poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:13 date added: March 20, 2013 event date: January 18, 1976 language: English views: 7362; views this month: 19; views this week: 12 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.
This 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.tags: CDDVD
Not-Two Is Peace: The Word Goes Out! poster: ShastaMcBride length: 02:16 date added: October 1, 2012 event date: August 2012 language: English views: 3780; views this month: 9; views this week: 5 The Florence Dance Company performs the multimedia ballet, Not-Two Is Peace on July 22-23, 2012, in Florence, Italy.
The Spiritual Master as God poster: TheBeezone length: 02:08 date added: September 30, 2012 event date: October 1978 language: English views: 2453; views this month: 5; views this week: 0 Adi Da Samraj talks about the misunderstandings people can have about the ecstatic speech of the Spiritual Master.
poster: TheBeezone length: 02:47 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6237; views this month: 15; views this week: 5 Part of an Avataric Revelation Discourse given at the Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, later published in Reality Is All The God There Is.
Adi Da offers His unique renderings of the Dharma of the great sages of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, including Gotama Sakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Shankara, and Ribhu. Rather than simply translate their teachings from available source texts, Avatar Adi Da respeaks them as one who has personally realized their truth. He reveals that the Buddhist “Nirvana” and the Advaitic “Brahman” point to the same Transcendental Condition. Avatar Adi Da’s rendering restores to these texts the profundity intended by the Spiritual Masters who created them.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
poster: TheBeezone length: 02:17 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6148; views this month: 15; views this week: 7 Part of an Avataric Revelation Discourse given at the Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, later published in Reality Is All The God There Is.
Adi Da offers His unique renderings of the Dharma of the great sages of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, including Gotama Sakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Shankara, and Ribhu. Rather than simply translate their teachings from available source texts, Avatar Adi Da respeaks them as one who has personally realized their truth. He reveals that the Buddhist “Nirvana” and the Advaitic “Brahman” point to the same Transcendental Condition. Avatar Adi Da’s rendering restores to these texts the profundity intended by the Spiritual Masters who created them.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
poster: TheBeezone length: 01:52 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6244; views this month: 16; views this week: 8 Part of an Avataric Revelation Discourse given at the Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, later published in Reality Is All The God There Is.
Adi Da offers His unique renderings of the Dharma of the great sages of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, including Gotama Sakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Shankara, and Ribhu. Rather than simply translate their teachings from available source texts, Avatar Adi Da respeaks them as one who has personally realized their truth. He reveals that the Buddhist “Nirvana” and the Advaitic “Brahman” point to the same Transcendental Condition. Avatar Adi Da’s rendering restores to these texts the profundity intended by the Spiritual Masters who created them.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
poster: TheBeezone length: 02:08 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6309; views this month: 21; views this week: 7 Part of an Avataric Revelation Discourse given at the Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, later published in Reality Is All The God There Is.
Adi Da offers His unique renderings of the Dharma of the great sages of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, including Gotama Sakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Shankara, and Ribhu. Rather than simply translate their teachings from available source texts, Avatar Adi Da respeaks them as one who has personally realized their truth. He reveals that the Buddhist “Nirvana” and the Advaitic “Brahman” point to the same Transcendental Condition. Avatar Adi Da’s rendering restores to these texts the profundity intended by the Spiritual Masters who created them.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
poster: TheBeezone length: 02:00 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6070; views this month: 16; views this week: 5 Part of an Avataric Revelation Discourse given at the Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, later published in Reality Is All The God There Is.
Adi Da offers His unique renderings of the Dharma of the great sages of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, including Gotama Sakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Shankara, and Ribhu. Rather than simply translate their teachings from available source texts, Avatar Adi Da respeaks them as one who has personally realized their truth. He reveals that the Buddhist “Nirvana” and the Advaitic “Brahman” point to the same Transcendental Condition. Avatar Adi Da’s rendering restores to these texts the profundity intended by the Spiritual Masters who created them.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
poster: TheBeezone length: 04:06 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6309; views this month: 17; views this week: 6 Part of an Avataric Revelation Discourse given at the Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, later published in Reality Is All The God There Is.
Adi Da offers His unique renderings of the Dharma of the great sages of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, including Gotama Sakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Shankara, and Ribhu. Rather than simply translate their teachings from available source texts, Avatar Adi Da respeaks them as one who has personally realized their truth. He reveals that the Buddhist “Nirvana” and the Advaitic “Brahman” point to the same Transcendental Condition. Avatar Adi Da’s rendering restores to these texts the profundity intended by the Spiritual Masters who created them.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
poster: TheBeezone length: 12:06 date added: September 21, 2012 event date: January 6, 2006 language: English views: 6156; views this month: 16; views this week: 6 Part of an Avataric Revelation Discourse given at the Mountain of Attention Sanctuary, later published in Reality Is All The God There Is.
Adi Da offers His unique renderings of the Dharma of the great sages of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, including Gotama Sakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Shankara, and Ribhu. Rather than simply translate their teachings from available source texts, Avatar Adi Da respeaks them as one who has personally realized their truth. He reveals that the Buddhist “Nirvana” and the Advaitic “Brahman” point to the same Transcendental Condition. Avatar Adi Da’s rendering restores to these texts the profundity intended by the Spiritual Masters who created them.tags: Avataric DiscourseMountain of AttentionFree RenderingBuddhismAdvaita Vedanta
Notes on the Adidam Mission poster: TheBeezone length: 07:55 date added: September 18, 2012 event date: 2004 language: English views: 3723; views this month: 5; views this week: 4 In 2004, Adi Da Samraj talks to devotee Peter Harvey-Wright about using the Devotional Prayer of Changes to serve the Adidam Mission. He distinguishes conventional "neurotic prayer" (in which a person relates to God like a big "Parent") from the Prayer of Changes, which requires not just visualization but a change in action. As part of that change in action, He mentions the "barefoot Mission" (a phrase meant to emphasize the one-on-one nature of a truly effective Mission). He also stresses the importance of an authentic culture of Adidam as essential for attracting new devotees.tags: MissionDevotional Prayer of ChangesAvataric Discourse
poster: TheBeezone length: 14:14 date added: September 8, 2012 event date: 1988 language: English views: 5304; views this month: 15; views this week: 5 This audio clip is from the CD, What Is Your Intention?. This talk was originally published in Chapter 6 of the Love Ananda-Gita.
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.
Sex, Laughter, and Real-God-Realization poster: DawnHorsePress length: 03:21 date added: August 18, 2012 event date: September 7, 1975 language: English listens: 5586; listens this month: 15; listens this week: 7 Audio excerpt from Adi Da's talk, "Sex, Laughter, and Real-God-Realization" (now available on CD).
Sexuality, humor, and Awakening to the Divine Condition are three forms of ecstasy, or unbounded feeling, that disrupt the conventional sense of “order” in society. Pleasure undoes the body. Humor undoes the mind. And Realization undoes the sense of “self”. The Fullness of Real-God-Realization Comprehends and Transcends the limitations of social norms, spiritual presumptions, and self-identification, granting the capability of Real Happiness and True Freedom.tags: CD
True Discipline poster: TheBeezone length: 01:22 date added: August 18, 2012 event date: April 15, 1974 language: English listens: 2809; listens this month: 10; listens this week: 4 An excerpt from Garbage and the Goddess on true discipline. "Happiness is the responsibility. Freedom is the discipline."
[If this audio clip doesn't play, try pressing the play button a couple of times after the clip has fully loaded; or try re-loading the page.]tags: disciplineright lifeCD
poster: Tastingthemoon speaker: Meg Fortune McDonnell length: 12:03 date added: April 7, 2012 language: English views: 4913; views this month: 13; views this week: 7 Devotee Meg Fortune McDonnell reads from her book, Tasting the Moon: Adventures in the Meaning of Life. This story appears at the beginning of the chapter, "God's Eyes," which goes on to describe more explorations of dress, sexuality, and gender roles.
Our multimedia library currently contains 1206
YouTube video clips and audio clips about (or related to) Adi Da and Adidam.[1]
Enjoy! indicates
a video, and
an audio. Special categories of interest include:
Thanks to the many videographers who took the footage, to the many editors who
created these videos and audios, and to the 132
people and organizations who posted these videos and audios on YouTube and other places on the
Web. Special thanks to Lynne
Thompson, who did a lot of the data entry for our audio/video database.