fear just as much as anyone else does...The Mystery Is Prior Realization. Only Realization is Prior to the “self”--contraction. You must transcend body, emotion, thinking, and desire, and you must transcend fear. All of these things must be transcended in order to be Happy—yet, these are exactly all the things that you tend to feel. . . It is good to find this out. To discover this is how someone becomes a real practitioner of the Reality--Way of Adidam. Just to say “Feel the Mystery” is nonsense if there is not this “self”--understanding.

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 I have Revealed the Way of “Radical” (or Always “At--the--Root”) “self”--Understanding. You must understand and transcend your egoic “self” to feel the Mystery and to feel Me As Divine Happiness. The Mystery, Happiness, and the Divine Are Always Already the Case. But you contract, and this keeps you from “Experiencing” What is Always Already the Case. Instead of feeling Happiness, the Mystery, and Real God, you think and fear and react and desire. Therefore, basically, you just feel frustrated and reactive, and you try to get Happiness by doing all kinds of nonsensical things.

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I Am here to Help you to Realize Real God, True Happiness, the Love--Bliss That Is Always Already the Case. I actually have the Power to Transmit this Divine Realization to you, and to all beings. But you must practice devotion, service, “self”--discipline, and meditation in relation to Me to receive My Divine Gift.

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If you are able to do this, then you will receive My Divine Heart--Blessing more and more deeply over time. But to do this practice is work. It is an ordeal. It does not happen automatically just because you think about it. By practicing devotion to Me, by practicing whole bodily turning to Me in My bodily (human) Divine Form and My Transcendental Spiritual (and Always Blessing) Divine Presence and My Very (and Inherently Perfect) Divine State, and by practicing all the disciplines I Recommend, people become purified of their reactivity, their desiring, their fearing, and their seeking. And, to the degree that they can “Locate” My Divine Avataric Self--Transmission of Love-Bliss, or Real God, or Happiness Itself, they are (in due course) purified of the “self”--contraction, and they Realize this Happiness more and more profoundly over time. Ultimately, they may Realize Real God Most Perfectly. . . Therefore, it is up to each individual whether or not to practice the Reality--Way of Adidam that I have Revealed and Given.