Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

[A presentation given by James Steinberg on June 2, 2016, at the Many Rivers Bookstore in Sebastopol, California.]

Adi Da Samraj (1939-2008) offers a unique Spiritual Way that radically differs from, and yet perfectly completes the world's Great Spiritual Traditions. James Steinberg provides an introduction to Adi Da's core teaching. Questions to be discussed include: "What do you need to know about yourself and any teacher before you approach for instruction? Is a Spiritual Master necessary for Realization? What makes Avatar Adi Da's Teaching and Realization unique? How does his Spiritual Transmission work to purify body, mind and emotion?" Video footage will offer attendees an experience of Avatar Adi Da's Living Spiritual Presence. In Adi Da’s words: "Your Heart must decide whether to raise a fist and throw a rock, at the ego-crushing natural universe or make a flower grow in the Garden of Indestructable Light." James will also share many remarkable stories of what he witnessed serving in the company of his Spiritual Master for many years.

James Steinberg, international lecturer and religious scholar, has been a devotee of Avatar Adi Da Samraj since 1973 and was personally schooled by Him in the entire Great Tradition of humankind's practical, religious, and Spiritual literature. At Adi Da's Instruction, he wrote two books about the Guru-devotee relationship: Love of the God-Man and Divine Distraction
Tags: James Steinberg  

The 2025 Image-Art Calendar, "Transcendental Realism: Self-Portraits of Reality Itself" is now available.

Celebrating 25 years since the "Initiation of Free Light-Imagery" (in June of 2000), the 2025 Image-Art Calendar is a selection of Adi Da’s artistic works from the late 1960s through 2008. Each image exemplifies a unique period of Adi Da’s aesthetic expression, while demonstrating his entire body of artistic work as a singular communication of beauty and profundity beyond "point of view". It is a sublime and enduring communication of Transcendental Realism!

This contemplative video is a reading of the quotes accompanying the images on the calendar, along with the images themselves.

Music is "Noon Dreams", from John Wubbenhorst, Bansuri Dreams.

Tags: image-art  

Ted Progler has been a devotee of Adi Da since 1976. He was a long term practitioner of the "Original Daoist 8 Limbs (or Schools) of Chinese Medicine", wherein Chi Gong is the 2nd School. Ted apprenticed with Lao Ge (aka Charles Belyea), the lineage holder of Original Medical Daoism in the United States and co-founder of the Five Branches University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. From early 2001 until the Divine Mahasamadhi of Adi Da Samraj in late November 2008, Ted was instructed directly by Adi Da in His "Systems-Based Approach to Health & Healing" and His Right Life Yogic Conductivity practices. Ted now only practices and teaches Adi Da's "Systems-Based Approach to Health & Healing", which is a subset of Right Life Yogic Conductivity.

In Ted's depth research and practice of human health and healing over 35 years, it is his personal proclamation that, just as Adi Da Samraj "completed" the Spiritual Dharmas of the Great Traditions of Spirituality, so too did He "complete" the Wisdom practices of human health and healing with His Systems-Based Approach to Health and Healing. The Systems-Based Approach to Health and Healing of Adi Da Samraj is the most fully integrated Health and Healing Systems for human beings, fully integrating how to cooperatively participate with all scales and forms of Reality existence for the purpose of supporting fullest Divine Realization Practice. If you are interested in receiving information about the Systems-Based Approach to Health and Healing of Adi Da Samraj, please email Ted at tprogler@gmail.com.

In this audio clip, Ted tells a leela about a gathering with Adi Da during the “Dancing Down the Light” gathering period. The gathering took place in early March, 2001, in the entry hall of Adi Da’s residence, the Manner Of Flowers, at the Mountain Of Attention.

In the gathering, Ted gave Adi Da a description and demonstration of his Chi Gong practice. Adi Da then talked extensively about Chi Gong, Gong, Chi, Da Chi Gong, and the larger context of energy conductivity with the devotees who were present. Adi Da also talked about the process of making His Image-Art, and how difficult that was for Him physically, requiring a profound conductivity practice.

Michael Shaw and James Alwood (who also were at the same gathering with Adi Da) contribute additional commentary on occasion.

For more about conductivity practice, read Adi Da’s book, Conductivity Healing.

Tags: Da Chi Gong   conductivity  

[Contains Finnish subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

Adi Da vastaa omistautujan kysymykseen, joka liittyy hänen kuolevan äitinsä palvelemiseen. Adi Da antaa erittäin selkeitä ja käytännöllisiä neuvoja.

"Kuolevan henkilön palveleminen" ("How To Serve a Dying Person") is an excerpt from a talk given by Adi Da in Land Bridge Pavilion at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary, on May 31, 1980.

In this discourse, a student of Adi Da asks Him for suggestions to help her dying mother. Adi Da then responds both with compassion and also with very practical advice on how to serve the dying.

[The recording of Adi Da's voice is slightly distorted, but understandable.]

Tags: Finnish   death  

[Contains Finnish subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

Tässä otteessa puheesta vuodelta 2004, Avatar Adi Da käsittelee sitä, että Adidam Ruchiradamin Todellisuus-Tie ei perustu uskomuksiin tai tekniikoihin, jotka tavoittelevat itsensä parantamista, hallintaa tai toteutusta "lopputuloksena". Sen sijaan, vaistonomainen tai sanaton tunnistus Avatar Adi Da Samrajin Olotilasta annetaan heti, kun yhteys Häneen muodostuu. Siitä lähtien, Tie avautuu itsensä todistavana heräämisprosessina, joka paljastuu joka hetkellä, kun olento tunnistaa Adi Dan Jumalaisen Läsnäolon ja Tilan. Sen pohjalta yksilö liikuttuu kääntymään sydämellään Avatar Adi Dan puoleen Tietoisen Valon Vapauttavana Olentona ja Läsnäolona.

This video excerpt, "Adidamin Tie ei perustu uskomuksiin" ("The Way of Adidam Is Not About Beliefs") is from an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da Samraj at Adi Da Samrajashram, on October 20, 2004.

In this excerpt, Avatar Adi Da speaks to the fact that The Reality Way of Adidam Ruchiradam is not a system of beliefs or techniques for seeking self-improvement, mastery, or realization as an “end result”. Rather, intuitive or tacit recognition of Avatar Adi Da’s State of Being is given from the initial contact with Him. From then, the Way unfolds as a self-authenticating process of awakening that is revealed in each moment of recognition of Adi Da’s Divine Presence and State. On that basis, one is heart-moved to turn to Avatar Adi Da as the Liberating Being and Presence of Conscious Light.

Tags: Finnish   Avataric Discourse  

Mitchell Rabin, host of the New York City-based community cable TV show, A Better World, interviews Carolyn Lee, Ph.D, the author of several books on Adi Da Samraj. The focus of this interview is Carolyn’s book, The Promised God-Man is Here.

Note: The audio and video are slightly out of synch for much of this video.

Tags: Carolyn Lee  

“The Knowledge of Light” is track 4 on the CD, Awaken To Brightness.

This CD contains a selection of Discourses from 1974 to 1997, which cover a broad spectrum of Avatar Adi Da’s Instruction. They provide a basic introduction to His Wisdom-Teaching and include Adi Da addressing principle matters of Spiritual life.

These Talks encompass the relationship to the Spiritual Master, the principle of Attraction, what occurs in the death process, the fundamental error at the root of all seeking, the limits of conventional religion and scientific materialism, and more. on the CD, Awaken To Brightness.

This CD contains a selection of Discourses from 1974 to 1997, which cover a broad spectrum of Avatar Adi Da’s Instruction. They provide a basic introduction to His Wisdom-Teaching and include Adi Da addressing principle matters of Spiritual life.

These Talks encompass the relationship to the Spiritual Master, the principle of Attraction, what occurs in the death process, the fundamental error at the root of all seeking, the limits of conventional religion and scientific materialism, and more.

Tags: CD  

CHRIS: Happy Danavira Mela to everyone!

I’ve sung Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to Beloved Adi Da many times over the years — at the Manner of Flowers, at Adi Da Samrajashram, at First People / Great Food Dish, etc. (as one of a small group of singers, and usually also as the keyboardist) — and I’m singing it to Him again (and all of you!) here. It is one of my favorite songs at this time of year.

For me (starting with Judy Garland's original film version), it has always been an emotion-filled song, by turns joyful, playful, nostalgic, and wistful — so that is how I sing it here. The karaoke arrangement is based on Michael Bublé's version.

Tags: Danavira Mela  

This talk excerpt is track 8 of the CD, Reality Is Beyond "Point Of View", a selection of talks by Adi Da (from the 30 years of His formal Teaching-Work) on the true nature of Reality. Brings together samples from His vast Divine Instruction relative to the true nature of Reality — as the unknowable Condition that is Always Already the Case, prior to the presumption of a separate “point of view”.

The album is available through iTunes, Spotify, and The Dawn Horse Press.

Note: Due to distribution policies set by CDBaby (and beyond the control of this website and Adidam), this video may not be playable in every country. However, sometimes, even when you can't play it on this page, you may be able to play it on YouTube: click here.

Tags: CD  

[Contains Spanish subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

"Cómo servir al moribundo" ("How To Serve a Dying Person") is an excerpt from a talk given by Adi Da in Land Bridge Pavilion at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary, on May 31, 1980.

In this discourse, a student of Adi Da asks Him for suggestions to help her dying mother. Adi Da then responds both with compassion and also with very practical advice on how to serve the dying.

[The recording of Adi Da's voice is slightly distorted, but understandable.]

Tags: Spanish  

[Contains Spanish subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

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 DVD and on CD, and as an online transcript.

ADI DA: Life is foolishness. This is no time, in any case, to be tolerant of foolishness. The world is mad, and these are dreadful times. Things are not going to be easier in the years ahead. The spiritual process has always been lived in difficult times. Therefore, the spiritual process tolerates no fool. The spiritual process itself will spit you out. It is not an easy attainment, but a profoundly difficult affair. Even what you have listened to today has been heard by only a fraction of the human race in all of history. The opportunity to practice is extremely rare, and the fulfillment of practice is practically unknown.

In some sense you could say this life is hell. . . The nature of this hell is that we are self-possessed. We are born in un-Happiness and we do not transcend it readily. We constantly pursue Happiness through all kinds of incredibly complex means, and we never attain It. . .

If Spiritual Realizers did not turn about and Teach, this would truly be a hell instead of being like a hell. It would truly be a hell if there were no possibility of Enlightenment, if there were no Teaching, no Spiritual Masters, no sacred Way, no sacred community, no capacity for understanding or self-transcendence.

Tags: Spanish   CD   DVD  

Contains Spanish subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

Un discurso clásico dado por Avatar Adi Da en 1981 sobre la naturaleza de la Verdadera Felicidad y cómo puede ser Realizada momento a momento, pero no a través de su búsqueda.

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 DVD and on CD, and as an online transcript.

Tags: CD   DVD   Spanish  

[Contains Italian subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

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   Italian   DVD  

[Contains Italian subtitles. If the CC icon ("Subtitles/closed captions") has a red line under it, the subtitles should appear. If you don't see them, just press the CC icon to turn them on.]

"Come servire una persona nel processo di morte" ("How To Serve a Dying Person") is an excerpt from a talk given by Adi Da in Land Bridge Pavilion at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary, on May 31, 1980.

In this discourse, a student of Adi Da asks Him for suggestions to help her dying mother. Adi Da then responds both with compassion and also with very practical advice on how to serve the dying.

[The recording of Adi Da's voice is slightly distorted, but understandable.]

Tags: Italian  

A video tour of the Adidam Melbourne community's Danavira Mela Celebration decorations and tree, December, 2021.

music: Pentatonix, "How Great Thou Art"

Tags: Danavira Mela