Cheech's Story poster: Chandirah speaker: Cheech Marrero length: 10:39 date added: January 28, 2009 language: English views: 5158; views this month: 30; views this week: 20
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: 5156; views this month: 39; views this week: 16
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!"
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 05:03 date added: June 23, 2012 event date: December 23, 1973 language: English listens: 5080; listens this month: 38; listens this week: 23
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: 5075; listens this month: 42; 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: DawnHorsePress length: 05:49 date added: June 23, 2012 event date: June 20, 1972 language: English listens: 4945; listens this month: 34; listens this week: 20
An excerpt from "The Avon Lady", a humorous and penetrating Discourse from the very earliest years of Avatar Adi Da’s Teaching-Work. Adi Da explains how there is no search and no dilemma when one is in Satsang (the company of the Guru).
Devotees describe the beneficial impact of sacred music on their practice of the Way of Adidam, during the Celebration of Da Purnima on Adi Da Samrajashram, in July, 2014. The music was performed by John Wubbenhorst and Peter Van Gelder (sitar), on many different occasions.
John writes: "It was a very full Celebration of Da Purnima at Adi Da Samrajashram in Fiji. Peter Van Gelder (sitar) and myself (bansuri flute) came for music service and we were very busy every day. Each morning we would sit for several hours practicing the most refined compositions from Peter's music guru Ali Akbar Khan and we would chose what we felt would be the best gifts for our Guru, Adi Da, that day. Almost every day there would be offerings and also many chanting occasions. It is very tangible the difference between playing at Adi Da Samrajashram and playing music anywhere else. The island is so full of Beloved Adi Da that as soon as we would start to play, we would feel the music coming from a deeper place and that would in turn help everyone to drop into deeper communion with Beloved, which would then allow the music to be deeper — and on and on."
This is a special video tribute by pianist Albert Aprigliano in honor of his partner's spiritual teacher/guru, Adi Da Love-Ananda Samraj (1939-2008). This piece was written by Robert Schuman to his wife Clara and featured in the movie, "Song of Love", with Katherine Hepburn.
poster: TheBeezone speakers: Ed Reither, James Steinberg length: 11:02 date added: January 29, 2011 language: English views: 4680; views this month: 35; views this week: 19
Ed Reither of The Beezone interviews longtime devotee James Steinberg about his early life up to and including becoming a devotee of Adi Da Samraj. James talks about the early days of Adidam and people's desire to have transmission experiences from Adi Da Samraj and how Adi Da Samraj constantly emphasized that Spiritual Realization had nothing to do with any conditional experience regardless of whether it is spiritual or material.
Adi Da describes how, through the Grace of His Company, the devotee becomes increasingly aware of suffering and its nature. Increasingly, Grace reveals that suffering is the result of the devotee's own activity.
Consequently, the Way of Adidam [called "The Way of Divine Communion" in this 1976 talk] involves a life of counter-egoic activity, that focuses on devotion to the Divine Presence of the Guru, rather than working on one's tendencies. Over time, the act of devotional surrender to the Divine (and the Happiness associated with that surrender) replaces the act of self-possession (and the suffering associated with that self-possession).
Why One Needs A Guru poster: AdiDaVideos length: 07:04 date added: November 17, 2013 event date: December 27, 1988 language: English views: 4585; views this month: 35; views this week: 17
In this video clip from the 1988 talk, "What Is Your Intention?", Adi Da criticizes the "do-it-yourself" approach to spirituality that is popular in the world today, and speaks about why a teacher is necessary.
poster: TheBeezone speakers: Ed Reither, James Steinberg length: 12:20 date added: January 29, 2011 event date: January 26, 2011 language: English views: 4536; views this month: 28; views this week: 15
Ed Reither of The Beezone interviews longtime devotee James Steinberg about his early life up to and including becoming a devotee of Adi Da Samraj.
poster: AdiDaVideos speaker: Gerald Sheinfeld length: 10:53 date added: October 23, 2016 event date: 2016 language: English views: 4527; views this month: 52; views this week: 22
Gerald Sheinfeld, a devotee of Avatar Adi Da since the early 1970's, tells a wonderful story about how he found his Guru, Adi Da Samraj and his immediate recognition of Adi Da's unique state of Freedom, Happiness, and Liberation. Gerald speaks about how that recognition of Adi Da has the capacity to awaken others to that state of Prior Unity.
Love Is How I Got To Here poster: Chandirah length: 02:53 date added: February 1, 2009 language: English views: 4259; views this month: 33; views this week: 20
Adi Da talks about what there is to Realize, in the enlightenment process, freedom, love-bliss, the Divine Self condition. Apologies for the less than perfect sound quality.
Guru as Prophet poster: AdidamRevelationMagazine length: 05:10 date added: October 22, 2013 event date: December 23, 1973 language: English listens: 4215; listens this month: 30; listens this week: 16
Excerpt from Adi Da's talk, Guru As Prophet - available on a double CD from the Dawn Horse Press. This talk is also published in the book, My "Bright" Word. A course, My "Bright" Word, is also available from The Laughing Man Institute.
In this talk Adi Da distinguishes between the Spiritual (Transmission) Function of the True Guru and the public function of Guru as "prophet" (or critic).
For another excerpt from the same talk, click here.
See also the Adidam Revelation Magazine article, Guru as Prophet.
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