Adi Da Samraj at a cookie-making occasion in First People (now called "Great Food Dish") at the Mountain of Attention Sanctuary on December 23, 1995, as part of the Celebration of Danavira Mela. Outside, devotees sing holiday songs for Him, as He looks out the window, listens to the music, and sings a few notes Himself. Inside, devotees attend Him as He turns cooking-making into an art form.
I’ve sung Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to Beloved Adi Da many times over the years — at the Manner of Flowers, at Adi Da Samrajashram, at First People / Great Food Dish, etc. (as one of a small group of singers, and usually also as the keyboardist) — and I’m singing it to Him again (and all of you!) here. It is one of my favorite songs at this time of year.
For me (starting with Judy Garland's original film version), it has always been an emotion-filled song, by turns joyful, playful, nostalgic, and wistful — so that is how I sing it here.
This song as a bridge to God. In Beloved Adi Da’s Company, everything (from Mickey Mouse to cookie-making) becomes “a bridge to God”.
ADI DA: “You must Awaken and discover the Divine World wherein everything is a bridge to the Infinite, One Being.”
And so for me, the words of this song have always taken on a significance beyond the usual secular understanding of the song. They lead me through a consideration that I’ll share with you here.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas Let your heart be light From now on our troubles will be out of sight
Have yourself a merry little Christmas Make the Yuletide gay From now on our troubles will be miles away.
Here we are as in olden days Happy golden days of yore Faithful friends who are dear to us Gather near to us once more
Through the years we all will be together If the fates allow Hang a shining star upon the highest bough And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.
That wistfulness: Raymond’s problem. On the surface, the words of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas are purely joyful — "faithful friends" coming together each year in a joyous Christmas celebration. And yet, one of the emotions I feel when I sing this song is wistfulness. So where is the wistfulness coming from? It's that big "IF" in the song: "if the fates allow". In fact, as every one of us knows (more and more, with each passing year), fate (conditional existence) only allows such reunions for a limited number of years. As I sing, I have a vision of a photograph of a gathering of friends, from a Christmas or Danavira Mela many years ago, and, in this vision, each face in the photograph — one by one over the years — turns "ghostly", either through our circumstances (high school, college, living near each other) no longer being shared, or life paths that have moved in different directions, or the passing on of that person. My awareness of that inevitable reality is the source of the wistfulness and nostalgia. The inevitable disappearance of the (mortal) loved one is “Raymond’s problem”, a phrase Adi Da uses, based on the central character of The Mummery Book.
Danavira Mela: A Divine Celebration in the midst of a conditional universe. The joy and playfulness of the song comes from the celebration we can still have together, even in the midst of an ever-changing, conditional universe. One of my (and many other devotees’) favorite quotes of Beloved Adi Da has always been this extraordinary prayer, from “Death is a Perfect Insult” in The Enlightenment of the Whole Body:
“Let us surrender into Infinity with all our friends and hold on to no thing or condition that ever appears. Let us forget all things in present Happiness, and so forgive the universe for all its playful changes. Let us always love one another, and so forgive one another for appearing, for changing, and for passing out of present sight. So be it.”
When I sing this song, I hear it giving further guidance for just how to do this.
How Magical! How Profound! poster: AdiDaUpClose length: 17:33 date added: January 6, 2018 event date: February 4, 1994 language: English views: 2130; views this month: 30; views this week: 11
An extraordinary, ecstatic talk given by Adi Da on February 4, 1994, at Adi Da Samrajashram, about the nature of the Guru-devotee relationship, when truly and fully lived and animated, as Adi Da Himself illustrates here.
Adi Da recites His "Five Reality-Teachings", as we watch scenes from Adi Da Samrajashram, followed by Darshan of Avatar Adi Da.
Notice this:
1. You are not the one who wakes, or dreams, or sleeps.
2. You Are the actionless and formless Mere Witness of the three common states — of waking, dreaming and sleeping — and of all the apparent contents and “experiences” associated with the three common states, of waking, and of dreaming, and of sleeping.
3. You are not the body, or the doer of action, or the doer of even any of the body’s actions or functions.
4. You are not the mind, or the thinker, or the doer of even any of the actions or functions of mind or of body-mind.
5. No matter what arises — whether as or in the state of waking, or of dreaming, or of sleeping — you Are the actionless, and formless, and thought-free Mere Witness of attention itself, and of every apparent “object” of attention, and of any and every state of “experience”, and of the entirety of whatever and all that arises.
Always intensively “consider” these Five Reality-Teachings.
Always intensively observe and notice every moment of your “experience” — whether waking, dreaming, or sleeping — and, thus and thereby, “consider” and test and directly prove these Five Reality-Teachings in the moment-to-moment of your every kind and state of “experience”.
On the CD is a seminal Discourse on self-understanding given by Adi Da on April 8, 1993. In this Discourse, Adi Da calls all those inclined to Realize True Freedom to first recognize the failure of their search — which is based on the illusion of separation. Rather than engaging the ordinary pursuit of union with all others and things from which we feel separate, Avatar Adi Da says we must find out that our inherent Condition is one of Perfect Non-separation.
ADI DA: You are doing this contraction. The stress you say you are feeling is the result of that. . . The more you feel that you yourself are doing it, the more it relaxes. . . You are, as it relaxes, directly surrendered, truly forgetting yourself, entering into the Field of Non-Separateness — which is My Very Nature, Condition, Sign, Demonstration, Transmission.
Dr. Sally Taylor serves the Adidam culture by helping devotees with their practice of the Way of Adidam.
In this video, she talks about her voluntary participation in Adi Da's considerations about the emotional-sexual dimension of life. She describes the instructions she received, and the profound benefit she has derived by being "grown up" beyond childish patterns of self-suppression, shutting down of the life force, promiscuity, and limitations on love.
For more about Adi Da's wisdom on the emotional-sexual dimension of life, visit our Crazy Wisdom section.
As part of His recitation of The Happenine Book in April, 2006, at Adi Da Samrajashram, Adi Da recites "The Five Reality-Teachings". A chanted version is available here.
THE FIVE REALITY-TEACHINGS
Notice this:
1. You are not the one who wakes, or dreams, or sleeps.
2. You Are the actionless and formless Mere Witness of the three common states — of waking, dreaming and sleeping — and of all the apparent contents and “experiences” associated with the three common states, of waking, and of dreaming, and of sleeping.
3. You are not the body, or the doer of action, or the doer of even any of the body’s actions or functions.
4. You are not the mind, or the thinker, or the doer of even any of the actions or functions of mind or of body-mind.
5. No matter what arises — whether as or in the state of waking, or of dreaming, or of sleeping — you Are the actionless, and formless, and thought-free Mere Witness of attention itself, and of every apparent “object” of attention, and of any and every state of “experience”, and of the entirety of whatever and all that arises.
Always intensively “consider” these Five Reality-Teachings.
Always intensively observe and notice every moment of your “experience” — whether waking, dreaming, or sleeping — and, thus and thereby, “consider” and test and directly prove these Five Reality-Teachings in the moment-to-moment of your every kind and state of “experience”.
In the early months of 1985, Avatar Adi Da was residing at His Hermitage-Island in Fiji, working intensively to complete the first edition of His Supreme Scriptural Text, The Dawn Horse Testament. Avatar Adi Da began this occasion by reciting a newly written essay, which He subsequently added to The Dawn Horse Testament — and then spoke at length about the import of the essay.
In this Discourse, Avatar Adi Da invites everyone to consider the implications of the common understanding that everything — all that you see, hear, breathe, taste, smell, feel — is energy, or light. Rather than suggesting yet another method of seeking within the infinite forms of experienced light, Avatar Adi Da Offers (and Is) the direct Transmission of Light — which Reveals Itself to be the Self-Radiant Bliss of Consciousness Itself.
ADI DA: The most intimate presumption, the real presumption — that all this is Light — should be sufficient to make your hair stand on end. Real Communion with Light, or True Baptism — founded on “self” understanding — produces ecstasy, profound transformation of the being, liberates you from all of your egoic psychology.
When The Tiger Disappears poster: AdiDaUpClose length: 48:21 date added: November 9, 2011 event date: 1993 language: English listens: 4190; listens this month: 11; listens this week: 3
Adi Da contrasts the egoic model of life and love, which is based on a "victim" strategy, with the self-transcending model, which is based on self-responsibility. He describes the purpose and nature of devotional groups in serving practice of the Way of Adidam.
A devotee of Avatar Adi Da speaks about His Unique Offering and how it differs from other approaches. In an excerpt from one of His essays, "There Is A Way And Reality Itself Is It" (in The Aletheon), Adi Da states: "What I Bring to here is not mythology. What I Bring to here is not ‘religion’. What I Bring to here is not anything that human beings already ‘know’. What I Bring to here is not a path or a search that is already evident in the history of the Great Tradition of humankind. What I Bring to here has never been offered before, never heard of before, never practiced before."
Adi Da recites "The Heart of Understanding", the Prologue to His autobiography, The Knee Of Listening. The recitation is accompanied by photos of Adi Da.
"The Heart of Understanding" is extraordinarily good news: death itself can be transcended! Death is not a problem, and is utterly acceptable, if one realizes and stands as Consciousness Itself, in which all mortal forms and limited worlds are arising.
In the final words of "The Heart of Understanding", Adi Da reveals that He is That: Consciousness Itself. Because this is so, He transmits that Revelation to all beings, and provides (and is) the means whereby all of us finally can be free of mortality and the mortal vision.
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: 6441; views this month: 27; views this week: 12
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: "Religion" belongs to a domain of efforts that are "point-of-view"-based, cosmological in nature, associated with myths of apparent Reality as perceived. None of that has anything to do with the Realization of Reality Itself.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:37 date added: June 2, 2016 language: English views: 7582; views this month: 22; views this week: 12
Adi Da's entire human lifetime was a unique demonstration of His Eternal Form — the State He calls the "Bright", the Conscious Light that is Reality Itself.
From His birth on November 3, 1939 on Long Island in New York, to His passing from the body on November 27, 2008, on the Island of Naitauba, Fiji, His Life is the story of the Intervention of the "Bright" in human time.
The fruits of Avatar Adi Da's Lifetime are the establishment of a new and unique possibility for the transformation of all beings and the world itself. His Revelation is of the Divine Reality, which is always Shining — like the sun — as the Prior Condition of every one and every thing.
Adi Da has always said that the Way He Teaches is an ego-transcending relationship, rather than an ego-serving technique. The Way is founded on devotional recognition and response to Him. It is a silent, wordless intuition in the heart of one’s being—not a matter of mere belief, ideas, or techniques to seek for fulfillment (whether material or spiritual). To all who respond to Him with devotion and self-discipline, Adi Da Reveals the Very Divine Condition—the Love-Bliss-Light of Consciousness Itself.
This video provides a brief overview of Avatar Adi Da's life and work, and is an invitation to enter into Spiritual relationship to Him for the sake of Divine Realization.
Adi Da: "I Demonstrate Totality to here. I Reveal Reality Itself, Which Is Divine in Its Totality—not fractioned by humankind, not changed or limited by humankind. I Function in an egoless Transcendental Spiritual (and, Thus, Super-normal) Manner. I am not here limited as a gross (physical) phenomenon. When I am Really 'Located', My Transcendental Spiritual Self-Transmission is literal and undeniable. My Transcendental Spiritual Self-Transmission Is the 'Proof' that Reality—and the 'world' altogether—is of an entirely different Nature than people otherwise suppose."
Beyond Sex, Science, and self poster: AdiDaVideos length: 09:59 date added: December 16, 2013 event date: January 21, 2005 language: English views: 6269; views this month: 25; views this week: 15
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.
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