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 DVD and on CD, and as an online transcript.
ADI DA: Life is foolishness. This is no time, in any case, to be tolerant of foolishness. The world is mad, and these are dreadful times. Things are not going to be easier in the years ahead. The spiritual process has always been lived in difficult times. Therefore, the spiritual process tolerates no fool. The spiritual process itself will spit you out. It is not an easy attainment, but a profoundly difficult affair. Even what you have listened to today has been heard by only a fraction of the human race in all of history. The opportunity to practice is extremely rare, and the fulfillment of practice is practically unknown.
In some sense you could say this life is hell. . . The nature of this hell is that we are self-possessed. We are born in un-Happiness and we do not transcend it readily. We constantly pursue Happiness through all kinds of incredibly complex means, and we never attain It. . .
If Spiritual Realizers did not turn about and Teach, this would truly be a hell instead of being like a hell. It would truly be a hell if there were no possibility of Enlightenment, if there were no Teaching, no Spiritual Masters, no sacred Way, no sacred community, no capacity for understanding or self-transcendence.
The Trap of Experience poster: AdiDaVideos length: 04:35 date added: September 14, 2016 event date: September 1, 2004 language: English views: 2318; views this month: 12; views this week: 10
In this excerpt from an Avataric Discourse given on September 1, 2004, Adi Da addresses the fact that people tend to value good experiences and shun the bad ones. Adi Da reveals that all experience — positive or negative — is inherently binding (which may come as a surprise to many).
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 08:16 date added: July 17, 2019 event date: July 17, 1978 language: English views: 986; views this month: 10; views this week: 3
This is an excerpt from the longer talk, "The Fire Must Have Its Way". The full talk is available on the DVD, The Fire Must Have Its Way, on which this is track 5. It is also available as a CD. The talk also appears in written form in the book, My "Bright" Sight and online here.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 13:50 date added: February 28, 2020 event date: October 28, 1978 language: English views: 1114; views this month: 11; views this week: 4
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.
There Is No Separate Self poster: AdiDaVideos length: 09:29 date added: October 19, 2017 language: English views: 2708; views this month: 24; views this week: 15
In this discourse excerpt, Adi Da addresses the fact that the assumption of a separate self or being, is not really the case. It is, in fact, an illusion — a "lie" that rules our entire life. But based on this assumption, we assume all kinds of limitations, and struggle to get out of our suffering through the very means (our assumption that we are separate) which binds us in the first place. All that does is reinforce the illusion.
At 7:07, there is Darshan of Adi Da, continuing to 9:09.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 08:52 date added: January 28, 2020 event date: October 28, 1978 language: English views: 1175; views this month: 16; views this week: 5
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 Fear of Death? poster: AdiDaVideos length: 14:09 date added: November 22, 2016 event date: September 18, 2004 language: English views: 4549; views this month: 23; views this week: 16
Throughout the years of His Divine Avataric Teaching-Revelation, Avatar Adi Da spoke at length in response to devotees' questions on all subjects relative to the human circumstance — including death, and all the sorrow and fear inherent in the circumstance of human mortality.
This video excerpt is from an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da on September 18, 2004. In this Discourse, Adi Da points out that all fear is fear of death or fear of extinction. This fear is like a constant background noise, from which we constantly try to distract ourselves with the games of life. Adi Da describes the choice we face: to live in fear, the "native mood of the ego" — or to realize the profundity of the inherently fearless Condition.
Avatar Adi Da calls us to a surrendered life that is about Realization and all that is relevant to Realization, including compassionate service. Such a surrendered life is the key to an "easy" death.
This DVD compilation of ten talks spans thirty-four years of Avatar Adi Da's Work. It includes His compassionate Instruction about: - the sorrow of loss - the fear of death - serving the dying person - how to practice during and beyond the death process - the Ultimate Demonstration of Divine Translation (or Most Perfect Realization of the deathless Condition).
From His Perfect Disposition of Absolute Freedom, Avatar Adi Da Samraj reveals the greater process within which death occurs, and the Ultimate Demonstration of What Is, Prior to life and death.
What To Remember To Be Happy poster: AdiDaVideos speaker: Jonah Strauss length: 04:33 date added: April 17, 2014 language: English views: 6626; views this month: 11; views this week: 4
This video is an excerpt from Second Evening: Track 6 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. Other excerpts available on this site can be found here.
Why One Needs A Guru poster: AdiDaVideos length: 07:04 date added: November 17, 2013 event date: December 27, 1988 language: English views: 4558; views this month: 9; views this week: 7
In this video clip from the 1988 talk, "What Is Your Intention?", Adi Da criticizes the "do-it-yourself" approach to spirituality that is popular in the world today, and speaks about why a teacher is necessary.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 07:42 date added: November 4, 2012 event date: August 30, 2004 language: English views: 5072; views this month: 10; views this week: 9
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: AdiDaVideos speaker: James Steinberg length: 02:30 date added: May 20, 2020 language: English views: 1236; views this month: 11; views this week: 3
"You Become What You Meditate On" is a video excerpt from the award-winning documentary, Conscious Light, about the life of Adi Da Samraj. Drawing on an extensive archival collection of film, photography, and audio recordings, as well as interviews with students who have lived with Adi Da and who practice His teachings. Conscious Light takes the viewer on a journey from Adi Da's birth, through His thirty-six years of Teaching and Blessing, to the legacy and spiritual relationship that is eternally available to all after His passing.
poster: AdiDaVideos length: 08:18 date added: July 22, 2017 event date: July 7, 2005 language: English views: 3542; views this month: 15; views this week: 8
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.
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.
You Do Not See The Room As It Is! poster: AdiDaVideos length: 07:00 date added: July 16, 2019 event date: January 21, 2005 language: English views: 950; views this month: 4; views this week: 1
You Do Not Think poster: AdiDaVideos length: 06:53 date added: October 1, 2016 event date: October 10, 2004 language: English views: 4174; views this month: 9; views this week: 5
This is an excerpt from the DVD, Locate What Is Real, an Avataric Discourse given by Adi Da on October 10, 2004.
In this excerpt, Adi Da explains how all the beings and things we tend to presume have an independent existence are in fact only apparitions arising in a single, universal Consciousness and are modifications of a single, underlying Divine Reality. Adi Da notes that the presumption that we are generating our actual thinking process is a part of this apparition. He says that even thoughts themselves are only an activity arising in Consciousness, and, if we truly examined this activity, we would notice that we are not generating the thinking process.
On the full DVD: * Adi Da describes how Reality is the true “first experience” for everyone — more fundamental to existence than identification with the apparently “born” being. * He speaks about how music and other arts can function as extensions of Spirituality. * He talks about Ramana Maharshi and the sixth stage orientation, in contrast to His seventh stage Reality-Way. * He addresses a devotee’s experience of emotional trauma, and how such events can affect one’s life. * He describes His own Submission, in His early life, to the process of Christian mystical experience.
"You Must Know The Place You Are In" is a video excerpt from the award-winning documentary, Conscious Light, about the life and work of Adi Da Samraj.
Drawing on an extensive archival collection of film, photography, and audio recordings, as well as interviews with students who have lived with Adi Da and who practice His teachings, Conscious Light takes the viewer on a journey from Adi Da's birth, through His thirty-six years of Teaching and Blessing, to the legacy and spiritual relationship that is eternally available to all after His passing.
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