In all “religious” and Spiritual traditions, a great deal is made of some key individual. There is no great Spiritual tradition that is without a person at the center of the process.
The primary force and “root” of all the esoteric traditions of humankind are the Adept-Realizers, those who actually Realize (to one or another degree) the Spiritual and Transcendental Nature of Reality.
Spiritually Realized Masters of varying degrees have appeared throughout history to teach, bless, and awaken humankind. Though seldom recognized or rightly honored in their own time and place, such Realizers are the world’s greatest spiritual treasures. Adi Da Samraj has appeared within the ancient and venerable tradition of all Divinely Realized Masters, with the same impulse to Teach, Bless, and Awaken humankind to the One Truth that is Reality Itself. The fundamental need of every human heart is to exceed the paradox of mortality, of bodily existence in a finite world, and to Realize Infinite Love, Perfect Freedom, and Boundless Happiness. The Great Message that Adi Da Samraj (1939–2008) brings to all is that such Realization is not only our most essential need, it is also our certain and inevitable destiny. This is because the true Condition of Reality Itself—and therefore of everyone and everything—is not the finite mortal world (or cosmic universe), but Indivisible Conscious Light—which is the limitless manifestation of Infinite Love, Perfect Freedom, and Boundless Happiness.
Avatar Adi Da Realized this Radiant Condition at birth, and since His early childhood He has called It the “Bright”. The primary means that Avatar Adi Da employed to awaken others to the “Bright” is the same one prescribed by Realized Masters since ancient times: the Guru-devotee relationship, consciously lived and mutually embraced as the very essence of Reality and Truth. To tacitly recognize Avatar Adi Da as Supremely Realized Master is to be naturally moved into a devotional relationship to Him, and thereby into a transformative process of extraordinary profundity. Within the intimate context of this relationship, which continues even after His physical passing, Avatar Adi Da Reveals and Transmits the Divine Reality—that which human beings have always deeply intuited, but never before Realized in its perfection and completeness. Avatar Adi Da repeatedly emphasized that “You become what you meditate on.” Therefore, the core principle of the Guru-devotee relationship is to commune with, or meditate on, the State of the Spiritual Master and thus Realize that State most perfectly.
Clearly, humankind in its present condition is far from such Realization. In general, people are bewildered and unhappy—seeking everywhere and by every means for lasting Happiness in a perilous and impermanent world. By contrast, Avatar Adi Da Teaches that the very act of seeking, whether for ordinary pleasures or spiritual attainments, only reinforces the unhappiness that provokes our seeking in the first place. All seeking, He says, is the result of a single, root-activity, done by everyone, yet entirely uninspected—an activity so fundamental that it governs every dimension of human life and awareness. He calls it the “self-contraction”, the habitual gesture of recoil and dissociation from the Prior Condition of indivisible oneness (much like constricting one’s open hand into a clenched fist—a gesture Adi Da would frequently make to illustrate the self-contraction). This contraction creates and constantly reaffirms the sense of an independent, inner self. It is signed by the illusory presumption that we are separate and different from all others and things. The self-contraction, Adi Da Teaches, is the very essence of egoity. It is both the reason for our seeking and its unhappy result. But it is entirely an error. As He expresses it:
The living human “experiential” being is not “centered” (or “rooted”) in an independent (or non-dependent) “inner self”, “mind”, “psyche”, “soul”, “embodiment”, “location”, or “point of view”. The living human “experiential” being is (within its conditionally apparent context) intrinsically non-separate—or intrinsically, and dependently, and indivisibly of a prior unity and whole.~ Avatar Adi Da Samraj
Understanding this is at the central core of Avatar Adi Da’s Teaching. Yet in the entire history of humankind, such understanding has never been the acknowledged basis of cultural life, philosophical wisdom, religious practice, or spiritual realization.
All previous paths, Eastern or Western, exoteric or esoteric, begin from the point of view of the self-contracted body-mind seeking release from stress, pain, fear, and the inevitability of mortality. Each seeks such “release” by various methods, beliefs, rituals, techniques, meditation practices, etc. The Reality-Way of Adidam, however, is neither a prescriptive doctrine nor a system of techniques. It is the unique result of Adi Da’s Avataric Intervention into the human condition. Adidam is, in fact, the precise opposite of all previous paths—a Divine Process wherein the revelation of the True Condition of Reality is given whenever one tacitly recognizes Avatar Adi Da’s Divine State.
The logic of practice in the Reality-Way of Adidam is this: Attracted by Avatar Adi Da’s State of Being, one simply enters responsively into devotional communion with Him. This occurs at the very beginning of one’s practice in His Company, rather than as the “end result.” The whole way of life, then—the disciplines, meditation, dietary practices, etc.—serve to free up attention and energy, enabling one to deeply feel, commune with and be transformed by Avatar Adi Da’s Divinely Enlightened State. The Way in His Spiritual Company, Adi Da says, “is as direct and simple as That”.
The Reality-Way of Adidam begins with one’s recognition and response to Adi Da Samraj as the Realizer and Revealer of the Condition of Conscious Light. By virtue of the actual, moment-to-moment living of the Reality-Way of Adidam, each devotee is Graced to receive Avatar Adi Da’s Transmitted Divine Blessings most directly. The life of practice includes comprehensive personal disciplines relative to diet, health, service, and cooperative community, as well as devotional meditation on Avatar Adi Da via the sighting of His bodily form (in photographic and other visual media). The specific details and responsibilities of practice differ according to each individual’s response. But for all devotees, the fundamental practice of Adidam is always devotional communion with Avatar Adi Da and conscious participation in every area of life as a simple, direct expression of one’s devotional relationship to Him. Devotees of Avatar Adi Da also offer gifts of service and support to His eternal Work via the Holy Institution of Adidam. Thus, by Avatar Adi Da’s Grace, the unfolding process of the Reality-Way of Adidam becomes a constant abiding in His Spiritual Presence and State of Divine Freedom, Peace, and Love-Bliss-Happiness.
During His physical lifetime, Avatar Adi Da established the essential Means (or Agencies) by which His Divine Self-Revelation is extended to all and the practice of the Reality-Way of Adidam—founded in moment-to-moment devotional communion with Him—is made possible in perpetuity. These are:
