poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 13:25 date added: March 26, 2017 event date: July 20, 1986 language: English views: 3392; views this month: 20; views this week: 10
In 1986, Adi Da made His first visit to the European community of His devotees. He travelled through England, France and Holland. In the South of Holland, in the village of Maria Hoop close to the German border, a former Catholic monastery was found which could be rented for a few weeks. Devotees swiftly cleaned buildings and the grounds. Adi Da stayed in a specially prepared wing of the monastery for several days. During this time, He granted Darshan and held "Question and Answer" occasions in the chapel (now called Adi Da Kapel) with German, English, Dutch, French and American devotees. The former monastery has since been acquired by the European community of Adidam and is now known as The European Danda.
In this rare excerpt from one of the "Question and Answer" occasions, Adi Da addresses the primal human emotion of doubt in a most direct and simple manner. He describes how doubt is not ultimately a sign that we have been "betrayed" in some way. The radical solution to doubt is to identify with the Divine Itself, beyond the temporary cycles of the body and mind and beyond the sense of being a separate self.
poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 04:59 date added: March 26, 2017 event date: January 21, 2005 language: English views: 4747; views this month: 32; views this week: 21
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.
poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 04:24 date added: March 19, 2017 event date: May 24, 1983 language: English views: 4136; views this month: 16; views this week: 5
Adi Da gave this talk on May 24, 1983, in Fiji. In it he describes how all processes (including diet) associated with transformation of the body-mind (making it an appropriate yogic vehicle compatible with the Transcendental Spiritual Way of Adidam) necessarily first go through purification and rebalancing phases (for as long as they take) — associated with Fire — before they enter the regeneration phase — associated with Light. Knowing this helps one persist in the fire of the purification and rebalancing phases to the point where one comes out the other side.
poster: CDBaby length: 09:56 date added: March 4, 2017 language: English views: 4325; views this month: 15; views this week: 11
This video excerpt is an excerpt from Adi Da's talk, "The Bridge To God", from October 27, 1980. (The full talk, "The Bridge To God", is available as a CD and as an online transcript.)
On the previous day, a shaman from Mexico visited The Mountain Of Attention, Avatar Adi Da Samraj’s Northern California sanctuary. The following day, Avatar Adi Da considered with His devotees the inherently magical nature of the world and our psychic relationship to it.
Adi Da: "The world is a psychic phenomenon. In other words, we never experience the world except psychically. We never experience it except as knowledge and perception. We never experience it except as a condition that includes us. We are not separate from it. What we are at the level of the psyche and at the level of consciousness is just as much an inherent part of the world as the so-called material, objective forms. When we associate with the world on the basis of the totality of all the conditions of our existence, we participate in the world of forms as a psychic process. By participating psychically in the psychic phenomena of the world, we learn the laws whereby we can influence the phenomena of the waking state. We generate a process wherein we can become sensitive to the phenomena of the waking state so that we can observe unusual coincidences of form and psychic significances that our verbal mind tends to exclude from what we are observing."
Jyota Se Jyota poster: Tamarind Free Jones length: 08:03 date added: February 18, 2017 language: English views: 2711; views this month: 14; views this week: 4
Tamarind Free Jones, one of Avatar Adi Da's daughters, offers devotional chants from the sacred traditions of India. These chants have been sung for hundreds of years in sacred places and forest hermitages all over the world. They not only serve to quiet the mind and relax the body, they also awaken the heart's devotion. Several of these chants are sung in the daily cycle of devotions practiced by devotees of Adi Da Samraj.
[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.]
In a sobering discourse, Adi Da speaks of the condition after death in which mind determines one's circumstance, without the limitations of the body, brain and unconsciousness. He addresses the fact that where one's attention is fixed during life affects attention and destiny after life. He recommends that devotees direct their attention to sadhana so that the purification process gives one wisdom that frees one from karmic limitations.
This talk is published as "After Death, Mind Makes You", in the book, Easy Death.
The Bodily Location of Happiness poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:12 date added: May 4, 2016 event date: November 28, 1981 language: English views: 7780; views this month: 26; views this week: 13
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: 12:21 date added: February 17, 2016 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English views: 6417; views this month: 33; views this week: 18
An excerpt from the talk, "The Grace of Suffering", given by Adi Da on January 18, 1976.
This excerpt is track 1 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.
This selection of Talks by Avatar Adi Da Samraj focuses on His clarifying Wisdom on the Impulse (inherent in all beings) to Realize God, and His Divine Offering and Instruction on the Ultimate Means to cultivate this heart-Impulse, thereby allowing it be the guiding force of one's entire life. As Avatar Adi Da points out, the real Spiritual Process cannot be truly initiated until and unless one’s Impulse to God-Realization becomes the governing principle of one's 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 Grace of Suffering" is a beautiful talk by Adi Da. But it IS very compressed, making quite a few points in a short space, and depending to a significant degree on a familiarity with Adi Da's spiritual teaching. Here are some notes that may help.
Throughout the talk, the technical term, "sadhana" (spiritual practice), is used.
Genuine spiritual practice is not about belief systems, mere rituals, or a little "peace of mind", but rather about actually locating the Divine, through the tangible Transmission of the Spiritual Master.
After a recent illness, a devotee mentions to Adi Da that he notices how the physical suffering of illness was distracting enough that he was not "able" to find Adi Da's Transmission when he is ill.
Adi Da acknowledges this, and responds with three more general points.
1. The illness didn't "make" the devotee lose the thread of practice; rather, he allowed himself to be distracted from God by the illness. When the devotee gets this, and sees how he himself is "doing" the turning away, he'll be able to "do better next time" by not turning away even when ill.
2. Until Divine Enlightenment — in other words, until there is no limit on one's spiritual practice — sadhana (spiritual practice) is always only reflecting back to devotees the remaining limits in their practice: where they are still turning away from the Divine, where they still need to become responsible for not turning away.
In the beginning, the "turning away" is very "crude": even mere physical suffering is enough to distract one from God. (If we find ourselves saying, "what do you mean, MERE physical suffering?" that definitely identifies us as spiritual beginners! :-) ) But as one grows in practice, and ceases to turn away in such a crude manner (as one becomes a "saint", "yogi", "sage", etc.), one discovers that one is still turning from the Divine at an even subtler level of the being (in the mind, the psyche, etc.)
It is only when that "turning away" has been inspected, understood, and transcended in every dimension of the being that Divine Realization occurs.
In this sense, for the genuine spiritual practitioner, physical suffering — along with every other circumstance that reveals to us our turning away from the Divine — is truly a Grace, enabling us to grow in our practice.
3. Where we are turning away is a reflection of what we are identifying with: the body, the mind, the soul, etc. (For example, if physical illness is enough to distract us from God, then the physical body is what we currently are identified with.) God-Realization only occurs when all "identities" less than God are understood and transcended.
In this sense, "there are no winners in God" — the Way is not about seeking, accomplishment, or winning, but rather about surrender to God, sacrifice of self, and ego-death. There's no "one" left to "win"! But the One Who Remains is perfectly, eternally happy.
Divine Distraction with James Steinberg poster: AdiDaUpClose speaker: James Steinberg length: 50:54 date added: February 1, 2016 language: English listens: 6226; listens this month: 21; listens this week: 11
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.
Adi Da's Teaching as Transmission poster: AdiDaVideos speaker: Jonathan Condit length: 17:55 date added: January 25, 2016 event date: January 2016 language: English views: 6442; views this month: 28; views this week: 13
This video clip includes:
Commentary from Jonathan Condit (at 0:00) — Jonathan Condit was Adi Da's senior editorial assistant, and is Senior Editor for the Adidam Editorial Department. Jonathan talks about "The Function of the Spiritual Literature of Adi Da Samraj", and how Adi Da's Teaching works as Transmission of His Transcendental Spiritual State, and serves the Spiritual Realization of the reader.
Excerpt from an Avataric Discourse by Adi Da (at 5:35) — The Discourse is "My Teaching is a Direct Transmission of Me", from October 28, 2005. Adi Da talks about how His Teaching Word is a form of Spiritual Transmission, that enables Divine Communion with Him (if the devotee is in the right devotional disposition), in the same way that a Murti photograph does, or any of the other forms of Agency that Adi Da has created for this purpose.
Commentary from Megan Anderson (at 12:44) — Megan Anderson is an editor in the Adidam Editorial Department. Megan talks about Adi Da's great, final masterpiece, The Aletheon as the purest communication and Transmission of Adi Da Himself (among all His many, extraordinary books), and describes receiving the Revelation of Adi Da as she was proofreading The Aletheon before its publication.
Adi Da: "My Reality-Teaching is unparalleled Spiritual Transmission, occurring under the most extraordinary circumstances. It is not the product of an ordinary mind or a kind of scholarly commentary. It is a direct expression of Spiritual Transformation, of Spiritual Power, of Transcendental, Inherently Spiritual, and (necessarily) Divine Being, Consciousness, and Love-Bliss. It does not arise in Me or through Me in any ordinary fashion. It is an utterly spontaneous and Transcendental Spiritual Event."
This album of Adidam devotional music from The First Amendment Choir was originally released on audiocassette tape in 1981. (The name, "First Amendment Choir", was chosen for the choir by Adi Da, which performed for Him on several occasions.)
The album begins and ends with "The Divine Invocation":
Radiant Da, All-Pervading Current of Life, Consciousness where I appear and disappear, Hear My Breathing Heart.
Awaken me To feel the Heart of Light and Love, Where this life and mind and body may dissolve. I hold up my hands.
"The Divine Invocation" was an early version of what we now call The First Great Invocation. Now we would begin with the First Great Invocation and end with the Second Great Invocation — but Adi Da had not yet created the Second Great Invocation at the time this album was created.
Many of the songs on this album were composed by Billboard Award-winning composer Ray Lynch or by JoAnne Sunshine. Ray Lynch is also the guitar player. Eric Leber is the choir director. Besides Ray Lynch and JoAnne Sunshine, vocalists include Brad Crawford, Robin Richardson, Kathleen Ewart, Sylvia Hayden, Carol Mabin, Janet Kopieki, Rita Gordon, Happy Hayden, Ginny Leber, Maggie Roberts, Lynzee Elze, Ron Guba, Steve Benson, Chris Cardullo, Phyllis Hyde, Karen Booth, and Antonina Randazzo (among others). The album was recorded at Prune Production Studio, in Mill Valley, California, and was released by the Laughing Man Institute.
The volume is low, so you may need to turn it up. The sound quality of this digital version is not up to contemporary standards, but many listeners — old and new — may find it just as heart-moving now as so many found it when it was originally released.
My loved one sits upon my knee. My left hand is on her head. My right hand guides her listening to my Heart. My touching awakens her need, her love for me, and makes her know me while I speak.
My loved one lies with me. Our loving appears as every form of all the worlds. Our sounds together make all sounds. We are the thing that is seen and heard. We are the rhythmed mind of everything.
Troubles arise for one who does not know the act in which he lives. Therefore, I display the image of my loved one and me. One who does not understand gains power for his lust in holy places. But one who understands becomes the lovers’ act that is.
What Is Doubt? poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:25 date added: September 26, 2015 event date: July 20, 1986 language: English views: 4036; views this month: 19; views this week: 10
In 1986, Adi Da made His first visit to the European community of His devotees. He travelled through England, France and Holland. In the South of Holland, in the village of Maria Hoop close to the German border, a former Catholic monastery was found which could be rented for a few weeks. Devotees swiftly cleaned buildings and the grounds. Adi Da stayed in a specially prepared wing of the monastery for several days. During this time, He granted Darshan and held "Question and Answer" occasions in the chapel (now called Adi Da Kapel) with German, English, Dutch, French and American devotees. The former monastery has since been acquired by the European community of Adidam and is now known as The European Danda.
In this rare, never before published excerpt from one of the "Question and Answer" occasions, Adi Da addresses the primal human emotion of doubt in a most direct and simple manner. He describes how doubt is not ultimately a sign that we have been "betrayed" in some way. The radical solution to doubt is to identify with the Divine Itself, beyond the temporary cycles of the body and mind and beyond the sense of being a separate self.
The Gift of Ripening poster: DawnHorsePress length: 03:25 date added: July 19, 2015 event date: December 19, 2004 language: English listens: 5288; listens this month: 18; listens this week: 9
This audio clip is an excerpt from an Avataric Discourse by Adi Da on December 19, 2004. The Discourse is available as a CD: The Gift of Ripening.
By listening to this Discourse, you will receive Avatar Adi Da’s Guidance in understanding your level of ripeness. And such a realistic (rather than idealistic) assessment is an essential element in preparing for the process of Realizing True Happiness He Offers — the process of the “transcending of all conditionality in the Self-Radiant Conscious Light that is the 'Bright'”.
Quotes from this CD:
Adi Da: "Realization is not "caused". It is Given. It is made tacitly obvious. I can, through interaction with you and by being accessible to you, ripen you, so to speak, for this Spiritual Apprehension of Reality. And I am made available to you through this Bodily Sign which gives a focus for the faculties in the process of them being purified and relieved of their patterns."
Adi Da: "Divine Self-Realization is not just some happy-hunting-ground metaphor in the mind. It is not just a light. It is not the light at the end of the tunnel that people see in the death process. That is not it either. Do you have any idea how many tunnels there are, how many lights there are, how many 'worlds' there are to the left and right, how many ends of that tunnel there are? You have no idea. You do not know what it is about, generally speaking."
Adi Da: "Anything in the mind or of the mind is not true. So all of your pursuit of 'answers' or states of mind or content for your thinking is fruitless — but what are you going to do about it?. . . You do not even necessarily notice that your thinking is a matter of seeking. You think there are some kinds of thinking that may be said to be motivated by a search, but you do not think that thinking is seeking. And yet it is always seeking. Thinking is itself seeking. So if the Way is not seeking nor can the Truth be Realized by seeking, then thinking has nothing to do with it and you should just forget about thinking from now on — but you cannot do that, can you? You are already thinking, even though I just told you that. . ."
The Grace of Turning to Me poster: AdiDaUpClose length: 05:03 date added: December 13, 2014 event date: 2004 language: English listens: 4037; listens this month: 8; listens this week: 5
In this excerpt from the double CD, The Grace of Turning to Me, Adi Da describes how "turning to Him" — the moment-to-moment turning of the faculties of the body-mind to Him — must be based on the Graceful recognition of Him as the Divine and response to Him based on that recognition.
On this double CD, Adi Da uses every Compassionate Means in His Manner — sometimes Humorous, sometimes Fiery — to Call His devotees, again and again, to be sensitive to the Grace-Given and spontaneous heart-Attraction to Him, and thereby turn to Him, the Divine in human Form — rather than to the endless content of the body-mind, which only reinforces egoic bondage and the illusion of separateness. In this way, Avatar Adi Da Masterfully Reveals the secret of True Liberation in His Avataric Divine Company.
The talks on this double CD were drawn from Avataric Discourses that took place in 2004.
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