Chapter 2
Hollywood Stage Names and Other Promotional Tricks
“Although he is a disciple of the divine sage Vyasa and has thoroughly learned many scriptures from him, including the law books of religious duties and the epic histories and Puranas, all this study has not produced good qualities in him. Rather, his study of the scriptures is like an actor’s studying his part, for he is not self-controlled or humble and vainly presumes himself a scholarly authority, though he has failed to conquer his own mind.” (Srimad Bhagavat Purana Canto 10, The Summum Bonum, Chapter 78 The Killing of Dantavakra, Viduratha and Romaharsana, Text 25-26)
All About Appearances
I’ll start by taking a closer look at the origin of Adyashanti’s self-aggrandizing name. His complete lack of humility is immediately evident by the fact that he gave himself the bodacious title of “Primordial Peace” . It should be noted here that a more accurate translation would be “Peace Right Now,” but the way he prefers to translate it suggests an even greater sense of permanence. Either name is appropriate for this self-declared little prince because they both capture the sophomoric concept that “enlightened” souls find peace in the solitude of the now! The significant difference being that “Primodial” has a much more conceited air of endorsement from antiquity.
Hollywood knows that if you want to project a particular image on the public, you have to have a good stage name. It’s a subtle ploy similar to the clever illusion of authority implied by the comical fraternity photo of red-cloaked impersonalist yogis mentioned above. All of this public posturing is part of the shrewd marketing necessary to recast this kid from Cupertino into the role of a Zen Monk… and it worked! Adya openly admits that his audience tripled when he abandoned his Christian birth name and asked people to start referring to him with his new carefully selected bodacious Sanskrit moniker.
Deluded Kali-Yuga Soul
The individual who wrote to me objecting about my critique of Adyashantis’ not-so-brilliant statements illustrate another textbook example of the type of proud individuals that populate Kali Yuga. He was not only pathetically ill-informed but he was also extremely offensive and angry. The irony is pathetic. The guru he reveres calls himself: “Being Peaceful Now” . However, this groupie wasn’t peaceful or even polite.
I will not bore the reader with all the contradictions and foolish assertions I was assaulted with by the sycophant who wrote to me, but as a teaching moment I will provide the following example of how poorly informed and aggressively rude this disciple of Adyashanti was:
“You pride yourself in thinking your Barktivedanter Problempad is the supreme teacher and that your “Vedas” are complete. Yet both were wrong about so many things. How is Adyashanti full of silly ideas? He teaches Brahman realisation (sic) and his philosophy likely has more adherents than yours. And he is clearly more respected than anyone in your Hindu cult.” (Adyshanti Sycophant Disciple)
Those are not spelling mistakes! This disciple of the self-declared embodiment of “Peace” immediately starts slashing away at Srila Prabhupada’s unrivaled pure character and before he finishes his sentence, he unilaterally dismisses the entire library of Vedic Literature as incomplete! This type of verbal up-chucking is typical for those who abandon the pursuit of real wisdom for popular goofy koans like this:
“If you want to know something go elsewhere. If you want to un-know everything then sit and listen.” (Adyashanti)
Educated people have some sense of the intellectual scope, academic integrity, scientific validity and historic significance of the Vedas. This is the very point behind why I compiled the “Wisdom of the Wise” presentation. It effectively illustrates how intelligent people who are earnest about personal growth, often find their path leading back to the Vedas. Most people get that. This poor guy didn’t.
Those who aren’t that serious prefer to use the incoherent double-talk spewed by Mayavadis as an excuse to do whatever they want. Adyashanti arrived at a time when there was a rising demand for clever excuses so hedonists can live shamelessly and feel holy about it. Adya jumped right in to fill the need. However he didn’t do that by hosting an academic conference on Zen and the science of enlightenment. His events are promoted as ‘Satsanga” which is a gross misnomer, but another example of a brilliant marketing maneuver.
More Deceptive Posturing
Impersonalists like to toss as many Sanskrit words around as possible. It is part of the ruse they construct to give an air of legitimacy to their juvenile understanding of the transcendent sciences. For example the word satsanga literally means Sat/Truth, Sanga/With; “To be with the truth.”
Some may be enamored by Adyashanti’s self-contradicting, word-manipulating prattle, but rational people don’t invest any credence in his philosophically incoherent rhetoric such as:
“There is no truth that can be carried over to the next moment, the next day, the next year.” (Adyashanti)
There are several ways we could dissect the utter stupidity of this quote but some of the more obvious ways would be to inquire:
Is this a self-contradicting assertion?
If it is an obvious truth why speak it?
Where did this crazy idea originate from?
Would this assertion still be true tomorrow?
What value is it at all if it isn’t even true right now?
Why teach at all if nothing you share is true or retainable?
If it’s not obvious then saying it makes it untrue and therefore useless.
If true, then every thought is either untrue or obsolete as soon as it is realized.
The abandonment of intelligence in the pursuit of truth is delusional ignorance.
This type of double speak is not truth. It is showmanship. It belongs in the Theater of the Absurd, not in a serious investigation about the nature of truth. It is not Satsanga, it is A-Satsanga, sitting with the untruth, the absurd, the illusion, the folly of one individual’s proud misuse of the English language. It makes no-sense and must therefore be rejected as non-sense.
What Arjuna has to say about the truth is straight forward and coherent. Those who are envious may not like his conclusions, but they are more instructive than the riddles Adya likes to toss around.
“Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the great sages such as Narada, Asita, Devala and Vyasa confirm this truth about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.” (Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Chapter 10, The Oppulence of the Absolute, Text 12-13)
Commercialized Zen
Adya attracts the less intelligent by presenting himself as a “regular guy”. He plays cards, rides a motorcycle, and enjoys sports, comedy, music, TV and amusement parks. He appreciates comfortable furniture and has no interest in following anything that is even remotely close to the traditional Buddhist “Sitting Meditation.” What this means is that Adya has drifted so far into his own indulgent sense gratification that he is no longer teaching anything that is even slightly familiar to a legitimate Zen discipline. Regardless of how bogus, hypocritical and self-serving all of this is, it’s exactly the image he wants to be known for because once again….it’s great for business!
When we compare what Adyashanti has to say against a real Zen master like Thich Nhat Hanh, we find that he has a very immature understanding of shunyata/Emptiness. The kid from Culpertino bloviates:
“This is radical emptiness—where everything is arising spontaneously. There is no more need to discriminate with the mind between what seems to be the right thing or the wrong thing to do.” (Adyashanti, Radical Emptiness)
However the revered Thich Nhat Hanh specifically declares otherwise…
“(The nonduality and emptiness explored in the Buddhist sutra Prajnaparamita )’… is not a form of nihilism as some Western scholars of Buddhism (Think!)'”. (Thich Nhat Hanh – Opening the heart of the lotus. P9)
All of this is hardly any different than those who exploit overweight people with fraudulent scams suggesting they will lose weight effortlessly if they just purchase their amazingly effective new dietary supplement. “That’s right! Keep eating whatever you want and don’t worry about exercising! Just purchase our product and watch the pounds melt away!”
In Adya’s case the pitch is; “I will teach you how to unlearn everything and you will be FREE to do whatever you wish without even giving it a first thought, what to speak of a second thought!” Adya’s particular brand of magical word shuffling provides everyone all the justification they need to interface with the world as if it was their own meaningless playground. Don’t get bogged down with mundane thoughts like guilt or shame. Just pop open a beer and let the party begin!
Who is foolish enough to fall for such burlesque? Apparently quite a lot of the children from the acid head, flower power generation endorse this fustian performance. Their understanding of an enlightened master is someone who has the ability to deliver pithy-maxims and cute clichés with the levity of Jay Leno and Adya mastered that act! It would be quite comical if it wasn’t so pathetic. What’s really ominous is that it’s all quite consistent with what Veda Vyasa predicted thousands of years ago in the Srimad Bhagavat Purana.
“Spirituality will be measured by externals, people will not stick to any order, justice will be based on what one earns, business will depend on deceit, hypocrisy will be considered a virtue, beauty will be determined by hairstyle, there will be unnecessary violence, filling the belly will be the goal of life, the audacious will be accepted as truthful, the leaders will be thieves and those clever at juggling words will be considered learned scholars. ” (Srimad Bhagavat Purana, Canto 12 The Age of Deterioration, Chapter 2 The Symptoms of Kali Yuga)
End Chapter 2: Exposing Adyashanti’s Ruse – Hollywood Stage Names and Other Promotional Tricks