[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 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.]
Adidam, droga serca, ezoteryka, praktyka duchowa, Bóg, Mistrz duchowy, guru, medytacje, koan, metafizyka, maindfulness.
In this excerpt, "Prawdziwe poddanie się to koan" ("Surrender of self Is A Koan"), Avatar Adi Da speaks directly and humorously to a beginner who assumes her lack of devotional self-surrender is a "problem", rather than a process. He contrasts the beginner's necessarily muscular, “tear your guts out”, tapas-filled practice of relatively superficial surrender (counter-egoically cutting into lifetimes of self-possession) with the mature devotee's spontaneous, profound, and complete surrender. A central principle of the process is “just do it” persistence.
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 03:31 date added: December 11, 2014 event date: May 17, 1977 language: English listens: 5326; listens this month: 29; listens this week: 11
An audio excerpt from Adi Da's talk, "I Will Do Everything". This talk, and the talk, "Guru, Faith, and Divine Communion", are now available on a CD from the Dawn Horse Press.
In this excerpt, Adi Da describes the structure of egoic patterning, and how the principle of change is non-use of past patterns (rather than psychoanalysis, etc.) by doing what is inherently right instead.
In these two talks (“I Will Do Everything” and “Guru, Faith, and Satsang”), Adi Da beautifully illuminates the nature of the relationship to the Spiritual Master. This sacred relationship to the Guru is the direct means by which the Divine Principle becomes operative in one's life.
As feeling-attention is magnified toward the Spiritual Master —through the force of attraction, of love, of devotion — the reactive forces and habits that drive one's egoic life begin to lose their force, and the Divine becomes the Mover and Principle of one's life.
Adi Da describes how, through the Grace of His Company, the devotee becomes increasingly aware of suffering and its nature. Increasingly, Grace reveals that suffering is the result of the devotee's own activity.
Consequently, the Way of Adidam [called "The Way of Divine Communion" in this 1976 talk] involves a life of counter-egoic activity, that focuses on devotion to the Divine Presence of the Guru, rather than working on one's tendencies. Over time, the act of devotional surrender to the Divine (and the Happiness associated with that surrender) replaces the act of self-possession (and the suffering associated with that self-possession).
The Grace of Suffering poster: DawnHorsePress length: 03:48 date added: November 26, 2015 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English listens: 2755; listens this month: 21; listens this week: 8
This clip is an excerpt from Adi Da's talk, "The Grace of Suffering", which was given on January 18, 1976. In this talk, Adi Da describes how sensitivity to one's own suffering is the beginning of real ego-transcending practice. Such sensitivity moves an individual out of the usual life of effort and search, into inspection of the nature of existence and availability to Him as Divine Guru. Adi Da reveals the real nature of suffering—the action of ego—and draws the individual beyond egoic suffering into the True Source-Condition.
Additional (videoed) excerpts from this talk are available here and here.
Avatar Adi Da responding to questions from devotee Andrew Johnson in 1975. Adi Da humorously criticizes the abstract, intellectual questions Andrew is bringing to Him, that have nothing to do with Andrew. The kind of question from a devotee that would touch Adi Da's heart and draw out His response is one based on the devotee's deep need: he or she is at the edge of their practice, and is stuck, not knowing how to continuing growing, and in great need of the Guru's guidance.
poster: CDBaby length: 02:29 date added: October 27, 2018 event date: January 3, 1974 language: English views: 1655; views this month: 25; views this week: 9
"Take This Body as Prasad" is an excerpt from Adi Da's talk, "Guru Enters Devotee", from January 3, 1974.
This excerpt is disc one, track 2 of the double-CD, After My Lifetime, an exceptional collection of Adi Da’s Instruction covering the significance of His Divine Mahasamadhi (the passing of His physical Body), the ever-present Gift of the direct relationship to Him, and the never-ending Nature of His Work to Bless and Awaken all beings.
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.
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 04:34 date added: June 23, 2012 event date: January 18, 1973 language: English listens: 5729; listens this month: 40; listens this week: 20
An excerpt from "Money, Food, and Sex", a humorous and penetrating Discourse from the very earliest years of Avatar Adi Da’s Teaching-Work. Adi Da criticizes the typical conception of Spirituality as having nothing to do with the realities of day-to-day life and says that taking responsibility for money, food, and sex creates the foundation practice of genuine spiritual practice.
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 05:03 date added: June 23, 2012 event date: December 23, 1973 language: English listens: 5073; listens this month: 31; listens this week: 18
An excerpt from "Guru As Prophet", a humorous and penetrating Discourse from the very earliest years of Avatar Adi Da’s Teaching-Work. Adi Da speaks of the Guru's role as prophet in the world, which is to create "an aggravation, a criticism, an undermining of the usual life". He speaks of how the Guru in the function of prophet is always working to produce a condition in which people's illusions may be undone.
Guru as Prophet poster: AdidamRevelationMagazine length: 05:10 date added: October 22, 2013 event date: December 23, 1973 language: English listens: 4210; listens this month: 25; listens this week: 20
Excerpt from Adi Da's talk, Guru As Prophet - available on a double CD from the Dawn Horse Press. This talk is also published in the book, My "Bright" Word. A course, My "Bright" Word, is also available from The Laughing Man Institute.
In this talk Adi Da distinguishes between the Spiritual (Transmission) Function of the True Guru and the public function of Guru as "prophet" (or critic).
For another excerpt from the same talk, click here.
See also the Adidam Revelation Magazine article, Guru as Prophet.
The Guru Is Sufficient poster: AdiDaVideos length: 12:41 date added: December 20, 2014 event date: July 15, 1973 language: English views: 4094; views this month: 31; views this week: 13
In this rare historical footage from 1973, Adi Da speaks about the relationship with the Guru in Satsang (the Company of the Awakened One) as the Way of Truth, and Reality Itself.
Adi Da: "During My 'Sadhana Years', whenever My Guru asked Me to do something, I would do that. The rest of the time, I would sit there and be absorbed in Him. And there was nothing else I could do. The Guru is sufficient — and the devotee of the Guru is one who knows that."
The occasion of the talk was a Prasad Day on July 15, 1973. This talk, originally recorded on reel-to-reel film, was given by Adi Da in Los Angeles, California — beginning at the Ashram center on Melrose Avenue and then moving to the backyard of a devotee’s house — only a year after His formal Teaching-Work began.
There Is No Self Within poster: AdiDaVideos length: 07:20 date added: May 29, 2015 event date: July 15, 1973 language: English views: 3385; views this month: 19; views this week: 12
An archival talk from July 15, 1973. One of the earliest video recordings of Avatar Adi Da speaking. Here He talks about the Free State of the fully Realized being, which is neither inward nor outward.
Adi Da: "God is neither within nor without. This is the principle of Satsang [the relationship with the Guru]: the Divine already present, the Divine lived with, the Divine as your Condition."
Conversion To The Guru poster: DawnHorsePress length: 05:45 date added: November 7, 2016 event date: June 28, 1973 language: English listens: 3344; listens this month: 30; listens this week: 16
On this CD, Avatar Adi Da Samraj masterfully explores the relationship between experience, understanding, and Truth: Experience cannot ever lead to Truth -- but, in the context of the devotional relationship to Avatar Adi Da, experience can serve the crisis of understanding that makes a person available to His Transmission of Truth.
The CD includes Avatar Adi Da's lively recountings of two genuine conversion stories -- one from a modern Christian minister and the other His amusing free-rendering of the story of Ribhu and his disciple Nidhaga (from the Ribhu Gita, an epitome of traditional Non-dualist teachings).
[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.]
Jedno z najwcześniejszych nagrań video z Awatarem Adi Da. Tutaj mówi o Wolnym stanie w pełni Urzeczywistnionej Istoty, który, jak wyjaśnia, nie jest ani w nas, ani poza nami.
"Bóg nie jest w nas, ani poza nami" ("God is neither within nor without") is an archival talk from July 15, 1973. One of the earliest video recordings of Avatar Adi Da speaking. Here He talks about the Free State of the fully Realized being, which is neither inward nor outward.
Adi Da: "God is neither within nor without. This is the principle of Satsang [the relationship with the Guru]: the Divine already present, the Divine lived with, the Divine as your Condition."
By tendency, people are bound to the natural cycle of ups and downs. Neither bodily pleasures nor spiritual pursuits result in True Freedom from this constant phasing. One path merely accentuates the descending (or bodily) experiences and the other, the ascending (or subtle) experiences.
In this Discourse, Avatar Adi Da reveals with absolute clarity how the relationship with the Guru gives freedom from this trap—because the Guru is the Manifestation of the Condition that is Prior to this mechanical cycling, not part of it.
Watching this DVD will transport viewers to a special moment in Adidam history. July 29, 1973, was the day Avatar Adi Da left Los Angeles for a Yajna (sacred journey) through India and Nepal. He returned as “Bubba Free John”, His first spontaneously revealed Teaching-Name. Thus, this was the last Discourse He gave as “Franklin Jones” (Avatar Adi Da’s birth name).
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