poster: AdidamVideos length: 07:36 date added: January 28, 2009 language: English
In this discourse, Adi Da Samraj suggests that the Way He offers is not based on this assumption of separate self, but rather identification with that that is transcendent from the body-mind, the Divine Self-Condition.
The devotee asking the question of Adi Da was a former student of Zen Buddhism, so in this discourse Adi Da refers to some metaphors that are part of the Zen Buddhism Tradition.
The excerpt is from the DVD, Human History Is One Great Tradition. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. A CD version is also available.
This talk excerpt is followed by a clip of Darshan of Adi Da (at 6:21).
Adi Da talks about what there is to Realize, in the enlightenment process, freedom, love-bliss, the Divine Self condition. Apologies for the less than perfect sound quality.
Darshan of Adi Da, accompanied by Adi Da's recitation of His poem, "We are waiting for something to happen to this", from Crazy Da Must Sing.
We are waiting for something to happen to this. Outside the Heart, there is only confusion and fear. All of this has become unnecessary, unequal to the Truth. Knowing this something force of our existence. We think that true appearance is in another drastic place. Seeing this dilemma and the something powerful implied somehow within it and around. There is only in the solution in the satisfactions elsewhere. Unless something happens to all of this.
Therefore, men have tussled with the two hands of adventure. Either to turn an extraordinary something here. Or else to make unusual escapes into another power, another timed, or timeless place. This is the whole account of man.
But there is a possibility between these means. There is another understanding, another adventure. If only we understand the harm in which we act. The origin of all this fearful desperation. The ordinary term in which we view the thing itself. There is a prime dilemma formed within the mind that sees the world and turns away. That turns away and turns within the life, but always turns upon the pivot of a single doubt. Within this doubt, two arms of possibility enlarge the man. One intends the world, intending magnificent life, ending in perfect happiness. One intends another life, more than life itself, beginning and ending in perfect truth. Therefore he sees all things in double terms. In opposites and contradictions, high and low. And he makes final appearance in neither kind. But forever agonizes the play of his dilemma until he dies. This is the kind he seems.
But one who understands, is free of doubt. He sees the world the same. The mind in which he sees the world is single as the Heart. He does not act upon the wheel evolving and involved, two forces on a spike. He always understands the source-ful act that turns men in and out. This is what he always does. But others act upon the thing he understands. Therefore, he is not in trouble. This is the only mood of his adventure. What should he wait to happen? Where should he go? What elsewhere? What event? All the places are a single world for him. Where others go, where others wait is all a single field of single action and no trouble. Therefore, neither high nor low, unmoved from the beginning, not turned, he stands as the Heart. This is understanding. And the image of His life.
One of Adi Da's favorite cartoons, "The Sunshine Makers" is a classic from the golden age of animation. Released on January 11, 1935 (an auspicious day of the year, in the sacred calendar of Adidam), the cartoon was directed by Ted Eshbaugh, the first artist/technician to figure out how to create animated cartoons in color. This restored print is the highest quality available, and is from the DVD, Toddle Tales & Rainbow Parade Cartoons.
"The Sunshine Makers" is the third cartoon in the "Rainbow Parade Series", which was produced by Van Beuren Studios to compete with Walt Disney's "Silly Symphonies". The series consisted of 27 full color, animated shorts, and was distributed to theaters by RKO between 1934 and 1936. (You can watch more of these here.)
"The Sunshine Makers" later became a regular on 1950's television, after the sale of RKO's film library. In his book, Of Mice and Magic, well-known film critic Leonard Maltin writes that his childhood (in the 1950's) included "countless viewings" of the cartoon.
"The Sunshine Makers" is also one of Adi Da's favorite cartoons, because of its depiction of Light and Happiness (magnified and spread by the "Sunshine gnomes" in the cartoon) dissolving and outshining the force of egoity (the "gloomies").
In his article, "The Sunshine Makers cartoon from 1935", James Steinberg writes, "Bhagavan Adi Da loved that cartoon! He thought that it showed the simplicity of the argument of the open hand and the closed fist, or that our un-happiness is just something that we presume. Just like He used to tell us when we came to the Mountain of Attention, or came to see Him altogether, that we could 'leave it at the gate'. There is no reason to presume the dilemma in the face of the Divine (or truly altogether). We used to watch 'The Sunshine Makers' cartoon with Him when we had to watch it on a 16mm projector. I saw it multiple times with Bhagavan and He would laugh heartily as it was shown and watch our faces to see our reactions beaming with Happiness. He always used to tell us that we could just 'drop it in the moment' (our self-contraction) and that it was 'just an act'."
Further notes on the cartoon:
* It's a musical! Almost all speech is set to music.
* At 0:43: The "Sunshine gnomes" start their morning with a conscious exercise routine that begins with bowing down to the Transcendental Sun (the source of their sunshine): "Hail, His Majesty, the Sun!"
* At 7:00: When the "gloomies" refuse to "take their medicine", the gnomes force "sunshine" down their throats. In the words of the great Spiritual Master, Sri Ramakrishna: "There are three classes of physicians: superior, mediocre, and inferior. The physician who feels the patient's pulse and just says to him, 'Take the medicine regularly' belongs to the inferior class. He doesn't care to inquire whether or not the patient has actually taken the medicine. The mediocre physician is he who in various ways persuades the patient to take the medicine, and says to him sweetly: 'My good man, how will you be cured unless you use the medicine? Take this medicine. I have made it for you myself.' But he who, finding the patient stubbornly refusing to take the medicine, forces it down his throat, going so far as to put his knee on the patient's chest is the best physician. This is the manifestation of the tamas of the physician. It doesn't injure the patient; on the contrary, it does him good."
An artistic offering about the "Divine Spirit-Tree of Light", an expression of happiness that is part of Adidam's annual celebration of the Season of "Light-In-Everybody".
Accompanied by Naamleela's musical version (from her album, Eyes In Other Worlds) of Adi Da's poem, "I served to priest the pharoahs", from Crazy Da Must Sing.
For more about the celebration of Light-In-Everybody, read here and read Naamleela's The Danavira Mela Book.
Adi Da Samraj has often praised J.S. Bach as one of the truly authentic composers of sacred music in the Western tradition. In this album, Naamleela Free Jones and several other devotees of Adi Da Samraj (the John Mackay Trio) create jazz interpretations of several of Bach's classic piano preludes. This music invokes a sacred sphere of Happiness inspired by Adi Da's great Love and Blessings.
Adi Da Samraj talks about combining oneself with His Argument to the point where one loses sympathy with the painful self-contraction, and one can see that it is one's own activity, and completely unnecessary. Transcendence of the self-contraction allows one to Realize the Native State of Prior Happiness.
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Audio excerpt from Adi Da's talk, "Sex, Laughter, and Real-God-Realization" (now available on CD).
Sexuality, humor, and Awakening to the Divine Condition are three forms of ecstasy, or unbounded feeling, that disrupt the conventional sense of “order” in society. Pleasure undoes the body. Humor undoes the mind. And Realization undoes the sense of “self”. The Fullness of Real-God-Realization Comprehends and Transcends the limitations of social norms, spiritual presumptions, and self-identification, granting the capability of Real Happiness and True Freedom.
At Da Love-Ananda Mahal, on December 17, 1982, Adi Da gives the talk, "The Baptism of Immortal Happiness".
"The ego is such a heavy grip, such a clench on the Divine Light, that Spiritual experience through Spiritual Transmission in life does not amount to much for most people. They cannot make it part of their existence. This is why I expect My devotees to prepare themselves by listening to and then hearing My Wisdom-Teaching. Then My Spiritual Baptism can Awaken you to My Spirit-Presence, and you will begin to practice the Way of Adidam in Spiritual relationship to Me."
In this 1982 talk (available on the CD, The Cosmic Mandala), Adi Da speaks about what is required — in the death process, and in life — in order to transcend the mechanism of attention and Realize the Divine Self-Condition.
In this talk excerpt, Adi Da tells us that, to Realize permanent Happiness, we can make use of the natural motivation toward release from un-happiness.
In the death process, He recommends engaging the discipline of relaxation and release of the hold on body, mind, and all states of attention, thereby surrendering and transcending fear.
On October 26, 1980, a shaman from Mexico visited The Mountain Of Attention, Adidam’s primary Sanctuary in Northern California. The following day, Avatar Adi Da considered with His devotees the shamanic view of the world, the inherently magical nature of the world, and our psychic relationship to it.
In this deeply instructive discourse, released now as a CD entitled The Bridge to God, Adi Da makes clear the necessity to discover and participate in that magical condition in order to go beyond the suppressive confines of the conventional materialistic point of view and discover the happiness inherent in existence.
This CD audio excerpt is track 3, "Discover the Real Nature of Existence".
For more about this talk, read the special Adidam Revelation Magazine article on The Bridge To God.
Adi Da describes how, through the Grace of His Company, the devotee becomes increasingly aware of suffering and its nature. Increasingly, Grace reveals that suffering is the result of the devotee's own activity.
Consequently, the Way of Adidam [called "The Way of Divine Communion" in this 1976 talk] involves a life of counter-egoic activity, that focuses on devotion to the Divine Presence of the Guru, rather than working on one's tendencies. Over time, the act of devotional surrender to the Divine (and the Happiness associated with that surrender) replaces the act of self-possession (and the suffering associated with that self-possession).
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 04:02 date added: December 11, 2014 event date: December 8, 1976 language: English
An audio excerpt from Adi Da's talk, "Identification of the Beloved". This talk is now available on a CD from the Dawn Horse Press.
Adi Da draws us into noticing the true nature of this world, in which we find the Beloved — the True Loved One — only in its passing forms. This leads to attachment to what is temporary, generating a constant cycle of reaction and seeking for a Happiness that will overcome death. Adi Da Admonishes everyone to find the True Beloved, in Its Eternal Form — our True Condition — if Happiness is to be truly found.
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