Escape From the Fear poster: TheBeezone length: 00:37 date added: October 14, 2012 language: English listens: 1870; listens this month: 4; listens this week: 1
Adi Da on the fear and self-contraction that underlies every moment of egoic life.
Ego as Process poster: TheBeezone length: 00:35 date added: October 6, 2012 event date: 1972 language: English views: 2518; views this month: 8; views this week: 5
Adi Da describes the ego as a process or action, and our suffering as the result of that action ("pinching oneself"). Therefore, merely analyzing the "I" thought (for example) is not sufficient for self-transcendence. Transcendence of the act that is ego is a matter of counter-egoic behavior.
Adi Da Samraj talks about combining oneself with His Argument to the point where one loses sympathy with the painful self-contraction, and one can see that it is one's own activity, and completely unnecessary. Transcendence of the self-contraction allows one to Realize the Native State of Prior Happiness.
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poster: SusanaWeingarten length: 10:54 date added: July 1, 2012 language: English views: 3878; views this month: 6; views this week: 1
"Ego Act" is a dance based on Adi Da's wisdom about the nature of egoity, or, Adi Da describes it, "the fundamental activity of self-contraction, or the presumption of separate and separative existence".
Choreographer/Dancer: Tom Evert Music: George Crumb (as interpreted by The Kronos Quartet) Costume Design: Raymond Zander III Props: Tom Evert "Midnight Sun" Set Design: Molly Watson
Radical Understanding poster: frank marrero length: 09:48 date added: June 10, 2012 language: English views: 1869; views this month: 3; views this week: 1
Excerpts from discourses throughout Adi Da's lifetime in which He explains the term "self-contraction" and the necessity of coming to a full and radical understanding of the action of this mechanism in order to begin true spiritual practice in His Company.
Adi Da talks about how the self-contraction creates the sense of a separate narcissistic 'me' over against everything else; and how this relates to sadhana (ego-transcending practice) in the Way of Adidam.
The Law of Love-Bliss poster: DawnHorsePress length: 06:42 date added: November 7, 2010 language: English listens: 3709; listens this month: 2; listens this week: 0
Avatar Adi Da’s first Talk in this set examines the difference between the peripheral reactions of the seeking body-mind and the core understanding of the motivating sensation of the self-contraction itself.
The second Talk is an exposition of the fundamental principle of non-seeking in the Way of Adidam and the “darkness” of the materialistic point of view.
The Divine Is Not the Cause poster: DawnHorsePress length: 10:52 date added: June 13, 2010 event date: October 20, 2004 language: English views: 5352; views this month: 17; views this week: 12
This excerpt is from the Adidam Revelation Discourse of October 20, 2004. In response to a series of questions about self-awareness, the nature of the “ego”, and how the self-contraction is caused, Avatar Adi Da speaks of the self-confinement of human beings (in contrast to non-humans as natural contemplatives), the effort to trace any experience or thought to its Source, and the Divine Reality as the True Condition of all things (not the “cause” of any thing). This Discourse concludes with Avatar Adi Da's confession of the direct and tacit “Point of View” of Divine Realization — the universe as Unconditional Light.
This 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.
A version of this excerpt with German subtitles can be watched here.
The Sunshine Makers poster: frizz lefryd length: 07:43 date added: May 8, 2010 language: English views: 10756; views this month: 55; views this week: 15
One of Adi Da's favorite cartoons, "The Sunshine Makers" is a classic from the golden age of animation. Released on January 11, 1935 (an auspicious day of the year, in the sacred calendar of Adidam), the cartoon was directed by Ted Eshbaugh, the first artist/technician to figure out how to create animated cartoons in color. This restored print is the highest quality available, and is from the DVD, Toddle Tales & Rainbow Parade Cartoons.
"The Sunshine Makers" is the third cartoon in the "Rainbow Parade Series", which was produced by Van Beuren Studios to compete with Walt Disney's "Silly Symphonies". The series consisted of 27 full color, animated shorts, and was distributed to theaters by RKO between 1934 and 1936. (You can watch more of these here.)
"The Sunshine Makers" later became a regular on 1950's television, after the sale of RKO's film library. In his book, Of Mice and Magic, well-known film critic Leonard Maltin writes that his childhood (in the 1950's) included "countless viewings" of the cartoon.
"The Sunshine Makers" is also one of Adi Da's favorite cartoons, because of its depiction of Light and Happiness (magnified and spread by the "Sunshine gnomes" in the cartoon) dissolving and outshining the force of egoity (the "gloomies").
In his article, "The Sunshine Makers cartoon from 1935", James Steinberg writes, "Bhagavan Adi Da loved that cartoon! He thought that it showed the simplicity of the argument of the open hand and the closed fist, or that our un-happiness is just something that we presume. Just like He used to tell us when we came to the Mountain of Attention, or came to see Him altogether, that we could 'leave it at the gate'. There is no reason to presume the dilemma in the face of the Divine (or truly altogether). We used to watch 'The Sunshine Makers' cartoon with Him when we had to watch it on a 16mm projector. I saw it multiple times with Bhagavan and He would laugh heartily as it was shown and watch our faces to see our reactions beaming with Happiness. He always used to tell us that we could just 'drop it in the moment' (our self-contraction) and that it was 'just an act'."
Further notes on the cartoon:
* It's a musical! Almost all speech is set to music.
* At 0:43: The "Sunshine gnomes" start their morning with a conscious exercise routine that begins with bowing down to the Transcendental Sun (the source of their sunshine): "Hail, His Majesty, the Sun!"
* At 7:00: When the "gloomies" refuse to "take their medicine", the gnomes force "sunshine" down their throats. In the words of the great Spiritual Master, Sri Ramakrishna: "There are three classes of physicians: superior, mediocre, and inferior. The physician who feels the patient's pulse and just says to him, 'Take the medicine regularly' belongs to the inferior class. He doesn't care to inquire whether or not the patient has actually taken the medicine. The mediocre physician is he who in various ways persuades the patient to take the medicine, and says to him sweetly: 'My good man, how will you be cured unless you use the medicine? Take this medicine. I have made it for you myself.' But he who, finding the patient stubbornly refusing to take the medicine, forces it down his throat, going so far as to put his knee on the patient's chest is the best physician. This is the manifestation of the tamas of the physician. It doesn't injure the patient; on the contrary, it does him good."
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