poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 13:25 date added: March 26, 2017 event date: July 20, 1986 language: English views: 3380; views this month: 54; views this week: 3
In 1986, Adi Da made His first visit to the European community of His devotees. He travelled through England, France and Holland. In the South of Holland, in the village of Maria Hoop close to the German border, a former Catholic monastery was found which could be rented for a few weeks. Devotees swiftly cleaned buildings and the grounds. Adi Da stayed in a specially prepared wing of the monastery for several days. During this time, He granted Darshan and held "Question and Answer" occasions in the chapel (now called Adi Da Kapel) with German, English, Dutch, French and American devotees. The former monastery has since been acquired by the European community of Adidam and is now known as The European Danda.
In this rare excerpt from one of the "Question and Answer" occasions, Adi Da addresses the primal human emotion of doubt in a most direct and simple manner. He describes how doubt is not ultimately a sign that we have been "betrayed" in some way. The radical solution to doubt is to identify with the Divine Itself, beyond the temporary cycles of the body and mind and beyond the sense of being a separate self.
poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 04:59 date added: March 26, 2017 event date: January 21, 2005 language: English views: 4724; views this month: 43; views this week: 2
Adi Da: "Sex is fundamental ego-identity, lived. And generally speaking, it is a problem for everyone. . . The social pattern of 'self' and 'other' is founded upon emotional-sexual patterning to a very great degree. . . So it certainly is an important dimension of bondage, and therefore an important aspect of sadhana. The Perfect Practice is not based on any reference to the body-mind, or any method of the body-mind."
In this Avataric Discourse (from January 21, 2005), Adi Da explains why the Perfect Practice (the most advanced development of the Way of Adidam) has nothing to do with sex (or the ego-"I" altogether), and is not a "method" of the body-mind or something to be applied to the body-mind. The Self-Condition prior to the body-mind is the domain of the Perfect Practice. The Self-Condition is not a separate "self", but the Nirvanic Condition that is always already the case, and that inherently transcends the body-mind.
This excerpt is from the DVD, Beyond Sex, Science, and self. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew.
poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 08:47 date added: March 25, 2017 language: English views: 4123; views this month: 110; views this week: 2
An audio excerpt from Adi Da Samraj's early talk, "Renouncing the Search for the Edible Deity", accompanied by more recent photos of Adi Da.
Adi Da: "When we look out into the universe we feel insulted, rejected, unloved. And so we make philosophy out of our apparent independence. Fundamentally, it is not our experiences in particular relationships that tell us we are not loved. Some people do not love us, surely, but nevertheless we are simply, always, and already philosophically disposed to believe that we are not loved. It is our interpretation of existence, not on the basis of any relational experience we have had with other human beings, but on the basis of our apparent independence itself. Our sense of independent bodily existence means separation to us, whereas, you see, it is really only the sense of independent bodily existence. When you become strong — if you ever can become truly strong — autonomous, able to take a deep breath, then you stop interpreting the universe as a form of rejection, as a great parent from whose company you have been expelled, under whose domination you live, who has rejected you and does not love you. Everyone is simply born into the conventional condition of independence and everyone interprets that condition as rejection, as 'you don't love me.' "
poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 07:03 date added: March 18, 2017 event date: December 27, 1988 language: English views: 3572; views this month: 17; views this week: 1
In this video clip from the 1988 talk, "What Is Your Intention?", Adi Da criticizes the "do-it-yourself" approach to spirituality that is popular in the world today, and speaks about why a teacher is necessary.
poster: CDBaby length: 10:28 date added: March 13, 2017 event date: August 30, 1982 language: English views: 3071; views this month: 5; views this week: 1
This audio excerpt is from "Tell Me True - Have You Got the Gom-Boo?", a talk given by Adi Da on August 30, 1982. The talk appears as Chapter 2 in Adi Da's book, The Dreaded Gom-Boo.
Adi Da: "The presumption of being [the presumption of one's own existence] is not made on the basis of [scientific observations of nature]. . . The force of being itself is self-authenticating.. . . The Consciousness that is single is not evident in the body. . . In the profundity of the research into that presumption of being (rather than the mechanical associations of it), we realize - intuitively, directly - the Being that is to be presumed to be ultimately associated with all of nature."
This excerpt is also track 4 of the CD, Science and the Myth of Materialism, a collection of talks from throughout the 30 years of Avatar Adi Da’s formal Teaching-Work that brings together samples from His vast Divine Instruction relative to the psycho-physical nature of the world, the limits of scientific materialism, and the Inherent Unity of Existence.
Surrender Without Limitation poster: DawnHorsePress length: 02:57 date added: March 5, 2017 event date: December 30, 1983 language: English listens: 2763; listens this month: 9; listens this week: 4
In this beautiful and intimate Discourse given on December 30, 1983 at Adi Da Samrajashram, Avatar Adi Da speaks with a man who suffers from claustrophobia. Avatar Adi Da points to the self-generated cause of such terrifying experiences, describing them as symptoms of feeling-contraction from the Field of Divine Existence. He calls this man—and all who are sensitive to suffering and anxiety—to find the Bliss of Divine Existence in His Company, and to intensively practice feeling beyond all emotional limits on living in That Bliss.
poster: FIAT LUX length: 02:30 date added: March 1, 2017 event date: April 28, 2017 language: English views: 4244; views this month: 16; views this week: 4
[Note: We reposted this video from Vimeo. Not everyone will be able to play this video on this web page, but you can always watch it on Vimeo.]
In this video, longtime devotee and Adidam educator, Carolyn Lee, introduces "The Zero Point", a retreat taking place at the European Danda, April 28 - 30, 2017.
Read or watch the daily news these days and you will find it filled with identity politics and the fear and anxiety that such politics engenders. Identity politics is a major threat to the world. In this retreat, we explore the root of identity politics: the presumption of difference and separateness. We also study and consider Adi Da's Wisdom on understanding, un-learning, and transcending the illusion of separateness and the act of separation, and Realizing Prior Unity, Non-Separateness, and unlimited relatedness to everything and everyone.
The "Zero Point" is the place where we can drop all the limited and superficial points of view, and find the profound depth of Reality Itself. This has the potential for initiating a Reality-informed and Reality-transformed personal process and a collective activism in the contemporary world.
For more information about the retreat, write info@adidam.org.
Death Is Not the End of Anything poster: CDBaby length: 09:14 date added: January 18, 2017 event date: January 14, 1995 language: English views: 4523; views this month: 13; views this week: 2
This is an excerpt from Adi Da's talk, "Death Is Not The End Of Anything", on January 14, 1995 at Adi Da Samrasjashram. This talk appears as a chapter in Adi Da's book, Easy Death.
Adi Da: "You cannot get in touch with Reality Itself (or Truth Itself) without dying — in the sense of relinquishing the egoic self. Most people think they will do that at the end of the physical lifetime. They do not deal with Reality (or Truth) in life, yet they imagine they will deal with It at death. They will not — if they have not dealt with It while alive. They will not want Reality (or Truth) in death any more than they wanted it while they lived. To Realize Reality Itself, 'you', the ego, must die — because 'you' is a knot, a gesture, an act of separating from Reality. What is called 'you' is an action of dissociation from Reality. I call it 'the ego', 'the self-contraction'. It avoids Reality."
poster: CDBaby length: 08:15 date added: January 14, 2017 event date: 1988 language: English views: 4772; views this month: 11; views this week: 0
This is an audio excerpt from The Commitment to Real-God-Realization, a DVD containing conversations between Adi Da and His devotees in 1988, in the United States, Fiji, and New Zealand. In these direct and challenging talks, Adi Da discusses how, through consideration, one can determine relatively quickly that one will survive death; on that basis, one can live life not merely for the sake of the physical body (which is going to die), but can practice in the context of (and in cooperation with) one's Eternal destiny: God-Realization.
Adi Da: "Some work for goods and blessings in this world, some work for movement into other worlds. Some transcend all conditional possibilities and Realize the Divine Domain. If Real God is proven, then you must live a life devoted to Real God. . . If the Divine Reality were obvious, the commitment to God-Realization is instant."
Adi Da makes clear that the motive to God-Realization is a Gift of Grace given by Him, and not the result of will or self-effort.
This excerpt is track 6 of the CD, Death and the Purpose of Existence, a collection of talks and recitations that exemplify Avatar Adi Da's essential Wisdom-Teaching on death and dying.
Note: Due to distribution policies set by CDBaby (and beyond the control of this website and Adidam), this video may not be playable in every country. However, sometimes, even when you can't play it on this page, you may be able to play it on YouTube: click here.
[Contains German subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]
"Das getrennte Selbst Ich ist eine Illusion" ("The Separate Self Is An Illusion") is a video excerpt from an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da on July 7, 2005 in Land Bridge Pavilion at The Mountain Of Attention.
Adi Da Samraj speaks about the action of self-contraction, which creates the sense of being a "separate self" - whereas, in Reality, no matter what arises, you are only and merely the Witness Consciousness.
This talk is from the first occasion in many years in which Avatar Adi Da spoke directly to a gathering of His devotees in California. Questions from devotees about intimate, familial, and social issues are met with Avatar Adi Da's Compassion and Humor, as well as His Liberating Wisdom.
Longtime devotee and Adidam educator, Anthony Costabile, summarizes the purpose of Adi Da's lifetime succinctly, and describes how the practice given by Adi Da authenticates itself.
For more about Adi Da's Spiritual Transmission of Divine Enlightenment, click here.
For more about Adi Da's Work with human beings after His lifetime, click here.
For more about how Adi Da made the Offering of Adidam available for all beings for all time, click here.
The Vision of Love poster: Gerald Sheinfeld speaker: Gerald Sheinfeld length: 05:41 date added: August 2, 2016 language: English listens: 5756; listens this month: 14; listens this week: 3
On his new downloadable album, At the Feet of the Spiritual Master, devotee Gerald Sheinfeld tells leelas — true stories of his life of over 45 years with Avatar Adi Da Samraj. These stories begin before the first ashram opened in 1972. They provide details of how Avatar Adi Da awakened ordinary people into devotees of Real God. These stories are based on the awakened recognition of the prior Unity of Divine Reality. They are full of lessons of self-understanding and brightening heart-joy in finding the truth about God, the truth about life and death. The truth of prior Happiness which is the true Condition of all, prior to the ego-I act of separation.
Gerald has been a devotee of Adi Da since the beginning of Adi Da's work with devotees. He accompanied Adi Da on His 1973 trip to India, and has participated in countless sacred occasions and events in the company of Adi Da in the intervening years — so he has many stories to tell!
Some of those stories are on this downloadable album. This audio excerpt is track 8, "The Vision Of Love", on Gerald's downloadable album.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:37 date added: June 2, 2016 language: English views: 7569; views this month: 77; views this week: 5
Adi Da's entire human lifetime was a unique demonstration of His Eternal Form — the State He calls the "Bright", the Conscious Light that is Reality Itself.
From His birth on November 3, 1939 on Long Island in New York, to His passing from the body on November 27, 2008, on the Island of Naitauba, Fiji, His Life is the story of the Intervention of the "Bright" in human time.
The fruits of Avatar Adi Da's Lifetime are the establishment of a new and unique possibility for the transformation of all beings and the world itself. His Revelation is of the Divine Reality, which is always Shining — like the sun — as the Prior Condition of every one and every thing.
Adi Da has always said that the Way He Teaches is an ego-transcending relationship, rather than an ego-serving technique. The Way is founded on devotional recognition and response to Him. It is a silent, wordless intuition in the heart of one’s being—not a matter of mere belief, ideas, or techniques to seek for fulfillment (whether material or spiritual). To all who respond to Him with devotion and self-discipline, Adi Da Reveals the Very Divine Condition—the Love-Bliss-Light of Consciousness Itself.
This video provides a brief overview of Avatar Adi Da's life and work, and is an invitation to enter into Spiritual relationship to Him for the sake of Divine Realization.
Adi Da: "I Demonstrate Totality to here. I Reveal Reality Itself, Which Is Divine in Its Totality—not fractioned by humankind, not changed or limited by humankind. I Function in an egoless Transcendental Spiritual (and, Thus, Super-normal) Manner. I am not here limited as a gross (physical) phenomenon. When I am Really 'Located', My Transcendental Spiritual Self-Transmission is literal and undeniable. My Transcendental Spiritual Self-Transmission Is the 'Proof' that Reality—and the 'world' altogether—is of an entirely different Nature than people otherwise suppose."
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 04:24 date added: May 18, 2016 event date: August 26, 2004 language: English listens: 3506; listens this month: 6; listens this week: 1
In this excerpt (from August 26, 2004), Adi Da responds to a questioner who asks how she can practice devotion in her dream state.
Adi Da indicates the necessity of self-understanding, in order for devotees to grow in practice. He points to the depth of existence that is always the case regardless of the changing states of awareness (waking, dreaming, and sleeping). And He Calls for ego-transcending practice (sadhana) to be engaged at this depth—so that What Is Prior to all conditional states can be Realized.
The Bodily Location of Happiness poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:12 date added: May 4, 2016 event date: November 28, 1981 language: English views: 7763; views this month: 18; views this week: 4
This is a video excerpt from Adi Da's classic talk, "The Bodily Location of Happiness", which He gave on November 28, 1981. This talk was originally published in the book, The Bodily Location Of Happiness. The full talk is available on CD and on a new DVD, The Location Of Happiness.
The talk communicates several core insights:
1. Everybody is intuitively familiar with happiness. You don't have to be a devotee of Adi Da! This was part of the reason Adi Da chose "happiness" as the focus of this Teaching period: because the subject was so accessible. Everyone knows what it's like to be happy (at least a little). It's just that most people are not aware that Perfect, Eternal Happiness is possible and Realizable. (And it certainly isn't, through ordinary human means.) Adi Da: "All beings are always already Happy. You always know, at this very moment you know exactly, what it would be to look and feel and be and act completely Happy." The esoteric reason everyone is familiar with happiness is because everyone is always, already happy. And the esoteric reason everyone yearns for complete happiness is because complete happiness is realizable — and everyone's heart knows that.
2. Adi Da's "Lesson of Life":"You can't become happy; you can only be (already) happy." People are always seeking for happiness. The "pursuit of happiness" (not happiness itself!) is even enshrined as an "unalienable right" (alongside life and liberty) in the preamble of the United States Declaration of Independence. Its author, Thomas Jefferson, knew better than to think a government could guarantee happiness itself — hence only the guarantee of "pursuing happiness". Only a Divine Incarnation can guarantee Happiness Itself.
Adi Da reveals that happiness is the native state of beings. It is already the case. Every attempt to seek for it (or mis-identify the source of happiness as some object or other) in fact serves to dissociate one from it. Adi Da: "You think that you can seek Happiness and find it. Your search for Happiness is itself a confession of un-Happiness. You cannot realize Happiness by persisting in un-Happiness, persisting in the method of un-Happiness. All seeking is an expression of un-Happiness, all seeking is the method of un-Happiness, the practice of un-Happiness. This must be understood. It is not merely true — it must be understood."
Self-understanding allows one to get this point. Based on self-understanding, one can devote oneself to Happiness rather than to seeking for It and settling for the little bit of Infinite Happiness that "bleeds through" the clench of ego into conditions. This ultimately enables the Eternal Realization of Infinite, Perfect Happiness. Adi Da: "Understand your un-Happiness. Then you will be capable of locating Happiness, and, having located Happiness, you will be capable of practicing the Way of Adidam, which is nothing but the devotion of life to Happiness."
3. The Transmission of the Divine Guru is How One Locates Happiness. The subtitle of the book, The Bodily Location Of Happiness, is: "On the Incarnation of the Divine Person and the Transmission of Love-Bliss". In other words, you can't apply "The Lesson of Life" by somehow "locating" happiness directly, by yourself (or in yourself). Happiness is our native state, but that doesn't mean it can be located by an egoic, "do it yourself" process. We locate happiness directly as a Grace-given Gift, through devotion to the Transcendental Spiritual Transmission of Adi Da. Adi Da: "Happiness is presently the case. In this moment you are already Happy. Sitting with Me, locate this Happiness." We locate our "Native State" by recognizing and submitting to our "Native Person" — our Very Self appearing here in bodily (human) form.
4. It is a Process of Whole Bodily Location. "The bodily location of Happiness" is not primarily a reference to some place where Happiness resides in the body (although Adi Da teases His listeners with this idea: "Look for it in your toes, in your fingers, in your shirt, in your head"). It refers to a process ("the bodily location of Happiness" = "the locating of Happiness with the whole body-mind") that involves the surrender and transformation of every aspect of the body-mind, immersed in the Perfectly Happy State of the Divine Guru, through recognition of Him as the Divine in every moment. Then the secondary and supportive practices of the Way of Adidam become means for staying immersed in that Divine State in every moment: "Having located Happiness [having recognized Adi Da as the Divine], you will be capable of practicing the Way of Adidam, which is nothing but the devotion of life to Happiness [Adi Da, recognized as the Divine]. The practices of this Way are not methods for attaining Happiness, but they are the expressions of Happiness. The disciplines of money, food, and sex are not a way to become Happy. Discipline is difficult enough — why should we also burden it with the obligation to make us Happy!"
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