Adi Da

Adi Da Samraj
Adi Da Samraj
Born	(1939-11-03)3 November 1939 New York, New York, United States
Died	27 November 2008(2008-11-27) (aged 69) Naitaba, Lau Islands, Fiji

Adi Da Samraj (Devanāgarī: अादि द समराज) (November 3, 1939 – November 27, 2008), born Franklin Albert Jones in Jamaica, Queens, New York, was a controversial spiritual teacher, writer and artist, considered "one of the most interesting and outrageous sixties-generation American gurus." He was the founder of a new religious movement known as Adidam. Beginning in 1972, Adi Da changed his name numbers of times, which he said coincided with changes in the nature of his teaching methods. These included "Bubba Free John", "Da Free John", "Da Love-Ananda", "Da Kalki", "Da Avadhoota", "Da Avabhasa", and from the 1990s until his death, "Adi Da Love-Ananda Samraj" or "Adi Da".

Adi Da wrote many books about his spiritual philosophy and related matters, founding a publishing house to print them. He first gained notoriety in the counterculture of the 1970s for his books and public talks, and for the activities of his religious community. His early books gained praise from respected authorities in religion and philosophy, including Alan Watts and Ralph Metzner. In later years, while he continued to garner praise for his ideas, he was also criticized for what some perceived as his increased isolation, eccentric behavior, and cult-like community.

In his books and in public discourses, Adi Da initially expressed a theory (similar to Indian non-dualism) that seeing oneself as an individual, separate from others and a divine reality, is an illusion, and that seeing through this illusion would result in an experience of freedom. He taught that the seeking of liberation itself creates suffering, and must be transcended. Uniquely, however, Adi Da later asserted that he alone fully embodied a liberated state beyond this dualism, and as such was the sole source of this realization for humanity.

In the mid 1980s, allegations by former devotees of financial, sexual and emotional abuses within Adidam were widely reported in a number of newspapers and on local television news, culminating in national coverage on NBC's The Today Show. These allegations resulted in a number of lawsuits on both sides. Adidam said that these allegations were part of a conspiracy to extort large sums of money from his movement.

Biography

Adi Da as a child

Adi Da was born Franklin Albert Jones on November 3, 1939, in Queens, New York and was raised on Long Island. His father was a salesman, and his mother was a housewife. He served as an acolyte in the Lutheran church during his adolescence, and aspired to be a minister, though after leaving for college in the autumn of 1957, he expressed to his Lutheran pastor doubts about the religion. He graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy from Columbia University, and went on to complete a Master's Degree in English Literature at Stanford University in 1963.

Having taken peyote in high school, in California Jones often smoked marijuana, and tried taking large doses of Romilar cough medicine in hopes of recreating similar effects. He was also a paid test subject in drug trials of mescaline, LSD and psilocybin that were conducted at a nearby Veterans Administration hospital (novelist Ken Kesey also participated in these tests, inspiring his novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"). He continued to take hallucinogens for some years afterward. He later called this a period of experimentation that he found "self-validating" but limited, and described struggling to end his reliance on substances to alter his awareness.

Responding to an intuitive impulse, Jones and his girlfriend Nina left California in June 1964 in search of a spiritual teacher in New York City. Settling in Greenwich Village, Jones became a disciple of Albert Rudolph, or "Rudi" as he was commonly called, an oriental art dealer and self-styled spiritual guru. Having studied a number of spiritual traditions, including G.I. Gurdjieff's "Work" and Subud, Rudolph was at that time a disciple of Swami Muktananda, who dubbed him "Swami Rudrananda". Rudi taught an eclectic blend of techniques he called "Kundalini Yoga".

Jones' father told Rudi of his son's onetime aspiration to become a Lutheran minister. At Rudi's insistence, in 1965 Jones married Nina, and began preparatory studies to enter Philadelphia's Lutheran Theological Seminary. As a student there in 1967, he described undergoing a terrifying breakdown, and a subsequent period of awakening. Feeling none of his professors understood or could give insight into this experience, Jones left and briefly attended St. Vladimir's Russian Orthodox Seminary in Tuckahoe, New York. Disillusioned, he moved to back to New York City and got a job working for Pan American Airlines, in hopes this would facilitate his being able to visit Swami Muktananda's Ashram in India. He did so for four days in April 1968.

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Franklin Jones sitting with Swami Muktananda

Muktananda encouraged Jones to end his studies with Rudi and study with himself directly. Back in New York, he and wife Nina became members and then employees of the Church of Scientology for more than one year, and Jones wrote Rudi a letter severing all contact (they spoke again years later.) Jones returned to India for a month-long visit in early 1969, during which Swami Muktananda formally authorized him to initiate others into the Siddha Yoga tradition.

In May 1970, Jones, Nina and a friend from Scientology named Pat Morley gave away their belongings and traveled to India for what they believed to be an indefinite period. Three weeks after arriving, while at Muktananda's ashram Jones reported visions of the Virgin Mary that directed him to take a pilgrimage to Christian holy sites. After two weeks of travel in the Middle East and Europe, Jones returned to the U.S.

In September 1970, Jones said that while sitting in the Vedanta Temple in Los Angeles, he permanently realized "The Bright," his term for a state of complete spiritual enlightenment. Jones wrote a "spiritual autobiography" titled "The Knee of Listening," which was published in 1972. With fellow former Scientology employee Sal Lucania as business partner, Jones opened the Ashram bookstore in Los Angeles. He began giving lectures based on his book, and soon attracted attention due in part to his charismatic speaking style. He incorporated many ideas from the Kashmir Shaivite and Advaita Vedanta schools of Hinduism, but also expressed original insights and opinions about both spirituality and secular culture. He was also one of the first westerners to become well-known as a teacher of meditation and eastern esoteric traditions.

With a growing following, Jones began developing a new religious movement initially called "The Dawn Horse Communion". In 1973, he traveled to India to meet again with Muktananda. Over a confrontation regarding the actual nature of enlightenment and how to achieve it, they would end their relationship, later disparaging each others' relative level of spiritual accomplishment. Jones nevertheless maintained that he continued to appreciate and respect Muktananda as his onetime teacher.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, Jones directed his students that he should now be addressed as "Bubba Free John," based on a nickname for "friend" combined with the meaning of "Franklin Jones". Free John declared himself "the Divine Lord in human Form" in January 1974, and his group soon obtained an aging hot springs resort near the California town of Cobb, renaming it "Persimmon" (it is now known as "The Mountain of Attention.") There, the group experimented in communal living, and at times attracted controversy.

Beginning during a phase known as the "Garbage and the Goddess" in 1974 (the underlying philosophy of which was documented in a book of his lectures by the same title), Bubba Free John began employing a method of teaching he called "crazy wisdom", including directing his followers in "spiritual theater", involving public and group sex, the making of pornographic movies and intensified sexual practices that some followers found abusive and humiliating. Others however claimed to never witness or be involved in such activities. Drug and alcohol use were often encouraged. Spokespersons for the church said that in 1970's, experiments in everything from food to work, worship, exercise, money and sexuality were all in attempts to grow spiritually. Followers consistently said that he had nine common-law "wives" during this time, including Playboy centerfold Julie Anderson. However, while not denying these claims of polygamy, members and spokespersons stated that he spent later years living a life of solitude and contemplation.

In 1983, he moved with a group of followers to the Fijian island of Naitauba (purchased from actor Raymond Burr) and it became his primary residence until the end of his life.

During his career, Adi Da would often change his name, he said to reflect differences in the nature of his message. After Bubba Free John, from 1979 to 1985 he was called Da Free John. Subsequent names included Dau Loloma, Da Love-Ananda, Da Avadhoota, Da Kalki, Da Avabhasa, and from 1994, Adi Da Love-Ananda Samraj, or Adi Da. His religious organization also went by many names, including the Free Communion Church, the Laughing Man Institute, the Crazy Wisdom Fellowship, the Way of Divine Ignorance, and the Johannine Daist Communion. It is now known as Adidam.

File:Da Love-Ananda Mahal.jpg

Da Love-Ananda Mahal in Kauai, Hawaii

There were persistent accusations of him abusing his power as a spiritual leader. In 1985, visible tensions emerged after a number of ex-devotees allegedly requested an audience with Adi Da to air grievances, and he refused to communicate with them. As a result, various lawsuits were filed against Adi Da and his organization, and against the accusing former members by the church. Adi Da did not personally address any of the charges made against him at that time, allowing his organization and legal counsel to respond. He emerged from apparent seclusion once media attention faded and the lawsuits were settled, but the controversy is reported to have contributed to his having a breakdown in 1986. This breakdown was later explained by Adi Da as a near-death experience that he found especially significant, calling it the “Divine Emergence.”

In 2007 and 2008, Adi Da exhibited his artwork internationally, including an independent exhibition collateral to the 2007 Venice Biennale, curated by Italian art historian and critic Achille Bonito Oliva. He also was represented by a commercial gallery in Culver City, California.

Adi Da had four children, three biological daughters with three different women, and one adopted daughter.

Adi Da died of a heart attack on November 27, 2008 at his home in Fiji.

Teachings

Central to Adi Da's religious philosophy was the conviction that the ego is an activity, which he called the "self-contraction", that is the source of all emotional, psychological, and spiritual dissatisfaction. He said that fundamentally, all efforts to unite with the divine from the point of view of a separate self were futile, since that separate self itself is illusory.

"Seventh Stage Realization"

Adi Da developed a theory of potential human and spiritual evolution he called "the seven stages of life."

• First Stage—"individuation/physical development"
• Second Stage—"socialization"
• Third Stage—"integration/mental development"
• Fourth Stage—"spiritualization/Divine Communion"
• Fifth Stage—"spiritual ascent"
• Sixth Stage—"abiding in consciousness"
• Seventh Stage—"Divine Enlightenment: awakening from all egoic limitations"

The first six stages account for all permutations of religion and culture throughout history, as well as levels of personal development. According to Adi Da, the seventh stage of life has nothing to do with development or evolution, and does not come after the sixth stage in a sequential manner. He declared that only devotion to him as the "avatar of the age" or "The Promised God-Man" could free people from the activity of "self-contraction" and reveal the seventh stage to them. Adi Da stated that only he would ever exist in or manifest this seventh stage, which he characterized as an uninterrupted condition of spiritual enlightenment called "The Bright" that he had actually existed in since birth. He stated “I Am the First (and the Only One) to Realize and to Demonstrate seventh stage Realization, which (now, and forever hereafter) I Alone, and Uniquely, Reveal and Transmit to all my formally practicing true devotees and thus potentially to all beings."

Adi Da categorized the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of life as the highest respective stages of human development. He characterized those who've reached these stages as "saints," "yogis", and "sages." Relative to this spectrum, Adi Da declared that "Distinct from even all yogis, saints, and sages (or even all realizers in the context of the first six stages of life), I am uniquely, and avatarically born."

Some have criticized that this assertion contradicts Adi Da's earlier teachings perceived as rejecting the necessity for any religious authority or belief, citing statements like ""People want the Guru to be the Avatar. In fact he doesn't exist as God in any exclusive sense whatsoever. So there is no Avatar except the whole, if it makes any sense to use such words at all."

"Crazy Wisdom"

Much of the controversy regarding Adi Da related to the years in which he claimed to employ "crazy wisdom", a teaching method in which a yogic adept employs seemingly un-spiritual methods to awaken an observer's consciousness. By 1986, he claimed to have generally stopped using such methods, saying "[Earlier] I had to endure and instruct immature people...and so when people refer to my "Crazy Wise" Work, they must understand that it has essentially come to an end. Now, after all these years...my devotees, generally speaking, relate to me in a formal manner."

Religion/Community

Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in Cobb, California

Adidam refers to both the organization of Adi Da's devotees and the religion he taught. While seeming to share similarities with Hinduism and Buddhism, the practice of Adidam is primarily defined by its emphasis on a devotional relationship to Adi Da, who is often called "Beloved" by his devotees. They believe him to be the source of "divine realization". Practitioners of Adidam also observe specific recommended disciplines, including study of Adi Da's and other religious teachings, physical exercises, yogic regulation of sexuality and a mainly raw, vegan diet.

University of Southern California religions professor Robert Ellwood wrote, “Accounts of life with [Adi Da] in his close-knit spiritual community [describe] extremes of asceticism and indulgence, of authoritarianism and antinomianism…Supporters of the alleged avatar rationalize such eccentricities as shock therapy for the sake of enlightenment.”

While based on Naitauba Island, Fiji, there are five officially designated ashrams or sanctuaries belonging to Adidam, three of which are located in North America, including the Mountain of Attention in Lake County, California. In a 2008 news article they reported 2,000 members worldwide.

Works

Books

Adi Da wrote prolifically about his spiritual philosophy, creating the Dawn Horse Press in the early 1970s to publish his books. It continues to print many Adi Da-authored titles. Perhaps best known among these is his autobiography, "The Knee of Listening" (1972), the 1973 edition of which contained a foreword by well-known author Alan Watts. Subsequent editions have undergone extensive changes. Originally two-hundred seventy-one pages, the latest edition is six-hundred five pages, including new prefaces, appreciations and appendices, with descriptions of early phases in Adi Da's life and spiritual search significantly rewritten. For instance, a chapter on his time with Scientology is no longer included, and there is an added chapter on "the secrets of Adi Da's "pre-history"(before his birth in 1939)."

Art

Orpheus and Eurydice

In the last decade of his life, Adi Da produced visual art which he called "Transcendental Realism." These works were primarily photographic and digitally produced. In 2007 and 2008, his art was included in exhibitions in Venice and Florence (Italy), and Los Angeles, California.

The Spectra Suites, a book of Adi Da's art, has an introduction by American art historian and critic Donald Kuspit.

Controversy and legal disputes

In 1985, Adi Da and his organization were sued by a former member for (among other things) fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, and assault and battery; the suit sought $5 million in damages. Adi Da and Adidam (then known as Da Free John and The Johannine Daist Communion) were subjects of almost daily coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle over several weeks. The story reached the national level with a report on The Today Show. In this and other interviews in local media, ex-members made numerous specific allegations of Adi Da engaging in psychologically, sexually and physically abusive behavior, as well as tax fraud.

Adidam charged that these allegations were part of a conspiracy to extort large sums of money from the movement. Adidam said that the former members, (some of whom appeared on the Today show report) "met several times to discuss, conspire and scheme to obtain extraordinary sums of money from Adidam under the threat of destroying the church". Adidam alleged that before the negative media campaign, they had received a letter from the former members demanding $5.2 million dollars; if this demand wasn't met, they might undertake to destroy the movement. Adidam then filed its own suit against six former members for abuse of process, extortion, breach of fiduciary duty and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit further charged that these individuals tried to deprive the movement of its "constitutionally protected rights to freedom of religion". Adidam sought $20 million in damages. A lawyer interviewed on behalf of the group said that any alleged abuse had occurred during a period of "experimentation" during the mid 1970's, and that the statute of limitations had run out on any potentially criminal acts. According to Michael Wood, an Adidam lawyer, "the accusations stemmed from a bitter divorce between a current member and former member."

Local media reported that former high ranking members of the church disclosed that despite denials, controversial sexual practices involving the guru had continued up to the time of the lawsuits but had been kept hidden.. An Adidam official later said that no illegal acts took place and the movement had a right to continue experiments in lifestyles.

A Washington Post article reported that "The lawsuits and threatened suits that dogged the group in the mid-1980s were settled with payments and confidentiality agreements, says a California lawyer, Ford Greene, who handled three such cases." Another lawsuit was dismissed by a Superior Court Judge in Marin County, on November 1985.

Reception

Ken Wilber

From 1980 to 1990, philosophical theorist and author Ken Wilber wrote a number of published endorsements and forewords for Adi Da books, including "The Dawn Horse Testament", "The Divine Emergence of the World-Teacher", and "Scientific Proof of the Existence of God Will Soon Be Announced by the White House!" Wilber also recommended Adi Da as a spiritual teacher to those interested in his own writings.

In 1996, Wilber qualified this endorsement of Adi Da in a statement on his publisher's website, stating "Da is capable of some truly exquisite insights, but in other areas, he has fared less well, and this has increasingly verged on the catastrophic."

He then seemed to reverse this qualification in a letter sent privately to the Adidam community in 1998, but made available publicly on the internet in 2001: "Many people have made their way to Master Da because of my own writings. I am completely happy about that...I do not regret those endorsements, nor do I retract them...I affirm my own love and devotion to [Adi Da], and I hope my work will continue to bring students to [Adidam]."

Acknowledging this letter, Wilber then wrote a final statement, again on his publisher's website: "I affirm all of the extremes of my statements about Da: he is one of the greatest spiritual Realizers of all time, in my opinion, and yet other aspects of his personality lag far behind those extraordinary heights. By all means look to him for utterly profound revelations, unequaled in many ways; yet step into his community at your own risk."

Others

Early in his career, the yoga and religious scholar Georg Feuerstein was an admirer of Adi Da. He later amended his position, becoming publicly critical of Adi Da and the community surrounding him in Fiji. Feuerstein devoted a full chapter to Adi Da in his book Holy Madness: Spirituality, Crazy-Wise Teachers, and Enlightenment. In the introduction to a later edition, Feuerstein describes having edited the sections devoted to Adi Da to reflect these changes in opinion.

Spiritual teacher Saniel Bonder, a close student of Adi Da from 1973–1993 and his biographer, says "I participated in and observed the evolution of one of the most exciting and sobering sacred experiments ever made....No matter what Adi Da tried, he couldn’t get people to realize the Divine Self on his terms, surrendering eternally to him as guru. He never really wanted us to duplicate his radical independence and creative originality in life."

In a story about Ed Kowalczyk, lead singer of the band Live, Australian music website timeoff.com reported that "In the press that went along with 1997’s Secret Samadhi [Kowalcyzk] revealed that he was a recent devotee to Adi Da, a guru that he first came into contact with via the internet. Kowalczyk was ridiculed. In spite of this reaction he continues to be open about his spirituality in the media and in his lyrics."

Scott Lowe, PhD[5], was a follower of Adi Da in the 1970s. In an essay analyzing what he'd witnessed, he relates a pattern of "abusive, manipulative, and self-centered" behavior, saying "does it necessarily follow that the individual who is "liberated" is free to indulge in what appear to be egocentric, hurtful, and damaging actions in the name of spiritual freedom? I personally think not, while acknowledging the subtlety and complexity of the ongoing debate.

Author and alternative medicine proponent Gabriel Cousens, M.D. wrote an endorsement for Adi Da's biography The Promised God-Man Is Here saying that "it has deepened my experience of Him as the Divine Gift established in the cosmic domain". He also mentions Adi Da in his books Spiritual Nutrition and Tachyon Energy.

Jeffrey Kripal, PhD, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Israel Regardie, Ken Wilber, and Alan Watts have all written endorsements for books by Adi Da.

See also

• Shawnee Free Jones, a daughter
• Advaita Vedanta
• Nondualism
• Avatar

References

• Chryssides, George. (2001). The A to Z of New Religious Movements. The Rowman Litterfield Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8108-5588-5
• Cousens, Gabriel. (2005). Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and the Awakening of Kundalini. North Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1-55643-499-0
• Crowley, Paul. (2005). Rahner beyond Rahner: A Great Theologian Encounters the Pacific Rim. Rowman & Litterfield. ISBN Number 074254964X
• Daniels, Burton. (2002). The Integration of Psyche and Spirit Volume I: The Structural Model. iUniverse. ISBN 0-595-24181-6
• Ellwood, Robert. (1997)"Nova Religio" book review of "DA: The Strange Case of Franklin Jones", October 1997, Vol. 1, No. 1, Pages 153–153.
• Feuerstein, Georg. (2006). Holy Madness: Spirituality, Crazy-Wise Teachers, And Enlightenment, Hohm Press. ISBN 1-890772-54-2
• Forsthoefel/Humes. (2005). Gurus in America (SUNY Series in Hindu Studies), State University of New York Press. ISBN-07914-6578-4.
• Gallagher, Eugene, Ashcraft, Michael. (2006). Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America [Five Volumes]. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0275987124
• Gallagher, Eugene. (2004). The New Religious Movements Experience in America. Greenwood Press . ISBN 9780313328077
• Gordon, Melton, Gale J. (1999). Religious Leaders of America: A Biographical Guide to Founders and Leaders. 2nd Revised edition. Gale Research Company. ISBN 0810388782.
• Melton, Gordon, Baumann, Martin. (2002). Religions of The World-A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO Ltd. ISBN 1576072231
• Jones, Franklin. (1972). The Knee Of Listening. CSA Press. ISBN 978-0-87707-093-1
• Kripal, Jeffrey J. (2004). Foreword to 'The Knee Of Listening', Dawn Horse Press. ISBN 1-57097-167-6
• Lewis, James R. (2001). Odd Gods: New Religions and the Cult Controversy Book, Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-842-9
• Lowe, Scott and Lane, David. (1996) "DA: The Strange Case of Franklin Jones". Mt. San Antonio College Philosophy Group.
• Rawlinson,Andrew. Book of Enlightened Masters: Western Teachers in Eastern Traditions .Open Court,(1997),ISBN 0812693108
• York, Michael. (2004). Historical Dictionary of New Age Movements. The Rowman Litterfield Publishing Group. ISBN 9780810848733

External links

• Adidam.org: Official Adidam website
• Da Plastique: Adi Da's "Transcendental Realism" art
• The Case of Adi Da by Ken Wilber
• Rick Ross Institute page on Adi Da/Adidam: material compiled by anti-cult activist Rick Ross (includes mirrored news articles)