Despite what some people are claiming, Robert Adams never appointed a successor. He often said, "What is the point?" Ramana, the great teacher who brought Robert to full understanding, did not choose any successors and neither did Robert. I do know that Robert told two people, that if they wanted to, they could start a satsang. One was me, when I was in Santa Monica, before I moved to San Fernando (Death) Valley, and the other was his wife, Nicole in Sedona.
Ramana and Robert both knew that those who have
awakened didn't need anything from him, including authorization, an imperial
seal, or even a stick of chewing gum.
What I offer on this site is my own understanding of Robert’s teachings, as well as some stories about my eight year relationship with him. Robert changed me and brought me to an awakening from the sickness that is this world. This is what this site is about. I failed to find it with a dozen other teachers and paths, including Zen; but through him, I went home. After coming home, there is no need for approval or a stamp of authenticity. One is done, finished.
If we were to judge attainment based on an analogy, if there were a hundred story building, his attainment would be the hundredth. He was and is so far greater than I, that comparison is not impossible. On that same scale, I would be a ten-story attainer. What I say in 50 words he'd summarize in five. Unlike Nisargadatta, whose every phrase was like a hammer, every sentence Robert spoke was like a cold glass of water on a hot day, soothing and refreshing.
No claim that it takes ten or thirty years to be around someone like Robert to get free or to understand what he had to say, is credible. If one were spiritually mature, only ten minutes in his presence would be enough to awaken. I am embarrassed that it took me six years. It shows how poorly prepared I was to receive his teachings even after 20 years of searching before I found him.
Robert always said that once you are awake, that's it, you are always awake. But, as with the pigs in Animal Farm, some are more awake than others. Ramana himself made the distinction between those who have awakened and those who have matured in it for three "higher" levels.
Supposedly he had a second and profound awakening. I know nothing of these levels or how they would be applied to a Self that has no characteristics. But if anyone were a level seven, it was Robert. I cannot repeat often enough, Robert was a spiritual teacher of the highest rank and order. No one else touched him, in my opinion.
For whatever reasons, there are some who claim I never was a student of Robert, or was close to Robert, or that the transcripts on this site are not "authentic." In fact, they have actually contacted me and said that I was not "authorized" to publish Robert's picture on the Web. They also informed me that I not authorized to publish their letter that said I was not authorized.
Which brings up the subject of authorization. Who "authorized" what?
For the purpose of "authentication," below are several pages:
1. A sound file of Robert's wife, Nicole, telling me that I have captured Robert better than anyone before, so well, in fact, that she never need say another thing. She also urged me to publish it.
2. The first few pages of the original "Silence of the Heart" published in 1992, which lists me as one of those who prepared transcripts and who wrote the introduction. Note these is no mention
in the acknowledgment or any thirty years students or of Nicole.
3. The photo at left is a picture of me in Darshan with Robert.
4. On another part of this site, under "Photos," there is a picture of Robert with my wife taken in 1993 or so.
5. On this site are copies of publications about Robert which I wrote or helped write: Inner Directions; Yoga Journal; the Mountain Path. There is yet another one which I
transcribed called, "There is no suffering, there is no death," which is already up on this site.
7. Most of this site is dedicated to Robert, his teachings or my life with him. How can
anyone
think that anyone but a professional fiction writer could make all of this up and be consistent?
For the life of me, I do not understand why anyone would seek to stifle the messages of those who were taught by Robert. A thousand voices and different expressions of how Robert impacted each of their lives and the understanding they got from Robert, would not be enough to portray his eloquence and power.
This is like saying no one can talk about Christ or his teachings, unless they were one of the original twelve disciples, or no one can talk about Buddha and his teachings unless one were a Patriarch of some branch of Buddhism of another.
