poster: DawnHorsePress length: 05:03 date added: June 23, 2012 event date: December 23, 1973 language: English
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.
A talk by Avatar Adi Da titled "Guru as Prophet", given on December 23, 1973. The full talk is available on the double CD, Money, Food, and Sex / Guru as Prophet. A written version of this talk is available in the book, My "Bright" Word.
In this talk, Adi Da distinguishes between the Spiritual function and the "prophet" function of the True Guru. As prophet, the Guru offends, criticizes, and undermines the usual ego-based life by confounding the search and the need for consolation and fascination. This process works to bring about a crisis of understanding in anyone not yet involved in the real Spiritual process.
Adi Da explains that teachings about ordinary life or even about Spiritual life tend to console the seeker in some way, exploiting the search for self-fulfillment. But contact with the True Guru frustrates the seeker instead, and draws the individual into the feeling of dilemma that is at the root of his or her search. This serves the crisis that must precede the real Spiritual process whereby the True Guru's Spiritual Function may be discovered.
Later in the Discourse, Avatar Adi Da returns to the primary theme of the Guru-devotee relationship. When the ego-frustrating process is engaged as Satsang, or relationship to the Guru, then present Realization of the Divine can be Awakened by Grace, and the real Spiritual process can begin.
ADI DA: To the extent that I appear in public at all—for example, by writing books, or even simply by the existence of the gathering of My devotees in this world—My visible Role can only be that of Prophet. I do not serve people's random needs to be fulfilled, to be consoled, to be fascinated. Every individual who is moved to Realize Real God, Truth, and Reality in My Avataric Divine Company must approach Me as My formally practicing devotee—and, in every such case, the usual egoic process will (and must) be Offended, Criticized, and Undermined by Me.
As the Avataric Incarnation of the Very Divine Person, I must be Paradoxical, I must be Free—in order to Serve the Divine Liberation of My devotees. The qualities of My Avataric Divine Activity cannot be predetermined. I do not consistently assume the qualities of any particular archetype—the holy man, the Yogi, the Sage. I must be Free to Appear as I will. I am always Acting to Undo the egoic life of My devotees—even if only by Merely Being Who I Am.
The Sunshine Makers poster: frizz lefryd length: 07:43 date added: May 8, 2010 language: English views: 10797; views this month: 70; views this week: 34
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."
A Shuffle of Shapes poster: AdiDaUpClose length: 10:49 date added: June 5, 2010 language: English views: 2388; views this month: 8; views this week: 4
Adi Da: "It's amazing how controlled people are, in their whole pattern of feeling and living, by patterns that have affected their emotional-sexual impulses, activities, thoughts, concerns. The process of people's experience of life is so arbitrary in many respects. . . . It's just a shuffle of shapes!"
poster: Tastingthemoon speaker: Meg Fortune McDonnell length: 07:35 date added: April 7, 2012 language: English
Devotee Meg Fortune McDonnell reads from her book, Tasting the Moon: Adventures in the Meaning of Life. This story is excerpted from the chapter titled "On the Road," which goes on to describe the ferment of the sexual revolution, beat poetry, living theater, and alternative lifestyles of the early 1970's.
Dr. Sally Taylor serves the Adidam culture by helping devotees with their practice of the Way of Adidam.
In this video, she talks about her voluntary participation in Adi Da's considerations about the emotional-sexual dimension of life. She describes the instructions she received, and the profound benefit she has derived by being "grown up" beyond childish patterns of self-suppression, shutting down of the life force, promiscuity, and limitations on love.
For more about Adi Da's wisdom on the emotional-sexual dimension of life, visit our Crazy Wisdom section.
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.
Club Rat poster: AdiDaUpClose speaker: Chris Tong length: 01:04 date added: July 6, 2021 language: English
On July 7, 1992 (Fiji time), at Adi Da Samrajashram, Adi Da created "Club Rat", a most unusual gathering during the height of a Celebratory period. For those unfamiliar with Club Rat, you can read Chris Tong's story about it here.
Music plays a central role in the story. For this reason, in celebration of the 29th anniversary of Club Rat (on July 7, 2021), Chris has recreated part of the rock song he wrote and performed that evening, Club Rat, so you can at least get a taste of the actual music from that night. (Adi Da had called for an evening of rock music. Club Rat was the opening song of a night of music that would go on to include much more than rock music. . .)
If for some reason, the player above doesn't work, try this player:
Club Rat. Club Rat. The funky place where God is at. Club Rat. Club Rat. The funky place where. . . only skanks and whores walk through its doors. There you find Your Self and lose yourself. When the Lord's in town Everyone gets down. Club Rat. Club Rat. The funky place where God is at. (etc.)
CHRIS: This recreation is just as we presented it to Beloved Adi Da during the Club Rat gathering, except for some improvements due to better musical equipment and technology (e.g., drum machines instead of upside-down, plastic "piss buckets" 😜 — read the full story for more about that! ).
I wrote Club Rat, keeping in mind the intensity and "badness" of the pop rock music Beloved Adi Da was listening to at the time (like Michael Jackson's Beat It).
The lyrics are drawn from Adi Da's instructions to us about Club Rat, such as: Club Rat was to be the most "funky" place ever; participating devotees had to be "skanks and whores" — in other words, no suppressed energy or emotional-sexual complication (so He could work with our entire energy, not just the superficial part we usually show to or share with others socially); etc.
The lyrics also drew on current, ongoing considerations Adi Da was having with devotees at the time, such as His Calling to us to "get down" (He was riffing on the popular 1970's slang phrase, giving it His Own unique meaning): a reminder for us to incarnate whole bodily (rather than being merely a "point" in the head, refusing to "get down" below the head).
The line, "When the Lord's in town" was a reference to Beloved Adi Da visiting the "village" of Qaravi: the area of the island of Naitauba where His devotees lived and where "Club Rat" (Hymns To Me) was located.
[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.]
"Kluczen do naszej seksualności są emocje" ("The Key to Our Sexuality Is Emotion") is an excerpt from a longer Discourse in which Adi Da communicates how all our problems (including sexual problems) are rooted in the feeling of being a separate self, which coincides with the feeling, "you don't love me", the feeling of rejection by (or lack of sustenance from) the universe, and leads to the reaction, "I don't love you".
[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.]
"Tunne on seksuaalisuuden avain" ("The Key to Our Sexuality Is Emotion") is an excerpt from a longer Discourse in which Adi Da communicates how all our problems (including sexual problems) are rooted in the feeling of being a separate self, which coincides with the feeling, "you don't love me", the feeling of rejection by (or lack of sustenance from) the universe, and leads to the reaction, "I don't love you".
[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.]
"La Chiave della Nostra Sessualita È I'Emozione" ("The Key to Our Sexuality Is Emotion") is an excerpt from a longer Discourse in which Adi Da communicates how all our problems (including sexual problems) are rooted in the feeling of being a separate self, which coincides with the feeling, "you don't love me", the feeling of rejection by (or lack of sustenance from) the universe, and leads to the reaction, "I don't love you".
[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.]
"The Key to Our Sexuality Is Emotion" is an excerpt from a longer Discourse in which Adi Da communicates how all our problems (including sexual problems) are rooted in the feeling of being a separate self, which coincides with the feeling, "you don't love me", the feeling of rejection by (or lack of sustenance from) the universe, and leads to the reaction, "I don't love you".
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