The Direct Approach

Adyashanti

Adyashanti (Sanskrit word meaning, "primordial peace"), is a spiritual teacher from the Bay Area who gives regular Satsangs in the United States and also teaches abroad. He is the author of several books and is the founder of Open Gate Sangha, Inc. a nonprofit organization that supports, and makes available, his teachings.

Written by Colin Bigelow

Adyashanti and Bert begin the conversation by discussing the role integrity in the student-teacher relationship, and the responsibilities involved on both sides. The traps and seductions of any position of power have become increasingly well-known, particularly if that power activates any unconscious “shadow” impulses, and these concerns certainly apply to spiritual teachers. As Adya points out, what’s sometimes forgotten is the importance of students “not abdicating their own bullshit meter.” He continues, “To come to Truth within yourself, you’ll have to reconnect with your own intuitive, visceral sense of correctness.” The trick, of course, is distinguishing whether a student’s objection to a teacher’s action or statement is simply their egoic self-contraction recoiling in the face of a larger Reality, or if there is something truly inappropriate in what the teacher is doing. There are no easy answers here, because by definition the egoic identity can’t recognize ever-present Liberated Awareness in self (the student) or in other (the teacher), but, regarding most “crazy wisdom” teachings, as Adya puts it: “Nine times out of ten it’s more crazy than it is wise”—or looked at a different way, it might be “more shadow than it is wise.”

“Shadow, if not dealt with, will hold us back—or it will distort our realization. And there’s nothing more scary than a distorted ego that has access to an enlightened state….”

Next, Adya and Bert discuss what they call “dharmic relationship,” or “enlightened relationship,” and the experiments Adya has had in incorporating these dimensions into his teaching. The reason he did so was because, as he says, the “proof” of your embodied realization is going to be in your relationships. The problem, he relates, is that many people have extraordinary difficulty with basic day-to-day relationships, let alone higher-level dharmic relationships. However, experiments like this have helped clarify Adya’s interest in performing only one or two functions for students—understanding and embodying the Direct Approach—and that for other arenas of life (relationships, psychotherapy, fitness, career, etc.) they are going to have to look for help from other sources. An Integral Approach to spirituality would agree that making this distinction up front, a kind of “truth in advertising” for potential students, is a very smart way of doing things. In terms of actually illuminating, understanding, and practicing in all the major domains of human experience, we recommend the Integral Life Practice Starter Kit.

Bert closes by asking Adya to comment on the state of the world, and what hopes or concerns he might have for the future. Summarizing Adya’s response, “There are definitely things to be concerned about, like we very well might not be here a hundred years from now. But inside of me there is sort of two experiences. One of them is the deepest Ground. I know all is well. If it all goes to hell, it’s still well. It can’t possibly not be well, no matter what happens. Simultaneously, from that place of all is well—that Great Indifference—from that same state, arises a real love and a real concern, but a concern that is totally free of worry. There’s a love for humans and a tremendous connection to the tremendous suffering of this world. So for me, these two things come out of the same place….”