poster: AdiDaVideos length: 04:52 date added: March 26, 2017 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English
In this seminal discourse (at The Mountain Of Attention), from the early years of His Teaching Work, Adi Da speaks about the inevitable process of self-revelation and self-understanding that prepares the being for true Spiritual life.
This 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.
In this excerpt from the double CD, The Grace of Turning to Me, Adi Da describes how "turning to Him" — the moment-to-moment turning of the faculties of the body-mind to Him — must be based on the Graceful recognition of Him as the Divine and response to Him based on that recognition.
On this double CD, Adi Da uses every Compassionate Means in His Manner — sometimes Humorous, sometimes Fiery — to Call His devotees, again and again, to be sensitive to the Grace-Given and spontaneous heart-Attraction to Him, and thereby turn to Him, the Divine in human Form — rather than to the endless content of the body-mind, which only reinforces egoic bondage and the illusion of separateness. In this way, Avatar Adi Da Masterfully Reveals the secret of True Liberation in His Avataric Divine Company.
The talks on this double CD were drawn from Avataric Discourses that took place in 2004.
A video excerpt from an Avataric Discourse given by Avatar Adi Da on November 6, 2004, at Adi Da Samrajashram.
The complete Avataric Discourse (nearly four hours long) is available on the DVD, There Are No Historical Selves. In this Discourse, Adi Da elaborates His assertion that although we refer to others as "you" and ourselves as "I", we have never really experienced any such separate entities. Furthermore, the self-reference is a reference to a fiction, a convention from the society of egos.
ADI DA: You refer to yourself every time you say a sentence because that's how sentences are supposed to be constructed, and yet you have no experience of that "self" that you keep referring to. You don't experience it any more than you experience the room. You can experience "yourself", so-called, from the point of view of the moment or what could be called the "late time' of every perception and thought. It's the "late time" because it's after when it occurred. But it's called the present because it seems to be happening now.
In the early months of 1985, Avatar Adi Da was residing at His Hermitage-Island in Fiji, working intensively to complete the first edition of His Supreme Scriptural Text, The Dawn Horse Testament. Avatar Adi Da began this occasion by reciting a newly written essay, which He subsequently added to The Dawn Horse Testament — and then spoke at length about the import of the essay.
In this Discourse, Avatar Adi Da invites everyone to consider the implications of the common understanding that everything — all that you see, hear, breathe, taste, smell, feel — is energy, or light. Rather than suggesting yet another method of seeking within the infinite forms of experienced light, Avatar Adi Da Offers (and Is) the direct Transmission of Light — which Reveals Itself to be the Self-Radiant Bliss of Consciousness Itself.
ADI DA: The most intimate presumption, the real presumption — that all this is Light — should be sufficient to make your hair stand on end. Real Communion with Light, or True Baptism — founded on “self” understanding — produces ecstasy, profound transformation of the being, liberates you from all of your egoic psychology.
poster: CDBaby length: 16:08 date added: June 29, 2023 event date: October 12, 2004 language: English
The CD, The Master Is The Means, is a compilation of talks in which Avatar Adi Da describes the spontaneous heart-response to the Spiritual Master as the great, effective, and anciently known Means of Spiritual Awakening.
By exposing the true nature of ego, and pointing out our false and limiting presumptions about Spiritual Masters, Avatar Adi Da enables a free consideration of what is truly needed to Realize the Truth of our Condition. He provides a traditional context for the purpose of His human Form here, while also communicating the utterly unique appearance and offering He Is.
poster: CDBaby length: 05:24 date added: June 29, 2023 event date: October 10, 2004 language: English
The CD, The Master Is The Means, is a compilation of talks in which Avatar Adi Da describes the spontaneous heart-response to the Spiritual Master as the great, effective, and anciently known Means of Spiritual Awakening.
By exposing the true nature of ego, and pointing out our false and limiting presumptions about Spiritual Masters, Avatar Adi Da enables a free consideration of what is truly needed to Realize the Truth of our Condition. He provides a traditional context for the purpose of His human Form here, while also communicating the utterly unique appearance and offering He Is.
Adi Da would later make a similar communication in a very memorable way in “The Divine Avataric Self-Disclosure” (in The Aletheon):
ADI DA: The conditionally Apparent “world”-Process Of “Everything Changing” Is Simply The Natural “Play” Of Cosmic Life, In Which the (Always) two sides of every possibility come and go, In Cycles Of appearance and disappearance. Winter’s cold alternates with summer’s heat. Pain, Likewise, Follows every pleasure. Every appearance Is (Inevitably) Followed By its disappearance. There Is No Permanent “experience” In The Realm Of Cosmic Nature. One whose Whole bodily Devotion To Me Is Constant Simply Allows All Of This To Be So. Therefore, one who Truly Listens To Me and “Knows” Me Spontaneously Ceases To Add “self”-Contraction (and, Thus, “conditional-experience-causing” energy and intention) To This Relentless Round Of Natural and Futile Changes. . . Intrinsically egoless Self-Realization Of Me Is Possible Only When a living being (or body-mind-“self”) Has Whole bodily Ceased To React To The Always Changing Imposition Of Cosmic Nature. . . Those who Perfectly “Know” Me Tacitly Understand That whatever Is Not Always Already (or Eternally) Self-Existing and Self-Radiant Only Changes. . . Those who Perfectly “Know” Me Acknowledge (Tacitly, and With every Whole bodily act) That What Is Always Already The (One and Only) Case Never Changes. Such True Devotees Of Mine (who Perfectly “Know” Me) Perfectly Realize That The Entire Cosmic Realm Of Change—and Even the To-Me-Surrendered Whole body (itself)—Is Entirely Pervaded By Me (Always Self-Revealed As That Which Is Always Already The Case).
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 22:30 date added: August 28, 2013 event date: July 7, 2005 language: English views: 5746; views this month: 37; views this week: 17
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.
poster: TheBeezone length: 02:00 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6121; views this month: 59; views this week: 28
Part of an Avataric Revelation Discourse given at the Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, later published in Reality Is All The God There Is.
Adi Da offers His unique renderings of the Dharma of the great sages of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, including Gotama Sakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Shankara, and Ribhu. Rather than simply translate their teachings from available source texts, Avatar Adi Da respeaks them as one who has personally realized their truth. He reveals that the Buddhist “Nirvana” and the Advaitic “Brahman” point to the same Transcendental Condition. Avatar Adi Da’s rendering restores to these texts the profundity intended by the Spiritual Masters who created them.
The Sunshine Makers poster: frizz lefryd length: 07:43 date added: May 8, 2010 language: English views: 10830; views this month: 94; views this week: 33
One of Adi Da's favorite cartoons, "The Sunshine Makers" is a classic from the golden age of animation. Released on January 11, 1935 (an auspicious day of the year, in the sacred calendar of Adidam), the cartoon was directed by Ted Eshbaugh, the first artist/technician to figure out how to create animated cartoons in color. This restored print is the highest quality available, and is from the DVD, Toddle Tales & Rainbow Parade Cartoons.
"The Sunshine Makers" is the third cartoon in the "Rainbow Parade Series", which was produced by Van Beuren Studios to compete with Walt Disney's "Silly Symphonies". The series consisted of 27 full color, animated shorts, and was distributed to theaters by RKO between 1934 and 1936. (You can watch more of these here.)
"The Sunshine Makers" later became a regular on 1950's television, after the sale of RKO's film library. In his book, Of Mice and Magic, well-known film critic Leonard Maltin writes that his childhood (in the 1950's) included "countless viewings" of the cartoon.
"The Sunshine Makers" is also one of Adi Da's favorite cartoons, because of its depiction of Light and Happiness (magnified and spread by the "Sunshine gnomes" in the cartoon) dissolving and outshining the force of egoity (the "gloomies").
In his article, "The Sunshine Makers cartoon from 1935", James Steinberg writes, "Bhagavan Adi Da loved that cartoon! He thought that it showed the simplicity of the argument of the open hand and the closed fist, or that our un-happiness is just something that we presume. Just like He used to tell us when we came to the Mountain of Attention, or came to see Him altogether, that we could 'leave it at the gate'. There is no reason to presume the dilemma in the face of the Divine (or truly altogether). We used to watch 'The Sunshine Makers' cartoon with Him when we had to watch it on a 16mm projector. I saw it multiple times with Bhagavan and He would laugh heartily as it was shown and watch our faces to see our reactions beaming with Happiness. He always used to tell us that we could just 'drop it in the moment' (our self-contraction) and that it was 'just an act'."
Further notes on the cartoon:
* It's a musical! Almost all speech is set to music.
* At 0:43: The "Sunshine gnomes" start their morning with a conscious exercise routine that begins with bowing down to the Transcendental Sun (the source of their sunshine): "Hail, His Majesty, the Sun!"
* At 7:00: When the "gloomies" refuse to "take their medicine", the gnomes force "sunshine" down their throats. In the words of the great Spiritual Master, Sri Ramakrishna: "There are three classes of physicians: superior, mediocre, and inferior. The physician who feels the patient's pulse and just says to him, 'Take the medicine regularly' belongs to the inferior class. He doesn't care to inquire whether or not the patient has actually taken the medicine. The mediocre physician is he who in various ways persuades the patient to take the medicine, and says to him sweetly: 'My good man, how will you be cured unless you use the medicine? Take this medicine. I have made it for you myself.' But he who, finding the patient stubbornly refusing to take the medicine, forces it down his throat, going so far as to put his knee on the patient's chest is the best physician. This is the manifestation of the tamas of the physician. It doesn't injure the patient; on the contrary, it does him good."
poster: TheBeezone length: 02:08 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6360; views this month: 62; views this week: 22
Part of an Avataric Revelation Discourse given at the Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, later published in Reality Is All The God There Is.
Adi Da offers His unique renderings of the Dharma of the great sages of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, including Gotama Sakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Shankara, and Ribhu. Rather than simply translate their teachings from available source texts, Avatar Adi Da respeaks them as one who has personally realized their truth. He reveals that the Buddhist “Nirvana” and the Advaitic “Brahman” point to the same Transcendental Condition. Avatar Adi Da’s rendering restores to these texts the profundity intended by the Spiritual Masters who created them.
poster: GlobalCooperationProject length: 07:53 date added: November 7, 2010 language: English listens: 3919; listens this month: 29; listens this week: 11
Renowned actor Kenneth Welsh recites selected chapters from Adi Da's book, Not-Two Is Peace. In this audio, he recites: "The Transition beyond Ego-Culture".
On his new downloadable album, At the Feet of the Spiritual Master, devotee Gerald Sheinfeld tells leelas — true stories of his life of over 45 years with Avatar Adi Da Samraj. These stories begin before the first ashram opened in 1972. They provide details of how Avatar Adi Da awakened ordinary people into devotees of Real God. These stories are based on the awakened recognition of the prior Unity of Divine Reality. They are full of lessons of self-understanding and brightening heart-joy in finding the truth about God, the truth about life and death. The truth of prior Happiness which is the true Condition of all, prior to the ego-I act of separation.
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!
Some of those stories are on this downloadable album. This audio excerpt is track 8, "The Vision Of Love", on Gerald's downloadable album.
The Way Beyond Ego poster: DawnHorsePress length: 08:50 date added: November 7, 2010 language: English listens: 6016; listens this month: 45; listens this week: 24
A summary communication of the practice and Grace essential to the real process of Divine Liberation—given in October 2004 and April 2005.
In the Discourses selected for these CDs, Avatar Adi Da leads His listeners through the maze of egoic misinterpretation of real Spiritual practice by articulating and debunking the errors that occur when such practice is engaged from the point of view of egoity (or presumed separateness). Avatar Adi Da clarifies, again and again, that the Way He Offers is not a Way of thought or philosophy, effort or escape, experiences or techniques—rather, Adidam is based solely on the inherent heart-attraction to That Which Is Beyond all conditional states, That Which Is Always Already the Case, That Which Is Perfect Divine Love-Bliss, and Which is Appearing in and as His human Form. In summary, in these Talks, Avatar Adi Da elucidates the essence, and the necessary foundation principles, of the devotional and Spiritual Way of Adidam.
The Way of Fun poster: DAbase length: 54:00 date added: October 19, 2010 event date: 1987 language: English listens: 7514; listens this month: 51; listens this week: 19
Adi Da's very humorous and wonderfully instructive talk from 1987, The Way Of Fun, about how, after being around His devotees, He "finally got it", that "it's time for the Siddhas" to adapt to modern times, "time for the Truth to change". This new way ("The Way of Fun") — for realizing God without requiring self-transcendence — will "require nothing of you except to really dig those Divine Vibes." The talk is Adi Da's masterful reflection of how the ego is always trying to revise the Way into something that is self-fulfilling rather than self-transcending, something that has no requirements and no difficulties, and that takes no time at all. "So whatever kind of association you have with Me . . . as long as it's fun, you're happy to do it. But if it requires anything of you, your resistance comes on immediately." For more on this theme, read our article, The Way of the Bone.
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