Centralmost to the Daist ideology is the idea that all people are contracting around a self-idea, or "ego", and separating themselves from God or Divine Reality, which is seen as expansive, all-relational and all-inclusive Consciousness, perfectly embodied once for all time in Franklin Albert Jones (aka Adi Da).

The hypothesis of a "self-contraction" is not a new one -- in fact it is a very old one -- but Daists have made their version of the idea into the cornerstone of their "exclusive-to-Adi Da" idol worship.

Their belief is that in order to undo and release this hypothetical "self-contraction" one must turn and surrender to Franklin Albert Jones (Adi Da), who, since the mid-1980s, has taught that he is the only perfect and complete embodiment of Divine Reality. ("No one compares to Me!")

This teaching that the Universal Consciousness is now the exclusive possession of Adidam is only one of the the many Daist false teachings -- but one could point out that it is the principlee reason Daism has been soundly rejected by thousands of spiritually advanced people.

The Da-Guru's attempt to co-opt and "privatize" the Universal Consciousness is astonishing to many observers. In retrospect, the various stages of Franklin Albert Jones' teaching career can be seen as laying the groundwork for a foolish power-grab, in which Jones would proclaim himself the dominant wisdom-figure "past, present, and for all time to come."

Franklin Albert Jones' claim to be the definitive God-Realizer and Buddha in all of human history has excited ridicule among long-time practitioners of Eastern paths. In fact, this claim is proving to be the coup de grace of many self-inflicted blows that Daism has received -- doing far more damage to Adi Da than the revelation that he has been a sexual abuser who made porno films of his devotees.

DAISTS MAY ONLY REALIZE THE STATE OF POSSESSION BY ADI DA

According to the tenets of the Daist religion, worship of the Da-Guru is the principle means of releasing the "self-contraction"; worship of the Da-Guru will, eventually, lead to the communication of Adi Da's state of Perfect Liberation to the disciple.

At the pinnacle of this transmission process, according to the Daist ideology, the disciple does not become an independent Realized Spiritual Master, in the traditional sense. Rather, according the Adi Da, the disciple will become a "murti-guru", or living image of the Da-Guru -- sort of a hollowed-out gourd possessed by and filled-to-overflowing with the Da-Guru's luminous energy and consciousness.

As such, one gathers, the "murti-guru" will never be recognized or honored as a spiritual wisdom figure, nor will they receive the traditional respect that Realized beings have been given in the East. He or she will never be allowed to venture forth and create their own school or religion.

Rather, the "murti-guru" will only recognized within the Daist religion, and then only as a vehicle of the Da-Guru.

In the unlikely event that any of the "murti-gurus" should break with the Daist ideology and attempt to create their own school, they will be stripped of recognition and honor among Daists. They will be seen as rebels or "dissidents", deluded people who have strayed from the true path of Daism.

FAILURE OF TRANSMISSION

The idea of transmission-of-state from Guru to disciple is ancient and venerable. However, transmission is unlikely to occur if the disciple is continually defined to herself (even after decades of service and surrender) as failing to please the guru. (And disciples failure to please the Da-Guru is the Daist mantra.)

Ongoing approval-disapproval is one of the hallmarks of Daist ideology. Every action (and every thought) of every disciple is continuously vulnerable to judgement and evaluation by the Da-Guru, his subordinates, the community at large, and the disciple herself (through the internalization of the Da-Guru's demands).

In Daism the authoritarian quality of the guru-disciple relationship caused it to long ago reached a stasis in which no awakening-transmission occurs. Year after year the Da-Guru only compounds the situation by endlessly berating disciples for failing to live up to his demands, and "failing" to release the self-contraction!

And so Daism developed not as a transmission of the Realization, but as a circular teaching of culpability.

A DHARMA OF CULPABILITY BECOMES "THE COMPLETING REVELATION"

The failure of the Da-Guru to enter into genuine awakening-transmission is made all the more absurd by the fact that Daism claims to be "the final revelation" of God, the one true path of enlightenment, and the ONLY way to realize Divine Reality.

According to Daist ideology, to fail to put attention upon the Da-Guru, to fail to surrender to the Da-Guru, is, in essence, to "resist" the Da-Guru and "withhold" from Divine Reality. Narcissus (a name for the ego or self-idea) is defined then as an adversary of the Da-Guru and his Grace. The ego is defined as Da-Guru's self-contracted opponent, struggling in vain against the radiant transmission of the Perfect Liberation of Divine Realization.

Throughout the Daist rubric there are numerous variations on this theme. However, in the earliest books, one finds the suggestion that the ego "can be allowed to rise and fall, without awakening the motivating sense of dilemma." In this regard, the earlier teaching is closer to the ancient idea that Liberation is the natural state of existence which has been covered up by an error of view -- or, as Franklin Jones used to put it, "the failure to Understand".

However, in its emphasis on Narcissus, even early Daist ideology is a philosophy of blame, which assigns a negative value to the conscious state of virtually all human beings (except, of course, Franklin Jones).

As such, in the view of this commentator, the Daist ideology is not and has never been a teaching of Liberation, but a teaching of culpability, or sin, not that different from ancient patriarchal systems in which guilt was assigned (and forgiven) from a central authority.

Elias