Adi Da Samraj has Transcended Manifest Existence

Adi Da, AKA Da Free John, AKA Da Love Ananda. He was my Guru for many years. I was a formal student for some of that time, but not all. Near or far, apparently connected or apparently not, he has been one of the most powerful influences in my life. He has died, but not really. Not for me and I know not for many. He is in my bones. Here is the Press Release on the Adidam website:

In the early evening of Thursday, November 27, His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj, Departed from the Body. He was in His Fijian Hermitage, Adi Da Samrajashram (the Island of Naitauba).

His Passing was entirely peaceful and free of any struggle. He Passed of natural causes. At the time of His Passing, He was Working in His Art Studio, surrounded by devotees who were engaged in serving His Artwork.

His Body will be interred in the most sacred Place of Adidam — the secluded Temple which Avatar Adi Da established in 1993 (at Adi Da Samrajashram) as His burial place.

On the morning of His Passing, He had completed His Writing of The Aletheon, the book which He designated as "first and foremost" among all of His Writings. Avatar Adi Da worked on The Aletheon intensively for the last two years, bringing all of His most essential Spiritual and philosophical communications into a final form. The Aletheon is scheduled for publication by The Dawn Horse Press in 2009.

His Divine Presence Bequeathed to humankind a Legacy of Inexhaustible Profundity and Limitless Blessing-Power.

Spiritual Way

Avatar Adi Da's Primary Gift is His own Eternal Transcendental Spiritual Being. The Primary Purpose of His human Lifetime was to Establish the means by which any and all beings could be truly connected to Him and in devotional Communion with Him. Thus, He Worked with utmost intensity, throughout His entire Life, to develop and establish His Transcendental Spiritual Way-Adidam, or (more fully) the "Radical" (or Always "At-the-Root") Reality-Way of Adidam Ruchiradam.

Most fundamentally, the Reality-Way of Adidam is the devotional relationship to Avatar Adi Da Samraj as one's Divine Avataric Master. That Way was established and elaborated by Avatar Adi Da in the greatest possible detail, during His human Lifetime. Thus, His precise Instruction relative to all aspects of His Way will always guide and align practitioners of His Way, in the process of always deepening Communion with Him.

Teaching Literature

Avatar Adi Da's literary, philosophical, and practical writings consist of over sixty published books — including The Knee of Listening, His Spiritual Autobiography, and The Dawn Horse Testament, His magisterial Revelation of the entire Spiritual Process from beginning to end.

His Divine Presence did a tremendous amount of Writing in the years 2005-2008. Just two weeks before His Passing, He designated the five books that He Wrote during that three-year period as "the Five Principal Books of My Forever Comprehensive Seventh-Stage Address to all-and-All":

The Aletheon: The Divine Avataric Self-Revelation of His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj

The Gnosticon: The "Perfect Knowledge" Reality-Teachings of His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj

The Pneumaton: The Transcendental Spiritual Reality-Teachings of His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj

Not-Two Is Peace: The Ordinary People's Way of Global Cooperative Order

Transcendental Realism: The Image-Art of egoless Coincidence With Reality Itself

Prepublication editions of The Aletheon, The Gnosticon, and The Pneumaton — as well as the second edition of Not-Two Is Peace and the first edition of Transcendental Realism — are currently available from The Dawn Horse Press.

Examination of world religions

Over a period of many decades, His Divine Presence undertook a massive examination of the world's religious traditions, culminating in an annotated bibliography of approximately 10,000 items, entitled The Basket of Tolerance. A briefer "epitome" version of The Basket of Tolerance is scheduled for publication by The Dawn Horse Press in 2009.

Avatar Adi Da also created original translations of traditional Spiritual texts, translations in which He brings out the deepest meaning of the original texts. The recent publication Reality Is All the God There Is (published by Inner Traditions) presents His translations of texts from the traditions of Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta.

Practical literature

Avatar Adi Da's writings on fundamental practical areas of human life, examined from the Spiritual perspective, include Green Gorilla (published by The Dawn Horse Press), relative to raw diet, and The Complete Yoga of Emotional-Sexual Life (published by Inner Traditions).

Literary Works

Avatar Adi Da's principal literary work is His trilogy entitled The Orpheum. In the late 1990s, poet Robert Lax said of The Mummery Book (the opening volume of the Orpheum trilogy), "Living and working as a writer for many decades, I have not encountered a book like this, that mysteriously and unselfconsciously conveys so much of the Unspeakable Reality." The Orpheum is also presented in the form of cutting-edge theatre — as shown online at www.mummerybook.org.

Spoken Discourses

In addition to His Writings, Avatar Adi Da gave thousands of hours of recorded Discourse. Many key Discourses have already been published by The Dawn Horse Press on CD and DVD. And many more will be published on an ongoing basis.

Artistic Works

Avatar Adi Da was an extraordinarily prolific artist, producing over 100,000 works, primarily in the years since 2000. He was invited to show His work in a solo exhibition at the 2007 Venice Biennale, and also as part of the 2008 Winter in Florence Festival. Noted art critic Donald Kuspit has written, "It is Adi Da Samraj's imaginative triumph to have conveyed the illusions created by discrepant points of view and the emotionally liberating effect when they aesthetically unite . . ." Among the publications of Avatar Adi Da's art are The World As Light, Transcendental Realism, and The Spectra Suites. His artistic work can be viewed online at www.adidabiennale.org and www.daplastique.com.

Work with non-humans

As an expression of His Deep Love for and Constant Blessing of all beings and things in the entirety of the natural world, Avatar Adi Da founded and developed Fear-No-More Zoo (www.FearNoMoreZoo.org). His Divine Presence created an extensive body of Wisdom about the Spiritual nature of non-human beings, and of the non-human world altogether, for the sake of humans' ongoing understanding, respect, and stewardship of all life. Avatar Adi Da's Vision of Fear-No-More is one wherein human and non-human exist equally, at heart, within one diverse sacred culture.

Call for World Peace

Another dimension to Avatar Adi Da's far-reaching Legacy is the social wisdom embodied in His book Not-Two Is Peace (published by The Dawn Horse Press). In it He Calls for the establishment of a Global Cooperative Forum that mobilizes "everybody-all-at-once" on the basis of recognizing the prior (or inherent) unity of the entire human family. He proposes that such a forum is the necessary and effective means for addressing the world's most pressing issues. Information about this initiative is available online at www.globalcooperationproject.org

"I Will Not Be Gone"

Many times during His Lifetime, His Divine Presence, Avatar Adi Da Samraj, prepared people to rightly understand the significance of His Bodily Lifetime and the fact that His Bodily Lifetime would inevitably come to an end at some point.

In the following passages from His Essay "I Am The One Who Has Always Been Here", written in 1995, Avatar Adi Da Speaks of His Eternal Transcendental Spiritual Existence, His Everlasting Regard for all beings, and His Constant Blessing-Grace.

I Will Be here Forever.
I Will Be every "where" Forever.

I Cannot Leave, For My Transcendentally Spiritually "Bright" Divine Spherical Self-Domain Is Not Some "Where" To "Go To".
My Divine Self-Domain Is Eternal.
I Am Eternal, and I Am Always Already Merely Present-here, and every "where" In The Cosmic Domain.

By Means Of My Divine Avataric Incarnation here, I Have Given you My Divine Secret.
My Divine Secret Is This: I Am Eternally Present, and I Am Omni-Present.

My Bodily (Human) Avataric-Incarnation-Form Has Its time, Whereby I connect (or Freedom-"Bind") you (and every one, and all, and All) To Me.
When The Time Of My Divine Avataric Incarnation is Fulfilled, Then I Am "Retired" To My Eternal Form-The Divine-Body-Power Of My Divine Self-State Made Infinitely Intact In The Cosmic Domain (Forever).

As he would say, "Tcha". Om Sri Da Hridayam.

Hitler goes into Foreclosure - Parody

In Honor of Our New President.....With the Greatest Respect and Appreciation....Oh Hell Yeah!

"Religion is Killing the Republican Party"

Gee, ya think??

Kathleen Parker wrote a piece for Washington Post where she does a post-mortem on the bleached out, bloated cadaver that is the current GOP. I couldn't agree more....

Exerpt:

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I'm bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

Prop 8 Allows Religion to Dictate to State

Here are the latest stats:

Roughly 85% of Christians of all denominations voted FOR it, roughly 85% of non-Christians voted AGAINST it. What does that tell you? I'm tired of people arguing about the 'vast majority of religions' think blah blah blah.... My answer to that is this:

Even if the case is, that "the vast majority of people across a wide spectrum of religions share a viewpoint", it doesn't give them the right to impose that viewpoint on others via the law, if it violates Civil Rights.

Case in point: In 1967 the Supreme Court finally recognized the Civil right of white people to marry black people: Inter-racial marriage. (It had been illegal prior to that). Even THOUGH the SCOTUS declared it legal and Constitutional, a full 80% of people across a wide spectrum, as you say, shared the viewpoint of DISAPPROVAL. Had they the ability to vote on the matter, they would have voted to ban it. Exactly the same thing is at play here, only the ban is on gay marriage.
The same arguments were heard then that God intended the races to marry only each other, blah blah blah.....just as they now say "God's" intention (as if anyone could adequately know) is that only heterosexuals may marry.

The REAL question is this: Are gays and lesbians full fledged citizens of the USA, or not? In California: Are they full fledged citizens of CA or not? That is the fundamental matter in question and it IS one to be handled by the SCOTUS ultimately.

Mormon Church Should Lose Its Tax Exempt Status

The Mormon Church contributed roughly HALF of the funding for the Yes on Proposition 8 Campaign to ban gay marriage in California. Volunteers poured in from Utah as the church felt this was a "moral imperative". The Church basically gave marching orders to members to flood into our state and involve themselves in our political process, which they did. The $5 MILLION influx of cash in the last two weeks of the campaign enabled all of those deceptive, fear-mongering TV ads featuring little kids being "taught" gay marriage in school.

Where is the separation of Church and State?? The Yes Campaign says that they were very careful NOT to distribute leaflets or talking points on church property to avoid the APPEARANCE of church involvement in politics, but come on......that is the slimmest of slim technicalities. We all know this was a church based initiative; we're not willing to let them off the hook with an "oh, okay then..." Now the Mormon Church is upset that people are well..upset. After all of the fear and deception, lies, mean-spirited bigotry they are crying "foul" when gays, lesbians and their supporters are protesting on behalf of Civil Rights. It boggles the mind!

From today's NYT article (linked below) :

Mr. Otterson said it was too early to tell what the long-term implications might be for the church, but in any case, he added, none of that factored into the decision by church leaders to order a march into battle. “They felt there was only one way we could stand on such a fundamental moral issue, and they took that stand,” he said. “It was a matter of standing up for what the church believes is right.”

That said, the extent of the protests has taken many Mormons by surprise. On Friday, the church’s leadership took the unusual step of issuing a statement calling for “respect” and “civility” in the aftermath of the vote.

“Attacks on churches and intimidation of people of faith have no place in civil discourse over controversial issues,” the statement said. “People of faith have a democratic right to express their views in the public square without fear of reprisal.”

Except that you didn't just EXPRESS YOUR VIEWS, you pulled out all the stops and placed your church members and their ideologies smack in the middle of our political process. Your missionaries, flush with cash, proselytized our electorate with your religious dogma and doctrine to directly influence the outcome of the vote. Now you want people, whose Civil Rights have been abridged by YOUR efforts, to simply "play nice" and walk away saying "oh okay, guess we lost then....bye bye now..." ????

I hope there is such a brouhaha following this smackdown of Civil and HUMAN rights that there will be AT LAST a serious reexamination of the Tax status of many of the religious organizations (AND cults, let's get real) who are entwining themselves like Poison Ivy into so many of our public and secular institutions.

LINK to NYT article:

Cocoa Tea's Barack Obama Reggae Song

Sweet!! Check it out!

To People Complaining about Obama tapping Clinton Era Heavyweights

What don't people get about the concept of CHANGE? We suffered under the Bush Crime Family for 8 loooooong years. The Iraq war, Enron, Homeland "Security", FEMA's non-response to Katrina, Faith based initiatives, socially retrograde appointments to the SCOTUS, decimating Roe v. Wade at every opportunity, de-regulating and privatizing everything they could lay their greedy hands on.

When Obama spoke of CHANGE, what did that mean to you folks? For me, it meant that we would have a change from what has been going on for the past 8 years. Certainly Bill Clinton made some fundamental errors, NAFTA being one, the way it was structured, the Patriot Act to name but two. HOWEVER the change we need at this point is to undo much of the damage done by BushCo. The economy is first order of business to include Healthcare reform. The Iraq war, our international relations, infrastructure repair, need I go on?

In order to effect these changes Obama may call on some old tried and true Democratic hands. SO WHAT? This is a plus in my book. I trust Obama to be enough of his own man to differ and alter course if need be, should these folks offer solutions that seem unwise. Meanwhile give the guy a break and remember all the Bush havoc from which we wish to change.

Can't let the Passage of Prop 8 Pass....

Living here in CA in Santa Cruz; Berkeley by the beach, it was a real buzz kill to learn that Prop 8 passed.

While gay marriage was legal in CA, what, precisely has happened to heterosexual marriage? Did couples awake in the night in terror? Did they suddenly question their fidelity, ability to continue the commitment? What?? No longer able to feel "saved" and special quite like before?

Love ya Keith Olbermann and your Special Comment last night, but the real question is this:

Are gays and lesbians full citizens of the United States or not? Are they full citizens of the state of California? If they ARE, then they have identical rights as everyone else. If NOT, then it must be spelled out legally and no half-baked measures will do. We will then know precisely what we are up against.

By we, I mean all people living in 2008, mentally as well as physically, not those living in the Bronze Age.

Southern Strategy for Winning National Elections: Buh Bye! don't let the door hit you in the...

So, Political Scientists are uniformly declaring that the Southern Strategy to win elections at the National level is dead. This angling for the supposed all important white, racist, conservative vote is now irrelevant. The election of two men, one of African American descent, who are NOT from the South demonstrated clearly that this old paradigm is disappearing rapidly in our collective rearview mirror. Here's what we're losing (from NYT article today):

Race was a strong subtext in post-election conversations across the socioeconomic spectrum here in Vernon, the small, struggling seat of Lamar County on the Mississippi border.

One white woman said she feared that blacks would now become more “aggressive,” while another volunteered that she was bothered by the idea of a black man “over me” in the White House.

Mr. McCain won 76 percent of the county’s vote, about five percentage points more than Mr. Bush did, because “a lot more people came out, hoping to keep Obama out,” Joey Franks, a construction worker, said in the parking lot of the Shop and Save.

Mr. Franks, who voted for Mr. McCain, said he believed that “over 50 percent voted against Obama for racial reasons,” adding that in his own case race mattered “a little bit. That’s in my mind.”

Many people made it clear that they were deeply apprehensive about Mr. Obama, though some said they were hoping for the best.

“I think any time you have someone elected president of the United States with a Muslim name, whether they are white or black, there are some very unsettling things,” George W. Newman, a director at a local bank and the former owner of a trucking business, said over lunch at Yellow Creek Fish and Steak.

Don Dollar, the administrative assistant at City Hall, said bitterly that anyone not upset with Mr. Obama’s victory should seek religious forgiveness.

“This is a community that’s supposed to be filled with a bunch of Christian folks,” he said. “If they’re not disappointed, they need to be at the altar.”

Finally, these under-educated Confederates can no longer determine the direction of our country and our society. They are the dinosaurs of this era and a meteor has just landed in their backyard. Woo hoo! Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/us/politics/11south.html?th&emc=th

David Brooks: Republicans in "World of Pain"

I enjoy David Brooks; watch him every Friday at 6:00 p.m. on PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer. I don't always agree with him by a long shot, but he is a SANE Republican. He knows how to take the temperature of the country. He sees trends, changes, forward MOVEMENT for god's sake. He gets it that issues need to be addressed from a balanced perspective rather than a hellbent for leather ideological vortex of whirling fears and prejudices with a death-grip on the past.

For my part, if the Republicans are in a world of pain as Brooks said here on Face the Nation yesterday, they've no one but themselves to blame. Those chickens coming home to roost are so massive, so leaden, the whole house is caving on them and unless they learn the lesson, it will be a generation at least before they come into power again. It heartens me very much to hear Brooks' dead-on analysis; he's nailed it, more than any other pundit I've read so far. Note what he says about Sarah Palin. Watch:

Synchronicity

Well it's been quite a week. It has been an emotional high for me. Lots of tearing up and feelings of relief and I'll admit, some "payback' as I feel the power of my party of choice beginning to take over the White House. It feels so gooooooood.

What has simultaneously occurred is that people I knew in my former spiritual group/Sangha have contacted me within the past couple of weeks. Three of them I've not heard from in years. The commonality we all share now is some perspective at last on the circumstances which caused us to bail on this "spiritual" group. At first, we went through varying degrees of feeling traumatized and in need of space and healing.

My response was to remove myself utterly from the spiritual scene altogether. What I did for awhile was to attend an AA 12 step meditation group at Land of the Medicine Buddha in Soquel, near where I live. It was great; the people were inspirational but I felt out of place and a bit of an oddball, being that I've never been a drinker much at all, let alone an alcoholic. I just loved their vibe and the fact that they all were looking at their addictive behavior. Where does one find "Guru huggers Anonymous"? I was at a loss, so the meditation group was a stop gap measure. It served. Since I left that, I've not joined or participated in ANYTHING other than my beloved job, which has it own spiritual merits and benefits and my physical fitness program which also has similar benefits.

After hearing from my oldtime buddies I began to ponder once again, what is it that I've gained in my almost five years distant perspective on the whole spiritual game? (Realize that we all felt we'd been in a cultic situation, if not an outright cult). As I did my walk/jog in the redwood forest today (I know, I know, I'm a lucky duck to live here...) I was looking at what I'm left with in how I view the whole long strange trip it WAS. What has percolated up as bonafide Reality? What if any insight have I gained?

What came to mind was that what I trust, are those insights or feelings that reflect something Universal, something inclusive and wholistic. If there is a sense coming from any quarter of "All of this is ONLY God" or "Love is the guiding intelligence of my life", I can get with that. That feels trustworthy to me. Bob Marley's "One Love, One Heart, Let's get together and Feel Alright".....I can get with that. IF there is any personal reference or anyone making self congratulatory remarks about how great their revelations have been; how much wisdom they've gained, how, in ANY way, "special" they are....my B.S. detector goes "bzzzzzzzzzzt" and if it as if I am suddenly swimming in sharky waters and my instincts are to paddle AWAY man....and get to dry land!

So it's clear to me I've been successfully innoculated, FINALLY against the lure of these charismatic, spiritual "leaders" (Blech!) Yet it is refreshing and heartening to feel that, yeah, I can feel connected to the Unknowable Source, the Ground of Being and it's no-graven-image aspect feels supremely trustworthy.

Maybe there IS something to that biblical second commandment after all. Did I just make a biblical reference?? Yeah, I guess I did. Pssssssst...Chris Hitchens, I still love ya.....

Men's Brains, Women's Brains

This explains ALOT!

Our joy; our sentimental Wednesday...messages from loved ones

From my friend Sue: "I was just about to e-mail you! when those red states started flipping last night the full impact of the message for the desire for peace and unity this sends to the world hit me. I cried for an hour. Our generation is over kiddo. Let's hope the youngsters do a better job! xo!!!!!!"

From my friend Chelsea when I said "President Obama" sounds so great:

"Damn right, that feels great! I haven't felt this way since I was a
little kid and I saw Bobby Kennedy in my hometown. Hopefully, Obama
will survive his two terms as president. I have to confess I'm a bit
worried for him, just because it only takes one crazy person and one
slip up on the security.

But today I won't think about that. I'm celebrating like everyone
else!

You go girl. I love your blogs.

Voicemail from Elizabeth: "Dude! We are sooooooo happy! Yay!! Oh god, it is so great! Call me!"

Voicemail from Millie: "Hello my beloved friend...I want to say thank you for working so hard, thank all of us....now we have to work to reach out to those who have been on the other side....."

Phone call from John: "Heh, heh...heh.....wooo...heh....heh...."

Phone call with Roxy: "This is so great but now I want to see Bush, Cheney and all of them, not just kicked out of office, but put in jail!"

(Ah well, some of us are still mightily pissed....:-) )

President Obama!

Oh god, if this is a dream don't wake me!

Overjoyed to say the least! I am so happy for America, I am so proud to be American. I look forward to being able to say these words for the first time in 8 years "Turn on the TV honey, the President is giving a press conference."

Yes we can. Yes we did.

Thank God/Goddess/Jesus/Krishna/Buddha all beings of Light. The universe needed this.

Whew......

Don't Speak for me, Sarah Palin by Hockey Mama for Obama

I want to MEET all these cool people putting out thoughtful, funny, insightful videos!

This gal also has a great soprano voice. Check her out: