[Contains Dutch subtitles. For the version without subtitles, click here.]
Adi Da: "Sex is fundamental ego-identity, lived. And generally speaking, it is a problem for everyone. . . The social pattern of 'self' and 'other' is founded upon emotional-sexual patterning to a very great degree. . . So it certainly is an important dimension of bondage, and therefore an important aspect of sadhana. The Perfect Practice is not based on any reference to the body-mind, or any method of the body-mind."
In this Avataric Discourse (from January 21, 2005), Adi Da explains why the Perfect Practice (the most advanced development of the Way of Adidam) has nothing to do with sex (or the ego-"I" altogether), and is not a "method" of the body-mind or something to be applied to the body-mind. The Self-Condition prior to the body-mind is the domain of the Perfect Practice. The Self-Condition is not a separate "self", but the Nirvanic Condition that is always already the case, and that inherently transcends the body-mind.
This excerpt is from the DVD, Beyond Sex, Science, and self. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Czech, and Hebrew. A CD version is also available.
[Contains German 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" (German: "Der körperliche Sitz des Glücklichseins"), 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.
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 "the pursuit of 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 (mis-identifying 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 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.]
Un discours classique donné par Avatar Adi Da en 1981 sur la nature du Vrai Bonheur et la façon dont il peut être Réalisé d'un moment à l'autre, mais pas en le recherchant.
This is a video excerpt from Adi Da's classic talk, "The Bodily Location of Happiness" (French: "L'Emplacement Corporel du Bonheur"), 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.
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 "the pursuit of 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 (mis-identifying 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: DawnHorsePress length: 05:03 date added: June 23, 2012 event date: December 23, 1973 language: English listens: 5050; listens this month: 10; listens this week: 8
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.
Above The Clouds poster: DawnHorsePress length: 03:14 date added: October 21, 2013 event date: November 2010 language: English listens: 5043; listens this month: 11; listens this week: 9
"In November 2010, a group of musicians traveled to the sacred hermitage island of Adi Da Samrajashram (Naitauba, Fiji) for spiritual retreat. We played daily at many of the holy sites on the island. We particularly fell into a blissful mood when playing on the veranda of our Guru's house."
"There, in the open air, with fresh breezes blowing, gentle waves washing, and birds chirping, we fell into deep devotion as we played. The music on this recording was spontaneously created on these occasions." —John Wubbenhorst
In celebration of the month of Da Naitauba (October), this album is currently on sale from the Dawn Horse Press at 40% off through October 31.
This excerpt is from the Adidam Revelation Discourse of October 24, 2004. A devotee's question about memory and a bicycle accident sparks Avatar Adi Da's Discourse about the nature of the human mechanism. Likening the mind to "cyberspace", Avatar Adi Da describes the "codes" human beings use to interpret perceptions and give apparent meaning to the "game" of life. He also exposes as an illusion the very presumption of being a separate, perceiving self. Adi Da Samraj calls everyone to relinquish the commitment to all presumptions and Awaken to that Realization which is not a state, but a Force that Spiritually Outshines all of illusory existence.
This excerpt is part of the longer DVD, Cracking the Code of Experience. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, and Polish. A CD version is also available.
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 03:22 date added: April 9, 2014 event date: December 27, 1988 language: English listens: 5021; listens this month: 15; listens this week: 8
Avatar Adi Da describes the three options of human destiny: one can reinforce one's present existence in gross (physical) form; one can go beyond gross existence into subtler dimensions of existence; or one can transcend conditional existence altogether, in the Great Process of seventh stage Divine Self-Realization. He suggests that most people (and most devotees) are opting (generally unconsciously) for the first (and lowest) option.
For those who discover the heart-impulse to the Great Process, Avatar Adi Da offers Graceful Means — but, He clarifies, a most intensive ego-transcending process will be required of such devotees, a constant relinquishment of identification with the separate self.
poster: Tastingthemoon speaker: Meg Fortune McDonnell length: 11:59 date added: April 7, 2012 language: English views: 5019; views this month: 10; views this week: 2
Ruchira Avatara Gita poster: DawnHorsePress length: 02:04 date added: November 7, 2010 event date: March 2001 language: English listens: 5007; listens this month: 7; listens this week: 3
A remarkable recording of Naamleela Free Jones chanting Avatar Adi Da’s Ruchira Avatara Gita in a manner that serves contemplation and devotion. The entire text is chanted in the traditional mantric “swadhyaya” manner. This most beautiful devotional Gita is sometimes broadcast in Adidam temples and centers around the world. Recorded in Temple Adi Da at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in California on March 28 & 30, 2001.
On November 25, 2004, at Adi Da Samrajashram, one of Adi Da's devotees asks Him: "Is there any way to know . . . what is the relationship of ancient Realizers to the traditions that they were associated with?"
Avatar Adi Da responds by illustrating the process of myth-making around Realizers, both in ancient and modern times. He explains that, regardless of what is historically true of any Realizer, any tradition can be understood in terms of the underlying structure of the human being. Throughout the Discourse, Adi Da makes use of examples from numerous traditions including Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity.
Adi Da: "Traditions do not really depend on there having been an historical individual, whether or not there was one. They can nonetheless still be understood in terms of the structure of the psycho-physical anatomy. And the psycho-physical anatomy, not mythology extending from it, but the psycho-physical anatomy itself — and this is My Instruction to you, to all — that structure itself determines what is regarded to be religious truth, or esoteric truth. Underneath it is a structure, not merely Truth. That structure must be transcended, or there is not Truth Realized."
In this excerpt, Adi Da specifically talks about the Christian tradition, and the importance of distinguishing a "faith" (or system of beliefs) from factual observations of phenomena throughout recorded history.
poster: AdidamRevelationMagazine length: 08:27 date added: November 23, 2013 event date: October 12, 2004 language: English views: 4959; views this month: 10; views this week: 5
The CD, The Master Is The Means, is a compilation of talks in which Avatar Adi Da describes the spontaneous heart-response to the Spiritual Master as the great, effective, and anciently known Means of Spiritual Awakening.
By exposing the true nature of ego, and pointing out our false and limiting presumptions about Spiritual Masters, Avatar Adi Da enables a free consideration of what is truly needed to Realize the Truth of our Condition. He provides a traditional context for the purpose of His human Form here, while also communicating the utterly unique appearance and offering He Is.
This is track 9 of the CD.
This audio excerpt, "Divine Realization Is a Gift", is from October 12, 2004. Here Avatar Adi Da states clearly that the Divine must be Self-Revealed by Grace. No method, no technique, no form of seeking of any kind is the means to Realize the Divine. All such seeking is simply evidence of contraction upon the separate "self" — which is the continuous, unsurrendered gesture of ego.
The essence of Adidam is, instead, living in the present Company of the Divine, turning whole bodily to that Divine Reality Appearing as Avatar Adi Da — and through that turning, being moved by Grace to His Perfect State of Divine Reality and Truth.
Hear My Heart Call poster: DawnHorsePress length: 03:56 date added: November 6, 2010 language: English listens: 4952; listens this month: 15; listens this week: 7
The Dawn Horse Press has released a new CD from Naamleela Free Jones, Hear My Heart Call, an album of improvisatory “piano chants”, featuring beautiful piano interpretations of devotional songs.
This is Naamleela's first solo album of original piano music. It is a richly expressive album of piano improvisation based on the melodies of devotional chants. Many of the melodies are familiar to friends and devotees of Adi Da Samraj, and all were offered in His Company on numerous occasions over the last thirty or more years. In this unique album, Naamleela spontaneously brings to life the devotion in these chants, subtly reinterpreting them as beautiful piano pieces filled with love and profound heart feeling.
The song heard here is "Paramahansa". Click here to hear Jaya's version of this song.
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 05:49 date added: June 23, 2012 event date: June 20, 1972 language: English listens: 4919; listens this month: 12; listens this week: 6
An excerpt from "The Avon Lady", a humorous and penetrating Discourse from the very earliest years of Avatar Adi Da’s Teaching-Work. Adi Da explains how there is no search and no dilemma when one is in Satsang (the company of the Guru).
poster: Tastingthemoon speaker: Meg Fortune McDonnell length: 12:03 date added: April 7, 2012 language: English views: 4910; views this month: 11; views this week: 5
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 08:41 date added: May 12, 2013 event date: November 30, 1998 language: English listens: 4839; listens this month: 18; listens this week: 10
Track 9 of the free, downloadable CD, The Liberating Word of Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Volume 1. From a talk given by Adi Da on November 30, 1988. Adi Da wanted all human beings to receive the transcendent truth communicated in this talk, which eventually led to the creation of the free ebooklet, We Are Consciousness Itself.
ADI DA: You are not attention, which exists over against all 'objects'. Consciousness Itself is not that which is over against what arises. Consciousness Itself is That Which Is the Self-Nature, Self-Condition, Source-Condition, and Self-State of what arises. . . The self-aware pleasure of existing is the fundamental gift, the Divine gift, the persistent gift that you are tending to ignore. . . When conditions arise, or change, or pass away in the view of Consciousness, Consciousness Itself remains always as the same Free Love-Bliss of Being.
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