Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

Adi Da has identified three character types associated with human egoity: vital, peculiar, and solid. Because they represent primary obstructions to human and spiritual growth, He has given extensive wisdom on how to identify these strategies, and how to transcend them. Adi Da's teaching on these three types has appeared in The Dawn Horse Testament; No Remedy; and The Eating Gorilla Comes in Peace ("The Imbalancing Act").

In this video, Beezone editor Ed Reither talks with teacher Frank Marrero about Adi Da's teaching on these three character types.

Tags: character types  

An excerpt from the video, Reality, Truth, and Conscious Light. Includes a video clip (starting at 1:38) from a formal Darshan occasion on Adi Da Samrajashram that took place on August 6, 2008.

To watch the complete video, and talk with longtime devotees of Adi Da, we invite you to attend one of our Reality, Truth, and Conscious Light introductory events held in Adidam regions around the world each month.

Narrator: Nick Elias

Tags: Darshan  

This extraordinary poem, “The Mummery-cult Of Pairs Set Free”, was spoken completely extemporaneously (in the style of William Shakespeare) by Avatar Adi Da Samraj, in a gathering with devotees in 1998, in response to the suffering of the world. The text being recited here was only slightly edited by Adi Da from His original spontaneous Outpouring, and appears in Adi Da’s Happenine Book. The metaphors, Liberated Proclamations, and wisdom about our desperate search for the object-other flowed from Adi Da’s Heart in an astounding soliloquy that left the devotees at the gathering in awe.

Devotee Steve Brown is reciting. He stands before the River Avon in Stratford, Shakespeare's hometown.

Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: poem   Steve Brown   Orpheum  

The video, from Adidam India, begins with a slideshow of photos from Adi Da Samrajashram, accompanied by traditional Indian chanting by Nirmalya Dey, with devotee John Wubbenhorst playing the bansuri.

As the musical accompaniment continues, the video shows photos and video clips of Avatar Adi Da, accompanied by excerpts (and adaptations) from the recitation, Aham Da Asmi ("I Am Da"), overlaid on the screen.

On July 21 and 22, 2014, The Florence Dance Company performed the multimedia dance event, Quattro Maggiore ("Four Seasons") — set to the music of Vivaldi (his most well-known work, "Quattro Maggiore", performed live) and the art of Adi Da Samraj. The venue was the courtyard of the historic Bargello Museum in Florence.

This video clip provides an introduction to the place (Florence), the dancers, the musicians, the art (images from Adi Da's Geome One: Alberti's Window, in four different colorings for the four seasons), and the costumes (which were color-coordinated with the art).

Also in this clip: Italian art critic, Giuliano Serafini (author of Matisse e il Mediterraneo and Goya, praises the combination of music, dance, and art: "It's the best!". Serafini, Keith Ferrone (director of the Florence Dance Company), and Ruchiradama Nadikanta all note the technological advance represented by the LED lighting in the back panels, that brought out the color in Adi Da's art to a far greater degree than in previous performances (assisted by new fabrications of Adi Da's art), and enlivened the dancers' performance.

Ruchiradama Nadikanta: "Absolutely exquisite! . . . It was one symphony — of dance, and art, and music. . . Adi Da was immensely present, infusing every note and every step, as well as shining through His extraordinary Art. . . You feel [the dancers] really dancing to the Art."

Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-Art   Florence Dance Company  

Longtime devotee Angelo Druda is the featured guest on this program of the Transforming Reality Internet Talk Show, which focuses on individuals and organizations that are raising human consciousness and changing our world. The program host and producer is Robert "Han" Bishop. With a Ph.D. from Northwestern University specializing in Environmental Psychology, Han spent several decades in corporate and government leadership positions before pursuing his passion for awakening others to their higher guidance.

In this show, Angelo talks on the topic of "The Death of Another: A Mysterious Process that Includes You" and provides profound spiritual wisdom for anyone serving another who is dying, and for each of us in preparing for our own inevitable passing. Angelo draws on his many years as a senior educator and minister for the Mate Moce Ministry, which was established by Adi Da to instruct people about the death process and to serve them in their death transition.

Audio not playing? Try this link.

Tags: interview   radio   death  

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.

Adi Da talks about how being in the Company of a Spiritual Realizer is the best possible use of one's life, but it doesn't guarantee Realizing the Master's State, because Realization depends on the practitioner as well.

[Note: The video ends a bit abruptly, in the middle of a sentence.]

Tags: Avataric Discourse  

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  

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.

To watch more excerpts from the Tribute DVD, click here.

Tags: image-art   Ben Grisso   Mahasamadhi   Tribute   DVD  

Opening Reception of the exhibition, "Quandra Loka - The Indivisible Space of Conscious Light": color and black-and-white photographic images, combined with the full-wall multi-media installation. Showing at Galerie Pien Rademakers, Prinsengracht 570, Amsterdam, May 24 - June 29, 2014. Also appearing at the KunstRAI Art Fair in Amsterdam, June 4-9, 2014.


For more about this exhibition, click here.

Videographer: Matt Braithwaite

Tags: Image-Art   Quandra Loka  

[Contains Dutch subtitles. For the version without subtitles, click here.]

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.

This excerpt is from the DVD, Beyond Sex, Science, and self. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew. A CD version is also available.

Tags: Avataric Discourse   Perfect Practice   DVD   CD   Dutch  

This audio clip is from the CD, What Is Your Intention?. This talk was originally published in Chapter 6 of the Love Ananda-Gita.

Avatar Adi Da describes the three options of human destiny: one can reinforce one's present existence in gross (physical) form; one can go beyond gross existence into subtler dimensions of existence; or one can transcend conditional existence altogether, in the Great Process of seventh stage Divine Self-Realization. He suggests that most people (and most devotees) are opting (generally unconsciously) for the first (and lowest) option.

For those who discover the heart-impulse to the Great Process, Avatar Adi Da offers Graceful Means — but, He clarifies, a most intensive ego-transcending process will be required of such devotees, a constant relinquishment of identification with the separate self.

The talk, What Is Your Intention?, is also available on the DVD, The Commitment to Real-God Realization. A video clip from that DVD is available here.

Tags: CD   DVD  

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