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The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru
The Influence of Adi Da Samraj on the First Books of Ken Wilber
By Brad Reynolds
he integral pandit Ken Wilber listed Sat-Guru Adi Da Samraj’s first three books
(published in 1972, 1973, 1974) in his first book The Spectrum of Consciousness
(published in 1977).1 Along with his second book, this phase is now what scholars and
students know as Wilber/Phase-1 or Phase-1 writings, so-named because they still make
the “pre/trans fallacy,” one of Wilber’s later great insights.2 In Wilber’s second book, No
Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth (published in 1979),
also a Phase-1 book, he referenced Adi Da’s Conscious Exercise and the Transcendental
Sun (first edition published in 1974), as well as the Sat-Guru’s magnum opus aptly titled
The Enlightenment of the Whole Body (published in 1978). On the last page of this
popular second book (still in print), a favorite among psychologists to give their patients,
the pandit simply declared: “The works of Bubba Free John [Adi Da] are unsurpassed….
May you be graced to find a spiritual master in this life and enlightenment in the
moment.”3 It’s a justified endorsement coming from the new voice (at that time) in
transpersonal psychology who had seamlessly integrated the types of psychologies and
1 Adi Da’s first three books were The Knee of Listening (1972), The Method of the Siddhas (1973), first published
as Franklin Jones, and then Garbage and the Goddess (1974), published as Bubba Free John; Ken Wilber’s first
two Phase-1 books were The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977) and No Boundary (1979). 2 See my book reviewing Wilber’s writings and “phases”: Embracing Reality: The Integral Vision of Ken Wilber: A
Historical Survey and Chapter-by-Chapter Guide to Wilber’s Major Works (2004, Tarcher/Penguin; 2012,
Paragon House e-book) by Brad Reynolds. 3 Ken Wilber, No Boundary (1979), p. 160 (last page).
T
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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therapies from both Western and Eastern sources—from psychoanalysis to Zen, Gestalt
to TM, existentialism to tantra.
No Boundary culminated with a chapter titled “The Ultimate State of
Consciousness,” while The Spectrum of Consciousness ended with a chapter named “That
Which Is Always Already,” both being about Enlightenment or God-Realization as seen
from the Western (scientific, i.e., psychological) and Eastern (mystical) perspectives.
Author Year Books
Adi Da Samraj 1972, 1973,
1974,1978
Ken Wilber 1977, 1979
This clear recognition and sincere acknowledgement by the integral pandit of the
stature of the Sat-Guru as being “unsurpassed” is what I believe helps give Ken Wilber’s
early writings (including his following Phase-2 and Phase-3 books) some of their unique
enlightening power—and, in a certain sense, possibly makes them even more profound
and enlightened in their overall message than his later AQAL (Phase-4) writings. For the
pandit also, when reflecting back years later on his early books, has said, “That ‘always
already’ is so forcefully stated in this first work is still somewhat amazing to me; but
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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then, not really.”4 It’s not really so surprising since Wilber was deeply attracted to the
enlightening wisdom of Adi Da Samraj’s first books, which used the revelation and
phrase of “always already” or “always already the case” to refer to the Divine Reality (of
Real God); it is one of the Sat-Guru’s principle communications of the Enlightened State.
Adi Da wrote about his first clear recognition of this natural awareness (or Enlightened
State) while attending Columbia University in the early 1960s (importantly, this
awakening was not related to the drug use of the Sixties):
In that great moment of awakening I knew the truth was not a matter of
seeking. There were no “reasons” for joy and freedom…. In this state beyond
all contradiction I also saw that freedom and joy is not attained, that it is not
dependent on any form, object, idea, progress or experience. I saw that we are,
at any moment, always and already free. I knew that I was not lacking
anything I needed yet to find, nor had I ever been without such a thing. The
problem was seeking itself, which created and enforced contradiction, conflict
and absence within. Then the idea arose that I am always already free.5
For a human being to be “always already free,” contradicts the widespread but
mistaken spiritual idea that you need to seek for God, to submit to arduous tasks of
ascetic (and yogic) disciplines to know the truth of the Divine Reality (or the Godhead).
As Adi Da realized, “You are what is always, already in relationship to whatever arises.”6
Therefore, he continued, “The man who understands, who is always already free, is never
4 Ken Wilber, “Introduction to Volume One,” The Collected Works of Ken Wilber, Volume One (1999), p. xi. 5 Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening (1972), p. 15. 6 Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening (1972), p. 200.
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
4
touched by the divisions of the mind.”7 It’s a perfect integration of the oneness or prior
unity of interiors and exteriors, of the mind and body, heart and truth, of Spirit and
reality, of God and the world, of Nirvana and samsara. From the start, Wilber recognized
this unique quality in Adi Da’s writings, for the root of his attraction (indeed, the root of
the Sat-Guru’s Teaching altogether) seemed to be in how effortlessly the young “Franklin
Jones” (Adi Da’s name at the time, and ten years Wilber’s senior) could express this
profound paradox. When someone realizes this Enlightened State, they usually end up
speaking in the language of mystics, as did Adi Da but with an eloquence and beauty
rarely equaled: “I am the one who always and already exists, enjoying his own form as all
conditions and states.”8 The young pandit was deeply impressed and immediately took
notice, as have many other people serious about genuine spirituality when they read the
remarkable writings of the Avataric Sage Adi Da Samraj.
However, it’s also important to note that by the time Wilber had written out The
Spectrum of Consciousness in the winter of 1973, the pandit’s reliance on the Teachings
of the Sat-Guru was still minimal, but nevertheless profound and enlightening. Mostly he
had gained his insights for his groundbreaking “spectrum psychology” from his extensive
research and reading across all the available literature of East and West. I’m suggesting,
therefore, that the works of the Sat-Guru helped bring together in a unifying fashion the
pandit’s entire enterprise with a focus he might not have otherwise attained, especially
with the important emphasis on Enlightenment as being “always already the case.” Yet,
without doubt, the “spectrum of consciousness” model was purely the innovation of Ken
7 Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening (1972), p. 226. 8 Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening (1972), p. 266.
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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Wilber alone, although many philosophical and psychological giants influenced him
along the way, from Western geniuses to Eastern mystics. By the time Wilber began
“writing” his first book in his head during the winter of ’72, it had only been a few
months since the Sat-Guru had published his first book, The Knee of Listening (in
August), so the pandit had yet to discover it and incorporate its teachings and radical
message. But it would not be long before Adi Da’s influence would make its mark.
Apparently, Wilber saw The Knee of Listening for the first time after he had
visited his first living Zen Master, Roshi Philip Kapleau (author of The Three Pillars of
Zen) at a health spa in Mexico in the early Seventies. Wilber tells the
humorous leela of “The Scorpion and the Zen Master” in his
Biography Project, Life Footnotes, Volume One, about how a
dangerous scorpion entered the room where several students were
sitting in zazen meditation, yet no one knew what to do as the
poisonous arthropod scooted across the floor. The Roshi, however, didn’t hesitate for a
moment when with one whack of his sandal he killed the scorpion dead in its tracks —
perfect Zen action of no-mind. However, what he doesn’t tell in the Biography Project
interview (but shared with me once during a phone conversation) is that on his way home
he swung through San Francisco to visit some friends in the Castro District. While sitting
in a hot tub with two gay friends, they told him about this amazing new teacher they had
discovered, and thus introduced him to The Knee of Listening. Accordingly, Ken told me,
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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he had “never read anything that spoke so true.”9 Forty years later, in an interview with
Terry Patten, Wilber conceded the same feeling-response:
When I read The Knee of Listening I just fell apart. It was stunning. Probably
had as big an impact on me as any single book… along with, of course,
everybody’s most influential beloved guy, Ramana Maharshi. But the original
version of The Knee of Listening was stunning, I mean, it changed me
profoundly.10
By the winter of 1973, when Wilber finally wrote out The Spectrum in longhand,
about half a year after Adi Da had released his second book, The Method of the Siddhas
(published in July), the pandit had already formulated his basic concepts for the “levels”
in “the spectrum of consciousness.” In other words, Adi Da’s Teaching had been a
minimal influence on Wilber’s overall spectrum psychological theories at that time, yet
he did emphasize the Sat-Guru’s radical message about the self-contraction. Although
buried in a footnote, recognizing the self-contraction has remained a fundamental premise
in all of Wilber’s subsequent writings (such as with his current “primordial avoidance”):
We should note here that the Existential Level, as the embodiment of the
Primary and Secondary dualisms, is very much a cramp or perturbation, the
cramp or perturbation, lying at the root of man’s “self”-identity. Further, it is
this cramp, which Benoit calls a spasm and Franklin Jones [Adi Da] calls a
contraction, that is the fundamental motor of all man’s activities. And the fuel
9 Ken Wilber, personal communication to author, August 30, 1995. 10 Ken Wilber recorded interview, Bay Area Integral (BAI) with Terry Patten and Dustin DiPerna, January
2015, 19:53.
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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for this motor is one type only: the desire to return to the Garden, to reunite
with God, which is, of course, God’s desire to find himself.11
The self-contraction, the image of egoic activity that
the Sat-Guru calls “Narcissus” (symbolically represented by
the clinched fist), became embedded in all of the pandit’s
work from then on. This gives Wilber’s work a radical
profundity that exceeds all other psychological models
(which themselves don’t understand they too are seeking for
wholeness instead of realizing it). Attempting to express the level of nondual
Enlightenment (symbolically represented by an open hand), the last chapter of The
Spectrum of Consciousness is titled “That Which Is Always Already” (after Adi Da’s
phrase). This clearly shows that the Sat-Guru offered an enlightened confirmation to what
Wilber’s initial approach in integrating Eastern mysticism and Western science was
bringing to fruition. In his first groundbreaking book, the pandit simply referenced The
Knee of Listening by explaining, “‘It is always already the
case’ is a phrase used extensively by Franklin Jones [Adi
Da Samraj].”12 The pandit, in other words, from the very
beginning always noted that Adi Da was already
Enlightened and was one of the spiritual giants upon
whom his own work would stand.
11 Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), p. 157, 37n. 12 Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), p. 343, 36n.
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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Therefore, it seems irrefutable that Wilber relied on the radical clarification being
provided by Adi Da’s Realization and Teaching to buttress his final chapters in both of
his first two books. These concluding chapters were intended to be transcendental
summaries of the preceding ones that covered the “lower” levels of human development
(that of psychology and the mind). This is because in many of Wilber’s books he tends to
address the lower conscious and subconscious/unconscious levels of human development
first, covered so well by Western psychology, and then “adds on” the “higher”
transpersonal levels so adeptly covered by Eastern mysticism (and esoteric spirituality in
general, East or West, North or South).
Wilber took this approach in his later phases as well. For instance, both books
Sex, Ecology, Spirituality and A Brief History of Everything (published in 1995 and 1996,
respectively) ended with a nondual reminder eloquently rendered as beautiful mystical
musings. The Eye of Spirit (published in 1997), a wonderful collection of integral essays,
would close with a chapter again titled “Always Already: The Brilliant Clarity of Ever-
Present Awareness.” Thus, beginning with Phase-1 of his career,
the Western-educated pandit set a template where he first cleverly
integrates the potentials of human development along a unified
“spectrum of consciousness” (or AQAL Matrix) with each
bandwidth (or “altitude”) addressing a different “level” or
“structure” or stage (or state) of human possibility. But then he
usually ends his books with a free expression of the enlightened state of awareness that
“transcends but includes” all previous levels as the nondual expression of One
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
9
Consciousness. It’s a powerful approach, grounded in the pandit’s own spiritual
awakening and intellectual brilliance.
But what is “It” that is “always already the case”? It is Reality Itself — which for
Adi Da is “the Heart” taking the form of “Amrita Nadi,” the immortal current of Divine
Love-Bliss that is the ineffable Absolute Light (or the “Bright”) of all existence (and all
possible universes), circulating from the heart (on the right side) to the Light above the
head. It is an esoteric matter of the highest yoga, the secret essence of all religions and
the deepest insight of all Spiritual Sages; it’s ineffable but can be realized as “the Feeling
of Being” (another phrase of Adi Da’s used by Ken Wilber). But it is also a truth that
everyone intuits in his or her own heart, for, after all, it is always already the case, it is
the Truth of God, it is Reality. Thus it cannot be gained or acquired, but only realized, for
it’s always already true, always already real. This tacit understanding — knowing your
“own true nature” (as Zen says) — is realized by what Adi Da calls the Man or Woman
of Radical Understanding. The Sat-Guru brilliantly affirmed these revelations in less than
three hundred pages in his first published work, The Knee of Listening (1972, 2004),
which also confirmed what Sri Ramana Maharishi had been teaching earlier in the
twentieth-century about Amrita Nadi, as these several passages show:
The Heart is the Guru. The Amrita Nadi [or Atma Nadi] is his Form. The bliss of
unqualified enjoyment is his Teaching. The knowledge of all this is liberation and
freedom. The enjoyment of all this is Reality. The existence of all this is Truth. The
activity of all of this is Understanding, And understanding is real life.13
13 Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening (1972), p. 197.
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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To know what arises in truth is simply to be in relationship to what arises. To
be in relationship to what arises is the simple, unqualified action and nature of the
Heart. Thus, Understanding is simply to be in relationship to what arises, and not
to be confused in what arises by process of identification, differentiation, or
desire.14
There is only unqualified relationship realized in enquiry to be already the
case. This realization is simply consciousness as the Amrita Nadi, the form of
reality, and it is experienced as the “Bright,” the unconditional bliss of presence,
of Perfect Knowledge, whose source is the heart, reality itself. Therefore, the
“Bright” is the form of that reality which is consciousness. It is true and real, the
birthright of all existence.15
This is the Heart-Master’s Call, the Sat-Guru’s Declaration, which has touched
tens of thousands (or more) so far, including the famous integral pandit. As a
consequence, Wilber titled his first book’s last chapter as a deep bow of respect to the
radical clarification given by Adi Da at the beginning of both their publishing careers. In
this concluding chapter, the twenty-something Wilber summarized with a scholarly
acumen rarely matched in reviewing the Enlightenment Tradition of humankind, arising
from both Eastern and Western sources, as these several passage demonstrate:
Now precisely because Mind [i.e., Consciousness] is everywhere and
everywhen, because it is always already the case, there is no possibility or even
meaning in “trying to find It” or in “trying to reach It,” for that would imply a
14 Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening (1972), p. 204. 15 Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening (1972), p. 193 [italics added].
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
11
movement from a place where [Consciousness] is absent to a place where it is
present—but there is no place where is it absent.16
Brahman [Real God] is not a particular experience, level of consciousness or
state of soul—rather it is precisely whatever level you happen to have now, and
realizing this confers upon one a profound center of peace that underlies and
persists throughout the worst depressions, anxieties, and fears.17
Put simply, that in you right now which knows, which sees, which reads this
page—that is the Godhead, Mind, Brahman, and it cannot be seen or known as an
object, just as an eye cannot see it itself.18
In other words, it is the [nondual] mode of knowing, knowing all without
separation from any. And one instant of this pure awareness is itself
[Consciousness]. Whether we realize it or not, it is always already the case [here
Wilber footnotes The Knee of Listening].19
Both men were pointing to Divine Enlightenment, to nondual awareness, to God-
Realization, by whatever name. But one of them was to become a channel of
psychological philosophy laced with more adequate (and integral) translations, the other
set out to transform the world, one devotee at a time. Together they became like-minded
souls sent by God to bring light into the staggering darkness of an unenlightened
humanity by first recognizing that understanding the ego-I as an activity of self-
16 Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), last chapter “That Which Is Always Already,” p. 299
[italics added]; Wilber uses “Mind,” which is really Consciousness, in the context of Buddhist translations
from that period in history. 17 Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), last chapter “That Which Is Always Already,” p. 298. 18 Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), last chapter “That Which Is Always Already,” p. 305. 19 Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), last chapter “That Which Is Always Already,” p. 315
[italics added].
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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contraction is the true “method” to undo the search for God, to release the dilemma of
seeking and avoiding the always already God-in-the-Moment that humankind incessantly
suffers from. As the pandit perfectly ended his first book:
To completely awaken to the Now, to awaken from the nightmare of history,
is to suffer the death of the future-less Present… this Great Death, this total
dying to the future by seeing Now-only… Yet every moment is this moment,
for there is no other, and hence in this moment we are always already
suffering “instant death” and thus we are always already awakening to that
which has no future… and hence to that which is Unborn, and therefore to that
which is Undying. Always already suffering death Now, we are always
already living eternally. The search is always already over.20
This seems, in essence, to echo the brilliance found on the last pages of the Sat-Guru’s
first book as well:
The Man of Understanding is not entranced. He is not elsewhere. He is not
having an experience. He is not passionless and inoffensive. He is awake. He
is present. He knows no obstruction in the form of mind, identity,
differentiation and desire. He is passionate. His quality is an offense to those
who are entranced, elsewhere, contained in the mechanics of experience,
asleep, living as various forms of identity, separation and dependence. He is
acceptable only to those who understand.
Thus, the Man of Understanding is constantly happy with you. He is
overwhelmed with happiness. He says to you: See how there is only this world
of perfect enjoyment, where everyone is happy, and everything is blissful. His
20 Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), p. 339.
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heart is always tearful with the endless happiness of the world.... He smiles at
you. You notice it. Everything has already died. This is the other world.21
My reading-scholarship suggests it is the middle section
in The Knee of Listening called “The Wisdom of Understanding”
that must have reinforced the last chapter of Wilber’s first book,
for this is where Adi Da extensively used the phrase “always
already” in relation to radical understanding. Wilber would take
this message to heart, and within a few more years his own satori
or awakening in the late 1970s (at a Zen meditation retreat) proved its profound
authenticity and helped resolve an intellectually unsolvable paradox for the pandit (that
became known as the “pre-trans fallacy”). In this section of his first book, the Sat-Guru
beautifully describes the wisdom he gained from a radical understanding of the
contracting activity of the separate self, the avoidance of relationship and the self’s
refusal to love. This radical (meaning “root” or “most fundamental”) understanding, in
turn, allows for the transcendence of all forms of seeking (or the common dilemma in all
people). This is the principle “Argument” of the Sat-Guru:
We are never at any moment in the dilemma we fear ourselves to be. Only this
radical understanding in the heart of life is the ground of real peace and joy.
All else is seeking and strife and fear. Therefore, it is not a matter that
concerns us exclusively, apart from anything else. It is not an alternative to
any experience. It is always already the case. This radical understanding is the
only real liberation, and it alone is the truth and realization of this moment.22
21 Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening (1972), “The Epilogue,” p. 271. 22 Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening (1972), pp. 224-225.
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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In Wilber’s second book, as another example, the last chapter of No Boundary
(1979) titled “The Ultimate State of Consciousness” credits both Roshi Suzuki’s popular
book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (1970) and The Knee of
Listening (1972) as being its basic inspiration.23 On the last page
of No Boundary, the pandit recommends (along with other
spiritual teachers) the Sat-Guru’s book The Enlightenment of the
Whole Body (1978), where he, as already mentioned, concedes
without qualification: “The works of Bubba Free John [Adi Da
Samraj] are unsurpassed.”24 By the time of EWB, this had become practically irrefutable
(among those familiar with Adi Da’s literature), leading the pandit to pen several strong
endorsements over the coming years. Indeed, in the last sentence of his second book, the
pandit prayerfully confesses: “May you be graced to find a
spiritual master in this life and enlightenment in the
moment.”25 Wilber was always from the very beginning of his
career, in other words, motivated to move from theoria
(theory) to praxis (practice), as he summarizes: “Spiritual
practice is not one activity among other human activities; it is
the ground of all human activities, their source and their
23 Ken Wilber, No Boundary (1979, Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications), Preface, p. iii. 24 Ken Wilber, No Boundary (1979, Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications), p. 160. 25 Ken Wilber, No Boundary (1979, Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications), p. 160.
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
15
validation.”26 This clear understanding was, no doubt, stimulated in part by the Sat-
Guru’s insistence on sadhana or genuine spiritual life and devotion in order to engage the
transcendence of the self-contraction (or the ego-I), in addition to the pandit’s own Zen
training and deep appreciation of the world’s wisdom traditions.
Without question, as we’ll continue to see, the Sat-Guru Adi Da Samraj has been
a major influence on the pandit Ken Wilber from the start of his career, although they
both had different agendas regarding the purpose of their work. One was a Sat-Guru, the
other a pandit. This means, for one, the Sat-Guru is more concerned with a
transformation that radically transcends evolution in the spectrum of consciousness,
while the pandit is more concerned with an integral or authentic translation or
stabilization in a particular stage or “altitude” along the spectrum (e.g., the integral-
centaur stage or “turquoise” level). This difference in approach has occurred for justified
reasons, as I hope to show in this book. Most simply (and obviously), one is a brilliant
intellectual pandit, the other a radiantly bright Sat-Guru.
Showing that his own wisdom (and integral model) went beyond the goals of
modern psychology, Wilber long ago recognized that “we need to understand the process
which gives rise to conceptualization so we can cut it off at its root source.”27 But how do
“we” or “I” actually do that? How do we get there (enlightenment) from here (ego)? The
answer is clear: we need to understand or re-cognize (or “know again”) our own activity
of self-contraction, our narcissistic tendency to be self-involved, to have our identity with
the ego-I dominate our experience of the world. In Adi Da’s terms, this is “Hearing” his
26 Ken Wilber, No Boundary (1979, Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications), p. 160. 27 Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), p. 310.
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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Teaching Argument in the Way of Radical Understanding. Thus, as the pandit too
realizes: “Strictly speaking, we cannot enter Eternity, since Eternity is ever-present,” or
that “we will find It Now, or we will find It not at all.”28 But how do “we” actually do
that (i.e., “find It”) since “we” (or “I”) is what is always obstructing this Realization (of
Eternity) in the first place by the activity of self-contraction? As the Sat-Guru already
explained, “freedom and joy is not attained” — so then how is it realized? The pandit, in
his first book, does offer some suggestions, such as with Benoit’s “inner gesture of
vigilant awareness,” or advice from Krishnamurti; today Wilber proposes an “integral life
practice.”29
Now, of course, in the opening decades of the 21st-century the pandit has created
an entire integral movement addressing this concern. However, none of these methods
will really work, even with the sophisticated versions of AQAL, for, in the end, they’re
still methods of seeking, techniques of self-improvement (or egoic-enhancement), not
self-surrender (or egoic-transcendence). Hence, Wilber noted this paradoxical difficulty
from his first book: “We must disperse (or rather see through) the fictitious primary
dualism [Narcissus] and thus awaken the second mode of knowing, our nondual and non-
conceptual awareness, for that and that alone will reveal Reality, which is always already
the case.”30 Absolutely correct; according to both Sat-Guru and pandit.
Although he never committed himself to Satsang in the Sat-Guru’s Company, the
pandit had undoubtedly “heard” the radical truth and teaching of Adi Da Samraj.
28 Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), p. 307 [italic added]. 29 See: Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, et al, Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health,
Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening (2008, Boston & London: Integral Books). 30 Ken Wilber, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), p. 317.
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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Throughout his entire career Wilber would continue to justify and explain the process of
Radical Understanding with his own intellectual acumen and integral terms, the proper
profession for any genuine pandit. He has not wavered in his dedication to build a bridge
to enlightened understanding for the world of unenlightened humanity, which itself
operates on lesser levels (or stages and states) of consciousness development. “Integral”
has become the pandit’s method, while the Sat-Guru remains true to Satsang and
Enlightenment Only (or the “seventh stage of life”). Nonetheless, both men are among
the world’s most brilliant expositors of esoteric spirituality based on an awakened heart
founded within a direct and personal Realization of God (or Ultimate Reality). To them
both we, as spiritual practitioners, shall remain eternally grateful, while also recognizing
they each offer different approaches. Yet, in many ways, they are both intimately
intertwined and philosophically linked since both their teachings emerged during the last
decades of the recent millennium and the opening years of the new one.
But the question for the Ages still remains: how do “we” or “I” actually awaken
to our ever-present awareness that is always already the case? Since Wilber is wise
enough to know that philosophical “maps” alone will not do this (including his current
AQAL model) — for “the map is not the territory” — we can only agree. But where
Wilber fails to provide adequate methods other than years of integral life practice and
meditation, I would like to assert that only an authentic relationship with an Enlightened
Siddha-Guru freely offers this Awakening Grace. Just by coming into the Company of
the Avatar-Adept or Sat-Guru you can connect with Adi Da’s Enlightened Transmission
so you may know God directly, for real. But first you must give him your attention; listen
to his teaching; look into what he has to offer you. This is the “method” of Satsang or
The Pandit: Standing on the Shoulders of the Sat-Guru (2015) by Brad Reynolds
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that which awakens a person to the Truth that is always already the case via the energy
transmission of an Awakened Adept (even now after his death this is possible). Then
sadhana or spiritual practice becomes a possibility in response to this awakening, yet
done without seeking and as a living relationship with the Divine Love-Bliss (or
“Conscious Light”) that is indeed “always already the case.”
This is how Truth is revealed without seeking: being in the Company of the Sat-
Guru, the Awakened Adept, and this has always been the esoteric “secret” hidden in all
the world’s religious traditions (for they too all originate with a primary Spiritual
Master). It’s not realized by reading books, making sophisticated maps and models,
becoming integral (or a “centaur” or “turquoise”), or by becoming more evolved or
knowledgeable, or even becoming “Superhuman” (a recent promotion of Wilber’s).
Simply being an enlightened human being, happy and awake, will do perfectly well. Thus
it’s by coming into the company of the wise, sitting at the feet of an Enlightened Sage,
that we help ourselves the most, as all the scriptures universally declare. Only Satsang as
God-Realization Here-Now is always already Free to reveal the truth of our Divine
Condition. It’s available for everybody-all-at-once, if we turn to our Divine Help given in
the form of Sat-Guru Adi Da Samraj (or another appropriate Enlightened Master).
As stated, Adi Da’s influence helped give Wilber’s integral work some of its
incredible enlightening power and potency, from the very beginning, providing radical
insight into the activity of the self and its “self-contraction,” as I just explained. Many
have indeed wondered how such a young man (who was less than thirty years old) could
be so adequate to such an all-encompassing enlightened understanding. But Ken Wilber
was being served by all the enlightened Masters of the planet’s past through translations
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and sacred texts, as well as by those living in his day, such as with his Zen roshis and via
Adi Da Samraj, in particular. Thus, truly, both geniuses — the Sat Guru and the Pandit —
were shining brightly in their own fields of expertise at the end of the second millennium
opening into a new era of enlightened understanding. We owe them both a great debt of
gratitude and praise for their enlightening insights beyond the modern mind of scientific
materialism and philosophical reductionism.
Nevertheless, I suggest it’s no mere coincidence that by the mid-1970s, before his
first book was even published, Ken Wilber had already read each of Adi Da’s
unprecedented first three books, some of the most powerful spiritual treatises ever
written. He even took correspondence classes with the Sat-Guru’s Ashram, already
showing an adequate adeptness in his understanding beyond the ordinary student.31 Thus
the American Adept’s Teachings radiated an underlying and unifying force behind the
integrity of Wilber’s written work when he debuted his spectrum of consciousness model
in the mid-1970s (and into the future). Yet, since Wilber does not quote Adi Da directly,
but only mentions him and lists his books in the bibliography, it’s better to see the Sat-
Guru’s influence as an enlightening force of support, not the sole guiding light.
As explained, I freely acknowledge that Ken Wilber did not exclusively rely on
the Sat-Guru’s Teachings to generate his integral East-West synthesis. Far from it;
Wilber’s integral model was a natural product of his own genius based upon the
integration of hundreds of researchers, East and West, all of whom he read extensively
and quoted with a savant-like memory (Wilber’s IQ is supposedly off the scales). Wilber,
31 See: Ken Wilber recorded interview, Bay Area Integral (BAI) with Terry Patten and Dustin DiPerna,
January 2015, where they speak about Wilber’s correspondence classes with instructor William Tsiknas
(one of Adi Da’s senior devotees).
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like any genuine genius, was standing on the shoulders of many previous giants in
humanity’s wisdom tradition. In his first few books (and articles published in esteemed
professional psychology journals), the pandit mostly addressed the integration of the
Western schools of psychology embraced by his own intuitive insight into the underlying
“Unity Consciousness” (in his words), which was revealed to him by his own experiential
practices of meditation, and specifically, by his Zen training. Yet, the free heart of
expression given by Adi Da’s brilliant writings, from the very beginning, inspired and
informed Wilber’s own genius. That seems irrefutable, especially when considering the
unmitigated praise Wilber lavishes upon Adi Da and his published works during the next
decade. (His later modified recants are the subject for another essay).
Overall, to be clear, Adi Da’s free expression of God-Realization mostly appears
to have confirmed Wilber’s integral synthesis from the perspective of an Enlightened
Realizer, an accomplishment that exceeds even Wilber’s own high level of development.
Plus, as Wilber has always said, he himself is merely “a pandit, not a guru,” whereas Adi
Da Samraj is only a guru, a Sat-Guru, a Mahasiddha, an Enlightened Realizer who not
only transforms individuals but who has also begun to change the course of religious
history on this planet.
Nevertheless, as inspired as the pandit seemed to be by the Sat-Guru’s radical
truth that we’re always already free, he still did not seem to fully “hear” the message that
to undermine the tendency to seek for truth a person must establish a living relationship
with a Sat-Guru (or Awakened Adept) in Satsang. This is an important requirement long-
held by the world’s wisdom traditions, and one that should not be overlooked, even in the
modern (and postmodern) era. Since for Adi Da the Way of Radical Understanding “is
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not a synthesis of the ways of seeking,”32 but a way of living the truth of ever-present
God-Realization by transcending the self-contraction and fulfilling one’s divine destiny.
Adi Da is quite clear this intellectual tendency to make maps or models, to generate
philosophy and methods of salvation (even evolutionary and progressive ones), must be
thoroughly transcended in the heart of Real God-Realization. He has made this clear from
his very first book:
The trend to “synthesis” is only a synthesis of the kinds of seeking. It
adapts the various separate activities of the great search to an inclusive
philosophy and technique. But it remains a form of seeking….
The Way of Understanding, as it developed in my case, is not a synthesis
of the ways of seeking. It is a single, direct and radical approach to life. And
that approach is itself, from the beginning, entirely free from dilemma and
search. It has nothing to do with the various motivations of the great search.
From the beginning, it rests in the primary enjoyment and truth that all
seeking pursues.33
This is not surprising. The pandit is obviously a brilliant philosopher, an integral
synthesizer, and this is an important function, but Wilber is not an enlightened Guru
calling people into a transformative relationship of spiritual awakening. The pandit’s
work will not set you free — for you are always already free — thus it too creates its own
set of illusions and complexities by being less than Divine Enlightenment. The Integral
Vision, in other words, for all it has to recommend it (which is much) is still just another
form of seeking, one of map-making and “figuring it all out” that still needs to be
32 Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening (1972), p. 166. 33 Adi Da Samraj, The Knee of Listening (1972), p. 166.
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transcended (and included) in the all-embracing wisdom of Divine Communion. It’s fine
to have “maps” and “methods” to better understand the relative facts of the universe
(such as with science), and even to use “myths” and religions to give us moral support in
proper social behavior, for instance. But to know the truth of Absolute Reality, Real God,
the Supreme Self (or Divine Person) is the only true way to liberation and Enlightenment,
to real love practiced as an all-embracing compassion. We must begin there, for it’s
always already here.
The scholar-pandit, in other words, is just the finger pointing to the moon; the
Guru is the moon, or better, the light reflected on the moon. One (the pandit) transmits
education; the other (the Sat-Guru) transmits Holy Spirit. One pursues the immanent; the
other embodies the transcendent. Thus, this is where the two part company: one
translates, the other transforms; the pandit encourages better horizontal adaptation and
integration; the Sat-Guru initiates vertical transcendence as ever-present God-
Communion in Satsang, respectively. While we can embrace both for their specific
function and service to humankind, for both men are unmatched in human history, it’s
still up to each of us to recognize their differences in order to decide what path or
“method” offers us the richer opportunity for actually discovering, waking up to, and then
growing up within That Divine Reality which is in fact “always already the case.” I
suspect both men will be extremely useful for anyone and everyone for a long time to
come. But Grace leans in the direction of Enlightenment pointing us towards the original
source of the always already Enlightened Teaching and Transmission of the Heart.