Je mravenec ego? poster: Adi Da Videa, čeština length: 18:44 date added: March 16, 2022 event date: October 20, 2004 language: Czech views: 801; views this month: 9; views this week: 2
[Contains Czech 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.]
"Je mravenec ego?" ("Is an ant an ego?") is a video excerpt from a humorous and profoundly insightful Avataric Discourse (given by Adi Da on October 20, 2004 at Adi Da Samrajashram), Adi Da considers the difference between self-consciousness and egoity, referring to both humans and non-humans (including dogs, ants, and trees).
ADI DA: [Laughs] You generally attribute egoity to human beings, but you wonder about everything else. For instance, what about not something relatively inert like a rug or even just standing there and not seeming to be particularly responsive, like a tree. But what about a dog? Is a dog, do you think dogs are egos when you see them, just as readily as you think of human beings as egos? But, why do you draw the line? I mean how far does it go? Where do you stop thinking of living entities, at least, as egos? Do you just presume everything bigger than a cricket is an ego? Or is everything that moves in your, from your perspective experientially or in your natural presumptions, how far do, does the fact of egoity extend in your presumption.
Well, is an ant an ego in your presumption?
The word “ego” is actually a Greek word which means “I”. I consider it with you and talk about it in terms of self-contraction and so forth, but, so that’s the elaboration on its meaning, but the word simply means “I” which means the reference, self-reference, the reflexive, reflexive pronoun as it’s called of self-reference. So, does an ant feel self-referential?
You observe them protecting themselves and struggling with others. Couldn’t do so without some kind of self-consciousness, could it? So, you naturally presume that even something like an ant is, is a self, an ego, self-aware. Does something have to move from its spatial location? Does it have to be able to take a walk or, such as an ant or a human being, or can a tree? Does a tree have self-consciousness, exhibit self-consciousness. . .
What about trees? They are entities with apparent self-consciousness of a kind. They are in that sense, egos. But are they egoic? Are they functioning egoically? Are they feeling that they are in bondage and moved to seek as human beings are and as you feel in your own case, you see? Trees don’t seem to behave, generally speaking, in quite that way. They are self-conscious as organisms, but they don’t seem to be particularly disturbed about being trees. They seem more characterized by some kind of contemplation in which they don’t feel disturbed.
But if you observe non-humans, virtually all of them show signs of setting themselves apart and entering into a contemplative state that resembles some kind of a samadhi or meditative condition.
Why do you think human beings are disturbed? You see, why is human egoity what it is? If you observe how it appears in evidence in non-humans, suggests that human beings are the way they are because they’re confined, and not just confined by walls and bars. Some people are, and they get very disturbed there, and walk back and forth or get catatonic.
Your bondage is your own activity, and it also extends from conditions. Conditions can reinforce or seem to justify self-contraction. But still what you’re suffering is self-contraction itself.
So, human beings are actually confined, and they are self-confined, and otherwise, also, living in various modes and degrees of confinement by conditions of life and in fact, human beings feel confined by bodily existence, because however healthy you may be at the moment, you know you’re going to die, and are potentially, potentially, you could suffer any number of great happenings. And you anticipate that inevitably, you will, sooner or later, experience some fundamental difficulties that you would prefer not to have to endure, including disease and death.
Well, everything that’s physically living is going to die. The trouble, the difference is does it drive you crazy, make you seek, or are you at ease, because you haven’t lost touch with what transcends that possibility?
The Knowledge Of Light poster: AdiDaUpClose length: 04:14 date added: November 30, 2021 event date: February 3, 1985 language: English listens: 694; listens this month: 8; listens this week: 1
In the early months of 1985, Avatar Adi Da was residing at His Hermitage-Island in Fiji, working intensively to complete the first edition of His Supreme Scriptural Text, The Dawn Horse Testament. Avatar Adi Da began this occasion by reciting a newly written essay, which He subsequently added to The Dawn Horse Testament — and then spoke at length about the import of the essay.
In this Discourse, Avatar Adi Da invites everyone to consider the implications of the common understanding that everything — all that you see, hear, breathe, taste, smell, feel — is energy, or light. Rather than suggesting yet another method of seeking within the infinite forms of experienced light, Avatar Adi Da Offers (and Is) the direct Transmission of Light — which Reveals Itself to be the Self-Radiant Bliss of Consciousness Itself.
ADI DA: The most intimate presumption, the real presumption — that all this is Light — should be sufficient to make your hair stand on end. Real Communion with Light, or True Baptism — founded on “self” understanding — produces ecstasy, profound transformation of the being, liberates you from all of your egoic psychology.
[Contains Spanish 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 an excerpt from the longer talk, "The Fire Must Have Its Way". The full talk is available on the DVD, The Fire Must Have Its Way, on which this is track 3. It is also available as a CD. The talk also appears in written form in the book, My "Bright" Sight and online here.
[Contains Polish 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.]
W tym fragmencie rozmowy Adi Da tłumaczy rolę ustanowionych przez Niego medium transcendentalnego i duchowego przekazu Jego Stanu i Osoby.
"Moje nauczanie jest bezpośrednim Przekazem Duchowym Mojej Osoby" ("My Teaching Is a Direct Transmission Of Me") is a video excerpt from an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da on October 28, 2005 at the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in Northern California.
A devotee confesses to Adi Da that, when he reads Adi Da's Teaching, he feels a direct Transmission from Adi Da Himself. Adi Da then talks about how His Teaching Word is a form of Spiritual Transmission, that enables Divine Communion with Him (if the devotee is in the right devotional disposition), in the same way that a Murti photograph does, or any of the other forms of Agency that Adi Da has created for this purpose.
[Contains Italian 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", 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 and on a new DVD, The Location Of Happiness.
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 "pursuing 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 (or mis-identify 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!"
[Contains Spanish 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.]
"No hay Luz sin fuego" ("There Is No Light Without Fire") is a video excerpt from the longer talk, "The Fire Must Have Its Way". The full talk is available on the DVD, The Fire Must Have Its Way, on which this is track 5. It is also available as a CD. The talk also appears in written form in the book, My "Bright" Sight and online here.
[Contains Polish 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.]
25 kwietnia 1972 roku, Avatar Adi Da Samraj po raz pierwszy, zaprosił ludzi na spotkanie z Nim jako Nauczycielem Duchowym w Jego nowym aszramie przy Melrose Avenue w Los Angeles. Tego wieczoru Awatar Adi Da najpierw siedział w milczeniu z obecnymi osobami przez być może godzinę, przekazując im Wzniosłość Swojego Promiennego Stanu Urzeczywistnienia. Następnie Adi Da zapytał.
ADI DA: Czy są jakieś pytania?
Nikt nie odpowiedział, więc tym razem Avatar Adi Da Samraj zapytał.
ADI DA: Wszyscy zrozumieli? PYTAJąCY: Ja nie zrozumiałem. Wyjaśnij mi to. ADI DA: Bardzo dobrze. Czego nie zrozumiałeś?
Tak zaczęła się praca nauczania Adi Da!
For the first time, on April 25, 1972, Avatar Adi Da Samraj invited people to approach Him as Spiritual Teacher at His new ashram center on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. That evening, Avatar Adi Da first sat in silence for perhaps an hour with those present, Transmitting to them the Sublimity of His Radiant State of Realization. Then, Adi Da spoke.
ADI DA: Are there any questions?
No one replied, so Avatar Adi Da Samraj spoke again.
ADI DA: Everyone has understood? QUESTIONER: I have not understood. Explain it to me. ADI DA: Very good. What have you not understood?
poster: Bright Reality Media speakers: James Steinberg, Max Rykov length: 25:43 date added: July 31, 2021 language: English views: 659; views this month: 8; views this week: 2
Max Rykov speaks with James Steinberg. This video is the third of three parts.
James Steinberg has been a devotee of Avatar Adi Da since the early 1970's. He has been a principal presenter of Adi Da's communications to the gathering of devotees. In the '70s and '80s, James was the librarian for the Laughing Man Library. He has been a principal spokesperson for Adi Da to other religious and spiritual groups and prominent individuals. James has also continually served Adi Da Samraj's sacred projects in India. James is one of Adidam's principal educators and public representatives. He has written the comprehensive book, Love of the God-Man, and its more abbreviated version, Divine Distraction, about the Guru-devotee relationship.
poster: Bright Reality Media speakers: James Steinberg, Max Rykov length: 25:46 date added: July 31, 2021 language: English views: 654; views this month: 8; views this week: 0
Max Rykov speaks with James Steinberg. This video is the second of three parts.
James Steinberg has been a devotee of Avatar Adi Da since the early 1970's. He has been a principal presenter of Adi Da's communications to the gathering of devotees. In the '70s and '80s, James was the librarian for the Laughing Man Library. He has been a principal spokesperson for Adi Da to other religious and spiritual groups and prominent individuals. James has also continually served Adi Da Samraj's sacred projects in India. James is one of Adidam's principal educators and public representatives. He has written the comprehensive book, Love of the God-Man, and its more abbreviated version, Divine Distraction, about the Guru-devotee relationship.
poster: Bright Reality Media speakers: James Steinberg, Max Rykov length: 24:41 date added: July 31, 2021 language: English views: 762; views this month: 6; views this week: 0
Max Rykov speaks with James Steinberg. This video is the first of three parts.
James Steinberg has been a devotee of Avatar Adi Da since the early 1970's. He has been a principal presenter of Adi Da's communications to the gathering of devotees. In the '70s and '80s, James was the librarian for the Laughing Man Library. He has been a principal spokesperson for Adi Da to other religious and spiritual groups and prominent individuals. James has also continually served Adi Da Samraj's sacred projects in India. James is one of Adidam's principal educators and public representatives. He has written the comprehensive book, Love of the God-Man, and its more abbreviated version, Divine Distraction, about the Guru-devotee relationship.
[Contains Italian 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.]
Isabelle Trudeau, studentka Adi Da mówi o procesie, dzięki któremu rozpoznania Adi Da jako jej Mistrza duchowego i o jej decyzji formalnego wstąpienia na Drogę Serca.
Isabelle Trudeau, a devotee of Adi Da, talks about the process by which she recognized Adi Da as her Spiritual Master and about her decision to formally take up the Way of Adidam.
[Contains Polish 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.]
Prezentowane tutaj video to fragment rozmowy Adi Da ze studentaim z 1976 roku. Jak zawsze Adi Da Samraj nie oferuje studentom ani pocieszenia ani lepszego życia w przyszłości. "Twoje cierpienie jest twoim własnym działaniem". Lekarstwem jest zrozumienie przyczyny cierpienia i poznanie Tego co cierpienie poprzedza.
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.
[Contains Czech 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.]
Video excerpt from an early discourse by Adi Da Samraj on July 29, 1973.
Adi Da would later make a similar communication in a very memorable way in “The Divine Avataric Self-Disclosure” (in The Aletheon):
ADI DA: The conditionally Apparent “world”-Process Of “Everything Changing” Is Simply The Natural “Play” Of Cosmic Life, In Which the (Always) two sides of every possibility come and go, In Cycles Of appearance and disappearance. Winter’s cold alternates with summer’s heat. Pain, Likewise, Follows every pleasure. Every appearance Is (Inevitably) Followed By its disappearance. There Is No Permanent “experience” In The Realm Of Cosmic Nature. One whose Whole bodily Devotion To Me Is Constant Simply Allows All Of This To Be So. Therefore, one who Truly Listens To Me and “Knows” Me Spontaneously Ceases To Add “self”-Contraction (and, Thus, “conditional-experience-causing” energy and intention) To This Relentless Round Of Natural and Futile Changes. . . Intrinsically egoless Self-Realization Of Me Is Possible Only When a living being (or body-mind-“self”) Has Whole bodily Ceased To React To The Always Changing Imposition Of Cosmic Nature. . . Those who Perfectly “Know” Me Tacitly Understand That whatever Is Not Always Already (or Eternally) Self-Existing and Self-Radiant Only Changes. . . Those who Perfectly “Know” Me Acknowledge (Tacitly, and With every Whole bodily act) That What Is Always Already The (One and Only) Case Never Changes. Such True Devotees Of Mine (who Perfectly “Know” Me) Perfectly Realize That The Entire Cosmic Realm Of Change—and Even the To-Me-Surrendered Whole body (itself)—Is Entirely Pervaded By Me (Always Self-Revealed As That Which Is Always Already The Case).
[Contains Polish 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.]
In this discourse excerpt, Adi Da addresses the fact that the assumption of a separate self or being, is not really the case. It is, in fact, an illusion — a "lie" that rules our entire life. But based on this assumption, we assume all kinds of limitations, and struggle to get out of our suffering through the very means (our assumption that we are separate) which binds us in the first place. All that does is reinforce the illusion.
From a 2004 Avataric Discourse. Avatar Adi Da communicates both verbally and through bodily gestures that the assumption of a separate self or ego self is an illusion and not the truth of Reality itself.
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