The Way of Liberation (Adyashanti)
Flat, Warmed-Over, Advaita Vedanta
[My 2-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Way of Liberation: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment” by Adyashanti.]
This “book” is not really a book—unless you think 45 pages of material on a subject constitute a book. But this “spiritual” “book” is priced like a regular book, and the the term this brings to my mind is “spiritual materialism.”
This book bills itself as a “practical guide to to spiritual enlightenment,” but the Introduction contradicts this subtitle. It states, “No spiritual teaching is a direct path to enlightenment. In fact, there is no such thing as a path to enlightenment, simply because enlightenment is ever present in all places and at all times.”
If there is no such thing as a path to enlightenment, then there can be no such thing as a practical guide to enlightenment, because a “practical” guide, by definition, provides a practical method that one can “practice” as means to a goal. Clearly, the goal of spiritual life is liberation, or enlightenment, but Adyashanti says enlightenment is ever present, so there can be no path to it, but then he provides such a path—albeit an indirect one—in his guidebook.
In contrast to Adyashanti, I say that enlightenment is not ever present, because if it were, every living being, including cockroaches, sharks, and murderer-rapists would be enlightened. And the very fact that liberation, or enlightenment it so hard to attain—it took Gautama Buddha, an ascetic spiritual genius, 6 years to attain Nirvana, enlightenment—belies his claim that it is ever present. Spiritual Light is ever present, but en-Light-enment—the State of being literally, permanently, whole-bodily irradiated by that Light-energy—must be attained via a spiritual path or method.
And also in contrast to Adyashanti, I sat there is a direct path to en-Light-enment: directly and immediately connecting to Clear-Light Energy and channeling its radiant Blessing/Blissing Power. But this radical method is not taught in Advaita Vedanta and Zen, the two spiritual traditions wherefrom Adyashanti’s teachings derive.
This book contains three chapters: The Five Foundations, Three Orienting Ideas, and The Core Practices. I’ll consider each in order.
The Five Foundations consists of five subchapters: Clarify Your Aspirations, Unconditional Follow-Through, Never Abdicate Your Autonomy, Practice Absolute Sincerity, and Be a Good Stewart of Your Life. In the words of Adyadhanti, “the Five Foundations provide the context within which the teachings unfold.” It is unlikely that the Five Foundations will tell you anything you don’t already know; they are rudimentary and common-sense components of a grounded spiritual life.
The Three Orienting Ideas consists of three subchapters: The Question of Being, The False Self, and The Dream State. The Question of Being is a short and disappointing section. First, Adyashanti contradicts himself, which he continually does in all his books. He says, “To Be, to truly Be, is not a given.” But if Being is the enlightened state, and if enlightenment is ever present, a given, then Being likewise must be a given. Second, although according to Adyashanti “The question of Being is everything,” in this subchapter he doesn’t tell us what Being is; but I will: Being (Sat) = Consciousness (Siva)-Energy (Shakti). Adyashanti informs us that “it is within the dimension of Being that Truth reveals itself.” But Adyashanti here doesn’t say what Truth is and how it reveals itself. I say that Truth, or Reality, is the Divine Being, and that it reveals itself when the “vine” of Shakti (Spirit) unites with the “vine” of one’s consciousness (siva) in one’s Heart-center (Hridayam, not Anahata). When this union takes place, one awakens as Siva-Shakti.
The False Self subchapter simply tells us what everybody into Eastern philosophy already knows—that the divided, conflicted ego-self is the false self, not the Real Self. And The Dream State subchapter tells us the same thing about “objective” reality—that our judgments, beliefs and opinions keep us trapped in a dream-like state of unconsciousness and strife that is the avoidance of Being, or What Is.
The Core Practices chapter consists of three subchapters: Meditation; Inquiry; and Contemplation. In the Meditation subchapter, Adyashanti decribes the core meditation practice in familiar terms to those who have studied J. Krishnamurti, Eckhart Tolle, and Advaita Vedanta. He describes it variously as “resting in silent, still awareness”; “effortless stillness, abidance in primordial Being”; the art of allowing everything simply to be”; progressively letting go of the meditator without getting lost in the mind.”
Any spiritual teacher can parrot the the same “natural-state” meditation directives that Adyashanti teaches, but Adyashanti does not elaborate on the directives. He doesn’t provide depth and detail on this “effortless effort” practice and the en-Light-enment, or divinization, process that follows it. In fact, he provides misleading information on the en-Light-enment process when he responds to a question from a student experiencing surges of energy in his meditation. Here is Adyashanti’s response:
“It is not uncommon that at some point in your spiritual life you will experience various forms of intense energy. Do not become fascinated by the energy and do not try to suppress or control it, because doing so will intensify it.”
I cannot imagine a more ignorant response to the question. First, without the awakening of intense spiritual energy—Kundalini-Shakti—spiritual en-Light-enment is not possible. In fact, the Hindu Kashmir Shaivism tradition teaches that the more intense and violent the energy, the closer one is to en-Light-enment. Second—and I speak from intimate personal experience—what most intensifies the energy isn’t trying to control, but rather totally letting go.
In the second subchapter of the Core Practices chapter, Adyashanti turns attention to inquiry, which he describes as “the dynamic counterpoint to True Meditation.” Adyashanti writes:
“The first focus of inquiry focuses on Being. Being is the key that unlocks the kingdom. Who or what am I? Apart from body, mind, belief, occupation, gender, role memory, or history, what am I? Exactly what is I?”
Adyashanti describes inquiry “as a means to opening up space in the mind for intuitive wisdom to arise.” But his he doesn’t describe the inquiry in depth—the spiritual-energetic mechanics and esoteric anatomy involved in the practice.
If you are interested in Self-inquiry as a spiritual practice, I suggest you check out Robert Adams’ book “Silence of the Heart,” which eclipses this one as a guide to inquiry. And if you want to very deeply understand Self-inquiry, get “Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi,” by Kapila Sastriar.
In the third subchapter, Contemplation, Adyashanti turns his attention to contemplation, which he describes as “the art of holding a word or phrase patiently in the silence and stillness until it begins to disclose deeper and deeper meanings and understandings.” The first statement he recommends contemplating is: “There is no such thing as an absolutely true thought.”
I don’t know about you, but I can think plenty of thoughts that are absolutely true. But If Adyashanti is correct, and there is no such thing as absolutely true thoughts, then throw his Five Foundations and Contemplations in the trash, because they utilize thoughts, which, according to him, can only lead one to error.
Another phrase that Adyashanti tells us to contemplate is: “Being (or Spirit) is universal and exists prior to all conditions, all points of view, all objects of consciousness, and all subjects as well.” Adyashanti finally tells us what Being is: Spirit—but unbeknownst to Adyashanti, Spirit, by definition is Shakti, the Energy of Consciousness, but Adyashanti has nothing to say about this Energy, except “not try to suppress or control it, because doing so will intensify it.” If Adyashanti understood what Being (Siva-Shakti) and Spirit (Shakti) truly are, he’d know that that True Meditation is uniting one’s consciousness (siva) with with Spirit (or Shakti), and that the union of these two “vines” “produces,” or unveils, Di-vine Being.
Adyashanti tells us to contemplate Being via the phrases: “Being is the nature if everything, there is nothing beyond Being; Being is unborn and uncreated—the source and substance of all.” Then he tells us to contemplate the Infinite via the phrase: “Beyond ego is universal Being, beyond Being, is the Infinite.” This is a blatant contradiction. Adyadhanti first tells us there is nothing beyond Being, then he tells us the Infinite is beyond Being. Further, if the Infinite is beyond Being, and therefore different from It, then how do the two differ? Blank out.
Adyashanti next tells us to contemplate the phrase: “I AM is pure Being. It is the ultimate confession of Reality.” Then he tells us to contemplate the phrase: “To realize the Infinite is to lose your inner world.” How do the realizations of Being and of the Infinite differ? Adyashanti, ever the muddled surface-level mystic, doesn’t tell us.
As a commenter once said about Adyashanti, “If he were a rock group, he’d be Boston or Nickleback,” meaning he’s warmed-over, commercialized Advaita Vedanta for the general public. Because it’s not a neo-Advaita text, I say two stars for “The Way of Liberation.”
[My 2-star Amazon review (NDA) of “The Way of Liberation: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment” by Adyashanti.]
This “book” is not really a book—unless you think 45 pages of material on a subject constitute a book. But this “spiritual” “book” is priced like a regular book, and the the term this brings to my mind is “spiritual materialism.”
This book bills itself as a “practical guide to to spiritual enlightenment,” but the Introduction contradicts this subtitle. It states, “No spiritual teaching is a direct path to enlightenment. In fact, there is no such thing as a path to enlightenment, simply because enlightenment is ever present in all places and at all times.”
If there is no such thing as a path to enlightenment, then there can be no such thing as a practical guide to enlightenment, because a “practical” guide, by definition, provides a practical method that one can “practice” as means to a goal. Clearly, the goal of spiritual life is liberation, or enlightenment, but Adyashanti says enlightenment is ever present, so there can be no path to it, but then he provides such a path—albeit an indirect one—in his guidebook.
In contrast to Adyashanti, I say that enlightenment is not ever present, because if it were, every living being, including cockroaches, sharks, and murderer-rapists would be enlightened. And the very fact that liberation, or enlightenment it so hard to attain—it took Gautama Buddha, an ascetic spiritual genius, 6 years to attain Nirvana, enlightenment—belies his claim that it is ever present. Spiritual Light is ever present, but en-Light-enment—the State of being literally, permanently, whole-bodily irradiated by that Light-energy—must be attained via a spiritual path or method.
And also in contrast to Adyashanti, I sat there is a direct path to en-Light-enment: directly and immediately connecting to Clear-Light Energy and channeling its radiant Blessing/Blissing Power. But this radical method is not taught in Advaita Vedanta and Zen, the two spiritual traditions wherefrom Adyashanti’s teachings derive.
This book contains three chapters: The Five Foundations, Three Orienting Ideas, and The Core Practices. I’ll consider each in order.
The Five Foundations consists of five subchapters: Clarify Your Aspirations, Unconditional Follow-Through, Never Abdicate Your Autonomy, Practice Absolute Sincerity, and Be a Good Stewart of Your Life. In the words of Adyadhanti, “the Five Foundations provide the context within which the teachings unfold.” It is unlikely that the Five Foundations will tell you anything you don’t already know; they are rudimentary and common-sense components of a grounded spiritual life.
The Three Orienting Ideas consists of three subchapters: The Question of Being, The False Self, and The Dream State. The Question of Being is a short and disappointing section. First, Adyashanti contradicts himself, which he continually does in all his books. He says, “To Be, to truly Be, is not a given.” But if Being is the enlightened state, and if enlightenment is ever present, a given, then Being likewise must be a given. Second, although according to Adyashanti “The question of Being is everything,” in this subchapter he doesn’t tell us what Being is; but I will: Being (Sat) = Consciousness (Siva)-Energy (Shakti). Adyashanti informs us that “it is within the dimension of Being that Truth reveals itself.” But Adyashanti here doesn’t say what Truth is and how it reveals itself. I say that Truth, or Reality, is the Divine Being, and that it reveals itself when the “vine” of Shakti (Spirit) unites with the “vine” of one’s consciousness (siva) in one’s Heart-center (Hridayam, not Anahata). When this union takes place, one awakens as Siva-Shakti.
The False Self subchapter simply tells us what everybody into Eastern philosophy already knows—that the divided, conflicted ego-self is the false self, not the Real Self. And The Dream State subchapter tells us the same thing about “objective” reality—that our judgments, beliefs and opinions keep us trapped in a dream-like state of unconsciousness and strife that is the avoidance of Being, or What Is.
The Core Practices chapter consists of three subchapters: Meditation; Inquiry; and Contemplation. In the Meditation subchapter, Adyashanti decribes the core meditation practice in familiar terms to those who have studied J. Krishnamurti, Eckhart Tolle, and Advaita Vedanta. He describes it variously as “resting in silent, still awareness”; “effortless stillness, abidance in primordial Being”; the art of allowing everything simply to be”; progressively letting go of the meditator without getting lost in the mind.”
Any spiritual teacher can parrot the the same “natural-state” meditation directives that Adyashanti teaches, but Adyashanti does not elaborate on the directives. He doesn’t provide depth and detail on this “effortless effort” practice and the en-Light-enment, or divinization, process that follows it. In fact, he provides misleading information on the en-Light-enment process when he responds to a question from a student experiencing surges of energy in his meditation. Here is Adyashanti’s response:
“It is not uncommon that at some point in your spiritual life you will experience various forms of intense energy. Do not become fascinated by the energy and do not try to suppress or control it, because doing so will intensify it.”
I cannot imagine a more ignorant response to the question. First, without the awakening of intense spiritual energy—Kundalini-Shakti—spiritual en-Light-enment is not possible. In fact, the Hindu Kashmir Shaivism tradition teaches that the more intense and violent the energy, the closer one is to en-Light-enment. Second—and I speak from intimate personal experience—what most intensifies the energy isn’t trying to control, but rather totally letting go.
In the second subchapter of the Core Practices chapter, Adyashanti turns attention to inquiry, which he describes as “the dynamic counterpoint to True Meditation.” Adyashanti writes:
“The first focus of inquiry focuses on Being. Being is the key that unlocks the kingdom. Who or what am I? Apart from body, mind, belief, occupation, gender, role memory, or history, what am I? Exactly what is I?”
Adyashanti describes inquiry “as a means to opening up space in the mind for intuitive wisdom to arise.” But his he doesn’t describe the inquiry in depth—the spiritual-energetic mechanics and esoteric anatomy involved in the practice.
If you are interested in Self-inquiry as a spiritual practice, I suggest you check out Robert Adams’ book “Silence of the Heart,” which eclipses this one as a guide to inquiry. And if you want to very deeply understand Self-inquiry, get “Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi,” by Kapila Sastriar.
In the third subchapter, Contemplation, Adyashanti turns his attention to contemplation, which he describes as “the art of holding a word or phrase patiently in the silence and stillness until it begins to disclose deeper and deeper meanings and understandings.” The first statement he recommends contemplating is: “There is no such thing as an absolutely true thought.”
I don’t know about you, but I can think plenty of thoughts that are absolutely true. But If Adyashanti is correct, and there is no such thing as absolutely true thoughts, then throw his Five Foundations and Contemplations in the trash, because they utilize thoughts, which, according to him, can only lead one to error.
Another phrase that Adyashanti tells us to contemplate is: “Being (or Spirit) is universal and exists prior to all conditions, all points of view, all objects of consciousness, and all subjects as well.” Adyashanti finally tells us what Being is: Spirit—but unbeknownst to Adyashanti, Spirit, by definition is Shakti, the Energy of Consciousness, but Adyashanti has nothing to say about this Energy, except “not try to suppress or control it, because doing so will intensify it.” If Adyashanti understood what Being (Siva-Shakti) and Spirit (Shakti) truly are, he’d know that that True Meditation is uniting one’s consciousness (siva) with with Spirit (or Shakti), and that the union of these two “vines” “produces,” or unveils, Di-vine Being.
Adyashanti tells us to contemplate Being via the phrases: “Being is the nature if everything, there is nothing beyond Being; Being is unborn and uncreated—the source and substance of all.” Then he tells us to contemplate the Infinite via the phrase: “Beyond ego is universal Being, beyond Being, is the Infinite.” This is a blatant contradiction. Adyadhanti first tells us there is nothing beyond Being, then he tells us the Infinite is beyond Being. Further, if the Infinite is beyond Being, and therefore different from It, then how do the two differ? Blank out.
Adyashanti next tells us to contemplate the phrase: “I AM is pure Being. It is the ultimate confession of Reality.” Then he tells us to contemplate the phrase: “To realize the Infinite is to lose your inner world.” How do the realizations of Being and of the Infinite differ? Adyashanti, ever the muddled surface-level mystic, doesn’t tell us.
As a commenter once said about Adyashanti, “If he were a rock group, he’d be Boston or Nickleback,” meaning he’s warmed-over, commercialized Advaita Vedanta for the general public. Because it’s not a neo-Advaita text, I say two stars for “The Way of Liberation.”
