[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: AdiDaVideos length: 07:42 date added: November 4, 2012 event date: August 30, 2004 language: English views: 5077; views this month: 15; views this week: 8
A video excerpt from part 6 ("The Glasses of Consciousness") of the DVD, You Are The Question You Ask, which was drawn from Adi Da's Avataric Discourse of August 30, 2004.
Adi Da talks about how human beings presume that they are just a body and a mind, and this creates the mistaken sense of separation from others and the Divine.
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 03:22 date added: April 9, 2014 event date: December 27, 1988 language: English listens: 5021; listens this month: 14; listens this week: 6
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.
Longtime devotee, Gerald Sheinfeld, gives a testimonial to Adi Da, at the tribute that occurred on Adi Da Samrajashram, on the First Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi.
poster: AdidamVideos length: 05:28 date added: February 1, 2009 event date: 2005 language: English views: 4984; views this month: 10; views this week: 7
Adi Da gives a Radical and profound description of the true nature of the Divine Reality, Stating that the Divine is the substance of all that arises, not the "cause" of anything, Adi Da goes on to describe how it is our own separation from that which is the very Divine, that causes the assumption of separation.
This talk excerpt is followed by a clip of Darshan of Adi Da (at 4:27).
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: 4962; views this month: 12; views this week: 6
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.
poster: AdidamPodcasts length: 16:53 date added: March 17, 2012 language: English listens: 4888; listens this month: 11; listens this week: 7
Adi Da Samraj responds to a question from a devotee who had lost a grandchild and was asking for some understanding that might ease his sorrow. Adi Da describes how there is no answer to the pain of loss, except for Divine Realization.
poster: DawnHorsePress length: 08:41 date added: May 12, 2013 event date: November 30, 1998 language: English listens: 4841; listens this month: 18; listens this week: 11
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.
poster: CDBaby length: 08:15 date added: January 14, 2017 event date: 1988 language: English views: 4794; views this month: 25; views this week: 16
This is an audio excerpt from The Commitment to Real-God-Realization, a DVD containing conversations between Adi Da and His devotees in 1988, in the United States, Fiji, and New Zealand. In these direct and challenging talks, Adi Da discusses how, through consideration, one can determine relatively quickly that one will survive death; on that basis, one can live life not merely for the sake of the physical body (which is going to die), but can practice in the context of (and in cooperation with) one's Eternal destiny: God-Realization.
Adi Da: "Some work for goods and blessings in this world, some work for movement into other worlds. Some transcend all conditional possibilities and Realize the Divine Domain. If Real God is proven, then you must live a life devoted to Real God. . . If the Divine Reality were obvious, the commitment to God-Realization is instant."
Adi Da makes clear that the motive to God-Realization is a Gift of Grace given by Him, and not the result of will or self-effort.
This excerpt is track 6 of the CD, Death and the Purpose of Existence, a collection of talks and recitations that exemplify Avatar Adi Da's essential Wisdom-Teaching on death and dying.
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.
Growing Up in the Adidam Community poster: AdiDaVideos length: 05:37 date added: October 30, 2012 event date: November 29, 2009 language: English views: 4740; views this month: 15; views this week: 8
Devotee Rachel Kuhn, who grew up in Adi Da's community, gives her testimony about her relationship to Him.
Excerpt from Second Evening: Track 7 on the DVD, A Tribute to the Life and Work of His Divine Presence, Adi Da Samraj. More than 7 hours long, this Tribute DVD was filmed on the occasion of the first Anniversary of Adi Da's Divine Mahasamadhi, when devotees, family, and friends of Adi Da Samraj gathered at Adi Da Samrajashram, Fiji (Adi Da's principal Hermitage), to acknowledge Adi Da as the Divine in human form, to praise His Greatness, and to express their heart-felt gratitude for the Blessings they have received from Him.
A list of all the tracks on this DVD can be found here.
poster: Wisdom Tools for Humanity length: 09:49 date added: March 19, 2017 language: English views: 4732; views this month: 29; views this week: 10
An audio excerpt from Adi Da Samraj's early talk, "Renouncing the Search for the Edible Deity", accompanied by photos of Adi Da from a more recent Avataric Discourse.
We experience "independent" existence as a kind of madness, a seeming separation from food (both because of the cutting of the umbilical cord and as a feeling of separation from our ultimate source of sustenance, the Very Divine). We must instead be like the eating gorilla. . .
Adi Da: "The eating gorilla finds a cabbage in the jungle, sits down like a slob and munches away at the cabbage, and is completely benign, completely peaceful. . . . Therefore, the eating gorilla is the image of the true man, the true woman. He demonstrates the principle of true politics, of real human existence, in which we are always presently connected to the Food Source in Truth, and are always presuming connection, relationship, 'I love you.' "
This brief excerpt is from Track 2, "Ruchira Avatara". This was recorded during the first sacred occasion in the temple, Is-Da Happen, after the cyclone. (More information about album tracks here.)
Proceeds from this album will go toward equipment for Sacred music at Adi Da Samrajashram (e.g., better amplifiers, microphones, etc.).
[If you enjoy this album, help us let others know about it! Write a review on Amazon.com or CD Baby.]
The exquisite devotional offerings on Radiance bring us all directly to Bhagavan's Holy Feet at His Great Hermitage and remind us that, despite the damage wrought by the cyclone, His Divine Presence remains Sublimely Untouched and Present there. Devotees and friends from all over the world came together to serve and restore the Holy Places and we offer this Sacred music at His Blessed Feet with all our love and devotion. All the recordings were made by the Adidam Sacred Music Guild during live occasions in the various Temples on Naitauba.
The painting by Nara Wood on the CD cover is of the "chanting room" at Samraj Mahal (on Adi Da Samrajashram), where countless musical offerings were made to Avatar Adi Da during His Lifetime when He was spending time there.
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