poster: CDBaby length: 12:21 date added: February 17, 2016 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English views: 6472; views this month: 76; views this week: 35 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.tags: CD
poster: sacredwalk-about speaker: Ruchiradama Nadikanta length: 13:37 date added: January 3, 2013 language: English listens: 6427; listens this month: 51; listens this week: 27 Ruchiradama Nadikanta has created a series of seven recitations from Adi Da's book, Not-Two Is Peace, accompanied by the bansuri flute music of John Wubbenhorst.
Ruchiradama Nadikanta is offering these recitations as a New Year's gift to everyone. Feel free to share these recitations. For more recitations from Not-Two Is Peace, click here.
INVOCATION offered by Ruchiradama Nadikanta
Dearly Beloved Bhagavan, Adi Da Samraj, we surrender at Your Blessed Feet in deepest devotion to You, the Divine Avatar of Conscious Light.
We pray to fulfill Your Urgent Calling to fully serve the establishment of Your Divine Avataric Work in this world, so that all may feel Your Touch of Divine Love and receive Your Perfect Wisdom and Divine Grace
May we collectively incarnate (and, thereby, inspire all to heed) Your Great Admonition, Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace.
May we embrace all beings everywhere, always making available to everyone the Gift of Divine Compassion and all-Embracing Love You have Brought to here.
poster: TheBeezone length: 02:08 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6357; views this month: 60; views this week: 32 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.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
poster: TheBeezone length: 04:06 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6356; views this month: 59; views this week: 26 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.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
poster: TheBeezone length: 01:52 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6287; views this month: 55; views this week: 23 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.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
poster: TheBeezone length: 02:47 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6277; views this month: 50; views this week: 27 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.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
Divine Distraction with James Steinberg poster: AdiDaUpClose speaker: James Steinberg length: 50:54 date added: February 1, 2016 language: English listens: 6273; listens this month: 62; listens this week: 31 James Steinberg is interviewed on the podcast, Vajra Body Vajra Mind. Vajra Body Vajra Mind is a provocative podcast that explores the outer limits of spiritual practice and human development. James Steinberg is a longtime devotee of Adi Da, and the author of Divine Distraction and Love of the God-Man.
In this episode of Vajra Body Vajra Mind, we discuss James' life with Adi Da. We talk about the practice of Guru Yoga, challenges in reading Adi Da's Teaching, anti-Guru sentiment in contemporary culture, sexuality in spirituality, the importance of discipline in the Way of Adidam, the unique Transmission of Adi Da's Revelation and Presence (through photographs, videos, Image-Art, etc), resistance to the Guru by the ego, positive disillusionment (aka "the Lesson of Life"), and more.
poster: MysticalPositivist speakers: Stuart Goodnick, Robert Schmidt, Leroy Stilwell length: 50:06 date added: June 21, 2014 event date: June 14, 2014 language: English listens: 6268; listens this month: 44; listens this week: 25 The Mystical Positivist is a weekly, two-hour radio show on KOWS 107.3 FM, Occidental, CA. The program is dedicated to the application of reason in the pursuit of spiritual practice and development. The show is hosted by Stuart Resnick and Dr. Robert Schmidt. Stuart has been a Tayu Meditation Teacher since 1993. He received apprentice and master-level training in the alchemical transformation of human consciousness from Tayu Meditation Center. Dr. Robert Schmidt is the director of the Tayu Meditation Center, and a co-founder of the Many Rivers Bookstore in Sebastopol, California. He is also currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Archaeological Research Facility at U.C. Berkeley.
This audio clip is part 2 of The Mystical Positivist's interview with devotee, Leroy Stilwell. Leroy has been a formal devotee of Adi Da since 1977. Since 1986, he regularly lived in Hermitage on Naitauba, Fiji, for extended periods during which he participated in cycles of consideration with Adi Da, and served as editor, photographer, videographer, communications manager, ashram manager, and personal assistant to the Ruchira Sannyasin Order. He is the author of Love’s Sacrifice: Witnessing the Self-Revelation of the Divine Person - 30 Years with my Spiritual Master, Adi Da (2014) and For Those Who Call For Light - Learning How to Think about Religion (2013). Leroy is also a co-founder and managing editor of the Adi Da Up Close site.
Beyond Sex, Science, and self poster: DawnHorsePress length: 10:00 date added: July 27, 2011 event date: January 21, 2005 language: English views: 6234; views this month: 52; views this week: 25 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: AdidamPodcasts length: 12:45 date added: March 17, 2012 event date: 1978 language: English listens: 6225; listens this month: 41; listens this week: 24 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.tags: Radical Truth Audio Seriescultscultism
poster: TheBeezone length: 12:06 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6204; views this month: 60; views this week: 28 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.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
poster: TheBeezone length: 02:17 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6187; views this month: 51; views this week: 26 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.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
Remember The Mystery poster: sourcetemplebrazil length: 04:35 date added: August 8, 2015 language: Portuguese views: 6154; views this month: 54; views this week: 24 [Contains Portuguese subtitles.]
This video is an excerpt from Second Evening: Track 6 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
poster: Tastingthemoon length: 05:09 date added: February 12, 2012 language: English views: 6146; views this month: 48; views this week: 32 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.
Orpheus in the Modern World poster: CoaguLAradio length: 60:00 date added: July 4, 2012 event date: October 5, 2011 language: English listens: 6122; listens this month: 54; listens this week: 25 Art Panel: Orpheus in the Modern World (October 5, 2011) — The later work and aesthetic philosophy of Adi Da Samraj was the subject of discussion between Los Angeles art writers and those close with the late artist and spiritual teacher. (This is a recording of first hour of the hour and 15 minutes panel.)
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