Notes on the Adidam Mission poster: TheBeezone length: 07:55 date added: September 18, 2012 event date: 2004 language: English views: 3723; views this month: 6; views this week: 4
In 2004, Adi Da Samraj talks to devotee Peter Harvey-Wright about using the Devotional Prayer of Changes to serve the Adidam Mission. He distinguishes conventional "neurotic prayer" (in which a person relates to God like a big "Parent") from the Prayer of Changes, which requires not just visualization but a change in action. As part of that change in action, He mentions the "barefoot Mission" (a phrase meant to emphasize the one-on-one nature of a truly effective Mission). He also stresses the importance of an authentic culture of Adidam as essential for attracting new devotees.
poster: AdidamPodcasts length: 12:45 date added: March 17, 2012 event date: 1978 language: English listens: 6194; listens this month: 14; listens this week: 8
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.
[Contains Finnish 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.]
"Onko Muurahaisella Egoa?" ("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?
[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.]
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.
Adi Da reminds us that, historically, all the world's spiritual traditions have taught that Spiritual Realization requires the help of a Spiritual Realizer. This is actually built into the laws of how Spiritual Realization works, and can't be changed just because times and cultures change, just because we don't happen to like the way the laws work or what they require of us, etc. For this reason, Adi Da makes the point that, nowadays, our resistence to authority, and addiction to "do it yourself" approaches, represent unfortunate hindrances to our own Spiritual growth: if we simply go with the flow and let these culturally instilled programs dominate our life choices, they will keep us from Realizing our greatest destiny.
Purnima poster: NAADA OM length: 06:13 date added: November 6, 2018 event date: 2017 language: English views: 2569; views this month: 25; views this week: 17
NAADA OM is a World Music collaboration between composer, singer, and harmonium player, Felix Woldenberg, and percussionist and arranger, Alan Corne. In 2017, Felix and Alan made two trips to the beautiful island of Naitauba in Fiji to offer Sacred music for a variety of celebrations: Da Purnima, Naitauba Padavara and Da Jayanthi.
This is an excerpt from the Purnima album, which can be purchased through NAADA OM's online store.
[Ths video is currently not playable on the Adi Da Up Close site. Click this link to watch it on YouTube.]
As sacred musicians and devotees of Adi Da, Felix Woldenberg and Alan Corne have been involved in providing music as part of the devotional culture at Adi Da Samrajashram for two decades. They were involved in many sacred musical occasions offered in honour of, and gratitude to Bhagavan Adi Da Samraj during his lifetime at celebrations held between 2003 and 2006.
Bhagavan Adi Da Samraj instructed Felix and Alan in different ways and settings about the devotional relationship to the spiritual master, as well as the function and purpose sacred music and chant serves in the context of that relationship and in the sacred culture of practitioners who respond to the master.
Though Felix and Alan have undergone all sorts of musical training both in the East and West, the instruction they received in Bhagavan Adi Da's company is directly responsible for the devotional musical aesthetic which the NAADA OM collaboration encompasses.
NAADA OM's music can be divided into three categories: 'Devotional Songs or Bhajans'—based on traditional call-and-response chanting; 'Mantric Chants'—generally slow chants sung in unison utilizing mantras; and 'Sacred Offerings'—musical works encompassing elements of Western classical harmony, Bhajans, and Indian Dhrupad, Hindustani, and Qawwali classical traditions -- in which the audience participates only as listeners.
Traditionally, Bhajans and Kirtan tend toward stimulating the participant emotionally and physically, in contrast NAADA OM's orientation aims to move the participant to a depth of feeling in a space of stillness where the body-mind is brought to equanimity rather than being stimulated, thereby supporting the participant in a greater awareness of, and heart response to the Source-condition of his or her own being.
To continue the yearly service to the devotional culture of Adi Da Samrajashram, NAADA OM is releasing four albums made up of recordings from live performances that occurred during the 2017 celebrations.
All proceeds from the sale of these albums will go to support NAADA OM's return to Naitauba on a yearly basis, and thereby the creation of new musical offerings and future album releases.
[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.]
Adi Da critique le sectarisme religieux. Ce discours, donné en 1978, est une de ses allocutions récapitulatives sur le sujet.
Adi Da criticized religious cultism, long before the subject gained any popular attention. (For an audio clip of His earliest criticisms — in June, 1972 — click here.) This discourse, "Qu'est-ce que le Sectarisme?" ("What Is Cultism?"), given in 1978 at The Mountain Of Attention, is one of His summary addresses on the subject. Adi Da observes that the primary characteristic of a cult member is shared enthusiasm (like enjoying the energy of the crowd at a football game). For example, in "the cult of the Spiritual Master", everybody is enjoying the enthusiasm (their own and each other's) associated with having "found" the great Master; but no one is actually engaged in significant deepening of the devotional and spiritual relationship with the Master, and practicing on that basis — hence no Spiritual growth or Realization occurs.
Adi Da: "My purpose in My Teaching is to make it possible for you to duplicate what I have done — not to be eternally separated from Me, but to be in Communion with Me — to be intimate with Me in Spiritual terms, so that you, yourself, may live this practice, and fulfill it in your own case."
[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.]
"Questo Posto Non E' Utopia" ("This Place Is Not a Utopia") is an excerpt from an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da Samraj on October 6, 2005, at the Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary.
ADI DA: "I find people's sorrows and losses to be heartbreaking and terrible and an immense burden and I am sympathetic and bless people in their trouble. However you must understand that is the nature of this place. This is not utopia, it is not paradise. It is a place of death, endings, suffering, brief amusements. It is not enough and merely to react to your difficulties for overlong and try to make an entire life out of it is fruitless. You do have to move on beyond that reaction to any moments suffering and loss. You must know the place you’re in and live in accordance with that knowledge instead of being sympathetic with some false view of the world or self or trying to idealize some aspect of potential experience, indulging in what amounts to addictions, repetitions of experiences, in order to avoid the knowledge of what is inherent in life, as well as all the hell that is coming on earth and is here. You will not be fulfilled.”
poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity speaker: Rachel Kuhn length: 16:07 date added: April 15, 2017 event date: February 11, 2015 language: English views: 3109; views this month: 20; views this week: 6
An excerpt from the February 11, 2015 Adidam Webinar, "Death Is A Living Process". In this clip, Rachel Kuhn talks about serving her mother's death, after her mother had suffered with multiple sclerosis for many years. She tells a story of how love overwhelmed the fear of death and the trauma of living a difficult life.
In this excerpt from an Avataric Discourse given at The Mountain Of Attention in early 2006, Adi Da responds to a devotee's question about the difference between sixth stage and seventh stage non-dual Realization. He also distinguishes between the "imperfect" sixth stage practices in the Great Tradition, that involve the body-mind in a conditional activity of turning the faculties to Consciousness Itself; and the Perfect Practice of the Way of Adidam, which does not involve the body-mind at all, but involves a Self-Abiding in Consciousness Itself that is an Acausal Gift of the Divine.
Dr. Cristina Acidini (the Superintendent of the Authority for Cultural Heritage and State Museums in Florence, Italy) speaks about the exhibition of Adi Da Samraj's image-art at the Cenacolo di Ognissanti, February 2008.
In this excerpt from an Avataric Discourse from October 19, 2004, on Adi Da Samrajashram, Adi Da talks about the Great Tradition. He describes The Basket of Tolerance as a tool for transcending religious provincialism and the limits of one's cultural upbringing. Through use of such a tool, one is relieved of one's "belief systems", but is also made increasingly aware of the Reality-based Way that truly liberates.
The complete Avataric Discourse is available on the DVD, Human History Is One Great Tradition. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew. Also available on CD.
The Bodily Location of Happiness poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:12 date added: May 4, 2016 event date: November 28, 1981 language: English views: 7787; views this month: 30; views this week: 17
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!"
poster: CDBaby length: 10:08 date added: December 22, 2018 event date: November 28, 1981 language: English views: 3542; views this month: 48; views this week: 30
This is a video excerpt from Adi Da's classic talk, "The Bodily Location of Happiness", which He gave on November 28, 1981.
This excerpt is track 2 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.
Note: Due to distribution policies set by CDBaby (and beyond the control of this website and Adidam), this video may not be playable in every country. However, sometimes, even when you can't play it on this page, you may be able to play it on YouTube: click here.
The talk, "The Bodily Location of Happiness", 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!"
Video excerpt from an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da Samraj at Adi Da Samrajashram, on October 20, 2004. In this excerpt, Avatar Adi Da speaks about the Big Bang theory in the context of the ego's logic of cause-and-effect.
In this Discourse, Avatar Adi Da points out that the logic of cause-and-effect is operative not only in the conventional religious presumption that the Divine is the Cause of the world, but also in all human historical traditions—from the most ancient astrologically based cultures, to various Western philosophies, to the esoteric traditions that posit a subjective source for phenomena.
The Truth of the matter, Avatar Adi Da Reveals, is this: Everything and everyone that arises is merely an apparent modification of Reality Itself. Reality Itself is always Prior to the universe of conditional beings and things. And, ultimately, the process of Realizing Reality Itself utterly Outshines both the question of cause and the noticing of effects.
This is a video excerpt from Adi Da's Avataric Discourse of October 20, 2004, at Adi Da Samrajashram. In this excerpt, Adi Da speaks about the Big Bang theory in the context of the ego’s logic of cause-and-effect, and how egos tend to mistakenly confuse "first cause" with God or Reality.
The full talk is available on the DVD, The Ego's Logic of Cause-and-Effect (nearly four hours long). In this talk, Adi Da points out how the logic of cause-and-effect is operative not only in the conventional religious presumption that the Divine is the Cause of the world, but also in all human historical traditions—from the most ancient astrologically based cultures, to various Western philosophies, to the esoteric traditions that posit a subjective source for phenomena.
The Truth of the matter, Avatar Adi Da Reveals, is this: Everything and everyone that arises is merely an apparent modification of Reality Itself. Reality Itself is always Prior to the universe of conditional beings and things. And, ultimately, the process of Realizing Reality Itself utterly Outshines both the question of cause and the noticing of effects.
Our multimedia library currently contains 1206
YouTube video clips and audio clips about (or related to) Adi Da and Adidam.[1]
Enjoy! indicates
a video, and
an audio. Special categories of interest include:
Thanks to the many videographers who took the footage, to the many editors who
created these videos and audios, and to the 132
people and organizations who posted these videos and audios on YouTube and other places on the
Web. Special thanks to Lynne
Thompson, who did a lot of the data entry for our audio/video database.
