Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

A report in June, 2016 on the state of Naitauba, three months after the devastating destruction wrought by Cyclone Winston on February 20, 2016.

Interviews with Michiel Vos (Samrajya Administrator), Grace Evans (retreatant from California), Carol Smith (resident), Susie Bagshaw (Taveuni Support and Fijian Advocacy), Naamleela Free Jones (daughter of Adi Da Samraj), Joy Harland (resident), Andrew Savio (retreatant from Melbourne, Australia), Nicholas Wagner (public guest from Cape Town, South Africa), Da-vid Forsythe (resident), Ruchiradama Nadikanta (Ruchira Sannyasin Order), Jeff Hughes (retreatant from Taveuni, Fiji), and Ryan Bass (retreatant from Cape Town, South Africa).

While much has been done to restore Naitauba since the damage of Cyclone Winston (some of it reported in this video), much more recovery and restoration work and work aimed at minimizing the damage from future cyclones is still needed. You can find out more here.

Tags: Naitauba  

From July, 2015 through May, 2016, longtime devotee Gerald Sheinfeld embarked on a worldwide "Leela Tour" spanning 50 locations in 10 countries. (The tour stops are listed below.) The tour was in anticipation of the release of Gerald's forthcoming book, At The Feet of the Spiritual Master: Stories from My Life with Avatar Adi Da Samraj.

In April, 2016 (close to the end of his tour), Gerald hosted several events at The Mountain Of Attention. This hour-long audio clip contains excerpts from those events — so if you were unable to attend any of Gerald's events. . . here is a taste!

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.

Tags: Gerald Sheinfeld   CD   DVD  

This album of Adidam devotional music from The First Amendment Choir was originally released on audiocassette tape in 1981. (The name, "First Amendment Choir", was chosen for the choir by Adi Da, which performed for Him on several occasions.)

The album begins and ends with "The Divine Invocation":

Radiant Da,
All-Pervading Current of Life,
Consciousness where I appear and disappear,
Hear My Breathing Heart.

Awaken me
To feel the Heart of Light and Love,
Where this life and mind and body may dissolve.
I hold up my hands.

"The Divine Invocation" was an early version of what we now call The First Great Invocation. Now we would begin with the First Great Invocation and end with the Second Great Invocation — but Adi Da had not yet created the Second Great Invocation at the time this album was created.

Many of the songs on this album were composed by Billboard Award-winning composer Ray Lynch or by JoAnne Sunshine. Ray Lynch is also the guitar player. Eric Leber is the choir director. Besides Ray Lynch and JoAnne Sunshine, vocalists include Brad Crawford, Robin Richardson, Kathleen Ewart, Sylvia Hayden, Carol Mabin, Janet Kopieki, Rita Gordon, Happy Hayden, Ginny Leber, Maggie Roberts, Lynzee Elze, Ron Guba, Steve Benson, Chris Cardullo, Phyllis Hyde, Karen Booth, and Antonina Randazzo (among others). The album was recorded at Prune Production Studio, in Mill Valley, California, and was released by the Laughing Man Institute.

The volume is low, so you may need to turn it up. The sound quality of this digital version is not up to contemporary standards, but many listeners — old and new — may find it just as heart-moving now as so many found it when it was originally released.

Tags: music  

Scenes of the devastation created by the Valley Fire in September, 2015, in the areas near and at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in Northern California.

For more on the Valley Fire at The Mountain Of Attention, click here.

This is an excerpt from a much longer video tour available on the Lake County Magazine YouTube channel.

Tags: Mountain Of Attention  

On November 2, 2013, the eve of the seventy-fourth anniversary of Avatar Adi Da’s Birth (Da Jayanthi), a live concert was held at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in Northern California to celebrate His Eternal Blessing of all. The recording of this concert is now available on a CD, Ode to Divine Joy.

This audio clip contains a sample medley from the CD, featuring the voices of devotees JoAnne Sunshine ("Made by Your Hand"), Mel McMurrin ("Mary Don’t You Weep"), and Crane Kirkbride ("Ode to Divine Joy"), the voices of the Adidam Choir, and the piano-playing of Naamleela Free Jones. You can also hear the Choir singing devotee and Billboard Award-winning composer Ray Lynch's song, "This Is the Great Gift".

The rendition of Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" (retitled "Ode To Divine Joy" with new, devotional lyrics) performed during the concert was a unique fusion of two performances: the live performance and a 1990 studio recording played as accompaniment. This unique amalgam of both studio and live performances of Ode to Divine Joy, as well as all of the other pieces of the live concert included on this CD, are offered in the spirit of celebration and gratitude.

Tags: CD  

In this rare historical footage from 1973, Adi Da speaks about the relationship with the Guru in Satsang (the Company of the Awakened One) as the Way of Truth, and Reality Itself.

Adi Da: "During My 'Sadhana Years', whenever My Guru asked Me to do something, I would do that. The rest of the time, I would sit there and be absorbed in Him. And there was nothing else I could do. The Guru is sufficient — and the devotee of the Guru is one who knows that."

Tags: DVD  

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.

Tags: CD  

A video of the talk, "Where is Heaven?", by devotee, professor, and Zen Abbot Michael LaTorra - one of 14 talks by speakers of different religious faiths at the Religion and Transhumanism Conference in Oakland, California, on May 10, 2014. This conference was co-sponsored by the Brighter Brains Institute and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and videoed by the Mormon Transhumanist Association.

The Mystical Positivist is a weekly, two-hour radio show on KOWS 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. The program is dedicated to the application of reason in the pursuit of spiritual practice and development. The show is hosted by Stuart Resnick and Dr. Robert Schmidt. Stuart has been a Tayu Meditation Teacher since 1993. He received apprentice and master-level training in the alchemical transformation of human consciousness from Tayu Meditation Center. Dr. Robert Schmidt is the director of the Tayu Meditation Center, and a co-founder of the Many Rivers Bookstore in Sebastopol, California. He is also currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Archaeological Research Facility at U.C. Berkeley.

This audio clip is part 2 of The Mystical Positivist's interview with devotee, Leroy Stilwell. Leroy has been a formal devotee of Adi Da since 1977. Since 1986, he regularly lived in Hermitage on Naitauba, Fiji, for extended periods during which he participated in cycles of consideration with Adi Da, and served as editor, photographer, videographer, communications manager, ashram manager, and personal assistant to the Ruchira Sannyasin Order. He is the author of Love’s Sacrifice: Witnessing the Self-Revelation of the Divine Person - 30 Years with my Spiritual Master, Adi Da (2014) and For Those Who Call For Light - Learning How to Think about Religion (2013). Leroy is also a co-founder and managing editor of the Adi Da Up Close site.

Note: The actual show does not begin until 02:43.

Tags: radio   interview   presentation  

The Mystical Positivist is a weekly, two-hour radio show on KOWS 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. The program is dedicated to the application of reason in the pursuit of spiritual practice and development. The show is hosted by Stuart Resnick and Dr. Robert Schmidt. Stuart has been a Tayu Meditation Teacher since 1993. He received apprentice and master-level training in the alchemical transformation of human consciousness from Tayu Meditation Center. Dr. Robert Schmidt is the director of the Tayu Meditation Center, and a co-founder of the Many Rivers Bookstore in Sebastopol, California. He is also currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Archaeological Research Facility at U.C. Berkeley.

This audio clip is part 1 of The Mystical Positivist's interview with devotee, Leroy Stilwell. Leroy has been a formal devotee of Adi Da since 1977. Since 1986, he regularly lived in Hermitage on Naitauba, Fiji, for extended periods during which he participated in cycles of consideration with Adi Da, and served as editor, photographer, videographer, communications manager, ashram manager, and personal assistant to the Ruchira Sannyasin Order. He is the author of Love’s Sacrifice: Witnessing the Self-Revelation of the Divine Person - 30 Years with my Spiritual Master, Adi Da (2014) and For Those Who Call For Light - Learning How to Think about Religion (2013). Leroy is also a co-founder and managing editor of the Adi Da Up Close site.

Note: The actual show does not begin until 08:17.

Tags: radio   interview   presentation  

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.

He describes the difference between the left-brained, scientific, control-oriented way of relating to the world, and the magical, psychic, or shamanistic point of view, in which the elements of the non-human world are related to in a participatory manner.

This audio excerpt is from the CD, The Bridge To God.

Tags: CD  

Video excerpt from an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da Samraj on July 7, 2005, in Land Bridge Pavilion at The Mountain Of Attention.

Adi Da talks about the presumption of the egoic "separate self" sense that is the root of human suffering. He contrasts this with our actual Position in Truth: the Position of Conscious Light.

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.

The complete Avataric Discourse is available on the DVD, Relinquish the Mummery of This World. (This video excerpt is from Part 3 of the DVD.)

At 19:58, a formal Darshan occasion begins (at Adi Da Samrajashram) and continues to the end of this video clip.

Tags: Avataric Discourse  

Adi Da visiting The Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, Northern California, in the summer of 2005.

To receive the physical touch of one's Master is an extraordinary gift. Many of the devotees in this clip have testified that, when they received His touch, Bhagavan Adi Da knew the deepest longings of their heart.

From 7:49 to end of clip: Adi Da grants devotees Darshan as He sits in front of Ordeal Bath Lodge.

Background music is Ray Lynch's "The Temple", from his album, The Sky Of Mind.

Tags: Darshan   Mountain Of Attention  

From a question and answer session with Adi Da on October 28, 1978, in Land Bridge Pavilion at the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in Northern California. This is track 6 on the DVD, Surrender of self Is A Koan. It is also available in audio form as Track 3 of the free, downloadable CD, The Liberating Word of Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Volume 1.

Adi Da answers a question from a 10-year-old boy who wants to not be so angry all the time. Very sweet exchange!

Tags: children   CD   DVD  

Dhrupad is one of the most ancient and pure traditions of Indian music. It adheres renditions of raga exposition that have been called "the real currency of Indian music".

Master dhrupad singer and teacher Nirmalya Dey will be visiting Lake County, California, October 18-20, 2012.

He will give a concert at The Mountain Of Attention (in Land Bridge Pavilion) on Friday, October 19 at 8pm. Suggested donation is $20 (but no one is turned away).

He will give a workshop on "Dhrupad" practices on Saturday, October 20, from 9am - 1pm at the home of devotee Gina Macioce. Suggested donation is $50.

Nirmalya will also have limited spots available for private lessons. Call to reserve in advance, if you are interested.

To register for the workshop, sign up for lessons, or for more information, please call John Wubbenhorst at 301-346-0789 or email brightworldarts@gmail.com.