Falling into Grace (Adyashanti)
Falling into Dis-Grace
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of Falling into Grace: Insights on the End of Suffering†by Adyashanti.]
Perhaps this book should have been entitled “Confessions of an Ignorant Guru,†for Adyashanti, as he does in many of his other books, confesses his utter ignorance. He writes, “I really saw that I had never understood anything. I had not understood a single thing… I really didn’t know anything.â€
The spiritual cognoscenti who read this book will doubtless agree with his self-assessment, for as the content of this text proves, he is an Un-en-Light-ened “guru†who is clueless regarding the purported subject matter of this text – Grace –and the other spiritual subjects he touches upon.
What’s seemingly amazing is how an admittedly ignorant guru could have so much to say on spiritual matters, churning out one book and audible after another. How can this be? It’s called $$$, a business. As long as the sheep keep ponying up for the prattle, he’ll keep dishing it out. A second answer is that he really doesn’t have much to say: every book is just a rehash of the others. It’s called rewriting the same book over and over again under different titles.
If you’re looking for a “guru†with the profundity of a petunia, Adyashanti could be your cup of tea. His talks are utterly bereft of verticality, totally devoid of an esoteric dimension. Comparing Adyashanti to Ramana Maharshi, a true Guru, is like comparing a Yugo to a Rolls Royce. His spiritual shtick is psychologized Dharma and stories. When it comes to the nuts and bolts or nitty-gritty of the Atman project, he is nowhere to be found. Whereas Ramana would engage devotees in provocative talks about subjects such as Amrita Nadi, Jnana vritti, Kundalini, Shaktipat, samadhis, and cutting the Heart-knot as a precursor to Self-realization, Adyashanti sticks to tired homiletic monologues, which will entertain the spiritually unsophisticated, but bore the spiritually astute.
Adyashanti is a contradiction-riddled preceptor who speaks out of both sides of his mouth. He informs us, “There is no such thing as a true thought,†then expands upon this theme: “If we allow this idea that no thought is actually real or true to sink into the core of our being, we can complete this shift in consciousness.†First off, if no thoughts are true, then why does he peddle one book and audio after another that are filled with his unreal, untrue thoughts? Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t answer this question, and elsewhere writes, “Words are important.†How can words be important if the thoughts behind them are unreal and untrue? Secondly, the words he uses are usually vague and unspecific, reflective of the fog he lives in and perpetrates. For example, consider his description of Grace:
“In the gap of not knowing, in the suspense of any conclusion, a whole other element of life and reality can rush in. This is what I call Grace. It’s that moment of ah-ha – a moment of recognition when we realize something we could never quite imagine.â€
In his description, he says “element of life and reality.†What “element†might that be? Why can’t he be specific? How, and from where, does it “rush in,†and what happens energetically relative to the body after it “rushes in?†Why does he use the term “rush in� Because he’s aping Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, who uses that expression in the book “I Am That.†Adyashanti, in typical Adyashanti fashion, can’t say what we realize, only that it’s beyond our imagination.
Because this review is already too long, I’ll cut to the chase regarding Grace, and explain what Adyashanti doesn’t.
First off, ah-ha experiences are not moments of Grace; they are moments when we have an epiphany and suddenly understand something we didn’t before. The way it works is that our subconscious mind, in response to our previous efforts, unexpectedly “pops out†an answer or insight to a question or concern we had, and we go “Ah-ha.â€
Unbeknownst to Adyashanti, the “element†that is Grace is specified in the foremost Trinitarian traditions: In Christianity it is the Holy Spirit, in Hindu Tantra it is Shakti, and in Mahayana/Vajrayana Buddhism it is the Sambhogakaya. Grace is a literal electrical-like Spirit-current that generates a concomitant magnetic force-field that is felt-experienced as Presence (Holy Ghost, or Clear Light). Grace received is the descent of this Radiant-Spiritual (or Clear-Light) Energy into one’s body. It is Blessing Power that literally en-Light-ens and divinizes one’s bodily being. It is the Shakti that unites with contracted Siva (the jiva or soul) in one’s Heart-center (Hridayam), and this Di-vine Union (between the “vine†of Shakti and the “vine†of one’s soul, or consciousness) de-contracts contracted Siva, and “produces,†or unveils, Siva-Shakti (or Sat-Chit-Ananada), the Divine Self.
Further unbeknownst to Adyashanti is the Electrical Spiritual Paradigm (ESP), which explains, via the dialectic that is Ohm’s Law, how Grace (the Spirit-current, or “amperageâ€) is “earned†(or generated) by either intensifying consciousness-force (awareness-oneness/plugged-in presence, or “voltageâ€) or reducing resistance(surrendering/letting go, or “ohms reductionâ€). Any contemporary mystic seriously interested in the subject of Grace would want to familiarize him/herself with this this leading-edge consideration of Grace, but clearly (as evidenced by this book, and his others), Adyashanti isn’t interested in (or capable of) moving beyond the ambit of simplistic, reductive Zen and Advaita Vedanta.
To summarize, this book is just the same-old Adyashanti pseudo-spiritual rap (and I say “pseudo-spiritual†because he doesn’t consider Shakti, or Spirit, in his discourses). It’s just the same-old rap re-packaged under a misleading title, because his discourse does not even begin to do the subject of Grace justice. If I had to describe this book in a single word, it would be: Dis-graceful.
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of Falling into Grace: Insights on the End of Suffering†by Adyashanti.]
Perhaps this book should have been entitled “Confessions of an Ignorant Guru,†for Adyashanti, as he does in many of his other books, confesses his utter ignorance. He writes, “I really saw that I had never understood anything. I had not understood a single thing… I really didn’t know anything.â€
The spiritual cognoscenti who read this book will doubtless agree with his self-assessment, for as the content of this text proves, he is an Un-en-Light-ened “guru†who is clueless regarding the purported subject matter of this text – Grace –and the other spiritual subjects he touches upon.
What’s seemingly amazing is how an admittedly ignorant guru could have so much to say on spiritual matters, churning out one book and audible after another. How can this be? It’s called $$$, a business. As long as the sheep keep ponying up for the prattle, he’ll keep dishing it out. A second answer is that he really doesn’t have much to say: every book is just a rehash of the others. It’s called rewriting the same book over and over again under different titles.
If you’re looking for a “guru†with the profundity of a petunia, Adyashanti could be your cup of tea. His talks are utterly bereft of verticality, totally devoid of an esoteric dimension. Comparing Adyashanti to Ramana Maharshi, a true Guru, is like comparing a Yugo to a Rolls Royce. His spiritual shtick is psychologized Dharma and stories. When it comes to the nuts and bolts or nitty-gritty of the Atman project, he is nowhere to be found. Whereas Ramana would engage devotees in provocative talks about subjects such as Amrita Nadi, Jnana vritti, Kundalini, Shaktipat, samadhis, and cutting the Heart-knot as a precursor to Self-realization, Adyashanti sticks to tired homiletic monologues, which will entertain the spiritually unsophisticated, but bore the spiritually astute.
Adyashanti is a contradiction-riddled preceptor who speaks out of both sides of his mouth. He informs us, “There is no such thing as a true thought,†then expands upon this theme: “If we allow this idea that no thought is actually real or true to sink into the core of our being, we can complete this shift in consciousness.†First off, if no thoughts are true, then why does he peddle one book and audio after another that are filled with his unreal, untrue thoughts? Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t answer this question, and elsewhere writes, “Words are important.†How can words be important if the thoughts behind them are unreal and untrue? Secondly, the words he uses are usually vague and unspecific, reflective of the fog he lives in and perpetrates. For example, consider his description of Grace:
“In the gap of not knowing, in the suspense of any conclusion, a whole other element of life and reality can rush in. This is what I call Grace. It’s that moment of ah-ha – a moment of recognition when we realize something we could never quite imagine.â€
In his description, he says “element of life and reality.†What “element†might that be? Why can’t he be specific? How, and from where, does it “rush in,†and what happens energetically relative to the body after it “rushes in?†Why does he use the term “rush in� Because he’s aping Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, who uses that expression in the book “I Am That.†Adyashanti, in typical Adyashanti fashion, can’t say what we realize, only that it’s beyond our imagination.
Because this review is already too long, I’ll cut to the chase regarding Grace, and explain what Adyashanti doesn’t.
First off, ah-ha experiences are not moments of Grace; they are moments when we have an epiphany and suddenly understand something we didn’t before. The way it works is that our subconscious mind, in response to our previous efforts, unexpectedly “pops out†an answer or insight to a question or concern we had, and we go “Ah-ha.â€
Unbeknownst to Adyashanti, the “element†that is Grace is specified in the foremost Trinitarian traditions: In Christianity it is the Holy Spirit, in Hindu Tantra it is Shakti, and in Mahayana/Vajrayana Buddhism it is the Sambhogakaya. Grace is a literal electrical-like Spirit-current that generates a concomitant magnetic force-field that is felt-experienced as Presence (Holy Ghost, or Clear Light). Grace received is the descent of this Radiant-Spiritual (or Clear-Light) Energy into one’s body. It is Blessing Power that literally en-Light-ens and divinizes one’s bodily being. It is the Shakti that unites with contracted Siva (the jiva or soul) in one’s Heart-center (Hridayam), and this Di-vine Union (between the “vine†of Shakti and the “vine†of one’s soul, or consciousness) de-contracts contracted Siva, and “produces,†or unveils, Siva-Shakti (or Sat-Chit-Ananada), the Divine Self.
Further unbeknownst to Adyashanti is the Electrical Spiritual Paradigm (ESP), which explains, via the dialectic that is Ohm’s Law, how Grace (the Spirit-current, or “amperageâ€) is “earned†(or generated) by either intensifying consciousness-force (awareness-oneness/plugged-in presence, or “voltageâ€) or reducing resistance(surrendering/letting go, or “ohms reductionâ€). Any contemporary mystic seriously interested in the subject of Grace would want to familiarize him/herself with this this leading-edge consideration of Grace, but clearly (as evidenced by this book, and his others), Adyashanti isn’t interested in (or capable of) moving beyond the ambit of simplistic, reductive Zen and Advaita Vedanta.
To summarize, this book is just the same-old Adyashanti pseudo-spiritual rap (and I say “pseudo-spiritual†because he doesn’t consider Shakti, or Spirit, in his discourses). It’s just the same-old rap re-packaged under a misleading title, because his discourse does not even begin to do the subject of Grace justice. If I had to describe this book in a single word, it would be: Dis-graceful.
