[Contains German 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" (German: "Der körperliche Sitz des Glücklichseins"), 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 CD.
The talk communicates several core insights:
1. Everybody is intuitively familiar with happiness. You don't have to be a devotee of Adi Da! This was part of the reason Adi Da chose "happiness" as the focus of this Teaching period: because the subject was so accessible. Everyone knows what it's like to be happy (at least a little). It's just that most people are not aware that Perfect, Eternal Happiness is possible and Realizable. (And it certainly isn't, through ordinary human means.) Adi Da: "All beings are always already Happy. You always know, at this very moment you know exactly, what it would be to look and feel and be and act completely Happy." The esoteric reason everyone is familiar with happiness is because everyone is always, already happy. And the esoteric reason everyone yearns for complete happiness is because complete happiness is realizable — and everyone's heart knows that.
2. Adi Da's "Lesson of Life":"You can't become happy; you can only be (already) happy." People are always seeking for happiness. The "pursuit of happiness" (not happiness itself!) is even enshrined as an "unalienable right" (alongside life and liberty) in the preamble of the United States Declaration of Independence. Its author, Thomas Jefferson, knew better than to think a government could guarantee happiness itself — hence only the guarantee of "the pursuit of happiness". Only a Divine Incarnation can guarantee Happiness Itself.
Adi Da reveals that happiness is the native state of beings. It is already the case. Every attempt to seek for it (mis-identifying the source of happiness as some object or other) in fact serves to dissociate one from it. Adi Da: "You think that you can seek Happiness and find it. Your search for Happiness is itself a confession of un-Happiness. You cannot realize Happiness by persisting in un-Happiness, persisting in the method of un-Happiness. All seeking is an expression of un-Happiness, all seeking is the method of un-Happiness, the practice of un-Happiness. This must be understood. It is not merely true — it must be understood."
Self-understanding allows one to get this point. Based on self-understanding, one can devote oneself to Happiness rather than to seeking for It and settling for the little bit of Infinite Happiness that "bleeds through" the clench of ego into conditions. This ultimately enables the Eternal Realization of Infinite, Perfect Happiness. Adi Da: "Understand your un-Happiness. Then you will be capable of locating Happiness, and, having located Happiness, you will be capable of practicing the Way of Adidam, which is nothing but the devotion of life to Happiness."
3. The Transmission of the Divine Guru is How One Locates Happiness. The subtitle of the book, The Bodily Location Of Happiness, is: "On the Incarnation of the Divine Person and the Transmission of Love-Bliss". In other words, you can't apply "The Lesson of Life" by somehow "locating" happiness directly, by yourself (or in yourself). Happiness is our native state, but that doesn't mean it can be located by an egoic, "do it yourself" process. We locate happiness directly as a Grace-given Gift, through devotion to the Transcendental Spiritual Transmission of Adi Da. Adi Da: "Happiness is presently the case. In this moment you are already Happy. Sitting with Me, locate this Happiness." We locate our "Native State" by recognizing and submitting to our "Native Person" — our Very Self appearing here in bodily (human) form.
4. It is a Process of Whole Bodily Location. "The bodily location of Happiness" is not primarily a reference to some place where Happiness resides in the body (although Adi Da teases His listeners with this idea: "Look for it in your toes, in your fingers, in your shirt, in your head"). It refers to a process ("the bodily location of Happiness" = "the locating of Happiness with the whole body-mind") that involves the surrender and transformation of every aspect of the body-mind, immersed in the Perfectly Happy State of the Divine Guru, through recognition of Him as the Divine in every moment. Then the secondary and supportive practices of the Way of Adidam become means for staying immersed in that Divine State in every moment: "Having located Happiness [having recognized Adi Da as the Divine], you will be capable of practicing the Way of Adidam, which is nothing but the devotion of life to Happiness [Adi Da, recognized as the Divine]. The practices of this Way are not methods for attaining Happiness, but they are the expressions of Happiness. The disciplines of money, food, and sex are not a way to become Happy. Discipline is difficult enough — why should we also burden it with the obligation to make us Happy!"
Cheech's Story poster: Chandirah speaker: Cheech Marrero length: 10:39 date added: January 28, 2009 language: English views: 5165; views this month: 36; views this week: 18
This is the beautiful story of how our friend, Cheech Marrero, found Adi Da. Cheech has been around Adi Da for a long time, since the early 1970's, and is a great example of what a person becomes after living a life around a great Spiritual Master like Adi Da.
Adi Da Tribute poster: DattatreyaSivaBaba speaker: Dattatreya SivaBaba length: 07:28 date added: January 28, 2009 language: English views: 5163; views this month: 46; views this week: 15
A tribute to Adi Da from Dattatreya Siva Baba after Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi.
[Contains French 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 discours classique donné par Avatar Adi Da en 1981 sur la nature du Vrai Bonheur et la façon dont il peut être Réalisé d'un moment à l'autre, mais pas en le recherchant.
This is a video excerpt from Adi Da's classic talk, "The Bodily Location of Happiness" (French: "L'Emplacement Corporel du Bonheur"), 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 CD.
The talk communicates several core insights:
1. Everybody is intuitively familiar with happiness. You don't have to be a devotee of Adi Da! This was part of the reason Adi Da chose "happiness" as the focus of this Teaching period: because the subject was so accessible. Everyone knows what it's like to be happy (at least a little). It's just that most people are not aware that Perfect, Eternal Happiness is possible and Realizable. (And it certainly isn't, through ordinary human means.) Adi Da: "All beings are always already Happy. You always know, at this very moment you know exactly, what it would be to look and feel and be and act completely Happy." The esoteric reason everyone is familiar with happiness is because everyone is always, already happy. And the esoteric reason everyone yearns for complete happiness is because complete happiness is realizable — and everyone's heart knows that.
2. Adi Da's "Lesson of Life":"You can't become happy; you can only be (already) happy." People are always seeking for happiness. The "pursuit of happiness" (not happiness itself!) is even enshrined as an "unalienable right" (alongside life and liberty) in the preamble of the United States Declaration of Independence. Its author, Thomas Jefferson, knew better than to think a government could guarantee happiness itself — hence only the guarantee of "the pursuit of happiness". Only a Divine Incarnation can guarantee Happiness Itself.
Adi Da reveals that happiness is the native state of beings. It is already the case. Every attempt to seek for it (mis-identifying the source of happiness as some object or other) in fact serves to dissociate one from it. Adi Da: "You think that you can seek Happiness and find it. Your search for Happiness is itself a confession of un-Happiness. You cannot realize Happiness by persisting in un-Happiness, persisting in the method of un-Happiness. All seeking is an expression of un-Happiness, all seeking is the method of un-Happiness, the practice of un-Happiness. This must be understood. It is not merely true — it must be understood."
Self-understanding allows one to get this point. Based on self-understanding, one can devote oneself to Happiness rather than to seeking for It and settling for the little bit of Infinite Happiness that "bleeds through" the clench of ego into conditions. This ultimately enables the Eternal Realization of Infinite, Perfect Happiness. Adi Da: "Understand your un-Happiness. Then you will be capable of locating Happiness, and, having located Happiness, you will be capable of practicing the Way of Adidam, which is nothing but the devotion of life to Happiness."
3. The Transmission of the Divine Guru is How One Locates Happiness. The subtitle of the book, The Bodily Location Of Happiness, is: "On the Incarnation of the Divine Person and the Transmission of Love-Bliss". In other words, you can't apply "The Lesson of Life" by somehow "locating" happiness directly, by yourself (or in yourself). Happiness is our native state, but that doesn't mean it can be located by an egoic, "do it yourself" process. We locate happiness directly as a Grace-given Gift, through devotion to the Transcendental Spiritual Transmission of Adi Da. Adi Da: "Happiness is presently the case. In this moment you are already Happy. Sitting with Me, locate this Happiness." We locate our "Native State" by recognizing and submitting to our "Native Person" — our Very Self appearing here in bodily (human) form.
4. It is a Process of Whole Bodily Location. "The bodily location of Happiness" is not primarily a reference to some place where Happiness resides in the body (although Adi Da teases His listeners with this idea: "Look for it in your toes, in your fingers, in your shirt, in your head"). It refers to a process ("the bodily location of Happiness" = "the locating of Happiness with the whole body-mind") that involves the surrender and transformation of every aspect of the body-mind, immersed in the Perfectly Happy State of the Divine Guru, through recognition of Him as the Divine in every moment. Then the secondary and supportive practices of the Way of Adidam become means for staying immersed in that Divine State in every moment: "Having located Happiness [having recognized Adi Da as the Divine], you will be capable of practicing the Way of Adidam, which is nothing but the devotion of life to Happiness [Adi Da, recognized as the Divine]. The practices of this Way are not methods for attaining Happiness, but they are the expressions of Happiness. The disciplines of money, food, and sex are not a way to become Happy. Discipline is difficult enough — why should we also burden it with the obligation to make us Happy!"
Dr. Cristina Acidini (the Superintendent of the Authority for Cultural Heritage and State Museums in Florence, Italy) speaks about the exhibition of Adi Da Samraj's image-art at the Cenacolo di Ognissanti, February 2008.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 07:42 date added: November 4, 2012 event date: August 30, 2004 language: English views: 5103; views this month: 40; views this week: 14
A video excerpt from part 6 ("The Glasses of Consciousness") of the DVD, You Are The Question You Ask, which was drawn from Adi Da's Avataric Discourse of August 30, 2004.
Adi Da talks about how human beings presume that they are just a body and a mind, and this creates the mistaken sense of separation from others and the Divine.
The Adidam Music Fest will be held Friday, September 30, at 7.30pm. The event will be held at Rudramandir, 830 Bancroft Way, Berkeley CA. (map)
Take part in an ecstatic evening of music, dancing, stories, refreshments and good company. The occasion will feature classical Indian music with John Wubbenhorst (bansuri), Samrat Kakkari (tabla). At the end of the evening will be trance dancing with the East/West jazz fusion group, "Facing East Trio". The evening is dedicated to the spiritual inspiration of Avatar Adi Da Samraj.
Suggested donation is $15. For more information, visit www.adidambayarea.net or call 415.492.0930.
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 05:03 date added: June 23, 2012 event date: December 23, 1973 language: English listens: 5091; listens this month: 49; listens this week: 22
An excerpt from "Guru As Prophet", a humorous and penetrating Discourse from the very earliest years of Avatar Adi Da’s Teaching-Work. Adi Da speaks of the Guru's role as prophet in the world, which is to create "an aggravation, a criticism, an undermining of the usual life". He speaks of how the Guru in the function of prophet is always working to produce a condition in which people's illusions may be undone.
Above The Clouds poster: DawnHorsePress length: 03:14 date added: October 21, 2013 event date: November 2010 language: English listens: 5086; listens this month: 52; listens this week: 21
"In November 2010, a group of musicians traveled to the sacred hermitage island of Adi Da Samrajashram (Naitauba, Fiji) for spiritual retreat. We played daily at many of the holy sites on the island. We particularly fell into a blissful mood when playing on the veranda of our Guru's house."
"There, in the open air, with fresh breezes blowing, gentle waves washing, and birds chirping, we fell into deep devotion as we played. The music on this recording was spontaneously created on these occasions." —John Wubbenhorst
In celebration of the month of Da Naitauba (October), this album is currently on sale from the Dawn Horse Press at 40% off through October 31.
poster: Adidam Europe speaker: James Steinberg length: 04:27 date added: March 13, 2012 event date: March 2012 language: English views: 5085; views this month: 29; views this week: 11
James Steinberg tells a couple of incredible (and humorous) stories about Adi Da's extraordinary Spiritual Power and the psychic awareness that comes from being the Consciousness of every being.
Interview with gallerist Pien Rademakers, who displayed works from Adi Da's Quandra Loka Suite in her Galerie Pien Rademakers in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and also exhibited them at the 2012 Pan Amsterdam Art Fair.
Pien talks about the significance of Adi Da's Image-Art, and the importance of spreading the word and having increasingly more people experience it.
Slideshow of Adi Da's Image-Art, images of Avatar Adi Da, images from the Florence Dance Company's Quattro Maggiore (The Four Seasons) and Divina.com, and a selection of art from the Spiralled Light blog.
The soundtrack is Mul Mantra by Snatam Kaur (available on the Rising Sun album from Spirit Voyage Artists).
poster: AdiDaUpClose speaker: Terry Cafferty length: 09:12 date added: April 5, 2011 event date: August 2009 language: English views: 5065; views this month: 37; views this week: 13
Terry Cafferty is an aerospace engineering consultant specializing in orbiting imaging systems, and has worked for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Hughes Aircraft, and Raytheon. Terry tells how, even in the midst of a conventionally "successful" life, he became aware of his own inability to truly love, feel, and be in relationship with others. The crisis engendered by this realization led him to consider spiritual practice, and ultimately led him to his Spiritual Master, Avatar Adi Da Samraj.
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