poster: AdiDaVideos length: 04:52 date added: March 26, 2017 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English views: 5185; views this month: 22; views this week: 12
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.
poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 13:25 date added: March 26, 2017 event date: July 20, 1986 language: English views: 3394; views this month: 19; views this week: 8
In 1986, Adi Da made His first visit to the European community of His devotees. He travelled through England, France and Holland. In the South of Holland, in the village of Maria Hoop close to the German border, a former Catholic monastery was found which could be rented for a few weeks. Devotees swiftly cleaned buildings and the grounds. Adi Da stayed in a specially prepared wing of the monastery for several days. During this time, He granted Darshan and held "Question and Answer" occasions in the chapel (now called Adi Da Kapel) with German, English, Dutch, French and American devotees. The former monastery has since been acquired by the European community of Adidam and is now known as The European Danda.
In this rare excerpt from one of the "Question and Answer" occasions, Adi Da addresses the primal human emotion of doubt in a most direct and simple manner. He describes how doubt is not ultimately a sign that we have been "betrayed" in some way. The radical solution to doubt is to identify with the Divine Itself, beyond the temporary cycles of the body and mind and beyond the sense of being a separate self.
poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 09:49 date added: March 19, 2017 language: English views: 4732; views this month: 29; views this week: 10
An audio excerpt from Adi Da Samraj's early talk, "Renouncing the Search for the Edible Deity", accompanied by photos of Adi Da from a more recent Avataric Discourse.
We experience "independent" existence as a kind of madness, a seeming separation from food (both because of the cutting of the umbilical cord and as a feeling of separation from our ultimate source of sustenance, the Very Divine). We must instead be like the eating gorilla. . .
Adi Da: "The eating gorilla finds a cabbage in the jungle, sits down like a slob and munches away at the cabbage, and is completely benign, completely peaceful. . . . Therefore, the eating gorilla is the image of the true man, the true woman. He demonstrates the principle of true politics, of real human existence, in which we are always presently connected to the Food Source in Truth, and are always presuming connection, relationship, 'I love you.' "
poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 04:24 date added: March 19, 2017 event date: May 24, 1983 language: English views: 4137; views this month: 16; views this week: 4
Adi Da gave this talk on May 24, 1983, in Fiji. In it he describes how all processes (including diet) associated with transformation of the body-mind (making it an appropriate yogic vehicle compatible with the Transcendental Spiritual Way of Adidam) necessarily first go through purification and rebalancing phases (for as long as they take) — associated with Fire — before they enter the regeneration phase — associated with Light. Knowing this helps one persist in the fire of the purification and rebalancing phases to the point where one comes out the other side.
The life of devotion to Me Is both a Communion with Light and a Purification by Fire. There may be many years of This Fire-Light in My Divine Avataric Company, and you should welcome all of them.
That commitment to Fire and Light must be your exercise of life — in every moment, and under all circumstances.
Where There Is Light There Is Heat. Where There Is Heat There Is Fire. Where There Is Fire There Is Light.
Avatar Adi Da Samraj "The Way of Light Is The Way of Fire", The Aletheon
poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 03:03 date added: March 18, 2017 event date: June 2, 2008 language: English views: 3011; views this month: 25; views this week: 6
A simple, potent, silent occasion in which Adi Da sits with His devotees (on June 2, 2008 at Adi Da Samrajashram) and communicates His Divine State.
poster: CDBaby length: 10:28 date added: March 13, 2017 event date: August 30, 1982 language: English views: 3090; views this month: 21; views this week: 15
This audio excerpt is from "Tell Me True - Have You Got the Gom-Boo?", a talk given by Adi Da on August 30, 1982. The talk appears as Chapter 2 in Adi Da's book, The Dreaded Gom-Boo.
Adi Da: "The presumption of being [the presumption of one's own existence] is not made on the basis of [scientific observations of nature]. . . The force of being itself is self-authenticating.. . . The Consciousness that is single is not evident in the body. . . In the profundity of the research into that presumption of being (rather than the mechanical associations of it), we realize - intuitively, directly - the Being that is to be presumed to be ultimately associated with all of nature."
This excerpt is also track 4 of the CD, Science and the Myth of Materialism, a collection of talks from throughout the 30 years of Avatar Adi Da’s formal Teaching-Work that brings together samples from His vast Divine Instruction relative to the psycho-physical nature of the world, the limits of scientific materialism, and the Inherent Unity of Existence.
Surrender Without Limitation poster: DawnHorsePress length: 02:57 date added: March 5, 2017 event date: December 30, 1983 language: English listens: 2766; listens this month: 9; listens this week: 2
In this beautiful and intimate Discourse given on December 30, 1983 at Adi Da Samrajashram, Avatar Adi Da speaks with a man who suffers from claustrophobia. Avatar Adi Da points to the self-generated cause of such terrifying experiences, describing them as symptoms of feeling-contraction from the Field of Divine Existence. He calls this man—and all who are sensitive to suffering and anxiety—to find the Bliss of Divine Existence in His Company, and to intensively practice feeling beyond all emotional limits on living in That Bliss.
poster: CDBaby length: 09:56 date added: March 4, 2017 language: English views: 4330; views this month: 20; views this week: 9
This video excerpt is an excerpt from Adi Da's talk, "The Bridge To God", from October 27, 1980. (The full talk, "The Bridge To God", is available as a CD and as an online transcript.)
On the previous day, a shaman from Mexico visited The Mountain Of Attention, Avatar Adi Da Samraj’s Northern California sanctuary. The following day, Avatar Adi Da considered with His devotees the inherently magical nature of the world and our psychic relationship to it.
Adi Da: "The world is a psychic phenomenon. In other words, we never experience the world except psychically. We never experience it except as knowledge and perception. We never experience it except as a condition that includes us. We are not separate from it. What we are at the level of the psyche and at the level of consciousness is just as much an inherent part of the world as the so-called material, objective forms. When we associate with the world on the basis of the totality of all the conditions of our existence, we participate in the world of forms as a psychic process. By participating psychically in the psychic phenomena of the world, we learn the laws whereby we can influence the phenomena of the waking state. We generate a process wherein we can become sensitive to the phenomena of the waking state so that we can observe unusual coincidences of form and psychic significances that our verbal mind tends to exclude from what we are observing."
This excerpt is track 3 of the CD, Science and the Myth of Materialism, a collection of talks from throughout the 30 years of Avatar Adi Da’s formal Teaching-Work that brings together samples from His vast Divine Instruction relative to the psycho-physical nature of the world, the limits of scientific materialism, and the Inherent Unity of Existence.
poster: CDBaby length: 08:56 date added: February 25, 2017 language: English views: 3355; views this month: 15; views this week: 8
Adi Da: "Science is not a human activity, because it is an activity in which what is specifically human is fundamentally suppressed, abstracted, separated out. We're supposed to be devoted to finding out about this external world. We're not supposed to be devoted to participation in a total world in which reality includes not only the objects of perception and conception, but the process of perception and conception, and the being or consciousness in which perception and conception are experienced or recognized."
This talk excerpt is track 2 of the CD, Science and the Myth of Materialism, a collection of talks from throughout the 30 years of Avatar Adi Da’s formal Teaching-Work that brings together samples from His vast Divine Instruction relative to the psycho-physical nature of the world, the limits of scientific materialism, and the Inherent Unity of Existence.
poster: Gerald Sheinfeld length: 07:13 date added: February 21, 2017 event date: 2016 language: English views: 3409; views this month: 17; views this week: 11
Gerald Sheinfeld, a devotee of Avatar Adi Da since the early 1970's, tells the story of the day he became Adi Da's devotee. It happened about eight months after he first met Adi Da. On that day, Gerald experienced (and was overwhelmed and heart-opened by) Adi Da's absolute vulnerability and complete lack of egoic armoring and received the Revelation of Adi Da's Divine State.
In this excerpt from an Avataric Discourse, Adi Da gives a Radical and profound description of the true nature of the Divine Reality, stating that the Divine is the substance of all that arises, not the "cause" of anything, Adi Da goes on to describe how it is our own separation from that which is the very Divine, that causes the assumption of separation (and all our suffering).
This talk excerpt is followed by a clip of Darshan of Adi Da (at 4:27).
The talk excerpt is part of the longer DVD, The Divine Is Not The Cause. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. A CD version is also available.
poster: CDBaby length: 10:24 date added: January 21, 2017 event date: March 28, 1994 language: English views: 5214; views this month: 25; views this week: 11
In this talk, Avatar Adi Da describes the Way of Adidam as the utter transcendence of fear — including fear of being without a body or world (in the Divine State of Infinite, Eternal Love-Bliss). He speaks about finding True God as Source rather than "Creator", and He describes the mechanism that is actually responsible for generating the conditional universe. Adi Da closes with spontaneous and ecstatic poetry, communicating the Sublime Peace that is Realized in His Sphere of Love-Bliss.
This excerpt is track 8 of the CD, Death and the Purpose of Existence, a collection of talks and recitations that exemplify Avatar Adi Da's essential Wisdom-Teaching on death and dying.
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.
poster: CDBaby length: 08:15 date added: January 14, 2017 event date: 1988 language: English views: 4794; views this month: 25; views this week: 16
This is an audio excerpt from The Commitment to Real-God-Realization, a DVD containing conversations between Adi Da and His devotees in 1988, in the United States, Fiji, and New Zealand. In these direct and challenging talks, Adi Da discusses how, through consideration, one can determine relatively quickly that one will survive death; on that basis, one can live life not merely for the sake of the physical body (which is going to die), but can practice in the context of (and in cooperation with) one's Eternal destiny: God-Realization.
Adi Da: "Some work for goods and blessings in this world, some work for movement into other worlds. Some transcend all conditional possibilities and Realize the Divine Domain. If Real God is proven, then you must live a life devoted to Real God. . . If the Divine Reality were obvious, the commitment to God-Realization is instant."
Adi Da makes clear that the motive to God-Realization is a Gift of Grace given by Him, and not the result of will or self-effort.
This excerpt is track 6 of the CD, Death and the Purpose of Existence, a collection of talks and recitations that exemplify Avatar Adi Da's essential Wisdom-Teaching on death and dying.
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.
Longtime devotee and Adidam educator, Anthony Costabile, summarizes the purpose of Adi Da's lifetime succinctly, and describes how the practice given by Adi Da authenticates itself.
For more about Adi Da's Spiritual Transmission of Divine Enlightenment, click here.
For more about Adi Da's Work with human beings after His lifetime, click here.
For more about how Adi Da made the Offering of Adidam available for all beings for all time, click here.
What is Fear of Death? poster: AdiDaVideos length: 14:09 date added: November 22, 2016 event date: September 18, 2004 language: English views: 4552; views this month: 26; views this week: 11
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.
This DVD compilation of ten talks spans thirty-four years of Avatar Adi Da's Work. It includes His compassionate Instruction about: - the sorrow of loss - the fear of death - serving the dying person - how to practice during and beyond the death process - the Ultimate Demonstration of Divine Translation (or Most Perfect Realization of the deathless Condition).
From His Perfect Disposition of Absolute Freedom, Avatar Adi Da Samraj reveals the greater process within which death occurs, and the Ultimate Demonstration of What Is, Prior to life and death.
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