poster: AdidamVideos length: 07:24 date added: February 1, 2009 event date: October 29, 2004 language: English views: 6469; views this month: 27; views this week: 9
Adi Da Samraj discusses the notion of familiarity and its transcendence in the Way of Adidam.
This is an excerpt from a longer evening of consideration with Adi Da (October 29, 2004), which can be found on the DVD, The Illusion of Familiarity.
This talk excerpt is followed by a clip of Darshan of Adi Da (at 5:53).
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.
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"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.
poster: TheBeezone length: 04:06 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6308; views this month: 17; views this week: 5
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: TheBeezone length: 02:08 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6305; views this month: 18; views this week: 4
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.
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.
This excerpt is from the DVD, Beyond Sex, Science, and self. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew. A CD version is also available.
poster: TheBeezone length: 01:52 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6242; views this month: 15; views this week: 6
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: TheBeezone length: 02:47 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6235; views this month: 14; views this week: 3
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.
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."
The DVD, Beyond Sex, Science, and "self", is available from The Dawn Horse Press. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew. A CD version is also available.
poster: AdidamPodcasts length: 12:45 date added: March 17, 2012 event date: 1978 language: English listens: 6193; listens this month: 13; listens this week: 7
In this talk from 1978, Adi Da notes that cultism is rooted in the childish need to believe and to depend on a person, group, myth, or symbol — without assuming responsibility for oneself. He then points out that the tendency to create a cult (of whatever kind) is present in everyone, every level of human society and culture. Adi Da criticizes the tendency toward cultism in the world at large and within His community of devotees. He calls His devotees to understand and relinquish all modes of false and childish dependency on Him as a Spiritual Master, and to make only the most serious and mature approach to Him, for the great purpose of Spiritual Awakening and Divine Enlightenment.
poster: TheBeezone length: 12:06 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6154; views this month: 15; views this week: 4
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: TheBeezone length: 02:17 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6145; views this month: 13; views this week: 4
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: TheBeezone length: 02:00 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6069; views this month: 16; views this week: 4
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 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
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 Quandra Loka Suite poster: scribe108 length: 06:32 date added: November 22, 2012 language: English views: 5948; views this month: 20; views this week: 10
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.
poster: AdidamPodcasts length: 12:29 date added: March 17, 2012 language: English listens: 5819; listens this month: 9; listens this week: 6
Adi Da writes: "Adidam is not a conventional 'religion'. Adidam is not a conventional way of life. Adidam is about the transcending of the ego-'I'. Adidam is about the Freedom of Divine Self-Realization. Adidam is not based on mythology or belief. Adidam is a Reality-practice. Adidam is a 'Reality consideration' in which the various modes of egoity are progressively transcended. Adidam is a universally applicable Way of life. Adidam is for those who will choose it, and whose hearts and intelligence fully respond to Me and My Offering. Adidam is a Great Revelation and it is to be freely and openly communicated to all."
This podcast contains excerpts from two talks, in which Adi Da clarifies that the Way of Adidam is based solely on the inherent heart-response to His Transcendental Spiritual State. That heart-response leads to the self-understanding and willingness to take up the real ego-transcending practice.
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