Narcissus must die

This is the original edition of “The Knee of Listening”, the so-called spiritual autobiography of controversial guru Franklin Jones, perhaps better known as Adi Da. Since this kind of spirituality doesn't really appeal to me, I will be relatively brief.

The point of the book seems to be to establish Jones' credentials as a unique teacher in his own right. He gives the impression that his earthly gurus, Rudi and Baba Muktananda (apparently the founder of Siddha Yoga), didn't really teach him anything important, although he pays them formal homage, even including their photos in the book. His real enlightenment came from Swami Nityananda, Sai Baba of Shirdi and Ramana Maharshi, all three of whom were (physically) deceased when Jones visited India. Since all three were Siddhas or direct agents of the Divine, Jones got his enlightenment straight from the source, and he is now the new Siddha, in whom the form of the Lord perfectly manifests itself. Weirdly, Alan Watts has contributed a positive foreword, and the back cover spouts a blurb by Israel Regardie. Jones have also included a quote from Muktananda!

Jones calls his teaching “radical understanding”. He rejects both earthly and “heavenly” attempts to avoid death and suffering. All form of spiritual seeking really binds the seeker karmically to the world of suffering, including attempts to reach nirvana or theistic ideas about salvation. Rather than seeking a solution to our predicament (above, below or within), we should simply “enquire”, and this “radical understanding” will make us realize that we are already free. By putting ourselves in “relationship” with the Divine at each moment that arises, we will become one with it through love. Jones calls this “abiding in the Heart”.

It's not clear how this process concretely looks like. Sometimes, I get the impression that it isn't a “process” at all, since every process implies seeking and thus an avoidance of relationship with God. Rather, “radical understanding” seems to be an unmediated mystical experience, in which the erstwhile seeker simply posits himself in and as the Heart. Jones wants us to see ourselves as the Amrita Nadi, which he describes both as an actual part of man's esoteric anatomy, and as the Form of the Divine. He claims that his teachings are identical to the esoteric message of Ramana Maharshi, the great Hindu sage.

Still, it *is* difficult to see how somebody entangled in samsara can simply convince himself that he is the Heart, and meet everything that happens in love. Jones must have realized this, too, since in the last section of the book, he proposes that “satsang” with *him* is the best way to reach enlightenment. Relationship with God turns out to be a relationship with Jones, whose very presence is said to be enough to influence the disciples to reach fulfilment.

There is also an antinomian streak in the teachings of Jones, as when he writes concerning the Man of Understanding: “He is not moral. He is not fastidious, lean and lawful. He always appears to be the opposite of what you are. He always seems to sympathize with what you deny. (…) At times he denies. At times he asserts. At times he asserts what he has already denied. At times he denies what he has already asserted. He is not useful. His teaching is every kind of nonsense. His wisdom is vanished. Altogether that is his wisdom”.

While this is presumably a technique to show that everything we associate with “normal” life or spirituality is mere bunk, it was also an effective cover for Jones to transform his “satsang” into a nihilistic cult, with all the usual strapping (sexual orgies, breaking up of marriages, fancy cars and Pacific islands for the guru, etc). Jones also became even more narcissistic about his own position, eventually claiming to be the “Ruchira Avatar” and more spiritually developed than even Jesus or the Buddha. And, I suppose, Ken Wilber.

“The Knee of Listening” exists in several different versions, with the current official version being dated 2004, and published under the pseudonym Adi Da Samraj. Personally, I wanted to read the original version, to see if Jones' message had change appreciably over the years. Although the absolutely wildest claims are absent from the 1972/73 edition, I must nevertheless say that Mr Jones was pretty consistent in his teachings. If that's a good thing, is another matter entirely.