The Secret of
How to Change

An Inspired Essay by Adi Da Samraj

True change and higher human adaptation are not made on the basis of any self-conscious resistance to old, degenerative and subhuman habits. Change is not a matter of not doing something. It is a matter of doing something else, something that is inherently right, free, and pleasurable. Therefore, the key is insight and the freedom to feel and participate in ways of functioning that are right and new.

The tendencies and patterns of our earlier adaptations are not wrong. They were appropriate enough in their own moment of creation, and there is no need to feel guilt or despair about them. Likewise, efforts to oppose and change them are basically fruitless. Such efforts are forms of conflict, and they only reinforce the modes of self-possession.

What is not used becomes obsolete, whereas what is opposed is kept before us. Therefore, the creative principle of change is the one of relaxed inspection and awareness of existing tendencies and persistent, full feeling orientation to right, new, regenerative functional patterns. If this is done consistently and in ecstatic resort to the Living Divine, free growth is assured.

Have no regrets. Resort to the Divine in Truth and in the present. All that has been done by anyone had its logic in its time. Only God avails. Whatever is your habit in this moment is not wrong. It is simply a beginning. No habit is necessary, but it is only tending to persist, because it has not yet been replaced by further growth. Hear the Teaching of Truth, and understand what is the right, ultimate, and regenerative pattern of each function of Man. Feel free of all negative judgments about what you have done and what you tend to do. Turn with full feeling and attention to the creative affair of new adaptation in most positive Communion with the God who is Life, and who is Alive as all beings.

   
  About Adi Da Samraj
Born in the United States as Franklin Jones, this enlightened spiritual master now lives in Fiji, and goes by the name of Adi Da Samraj. Over the years he has written some of the most insightful and brilliant spiritual teachings that the world has ever seen. This essay, The Secret of How to Change, was written early in his teaching career, and continues to stand as a succinct example of his powerful insight and the eloquence of his expression.