THE DAIST HYPOTHESIS

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 and 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 rather "exclusive" practice of guru worship, in which "self-contraction" for all beings is withholding from the Da-Guru.

Their belief is that the only way to perfectly undo and release this hypothetical "self-contraction" is to turn and surrender to Franklin Albert Jones (Adi Da), who has told them he is the only perfect and complete embodiment of Divine Reality.

The Da-Guru's attempt to "privatize" the universal Consciousness is astonishing to say the least. 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. And it may prove to be the coup de grace of many self-inflicted blows that Daism has received.

FAILURE OF TRANSMISSION IN DAISM

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 urged to define herself (even after decades of service and surrender) as failing to please the guru. Needless to say, ongoing and constantly repeated disapproval is one of the hallmarks of the Daist ideology.

In consequence, in Daism the guru-disciple relationship long ago reached an unenlightened stasis-point, in which there is an endlessly repeated mantra of blame, and no awakening-transmission occurs. Year after year the Da-Guru only compounds this neurotic situation by berating and belittling his disciples for failing to live up to his demands, and "failing" to release the self-contraction!

AFTER A FEW GOOD YEARS, DAISM BECAME A TEACHING OF CULPABILITY

In the early years there was much laughter in the Daist cult. There was a bouyant sense of impending release, in which every member would attain the same happy state of liberation as the Da-Guru (who was then called Bubba Free John).

Gradually the theme of criticism and verbal abuse became the dominant one in the Guru's communications to devotees. And the possibility of genuine awakening-transmission began to recede into the distance.

The failure of the Da-Guru to enter into genuine awakening-transmission with his followers 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 accept his betrayal and belittlement, to fail to surrender to the Da-Guru, is, in essence, to "resist" the Da-Guru and "withhold" from Divine Reality Itself!

Narcissus (a Daist 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-afflicted 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, including, in the earliest books, the liberating suggestion that the ego "can be allowed to rise and fall, without awakening the motivating sense of dilemma." In this regard, at first glimpse the earlier teaching appears closer to the ancient Buddhist 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".

Later, as we have said, the Da-Guru was not so detached or "understanding" in his view of the ego.

DAISM AT THE END OF THE DAY

A few additional notes and conclusions:

~~ The Daist ideology is not an Absolute, and has never managed to prove itself as an Absolute, or even as a practical teaching (in the way that Buddhism and Advaita are practical). The Daist ideology is but one hypothesis of how humanity is related to spiritual reality. It is by no mean the only hypothesis, and among all hypotheses its extreme exclusivity marks it as the doctrine of a cult.

~~ Close study of the talks of Franklin Jones has shown that the seeds of what Daism ultimately became were present in "the early days". The Daist ideology has always been about a unique and exclusive "avatar", as well as being a philosophy of blame, which assigns a negative value to the conscious state of virtually all human beings (except, of course, Franklin Jones). [Note: a later posting will discuss this conclusion in depth.]

~~ As such, the Daist ideology is not 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.

THE "MURTI GURU" DELUSION

According to the tenets of the Daist ideology, the principle means of awakening-transmission is worship of the Da-Guru. Worship of Franklin Jones will, inevitably, lead to the communication of Adi Da's state of Perfect Liberation to the disciple, effectively "outshining" the imperfect (or egoic) consciousness of the disciple.

At the end of this hypoethetical transmission process, according to the Daist ideology, the disciple does not become "his own man" or "her own woman", in the traditional sense of becoming a Realized Spiritual Master. Rather, the disciple becomes a "murti", or living image of the Da-Guru -- sort of an empty vessel filled to the brim with the Da-Guru. Clearly the "murti-guru" samadhi (if it ever exists) will have much in common with a trance-possession state, or the New Age idea of "channeling".

As such, one gathers, the "murti-guru" will never be recognized or honored in the traditional manner that Realized beings have been honored by spiritual cultures. He or she will never be allowed, within the Daist ideology, the freedom to create their own school or advance a "new" revelation. Rather, the "murti-guru" will only be recognized, within the Daist religion, as a vehicle or "channel" of the Da-Guru. And if the "murti-gurus" should defy the Daist ideology and attempt to create their own school, they will be stripped of recognition and honor. They will be seen as rebels or "dissidents" -- deluded people who have strayed from the true path of Daism.

This, by the way, is where Daism finally parts ways with the ancient teachings, which set men and women free to explore and play with the infinite adaptive and creative possibilities of Spirit. In place of spiritual freedom, Daism wants to institute a long-lasting authoritarian system of pyramidal control not that different from the way nations and religious cults have been constructed for thousands of years.

DAISM HAS DESTROYED ITSELF THROUGH REGRESSION

In my view, Adidam has caused great harm to itself by looking backwards to an archaic and obsolete model of consciousness as structured around a "Big Powerful Man" -- an archetype that reached its "finest expression" in ancient times and has gone nowhere since.

The old model of society had to do with visual space and the pyramidal "perspective psychology" that comes of living in a physical 3-dimensional world that is experienced as an individual body and seen from an individual pair of eyes.

The hierarchical world religions are constructed exactly like 3-dimensional empires, consisting of large populations with power and wealth projected upon and collected at "the top".

The great Spiritual Masters came to destroy such crowd-psychology and restore power and freedom to the individual, by deconstructing the false reality of the perspective mind.

However, in many respects it hardly mattered that Buddha cut through the visual-model 2500 years ago, nor that Christ too announced its obsolesence in the time of ancient Rome. The pyramidal perspective-model continued, in various mutations, right up to the present. And it finds its latest and arguably most sophisticated expression in the teachings of Daism.

The 20th Century's most respected spiritual teacher, Ramana Maharshi, never tired of telling listeners that they didn't have to travel around the world to be with him. That which you seek, he always said, is as close as your own heart.

Franklin Jones appeared to many to be speaking a similar message, in the beginning. But as time passed, it turned out he was speaking of the ancient pyramidal structure of consciousness, with himself "in control" at the pinnacle, circles of sychophants around him, and everyone else gazing in awe (and paying a heavy tax) from a distance.

Although Daists will attempt to argue the inquiring mind out of seeing Daism for what it is, the pyramidal-perspective organization of human beings is the form and reality of Adidam. They are stuck in that shape, in fact -- and they push it with a militant insistence upon the people who approach Frank.

Daists will argue that a pyramidal structure is necessary for any social grouping. (They also argue that democracy is a flawed and failed system.) They will argue that in any case, one shouldn't look for freedom in the form of society, but in the act of surrender to the Da-Guru -- which surrender will bestow upon the worshipper the perfect realization and liberation of the Da-Guru.

They will brush aside suggestions that top-down pyramidal society is, by its very nature, cultic and anti-Spirit, and that it can only survive by mind-control of its members. They will deny the fact that the Da-Guru's autocratic rule of his secret little world is itself the antithesis of "Truth, Light, and Reality" -- the universal Consciousness to which Daism has staked its exclusive claim.

How can Daism ever win? The primal worth of human beings -- "Truth, Light, and Reality" -- is inevitably going to shine forth and break through the archaic Daist mental-model. In fact, that has already happened! Meanwhile Daism continues to collapse inward upon the heavy autocratic personality-cult of Franklin Jones.

In the opinion of this commentator, Frank is the antiquated and retrograde Lord of Visual Space, whose day is over.

That's why he speaks of these years as "The Dark Time."

The Darkness is his own nostalgia for the slave-societies of old, closing over him like an Eternal Gloom.

Elias