Adi Da Up Close
Audio/Video Library

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.' "

"Renouncing the Search for the Edible Deity" is available as a CD here. A transcript is also available online and as a chapter in the book, The Yoga Of Right Diet.

Tags: searchless diet  

An audio excerpt from Adi Da Samraj's early talk, "Renouncing the Search for the Edible Deity", accompanied by more recent photos of Adi Da.

Adi Da: "When we look out into the universe we feel insulted, rejected, unloved. And so we make philosophy out of our apparent independence. Fundamentally, it is not our experiences in particular relationships that tell us we are not loved. Some people do not love us, surely, but nevertheless we are simply, always, and already philosophically disposed to believe that we are not loved. It is our interpretation of existence, not on the basis of any relational experience we have had with other human beings, but on the basis of our apparent independence itself. Our sense of independent bodily existence means separation to us, whereas, you see, it is really only the sense of independent bodily existence. When you become strong — if you ever can become truly strong — autonomous, able to take a deep breath, then you stop interpreting the universe as a form of rejection, as a great parent from whose company you have been expelled, under whose domination you live, who has rejected you and does not love you. Everyone is simply born into the conventional condition of independence and everyone interprets that condition as rejection, as 'you don't love me.' "

"Renouncing the Search for the Edible Deity" is available as a CD here. A transcript is also available online and as a chapter in the book, The Yoga Of Right Diet.

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.' "

"Renouncing the Search for the Edible Deity" is available as a CD here. A transcript is also available online and as a chapter in the book, The Yoga Of Right Diet.

Tags: searchless diet  

Adi Da gave this talk on May 24, 1983, in Fiji. In it he describes how all processes (including diet) associated with transformation of the body-mind (making it an appropriate yogic vehicle compatible with the Transcendental Spiritual Way of Adidam) necessarily first go through purification and rebalancing phases (for as long as they take) — associated with Fire — before they enter the regeneration phase — associated with Light. Knowing this helps one persist in the fire of the purification and rebalancing phases to the point where one comes out the other side.

Tags: searchless diet  

[Show actually begins at 00:56, after a commercial and a brief excerpt from Mozart's Symphony No. 40.]

In this episode of the radio show, A Better World, host Mitchell Rabin conducts a Round Table discussion on the relationship between diet and climate change. He raises the tremendous possibility for both personal-planetary transformation and spiritual growth.

Joining Mitchell are Abel Slater and Dina Lautman. Abel and Dina have been devotees of Adi Da for over 25 years, and have spent significant time in Naitauba, Fiji at Adi Da’s principal Hermitage Sanctuary, Adi Da Samrajashram, where they received direct guidance from Adi Da, both in practical life wisdom and esoteric spiritual practice. Now based in New York, they also travel extensively throughout the world presenting Adi Da's spiritual teachings about right life, including diet, sexuality, meditation and conductivity. Recently, they have been focused on raising awareness about the benefits of the raw vegan diet by promoting Green Gorilla raw treats across the U.S. and around the world.

What occurs at the micro level of each individual's diet is effectively magnified at the macro level of the collective global ecosystem. Today, over 70 billion land animals are killed annually to support human meat consumption. A recent United Nations environmental impact study determined that livestock is the source of 18% of global greenhouse gases, now exceeding emissions from all transportation sources globally, which account for 17% of global greenhouse gases. Meat consumption is growing exponentially and is increasingly jeopardizing the health of the planet. Today’s Round Table will address these issues in depth. This conversation and the information we consider is vital to our personal health and to the collective survival of our species and all sentient life.

A devotee reads an excerpt from Adi Da's essay, "Searchless, Lawful Management of the Body", from the book, Green Gorilla.

In this essay, Adi Da addresses "lawfulness" in relation to diet, in contrast to the fascinated preoccupation with food that characterizes people in the modern world. This preoccupation is based in the egoic search for fun and pleasure, and inevitably results in suffering and pain. The lawful diet is not an end in itself, but a simple, ordinary practice that establishes "the 'position' of well-being of the body" and is part of a larger practice of what Adi Da calls "right life".

For more on this topic (as well as the text of the complete essay, "Searchless, Lawful Management of the Body"), read the Adidam Revelation Magazine's article, Searchless, Lawful Management of the Body. Further excerpts from Green Goriila can be found here.

Tags: Green Gorilla   diet  

While Adi Da recommends a maximally raw diet [see Adi Da's Green Gorilla], the Sanctuary Kitchen occasionally makes a cooked dish drawn from the broader vegetarian cuisine. In this video, Douglas Short, the head chef at First People (the kitchen for The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary), instructs us on how to make quinoa tabouli. Douglas also shows us a nice trick for dicing tomatoes efficiently with a very sharp knife.

Tags: raw   diet   food   First People   quinoa   tabouli  

In keeping with Adi Da's recommendation that devotees eat a maximally raw diet [see Adi Da's Green Gorilla], Douglas Short, the head chef at First People (The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary kitchen), instructs us on how to make a less oily salad dressing. Ingredients: cucumbers, carrots, red bell peppers, avocadoes, apple cider vinegar, honey, olive oil, salt, coriander. Interesting tip about adding olive oil while the blender is running.

[The clip actually starts with Douglas showing us the red lentil dal soup that was the subject of part 7.]

Tags: raw   diet   food   First People   salad   dressing  

While Adi Da recommends a maximally raw diet [see Adi Da's Green Gorilla], the Sanctuary Kitchen occasionally makes a cooked dish drawn from the broader vegetarian cuisine. In this video, Douglas Short, the head chef at First People (The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary kitchen), instructs us on how to make red lentil dal soup. (You can see the finished result in Part 8.)

Tags: vegetarian   diet   food   First People   dal   soup   Douglas Short  

In keeping with Adi Da's recommendation that devotees eat a maximally raw diet [see Adi Da's Green Gorilla], Douglas Short, the head chef at First People (The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary kitchen), instructs us on how to make raw chocolate orange truffles.

Tags: raw   diet   food   orange truffles chocolate  

In keeping with Adi Da's recommendation that devotees eat a maximally raw diet [see Adi Da's Green Gorilla], Douglas Short, the head chef at First People (The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary kitchen), instructs us on how to peel a kiwi (the fruit).

Tags: raw   diet   food   First People   kiwi  

In keeping with Adi Da's recommendation that devotees eat a maximally raw diet [see Adi Da's Green Gorilla], Douglas Short, the head chef at First People (The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary kitchen), instructs us on how to make vegetable sushi. In this part, Douglas rolls the sushi.

Useful kitchen accessories:
* a mandoline slicer

Tags: raw   diet   food   First People   vegetable   sushi  

In keeping with Adi Da's recommendation that devotees eat a maximally raw diet [see Adi Da's Green Gorilla], Douglas Short, the head chef at First People (The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary kitchen), instructs us on how to make vegetable sushi. In this part, Douglas prepares the ingredients, and provides instruction on using the mandoline slicer.

Useful kitchen accessories:
* a mandoline slicer

Tags: raw   diet   food   First People   vegetable   sushi