Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

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  

Throughout the years of His Divine Avataric Teaching-Revelation, Avatar Adi Da spoke at length in response to devotees' questions on all subjects relative to the human circumstance — including death, and all the sorrow and fear inherent in the circumstance of human mortality.

This video excerpt is from an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da on September 18, 2004. In this Discourse, Adi Da points out that all fear is fear of death or fear of extinction. This fear is like a constant background noise, from which we constantly try to distract ourselves with the games of life. Adi Da describes the choice we face: to live in fear, the "native mood of the ego" — or to realize the profundity of the inherently fearless Condition.

Avatar Adi Da calls us to a surrendered life that is about Realization and all that is relevant to Realization, including compassionate service. Such a surrendered life is the key to an "easy" death.

Tags: Avataric Discourse   DVD   death  

A "Fear-No-More Zoo" historical compilation that includes pictures of Fear-No-More Zoo (at The Mountain Of Attention), audio clips of Adi Da speaking about the "non-humans", and pictures and video footage of Adi Da Blessing and interacting with the non-humans.

Tags: Fear No More Zoo  

Devotee Ben Grisso talks about growing up in the community of Adi Da's devotees and the joy of being with Adi Da as a child. He describes how he later lived on Naitauba and served Adi Da's Image-Art work for many years. He tells a humorous story of the Crazy-Wise play Adi Da engaged in, to reflect to Ben his tendency to be "analytic".

Ben was in the room with Adi Da at the time of His Divine Mahasamadhi (on November 27, 2008), and he talks about that moment, and its significance.

Tags: Image-art   mahasamadhi  

"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.

Tags: CD  

Adi Da criticized religious cultism, long before the subject gained any popular attention. (For an audio clip of His earliest criticisms — in June, 1972 — click here.) This discourse, given in 1978 at The Mountain Of Attention, is one of His summary addresses on the subject. Adi Da observes that the primary characteristic of a cult member is shared enthusiasm (like enjoying the energy of the crowd at a football game). For example, in "the cult of the Spiritual Master", everybody is enjoying the enthusiasm (their own and each other's) associated with having "found" the great Master; but no one is actually engaged in significant deepening of the devotional and spiritual relationship with the Master, and practicing on that basis — hence no Spiritual growth or Realization occurs.

Adi Da: "My purpose in My Teaching is to make it possible for you to duplicate what I have done — not to be eternally separated from Me, but to be in Communion with Me — to be intimate with Me in Spiritual terms, so that you, yourself, may live this practice, and fulfill it in your own case."

Tags: cult  

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  

In response to a devotee's question about Spiritual Transmission, Adi Da discusses how the various schools of religious and Spiritual instruction fit within the Great Tradition.

("Great Tradition" is Avatar Adi Da's term for the total inheritance of human, cultural, religious, magical, mystical, Spiritual, and Transcendental paths, philosophies, and testimonies, from all the eras and cultures of humanity.)

Avatar Adi Da also describes the qualities of genuine Spiritual Transmission and offers guidance in transcending naive belief and all forms of limited thinking.

This 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. This talk is also available on the CD, Human History Is One Great Tradition.

Tags: DVD   CD   Great Tradition   Avataric Discourse  

Throughout the years of His Divine Avataric Teaching-Revelation, Avatar Adi Da spoke at length in response to devotees' questions on all subjects relative to the human circumstance — including death, and all the sorrow and fear inherent in the circumstance of human mortality.

In "Enter the Inherently Fearless Condition", a video segment from September 18, 2004, Avatar Adi Da describes the choice we face: to live in fear, the "native mood of the ego" — or to realize the profundity of the inherently fearless Condition.

Avatar Adi Da calls us to a surrendered life that is about Realization and all that is relevant to Realization, including compassionate service. Such a surrendered life is the key to an "easy" death.

This excerpt is part of the two-and-a-half-hour DVD, Easy Death — Discourses on the Ultimate Transcending of Death and Everything Else. Subtitles in English, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew.

This compilation of ten talks spans thirty-four years of Avatar Adi Da's Work. It includes His compassionate Instruction about:
- the sorrow of loss
- the fear of death
- serving the dying person
- how to practice during and beyond the death process
- the Ultimate Demonstration of Divine Translation (or Most Perfect Realization of the deathless Condition).

From His Perfect Disposition of Absolute Freedom, Avatar Adi Da Samraj reveals the greater process within which death occurs, and the Ultimate Demonstration of What Is, Prior to life and death.

[Note: Since we posted this video, we have also posted a longer excerpt from the same DVD track here.]

Tags: death   DVD   Avataric Discourse  

Megan Anderson reads from Adi Da's essay, "There Is One Truth - Which Is Always Already The Case", which appears in the book, The Gift Of Truth Itself. This book is a compact introduction to Avatar Adi Da's Reality-Teaching and Way, and a highly accessible collection of essays from His master work, The Aletheon.

This audio clip is part of a larger presentation on The Gift Of Truth Itself appearing in The Adidam Revelation Magazine. The presentation features text excerpts from each section of the book.

"The force of primary geometric forms is everywhere in the world. . . once you begin to get the sense of shape, then you can see that the world of perception is actually made of primary geometries. It is just that there are so many of them all at once that the natural world seems to have feathered edges."
--Avatar Adi Da Samraj

With works from Adi Da's Image-Art projected in the background, the contemporary dance piece, "Feathered Edges", was performed at the Adidam Midwest Center in Chicago, in celebration of Adi Da's 74th Birthday.

"FEATHERED EDGES, a joint creation that encapsulates rapturous elements that make the couple's forays into contemporary dance so compelling. They swirl and yearn, hover over one another and intertwine. In the Everts' world, geometry in motion is often a means to sensuality in motion."
--DONALD ROSENBERG (THE PLAIN DEALER/Cleveland)

''When Tom and Susana perform together on stage my own reality of time, place, and context is blurred. Their dance duets embrace their dualistic energies with intrinsic vulnerability and compassion."
--DANIEL WHITLEY (Visual Artist/Cleveland)

Choreographers and Dancers: Susana Weingarten & Tom Evert
Costume Design: Luzano Rey & Janet Bolick
Lighting Design: Deb Malcolm
Music: The Cinematic Orchestra
Sound engineer: Jordan Davis
Video: Alejandro Rivera

Projected Image-Art:
The Scale of Perfection, Part One: NYC, NYCSTET I (from Geome Three) 2006, by Adi Da Samraj, © 2013 ASA

Tags: Image-Art   dance  

Brian Deschamp, Former Senior Adviser, United Nations High Commission for Refugees, talks with great fondness about hosting Beloved Adi Da's visit to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1996, and how Adi Da's Blessing (and being Adi Da's "instrument" for conducting that Blessing in the right time and place) helped serve his work with the United Nations. He also discusses the uniqueness of Adi Da's Teaching and Revelation in the history of the world's great spiritual traditions.

Tags: peace  

Excerpt from Adi Da's talk, Guru As Prophet - available on a double CD from the Dawn Horse Press. This talk is also published in the book, My "Bright" Word. A course, My "Bright" Word, is also available from The Laughing Man Institute.

In this talk Adi Da distinguishes between the Spiritual (Transmission) Function of the True Guru and the public function of Guru as "prophet" (or critic).

For another excerpt from the same talk, click here.

See also the Adidam Revelation Magazine article, Guru as Prophet.

Tags: CD  

Every year in late October and early November, devotees, friends, and supporters of Adi Da Samraj gather to enjoy an extended weekend of Celebration and Spiritual Retreat focused on the Life, Teachings, and Avataric Work of Adi Da Samraj. The occasion is the birthday anniversary of Adi Da, during which we joyously acknowledge that this Supremely Realized Spiritual Master has appeared in the world to Awaken all beings to Radiant Love, Perfect Freedom, and Indestructible Light. This year’s Celebration is also based on the new book, The Gift Of Truth Itself, and like all Adidam Events, is founded on the acknowledgment that Adi Da Samraj uniquely bestows the ultimate Gift of Divine Truth or “Reality Itself” to the human heart.

For more about this retreat, click here.
Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: European Danda   retreat