The Knee of Listening: The Early-Life Ordeal and the Radical Spiritual Realization of the Divine World-Teacher

CONTENTS: * Foreword - Bill Gottlieb * Introduction: He Is the One - The Unique Life Story and Divine Emergence of the Divine World-Teacher, Da Avabhasa (The 'Bright'), by His Devotees * Prologue - The Heart of Understanding Part 1 - The Life of Understanding 1 - The 'Bright' 2 - The Listener 3 - Hearing 4 - The Seeker 5 - The Understanding on the Beach 6 - The Passage to the Guru 7 - The Meeting and the 'Work' 8 - The Idea of Release from Narcissus 9 -The Death of Narcissus 10 - The Abandonment of Effort in India 11 - The Problem of the Mind, and the Year of Waiting for Grace 12 - The Return to India, and the Problem of Spiritual Consciousness 13 - Shakti in America, New Problems, and the Return to India 14 - The Third Trip to India, and the Reappearance of 'Christ' 15 - The Diary of Pilgrimage 16 - The Inheritance 17 - The End of All Seeking 18 - The Way Becomes Conscious Part Two - The Meditation of Understanding 19 - The Meditation of Understanding * The Transformation of the Seeker's Meditation into 'Real Meditation' * The Process of 'Real Meditation' Part Three - The Wisdom of Understanding * Epilogue: I Am the Man of Understanding * Notes to the Text * The Divine Mysteries of the Man of Understanding * 'A Unique Advantage to Mankind' - An Invitation to a Direct Relationship with Da Avabhasa * An Invitation to Support the Way of the Heart * The Sacred Literature of Da Avabhasa (The 'Bright')

This is an incredible book. It is one of those books that you just can not put down. I read the book so fast that I started to read it again and it is even better than the first time I read it.

Adi Da Samraj reveals his life and work in the pages of this autobiography, and as that revelation unfolds, a simple fact emerges: he has gone through an extraordinary ordeal to give us all a way to be happy, even right now. It is a fascinating and moving account of how that way came to be, full of both the ordinary trappings of human existence and incredible spiritual awakenings. This book opened my eyes and heart to a rare being. Definitely worth the read.

I have just started reading this newly updated book, having read an older version several years ago, and I am even more speechless reading this book - with the profundity, the sacrifice, and the recognition of the One Who speaks through The Knee of Listening. This is spiritually historical, but also very human. I am newly impressed on each page and each chapter, with the depth of Adi Da's Realization, and with the sacrifice Adi Da has made and continues to make for the sake of returning to the "Bright" not just himself, but as his gift for all humanity, for our liberation and Happiness. The relentless willingness he has to go beyond all limits blows me away! Also, the relationship he had to his teachers is very instructive, especially talking about Nityananda and Vivekenanda. I think this book is a must read for anyone interested in God, Truth, Religion, or anyone on their own spirutual path.

It is an astounding autobiography: the true story of the emergence of Divine Consciousness in a contemporary human being, someone who writes masterfully in the modern idiom and communicates the Divine as altogether obvious and real. As big as this claim is, the story is no mere myth, but is literally and verifiably true -Adi Da's words actually have the ability to awaken in the reader a taste of the Divine Consciousness that is alive in Him and as Him. This is the moving story of Adi Da's illumined birth; His unrelenting experiment in all areas of human experience, including the tangles of money, food and sex that so obsess our times; the intense period of His spiritual practice and growth with great teachers in both America and India; and His refusal to assume as Ultimate even the rare spiritual attainments of powers, visions, and exalted states. His final Awakening (in a temple of the Vedanata Society in the unlikely locale of Hollywood, CA) is based on an all-encompassing insight, one that both includes and transcends all the spiritual traditions of the human race.It became clear to me in reading this book, that such an awakening was possible for anyone (even if the course of practice was challenging) and subsequent developments in life have proven to me that this book is word-for-word True. A must read for anyone who is attentive to the spiritual dimension of life