poster: DawnHorsePress length: 10:44 date added: November 6, 2010 event date: December 11, 2005 language: English listens: 7022; listens this month: 10; listens this week: 4 This is a track from the CD, The Ribhu Gita, the first volume in The Gnosticon Discourse Series from the Dawn Horse Press.
In a historic occasion at Walk About Joy (near Tat Sundaram Hermitage) on December 11, 2005, Avatar Adi Da Samraj reads His own renderings of portions of the epitome Non-dualist text, The Ribhu Gita. He then offers illuminating Instruction on the specific distinctions between the revelation communicated in this great text and the “Perfect Practice” of Adidam.
The collection of Avatar Adi Da’s renderings and related discourses became the seed of His book, The Gnosticon, in which He thoroughly examines the Transcendental Teachings of the ancient Sages in relation to His Transcendental Spiritual Way of Adidam.tags: Ribhu GitaGnosticonCD
poster: AdidamPodcasts length: 25:49 date added: March 17, 2012 event date: January 18, 1973 language: English listens: 7018; listens this month: 18; listens this week: 10 In an excerpt from His historic talk from 1972, "Money, Food, and Sex" (now published in My "Bright" Word), Adi Da addresses the dilemma those taking up "spiritual life" encounter when bringing discipline to the areas of money, food, and sex.
poster: CDBaby length: 12:21 date added: February 17, 2016 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English views: 6419; views this month: 33; views this week: 14 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.
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.
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
3WBC Radio Interview of James Steinberg poster: AdiDaUpClose speakers: James Steinberg, Jan Bucknell length: 53:05 date added: October 16, 2014 event date: October 16, 2014 language: English listens: 6324; listens this month: 30; listens this week: 17 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).
Beyond Sex, Science, and self poster: AdiDaVideos length: 09:59 date added: December 16, 2013 event date: January 21, 2005 language: English views: 6272; views this month: 28; views this week: 14 Adi Da: "Sex is fundamental ego-identity, lived. And generally speaking, it is a problem for everyone. . . The social pattern of 'self' and 'other' is founded upon emotional-sexual patterning to a very great degree. . . So it certainly is an important dimension of bondage, and therefore an important aspect of sadhana. The Perfect Practice is not based on any reference to the body-mind, or any method of the body-mind."
In this Avataric Discourse (from January 21, 2005), Adi Da explains why the Perfect Practice (the most advanced development of the Way of Adidam) has nothing to do with sex (or the ego-"I" altogether), and is not a "method" of the body-mind or something to be applied to the body-mind. The Self-Condition prior to the body-mind is the domain of the Perfect Practice. The Self-Condition is not a separate "self", but the Nirvanic Condition that is always already the case, and that inherently transcends the body-mind.
Ode to Divine Joy poster: DawnHorsePress length: 04:19 date added: May 9, 2015 event date: November 2, 2013 language: English listens: 6215; listens this month: 18; listens this week: 8 On November 2, 2013, the eve of the seventy-fourth anniversary of Avatar Adi Da’s Birth (Da Jayanthi), a live concert was held at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in Northern California to celebrate His Eternal Blessing of all. The recording of this concert is now available on a CD, Ode to Divine Joy.
This audio clip contains a sample medley from the CD, featuring the voices of devotees JoAnne Sunshine ("Made by Your Hand"), Mel McMurrin ("Mary Don’t You Weep"), and Crane Kirkbride ("Ode to Divine Joy"), the voices of the Adidam Choir, and the piano-playing of Naamleela Free Jones. You can also hear the Choir singing devotee and Billboard Award-winning composer Ray Lynch's song, "This Is the Great Gift".
The rendition of Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" (retitled "Ode To Divine Joy" with new, devotional lyrics) performed during the concert was a unique fusion of two performances: the live performance and a 1990 studio recording played as accompaniment. This unique amalgam of both studio and live performances of Ode to Divine Joy, as well as all of the other pieces of the live concert included on this CD, are offered in the spirit of celebration and gratitude.tags: CD
Beyond Sex, Science, and self poster: DawnHorsePress length: 10:00 date added: July 27, 2011 event date: January 21, 2005 language: English views: 6199; views this month: 19; views this week: 14 In this Adidam Revelation Discourse from January 21, 2005, Adi Da reveals that Liberation cannot ever be achieved through sex, science, or religion! And He makes the astounding assertion, “Realization has nothing to do with the body-mind.”
Watch this DVD for Adi Da's Instruction on True Freedom, which He says is discovered only in the utter transcending of “point of view”, by means of the Transmission of Reality Itself. "The 'self'-contraction, the 'point of view', the 'point-of-view'-machine and what it presumes to be Reality, the illusions of Reality created by 'point of view' — these are the important matters to be understood. The 'you' to which you refer as 'I', the ego-'I', is a 'point-of-view'-machine. It is subject to the illusions of the cosmic apparition, the illusions that 'point of view' itself is subject to — space-time, mass, and so forth."
poster: Tastingthemoon length: 05:09 date added: February 12, 2012 language: English views: 6107; views this month: 11; views this week: 7 Tasting the Moon: Adventures in the Meaning of Life, by Meg Fortune McDonnell, is the story of a "no holds barred” pathway through life — from the author’s eccentric childhood, through the tumult of the 1960’s, to the ashram of Adi Da Samraj, the spiritual teacher she encountered in the 70’s.
In this video series, Meg talks with her father, Robert McDonnell, about working together on the book.
poster: Tastingthemoon length: 03:51 date added: February 12, 2012 language: English views: 6002; views this month: 11; views this week: 5 Tasting the Moon: Adventures in the Meaning of Life, by Meg Fortune McDonnell, is the story of a "no holds barred” pathway through life — from the author’s eccentric childhood, through the tumult of the 1960’s, to the ashram of Adi Da Samraj, the spiritual teacher she encountered in the 70’s.
In this video series, Meg talks with her father, Robert McDonnell, about working together on the book.
The Way Beyond Ego poster: DawnHorsePress length: 08:50 date added: November 7, 2010 language: English listens: 5976; listens this month: 9; listens this week: 5 Excerpt from the 2-CD set, The Way Beyond Ego.
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.tags: egoityAvataric DiscourseCD
The Quandra Loka Suite poster: scribe108 length: 06:32 date added: November 22, 2012 language: English views: 5949; views this month: 21; views this week: 11 In late 2002 and early 2003, Adi Da Samraj created the photographic suite, Quandra Loka. The images are generally multiple exposures on a single black-and-white frame of film. Adi Da then created configurations (diptychs, triptychs, and polyptychs) from the single frame images.
Music is "Facing Beloved", from the CD, Facing Beloved, with John Wubbenhorst (bansuri), Subash Chandran (ghatam) and Ganesh Kumar (kanjira). This piece is based on a melody from J.S. Bach (siciliano) with elements of Raga Kirwani.tags: Image-ArtQuandra LokaCD
poster: Tastingthemoon length: 05:31 date added: February 12, 2012 language: English views: 5910; views this month: 14; views this week: 6 Tasting the Moon: Adventures in the Meaning of Life, by Meg Fortune McDonnell, is the story of a "no holds barred” pathway through life — from the author’s eccentric childhood, through the tumult of the 1960’s, to the ashram of Adi Da Samraj, the spiritual teacher she encountered in the 70’s.
In this video series, Meg talks with her father, Robert McDonnell, about working together on the book.
The Five Reality-Teachings poster: RadiantlyHappy length: 05:27 date added: December 13, 2011 language: English views: 5829; views this month: 12; views this week: 4 Words by Avatar Adi Da Samraj (below).
Our multimedia library currently contains 1206
YouTube video clips and audio clips about (or related to) Adi Da and Adidam.[1]
Enjoy! indicates
a video, and
an audio. Special categories of interest include:
Thanks to the many videographers who took the footage, to the many editors who
created these videos and audios, and to the 132
people and organizations who posted these videos and audios on YouTube and other places on the
Web. Special thanks to Lynne
Thompson, who did a lot of the data entry for our audio/video database.