poster: DawnHorsePress length: 07:28 date added: December 16, 2010 event date: July 7, 2005 language: English views: 6824; views this month: 15; views this week: 3 An excerpt from the talk, Relinquish The Mummery Of This World.
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.
From considering the "seed theme" of His Mummery Book, to describing His mindless and Indivisible State, Avatar Adi Da weaves a masterful tapestry of Instruction and Blessing. He Calls for and Transmits the most profound understanding possible of human life and sacred practice.
poster: adidatribute speakers: Rachel Kuhn, DVD length: 06:18 date added: July 6, 2011 event date: November 29, 2009 language: English views: 6722; views this month: 17; views this week: 4 Devotee Rachel Kuhn, who grew up in the Company of Adi Da, offers this testimonial to His life and work.
Excerpt from Second Evening: Track 7 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
This video is an excerpt from Second Evening: Track 6 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
A list of all the tracks on this DVD can be found here. Other excerpts available on this site can be found here.tags: childrenmystery
Adi Da's Life and Work poster: adidatribute speaker: Ruchradama Nadikanta length: 15:30 date added: July 5, 2011 event date: November 28, 2009 language: English views: 6619; views this month: 9; views this week: 1 Ruchiradama Nadikanta, senior devotee of Avatar Adi Da and a member of the Ruchira Sannyasin Order, offers this testimonial to the life and work of Adi Da Samraj.
Excerpt from First Evening: Track 2 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
A list of all the tracks on this DVD can be found here.
poster: AdidamVideos length: 07:24 date added: February 1, 2009 event date: October 29, 2004 language: English views: 6457; views this month: 18; views this week: 6 Adi Da Samraj discusses the notion of familiarity and its transcendence in the Way of Adidam.
This is an excerpt from a longer evening of consideration with Adi Da (October 29, 2004), which can be found on the DVD, The Illusion of Familiarity.
poster: CDBaby length: 12:21 date added: February 17, 2016 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English views: 6403; views this month: 20; views this week: 7 An excerpt from the talk, "The Grace of Suffering", given by Adi Da on January 18, 1976.
This excerpt is track 1 of the CD, The Impulse to God-Realization, a collection of talks focusing on Adi Da's clarifying Wisdom on the Impulse to Realize God that is inherent in all beings, and His Divine Offering and Instruction on the Ultimate Means to cultivate this heart-Impulse, thereby allowing it to become the guiding force of one's entire life.
This selection of Talks by Avatar Adi Da Samraj focuses on His clarifying Wisdom on the Impulse (inherent in all beings) to Realize God, and His Divine Offering and Instruction on the Ultimate Means to cultivate this heart-Impulse, thereby allowing it be the guiding force of one's entire life. As Avatar Adi Da points out, the real Spiritual Process cannot be truly initiated until and unless one’s Impulse to God-Realization becomes the governing principle of one's life.
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.
"The Grace of Suffering" is a beautiful talk by Adi Da. But it IS very compressed, making quite a few points in a short space, and depending to a significant degree on a familiarity with Adi Da's spiritual teaching. Here are some notes that may help.
Throughout the talk, the technical term, "sadhana" (spiritual practice), is used.
Genuine spiritual practice is not about belief systems, mere rituals, or a little "peace of mind", but rather about actually locating the Divine, through the tangible Transmission of the Spiritual Master.
After a recent illness, a devotee mentions to Adi Da that he notices how the physical suffering of illness was distracting enough that he was not "able" to find Adi Da's Transmission when he is ill.
Adi Da acknowledges this, and responds with three more general points.
1. The illness didn't "make" the devotee lose the thread of practice; rather, he allowed himself to be distracted from God by the illness. When the devotee gets this, and sees how he himself is "doing" the turning away, he'll be able to "do better next time" by not turning away even when ill.
2. Until Divine Enlightenment — in other words, until there is no limit on one's spiritual practice — sadhana (spiritual practice) is always only reflecting back to devotees the remaining limits in their practice: where they are still turning away from the Divine, where they still need to become responsible for not turning away.
In the beginning, the "turning away" is very "crude": even mere physical suffering is enough to distract one from God. (If we find ourselves saying, "what do you mean, MERE physical suffering?" that definitely identifies us as spiritual beginners! :-) ) But as one grows in practice, and ceases to turn away in such a crude manner (as one becomes a "saint", "yogi", "sage", etc.), one discovers that one is still turning from the Divine at an even subtler level of the being (in the mind, the psyche, etc.)
It is only when that "turning away" has been inspected, understood, and transcended in every dimension of the being that Divine Realization occurs.
In this sense, for the genuine spiritual practitioner, physical suffering — along with every other circumstance that reveals to us our turning away from the Divine — is truly a Grace, enabling us to grow in our practice.
3. Where we are turning away is a reflection of what we are identifying with: the body, the mind, the soul, etc. (For example, if physical illness is enough to distract us from God, then the physical body is what we currently are identified with.) God-Realization only occurs when all "identities" less than God are understood and transcended.
In this sense, "there are no winners in God" — the Way is not about seeking, accomplishment, or winning, but rather about surrender to God, sacrifice of self, and ego-death. There's no "one" left to "win"! But the One Who Remains is perfectly, eternally happy.tags: CD
Beyond Sex, Science, and self poster: AdiDaVideos length: 09:59 date added: December 16, 2013 event date: January 21, 2005 language: English views: 6255; views this month: 16; views this week: 7 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.
Testimonial from a Fijian Elder: Solomone Finau poster: AdiDaVideos length: 05:08 date added: November 3, 2012 event date: November 28, 2009 language: English views: 6244; views this month: 16; views this week: 9 Solomone Finau, a longtime Fijian devotee, who lives at Adi Da Samrajashram in Fiji, pays tribute to Adi Da in a heartfelt communication.
Excerpt from First Evening: Track 9 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
poster: adidatribute speaker: Gerald Sheinfeld length: 09:28 date added: July 5, 2011 event date: November 28, 2009 language: English views: 6222; views this month: 15; views this week: 6 Longtime devotee, Gerald Sheinfeld, offers this testimonial to the life and work of Adi Da Samraj.
Excerpt from First Evening: Track 6 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
Beyond Sex, Science, and self poster: DawnHorsePress length: 10:00 date added: July 27, 2011 event date: January 21, 2005 language: English views: 6185; views this month: 9; views this week: 3 In this Adidam Revelation Discourse from January 21, 2005, Adi Da reveals that Liberation cannot ever be achieved through sex, science, or religion! And He makes the astounding assertion, “Realization has nothing to do with the body-mind.”
Watch this DVD for Adi Da's Instruction on True Freedom, which He says is discovered only in the utter transcending of “point of view”, by means of the Transmission of Reality Itself. "The 'self'-contraction, the 'point of view', the 'point-of-view'-machine and what it presumes to be Reality, the illusions of Reality created by 'point of view' — these are the important matters to be understood. The 'you' to which you refer as 'I', the ego-'I', is a 'point-of-view'-machine. It is subject to the illusions of the cosmic apparition, the illusions that 'point of view' itself is subject to — space-time, mass, and so forth."
This video is an excerpt from Second Evening: Track 6 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
Image-Art Testimonial: Ben Grisso poster: AdiDaVideos speaker: Ben Grisso length: 08:30 date added: June 11, 2014 event date: November 29, 2009 language: English views: 5976; views this month: 17; views this week: 5 Devotee Ben Grisso, who grew up in the Adidam community, and who worked with Adi Da on His Divine Image-Art, offers this testimonial to Adi Da's life and work.
Excerpt from Second Evening: Track 11 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
A list of all the tracks on this DVD can be found here.
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 08:00 date added: February 27, 2014 event date: August 20, 2004 language: English views: 5793; views this month: 3; views this week: 3 A video excerpt from part 1 ("A Question Too Boring to Answer") of the DVD, You Are The Question You Ask, which was drawn from Adi Da's Avataric Discourse of August 30, 2004.
In addition to some of His most potent Instruction about the nature of devotional turning to Him (previously only available on CD), in this DVD, Avatar Adi Da addresses a broad range of topics including:
how questions themselves are a signal of the ego-activity that is at the root of the questioner's suffering and seeking
practice in the later phase of life
the great potential for unity in this “dark time” of pervasive conflict
The Vision of Love poster: Gerald Sheinfeld speaker: Gerald Sheinfeld length: 05:41 date added: August 2, 2016 language: English listens: 5763; listens this month: 15; listens this week: 8 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.
Slide Show 2008 poster: AdiDaVideos length: 05:28 date added: October 30, 2012 event date: 2008 language: English views: 5730; views this month: 11; views this week: 5 A slideshow taken from the last year of Adi Da's lifetime.
The photos are accompanied by a moving song, "What Will You Do If You Love Me?", sung by Adi Da's daughter, Naamleela Free Jones (from her album, Eyes In Other Worlds).
This video clip is an excerpt from Second Evening: Track 2 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD (more than 7 hours long) was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
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