Avatar Adi Da Samraj with devotees at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary in Northern California, during His visit in the summer of 2005.
In the first Darshan occasion, Adi Da sits with devotees at Seventh Gate Shrine. (More from this occasion can be seen here.)
In the second Darshan occasion, Adi Da walks past devotees and then sits with them in front of Ordeal Bath Lodge. (More from that occasion here, where Adi Da embraces a young boy.)
Serving the Dying poster: AdiDaVideos length: 10:43 date added: January 21, 2013 event date: May 31, 1980 language: English views: 2065; views this month: 8; views this week: 6
In this discourse from May 31, 1980 at The Mountain Of Attention, a student of Avatar Adi Da asks Him for suggestions to help her dying mother. Adi Da then responds both with compassion and also with very practical advice on how to serve the dying.
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).
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:13 date added: March 20, 2013 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English views: 7387; views this month: 42; views this week: 23
In this seminal discourse (at The Mountain Of Attention), from the early years of His Teaching Work, Adi Da speaks about the inevitable process of self-revelation and self-understanding that prepares the being for true Spiritual life.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 04:52 date added: March 26, 2017 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English views: 5206; views this month: 40; views this week: 15
In this seminal discourse (at The Mountain Of Attention), from the early years of His Teaching Work, Adi Da speaks about the inevitable process of self-revelation and self-understanding that prepares the being for true Spiritual life.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 22:30 date added: August 28, 2013 event date: July 7, 2005 language: English views: 5729; views this month: 22; views this week: 9
Adi Da talks about the presumption of the egoic "separate self" sense that is the root of human suffering. He contrasts this with our actual Position in Truth: the Position of Conscious Light.
This talk is from the first occasion in many years in which Avatar Adi Da spoke directly to a gathering of His devotees in California. Questions from devotees about intimate, familial, and social issues are met with Avatar Adi Da's Compassion and Humor, as well as His Liberating Wisdom.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 12:38 date added: April 5, 2020 event date: October 28, 1978 language: English views: 1299; views this month: 34; views this week: 8
In this excerpt, Adi Da addresses the fact that although the struggle and distractions in the early stages of spiritual practice are great, there is also great help in the relationship with the Spiritual Master. Attention to all of the ups and downs of the body-mind can be transcended and surrendered through that relationship.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:50 date added: February 28, 2020 event date: October 28, 1978 language: English views: 1130; views this month: 20; views this week: 12
In this excerpt, Adi Da Samraj considers the spiritual transformation of a human being, and states of the body-mind. The real spiritual process is not based on effort or having more (or greater) experiences, even in the mystical dimension. In the true spiritual process, experience, in all its forms (first physical and then mystical), must be transcended through our heart-based practice of God-Communion.
This Must Be Realized poster: AdiDaVideos length: 09:48 date added: August 19, 2014 event date: November 11, 2005 language: English views: 4059; views this month: 20; views this week: 9
In this Discourse (which took place on November 11, 2005 at The Mountain Of Attention), Avatar Adi Da answers a devotee's question about the human condition. He criticizes reductive viewpoints (scientific, religious, etc.) that try to account for a multi-level phenomenon (such as evolution) in terms of just one level (the gross level of bodies), ignoring other levels that participate in the phenomenon (the impact of subtle or "mind" level influences on evolution, the impact of molecular level influences on evolution, etc.). He also criticizes the presumption that everything can be explained, and points out that the multi-level phenomenon that is life and experience is (when fully examined) so complex that it is "irreducible", beyond comprehension. Beyond all the apparent (and incomprehensible) arising that is conditional existence is the indivisible Conscious Light in which all is arising. To Realize Conscious Light is to be liberated from all need for explanations. As Adi Da puts it: "When It is Realized, it becomes entirely clear what everything is and how it is happening."
This Place Is Not a Utopia poster: AdiDaVideos length: 10:38 date added: July 4, 2018 event date: October 6, 2005 language: English views: 1639; views this month: 21; views this week: 11
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.”
In recent decades, yoga and meditation have become a regular part of the daily lives of millions of people around the world. Through these and other practices, people develop stronger bodies, more personal discipline, better health, more loving relationships, and a greater ability to manage the stresses of modern life.
In the last few months, however, it has suddenly become universally apparent that these benefits are not be enough. Life is not programmed to produce lasting satisfaction and immunity to the challenges, inherent suffering, and mortality of existence.
In this Avataric Discourse, Avatar Adi Da Samraj describes how "positive disillusionment" with ordinary life is a necessary prerequisite for entering into the truly liberating process of spiritual practice.
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 moment's 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: AdiDaVideos length: 08:52 date added: January 28, 2020 event date: October 28, 1978 language: English views: 1194; views this month: 28; views this week: 14
In this excerpt, 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.
What is Cultism? poster: AdiDaVideos length: 19:00 date added: January 2, 2014 event date: December 16, 1978 language: English views: 5436; views this month: 27; views this week: 13
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, 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."
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 08:18 date added: July 22, 2017 event date: July 7, 2005 language: English views: 3563; views this month: 33; views this week: 13
In this excerpt, Adi Da responds to a devotee from India who asks for Adi Da's guidance on how to reconcile his traditional family obligations with his impulse to serve His Spiritual Master.
In this discourse, a student of Adi Da asks Him for suggestions to help her dying mother. Adi Da then responds both with compassion and also with very practical advice on how to serve the dying.
[The recording of Adi Da's voice is slightly distorted, but understandable.]
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