Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

An excerpt from the talk, "The Grace of Suffering", given by Adi Da on January 18, 1976.

This excerpt is track 1 of the CD, The Impulse to God-Realization, a collection of talks focusing on Adi Da's clarifying Wisdom on the Impulse to Realize God that is inherent in all beings, and His Divine Offering and Instruction on the Ultimate Means to cultivate this heart-Impulse, thereby allowing it to become the guiding force of one's entire life.

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

This selection of Talks by Avatar Adi Da Samraj focuses on His clarifying Wisdom on the Impulse (inherent in all beings) to Realize God, and His Divine Offering and Instruction on the Ultimate Means to cultivate this heart-Impulse, thereby allowing it be the guiding force of one's entire life. As Avatar Adi Da points out, the real Spiritual Process cannot be truly initiated until and unless one’s Impulse to God-Realization becomes the governing principle of one's life.

The full talk, "The Grace of Suffering", is available on the CD, The Grace of Suffering, and on DVD as Volume 2 of the 25th Anniversary DVD Series.

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.

"The Grace of Suffering" 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.

Tags: CD  

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  

Excerpt from the Florence Dance Company's performance of the multimedia dance event, Orpheus Ascending, with Adi Da's Image-Art in the background. The music is Ray Lynch's "Passion Song", from his album, Nothing Above My Shoulders but the Evening.

Orpheus Ascending was a highlight of the October 8, 2015 Finissage Event for The Ascent of Orpheus, the exhibition of Adi Da's art at the Bargello Museum in Florence that ran from July 9 to October 11, 2015.

Choreography: Keith Ferrone
Artistic direction: Marga Nativo
Featured dancers:
Daniel Sandwiches (Orpheus)
Ylenia Mendolicchio (Eurydice)
Emilia Giubasso (chorus)
Virginia Montel Brains (chorus)
Jane Llaha (chorus)
Elisa Torrigiani (chorus)

The video clip is from a longer Toscana TV News clip with noted journalist Fabrizio Borghini reporting on the Finissage Event.

Tags: Florence Dance Company   Image-Art  

In this excerpt from the film, "Reality, Truth and Conscious Light", Adi Da describes Reality from the "point of view" of Conscious Light. (The excerpt includes a clip of Adi Da speaking, from an Avataric Discourse on November 11, 2005. A longer excerpt can be watched here.)

The complete film, "Reality, Truth, and Conscious Light" can be viewed at our "Reality, Truth, and Conscious Light" introductory events, held worldwide. Click here to locate an event near you.

Narrator: Nick Elias

Tags: Avataric Discourse  

This audio clip is an excerpt from an Avataric Discourse by Adi Da on December 19, 2004. The Discourse is available as a CD: The Gift of Ripening.

By listening to this Discourse, you will receive Avatar Adi Da’s Guidance in understanding your level of ripeness. And such a realistic (rather than idealistic) assessment is an essential element in preparing for the process of Realizing True Happiness He Offers — the process of the “transcending of all conditionality in the Self-Radiant Conscious Light that is the 'Bright'”.

Quotes from this CD:

Adi Da: "Realization is not "caused". It is Given. It is made tacitly obvious. I can, through interaction with you and by being accessible to you, ripen you, so to speak, for this Spiritual Apprehension of Reality. And I am made available to you through this Bodily Sign which gives a focus for the faculties in the process of them being purified and relieved of their patterns."

Adi Da: "Divine Self-Realization is not just some happy-hunting-ground metaphor in the mind. It is not just a light. It is not the light at the end of the tunnel that people see in the death process. That is not it either. Do you have any idea how many tunnels there are, how many lights there are, how many 'worlds' there are to the left and right, how many ends of that tunnel there are? You have no idea. You do not know what it is about, generally speaking."

Adi Da: "Anything in the mind or of the mind is not true. So all of your pursuit of 'answers' or states of mind or content for your thinking is fruitless — but what are you going to do about it?. . . You do not even necessarily notice that your thinking is a matter of seeking. You think there are some kinds of thinking that may be said to be motivated by a search, but you do not think that thinking is seeking. And yet it is always seeking. Thinking is itself seeking. So if the Way is not seeking nor can the Truth be Realized by seeking, then thinking has nothing to do with it and you should just forget about thinking from now on — but you cannot do that, can you? You are already thinking, even though I just told you that. . ."

Tags: CD   Avataric Discourse  

"Adi Da Bhagavan" is a contemplative chant of Adi Da's Sacred Names. The music was composed by Elaine Dixon, and sung by Elaine and Rosa Guilfoyle. The track is from their album, A World More Light.

Audio clip provided by CDBaby to YouTube.

For more of the music of Adidam, click here.

Note: This video may not be available in every country.

Tags: music   chant   CD  

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  

Devotee James Steinberg is interviewed about Adi Da and Adidam on 3WBC 94.1 FM, Melbourne, Australia on October 16, 2014, for the program, "Jazz and Spiritual", hosted by Bill Livingston, Minister at Unity of Melbourne. Australian devotee Jan Bucknell also joins in the conversation every now and then.

The program ends (at 47:14) with a recording of Adi Da reciting from The Spiritual Gospel of Jesus of Galilee, Adi Da's rendition of "The New Testament" (available on CD).

Music (during breaks) from Naamleela Free Jones' CD, In The Time Of Light; and from What To Remember To Be Happy (reciter: Jonah Strauss, piano: Ray Lynch).

Tags: interview   radio   CD   James Steinberg  

In this Discourse (which took place on November 11, 2005 at The Mountain Of Attention), Avatar Adi Da answers a devotee's question about the human condition. He criticizes reductive viewpoints (scientific, religious, etc.) that try to account for a multi-level phenomenon (such as evolution) in terms of just one level (the gross level of bodies), ignoring other levels that participate in the phenomenon (the impact of subtle or "mind" level influences on evolution, the impact of molecular level influences on evolution, etc.). He also criticizes the presumption that everything can be explained, and points out that the multi-level phenomenon that is life and experience is (when fully examined) so complex that it is "irreducible", beyond comprehension. Beyond all the apparent (and incomprehensible) arising that is conditional existence is the indivisible Conscious Light in which all is arising. To Realize Conscious Light is to be liberated from all need for explanations. As Adi Da puts it: "When It is Realized, it becomes entirely clear what everything is and how it is happening."

Tags: Avataric Discourse  

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  

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  

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  

Sneak preview 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. Premiering 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.


Tags: Image-Art   Quandra Loka