“Conscious Process”

Adi Da has said, “You become what you meditate on”. In other words, you take on the qualities of whatever you give your attention to.

The “conscious process” is Avatar Adi Da’s name for the practice of granting attention to Him and releasing attention from the separate self to the Divine Reality. This is not merely an abstract mental exercise, but an artful feeling-expression of the devotional relationship with Avatar Adi Da.

In addition to being a general principle of practice, the “conscious process” takes the form of specific questions, mantras, and Names to be used during meditation and randomly during the day. Which question, mantra, or Name you use depends on your form of involvement in Adidam.

As an example, all of Adi Da’s devotees are invited to invoke Him, and thus grant Him their attention, via His Name, “Adi Da”. Simply to say this name with feeling turns your attention to Adi Da, and is an expression of the “conscious process”.

The “conscious process” is the senior discipline of practice in Adidam.

Give me your attention instead of contracting upon your separate and separative self, however you may be doing that in any moment, and the knot falls away. It is not that this practice is just a “hunky-dory” exercise. It is work, counter-egoic effort. The ego is a knot, a beast, a machine—and a very clever one. It takes a very direct, very simple, very clear, very straightforward approach to deal with it. You cannot let yourself get very complicated about it, or the practice will itself become a form of self-contraction.

—Avatar Adi Da Samraj

May 3, 1991

Read an excerpt from Avatar Adi Da’s Teaching
about the “conscious process”