Satsang Schedule
Adyashanti
Other Gatherings Pete's Dialogue With Adyashanti
in Satsang at Mount Madonna Retreat Center, CA, USA.Weds. May 4, 2005.
Pete: What can we do as a fellowship to encourage each other and help each other to abide in the truth?
Adya:
This is quite a big question.
I think a big part of the
answer is actually in the question itself, when you said what can we do to encourage
each other. To encourage each other, to really encourage each other, is
the answer.
It doesn't mean to push each
other, but to really encourage This (The awareness of who or what we really
are). Encourage the opening to This -- the realization of This. And
encourage people in the struggles they go through as they're opening to This.
I think one of the beautiful
things about the Sangha or fellowship is that the Sangha or fellowship is never
perfect.
My teacher used to liken it
to putting potatoes in a bucket of water. Unpeeled potatoes, you know, often have
little green ‘eyes’ or shoots growing out and when the bucket is stirred for a
while, the unwanted shoots are rubbed off. And that's what we do for each other
in fellowship, things happen that wouldn’t happen otherwise when we rub together,
metaphorically speaking.
The beautiful thing about our
spiritual communities or friendships is, number one, that they are supportive. There's a recognition, an
acknowledgement, of what we are all engaged
in as realizers of the truth.
Also, there's a beautiful
thing called, imperfection. A thing which a lot of spiritual communities
don't have nearly enough room for. They don't have respect for the fact that
people rubbing up against each other, bumping into each other, the little
disagreements, the human frailties, the little moments of ego -- these are
actually a vital part of our unfolding.
It’s important to let go of expectations
of perfect fellowship, expectations of the perfect Sangha, and accept
that these gatherings are places where people can actually be who and
what they are.
In our fellowships or
Sanghas, we need to let people travel their own road back to themselves.
Sometimes they are smooth roads, sometimes they are bumpy, but we need to demonstrate
that we are a group of beings that actually has some understanding of what this process is -- the beauty of it and,
at times, the difficulty of it.
When someone is realizing
the truth, it's nice to have a realized friend say, "No, you're not
crazy that you've just realized that, in fact, you're nothing … or everything,
it's OK". Or when someone's really, really struggling and the friend
says, "Yes, of course, don't worry, that's just part of it". This is an
important function of the fellowship or Sangha.
Pete: As our Satsangs have continued, we seem to have the consciousness that we are not only waking up as individuals and coming into clearer understanding, but we have a consciousness of waking up as a group, as a fellowship in mutuality, as it were.
Adya: Yes, that is a very beautiful function of the fellowship or Sangha as well. That's a demonstration of the truth that, 'Where two or more are gathered in my name (in the name of truth), there I AM in the midst.' It's not just a nice poetic thing is it?
You realize there is a
presence and a power in more than one. There is a sense that there is points of
light, people, individuals awakening and there is also the sense of the whole
as awakening happens. IT is also awakening as a whole fellowship or Sangha and
this has a certain power, which I think is why there has always been Sangha,
because there has been a recognition that when we come together, there is a
power present, a force that's greater than any of us individually. It's
beautiful to recognize that.
Pete: A number of us have been particularly challenged by your admonition to not only see or recognize the teaching, but also to embody it -- on a consistent basis in our daily lives -- could you speak more to that?
Adya:
That's where the rubber hits the road, isn't it? It's one thing to be a totally enlightened Buddha when we are sitting in a room by ourselves, or we are in satsang, or we're at a retreat, and you are just so radiant you can hardly stand yourself! [laughter] That's nice and that's important to have a place to do that. But where the spiritual rubber hits the
road is when we're in our daily life, isn't it? It's really the proof of how deeply this has taken hold of us, how much we've given ourselves to what we've realized. Because it's a myth that just because I realized the ultimate nature
of Self, of existence, of reality -- that I will, therefore, be able to automatically …. [end of tape]
Note: In late April, 2005, Pete & Pearl Sumner, together with Chris Carrier and Linley Anderson, traveled from Western Australia to Mt. Madonna in Northern California to participate in a six-day silent retreat with Adyashanti. There were about 140 participants altogether. A feature of the retreat were the daily Satsang sessions in which Adya would give a talk and then invite inquirers to come up and sit opposite him at the front of the gathering. The dialogue above took place when Pete was invited to sit with Adya at the end of a morning session. This session went overtime and only the first part of the dialogue was recorded.
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