The Sunshine Makers poster: frizz lefryd length: 07:43 date added: May 8, 2010 language: English views: 10736; views this month: 53; views this week: 7
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."
poster: AdidamVideos length: 07:36 date added: January 28, 2009 language: English views: 9800; views this month: 12; views this week: 7
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).
poster: AdidamRevelationMagazine length: 05:35 date added: January 30, 2014 event date: June 20, 1972 language: English listens: 8102; listens this month: 45; listens this week: 14
"The Avon Lady" is a classic talk given by Avatar Adi Da in the early years of His Teaching-Work. In this humorous and penetrating discourse, Avatar Adi Da offers basic instruction regarding the nature of seeking and the Awakening Function of the True Guru.
In this audio excerpt entitled “There Is Already No Dilemma”, Avatar Adi Da describes the human egoic drama of separation, suffering, and seeking. All pleasures, distractions, and experiences reinforce that same drama of the apparently separate self. But the True Guru does not support the search, does not promise any fulfillment of that search. That is the uniqueness and the invaluable quality of the True Guru. Adi Da compares the True Guru to an unusual elevator – where one steps in, expecting to go up (toward Spiritual attainment or some other fulfillment), but instead the bottom drops out. This is why the search begins to fall apart once there is recognition of the True Guru. Then the real Spiritual process can begin.
poster: AdidamPodcasts length: 10:25 date added: October 5, 2010 event date: April 1986 language: English listens: 8037; listens this month: 21; listens this week: 3
In this historical recording from April, 1986, Adi Da Samraj recites the final section of His Love-Ananda Gita (now called The Lion Sutra and published in Part 15 of The Aletheon). In it, Adi Da communicates His most "radical" transcendental teaching regarding true renunciation of the egoic motive of separation and Realization of the Divine Self-Condition.
Give the ego gone to Me poster: jef108 length: 03:01 date added: January 27, 2009 event date: July 10, 2005 language: English views: 7888; views this month: 18; views this week: 1
Darshan of Adi Da, as He sits at three locations at The Mountain Of Attention (the second is in front of Ordeal Bath Lodge; the third is at The Manner Of Flowers).
Give the ego gone to Me. Find out My Self-of-Radiance, Which Is All-Love-As-Bliss. Let the ego be Un-Happened— now.
The Bodily Location of Happiness poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:12 date added: May 4, 2016 event date: November 28, 1981 language: English views: 7768; views this month: 21; views this week: 9
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!"
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 07:39 date added: February 13, 2011 event date: January 7, 2006 language: English listens: 7643; listens this month: 12; listens this week: 3
On January 6, 2006 at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in California, Adi Da Samraj recited His own renderings of the Advaitic texts Maneesha Panchakam ("Five Verses on Wisdom"), Shankara's Dasasloki ("Ten Declarations"), and the Devikalottara.
These recordings are now available on the 3-CD set, The Reality-Teachings of the Advaitic Sages, the second volume in The Gnosticon Discourse Series from the Dawn Horse Press.
It is a delight to hear Adi Da bring the essence of these ancient texts to life, and feel how He completely and utterly combined Himself with the tradition of the Advaitic Sages. Not only does Adi Da clarify the hidden treasures and ancient truths in these texts, He also explains why the meaning of a sacred text can be communicated only by someone who has Realized the truth of it.
This is an excerpt from Track 4 of Disk 3 ("Reality (Itself) Is All The God There Is").
The collection of Avatar Adi Da's renderings and related discourses became the seed of His book, The Gnosticon, in which He thoroughly examines the Transcendental Teachings of the ancient Sages in relation to His Transcendental Spiritual Way of Adidam.
poster: AdidamVideos length: 08:49 date added: January 28, 2009 language: English views: 7609; views this month: 16; views this week: 7
Bhagavan Adi Da Samraj discusses the unattainability of Divine Self-Realization by effort of the individual body-mind, and the necessity of Grace, by which an individual is able to spontaneously respond to His Free Gift.
This talk excerpt is followed by a clip of Darshan of Adi Da (at 6:48).
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:37 date added: June 2, 2016 language: English views: 7570; views this month: 78; views this week: 4
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: sacredwalk-about speaker: Ruchiradama Nadikanta length: 12:10 date added: January 3, 2013 language: English listens: 7534; listens this month: 12; listens this week: 4
Ruchiradama Nadikanta is offering these recitations as a New Year's gift to everyone. Feel free to share these recitations. For more recitations from Not-Two Is Peace, click here.
The Way of Fun poster: DAbase length: 54:00 date added: October 19, 2010 event date: 1987 language: English listens: 7464; listens this month: 18; listens this week: 5
Adi Da's very humorous and wonderfully instructive talk from 1987, The Way Of Fun, about how, after being around His devotees, He "finally got it", that "it's time for the Siddhas" to adapt to modern times, "time for the Truth to change". This new way ("The Way of Fun") — for realizing God without requiring self-transcendence — will "require nothing of you except to really dig those Divine Vibes." The talk is Adi Da's masterful reflection of how the ego is always trying to revise the Way into something that is self-fulfilling rather than self-transcending, something that has no requirements and no difficulties, and that takes no time at all. "So whatever kind of association you have with Me . . . as long as it's fun, you're happy to do it. But if it requires anything of you, your resistance comes on immediately." For more on this theme, read our article, The Way of the Bone.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:13 date added: March 20, 2013 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English views: 7347; views this month: 12; views this week: 2
In this seminal discourse (at The Mountain Of Attention), from the early years of His Teaching Work, Adi Da speaks about the inevitable process of self-revelation and self-understanding that prepares the being for true Spiritual life.
This 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.
This recording of Above the Clouds was made in November 2010, during a three day, 24-hour-a-day vigil of meditation and puja on the veranda of Aham Da Asmi Sthan, Adi Da's home on the island of Naitauba. Devotee John Wubbenhorst speaks of the sacred occasion of being dropped out into the space of being 'not really there' while the Guru plays the musical instrument (and the instrument that is one's body-mind).
"Above the clouds, There Is Always The Sun — Forever Free Of Earthly Weather. By Tendency, You Are Always Looking At the local weather, and Not At The Sun Itself. That Is What egoity Is About — Always Suffering The Changes Of The local Patterning That Is the body-mind In its egoic Bondage. Instead, You Must (In every moment) Turn To Me . . . "
Where is Heaven? poster: Mormon Transhumanist Association speaker: Mike LaTorra length: 41:02 date added: July 4, 2014 event date: May 10, 2014 language: English views: 7204; views this month: 54; views this week: 16
Transhumanism is a movement whose goal is to fundamentally transform the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities and overcome present liabilities, including brief lifespan and limits on intelligence (e.g., through integration with artificial intelligence aids or networks).
What transhumanism and religion share is the question: what is the greatest potential (or destiny) for human beings, and how can it be realized (technologically, spiritually, etc.)?
"Heaven" is a popular subject these days - The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Heaven is for Real, and Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife are all huge, recent bestsellers. Because "heaven" is used in many familiar religions to signify the ultimate human destiny, Mike uses it as his jumping off point for this talk (which introduces the Buddhist view and the Adidam view). He distinguishes different kinds of "heavens", introducing Adi Da's "seven stages of life" framework, the Cosmic Mandala (as a "map" that helps answer the talk's title question), and other esoteric concepts helpful in understanding our ultimate potential. He draws on stories about visiting other realms, from devotees Anne Rogers and Connie Mantas and from Adi Da Himself.
[For a related exploration of these themes of human potential, technology, and spirituality, read our article, We Are Consciousness Itself.]
poster: AdidamPodcasts length: 09:45 date added: March 17, 2012 event date: January 21, 2005 language: English listens: 7069; listens this month: 14; listens this week: 4
In this talk excerpt, Adi Da addresses the fact that Truth or God-Realization is not dependent on, nor does it have anything to do with, the functions and activities of the body-mind. It cannot be achieved through sex, science, or even religion.
This excerpt is from the DVD, Beyond Sex, Science and "self". Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew. Also available as a CD.
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are all huge, recent bestsellers. Because "heaven" is used in many familiar religions to signify the ultimate human destiny, Mike uses it as his jumping off point for this talk (which introduces the Buddhist view and the Adidam view). He distinguishes different kinds of "heavens", introducing Adi Da's "
