76 Facts About Adi Da

Adi Da was the founder of a new religious movement known as Adidam.

Adi Da became known in the spiritual counterculture of the 1970s for his books and public talks and for the activities of his religious community.

Adi Da authored more than 75 books, including those published posthumously, with key works including an autobiography, The Knee Of Listening, spiritual works such as The Aletheon and The Dawn Horse Testament, and social philosophy such as Not-Two Is Peace.

Adi Da's teaching is closely related to the Indian tradition of nondualism.

Adi Da founded a publishing house, the Dawn Horse Press, to print his books.

Adi Da was praised by authorities in spirituality, philosophy, sociology, literature, and art, but was criticized for what were perceived as his isolation and controversial behavior.

Adi Da was invited to the 2007 Venice Biennale to participate through a collateral exhibition, and was later invited to exhibit his work in Florence, Italy, in the 15th century Cenacolo di Ognissanti and the Bargello museum.

Adi Da's work was shown in New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Miami, and London.

Adi Da served as an acolyte in the Lutheran church during his adolescence and aspired to be a minister, but after leaving for college in the autumn of 1957, expressed doubts about the religion to his Lutheran pastor.

Adi Da attended Columbia University where he graduated in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy.

Adi Da went on to complete a master's degree in English literature at Stanford University in 1963, under the guidance of novelist and historian Wallace Stegner.

Adi Da's master's thesis was "a study of core issues in modernism, focused on Gertrude Stein and the leading painters of the same period".

Adi Da understood this to be the same logic hidden in the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus, the adored child of the gods, who was condemned to the contemplation of his own image and suffered the fate of eternal separateness.

Adi Da concluded that the "death of Narcissus" was required to fulfill what he felt was the guiding purpose of his life, which was to awaken to the "Spiritually 'Bright' Condition of Consciousness Itself" that was prior to Narcissus, and communicate this awakening to others.

Adi Da wrote later that he found these experiences "self-validating" in that they mimicked ecstatic states of consciousness from his childhood, but problematic as they often resulted in paranoia, anxiety, or disassociation.

In June 1964, Adi Da responded to an intuitive impulse to leave California in search of a spiritual teacher in New York City.

Adi Da received formal permission to visit the ashram for four days in April 1968.

Adi Da described experiencing an awakening to the Witness consciousness, beyond identification with the point of view of bodily consciousness.

Adi Da returned to India for a month-long visit in early 1969, during which he received a handwritten letter from Swami Muktananda, granting him the spiritual names Dhyanananda and Love-Ananda, and authorizing him to initiate others into Siddha Yoga.

However, Adi Da was disappointed by his experience there, especially by the institutionalization of the ashram and the large numbers of westerners who had arrived since his previous visit.

Adi Da wrote in his autobiography that in September 1970, while sitting in the Vedanta Society Temple in Hollywood, he awakened fully into the state of perfect spiritual enlightenment that he called "The Bright".

Adi Da wrote that although he had been born with full awareness of "the Bright", this awareness became obscured in childhood, and his subsequent spiritual journey had been a quest to recapture it, and share it with others.

When Swami Muktananda stopped in California on a worldwide tour in October 1970, Adi Da visited him and related his experience the previous month of "The Bright".

Adi Da felt that the swami did not understand or properly acknowledge the full importance of his realization of "Consciousness Itself", prior to visions and yogic phenomena and indeed all experiences in the context of the body-mind.

In 1972, Adi Da opened Ashram Books, a spiritual center and bookshop in Los Angeles.

Adi Da began with a "simple and traditional" teaching method, sitting formally with a small group in the meditation hall and simply transmitting his state of "perfect Happiness" to them.

Adi Da began giving discourses, soon attracting a small following due in part to his charismatic speaking style.

Adi Da taught in a traditional Indian style, speaking from a raised dais surrounded by flowers and oriental carpets, with listeners seated on the floor.

Adi Da incorporated many elements of the guru-devotee relationship associated with the Kashmir Shaivite and Advaita Vedanta schools of Hinduism, but expressed original insights and opinions about both spirituality and secular culture.

Adi Da was one of the first westerners to become well known as a teacher of meditation and eastern esoteric traditions at a time when these were of growing interest.

Some early participants stated that Adi Da demonstrated an ability to produce alterations in their consciousness, likening the effect to shaktipat of Indian yoga traditions.

In 1973, Adi Da traveled to India to meet a final time with Swami Muktananda.

Adi Da nevertheless stated that he continued to appreciate and respect his former guru, and to express his "love and gratitude for the incomparable service" Muktananda had performed for him.

In January 1974, Adi Da told his followers that he was "the divine lord in human form".

In 1973, Adi Da began to use more unconventional means of instruction, which he called "crazy wisdom", comparing it to a tradition of yogic adepts who employed seemingly un-spiritual methods to awaken disciples.

Some followers reported having profound metaphysical experiences in Adi Da's presence, attributing these phenomena to his spiritual power.

Adi Da initiated a series of teachings and activities that came to be known as the "Garbage and the Goddess" period, based on the title of his fourth book, Garbage and the Goddess: The Last Miracles and Final Spiritual Instructions of Bubba Free John.

However, Adi Da constantly reiterated that such experiences were only manifestations of the Goddess and her phenomenal world: they were not spiritually auspicious and had no bearing on the realization of Consciousness itself.

Over a period of years, Adi Da entered into what he called "emotional-sexual reality consideration" with his formal devotees.

Adi Da spoke of the cultish and contractual nature of conventional relationships, particularly marriage, as being a form of reinforcement of the ego-personality and an obstacle to spiritual life.

Adi Da said that the emotional-sexual consideration was part of a radical overturning of conventional moral values and social contracts, obliging devotees to confront their habitual patterns and emotional attachments.

Adi Da said that his present work in this area could not have been as effective without the earlier cultural and philosophical groundwork laid by Freud's depth psychoanalysis.

In 1979, Adi Da changed his name from "Bubba Free John" to "Da Free John", signifying to his devotees the divine nature of his revelation as guru.

Adi Da established a second ashram in Hawaii, now called Da Love-Ananda Mahal.

In 1983, having established such "empowered" places in Northern California and Hawaii, Adi Da moved with a group of about 40 followers to the Fijian island of Naitauba, purchased by a wealthy follower from the actor Raymond Burr.

Adi Da's intention was to establish a "set-apart" hermitage for his spiritual work in the world.

On Naitauba Island on January 11,1986, while expressing deep distress at what he felt was the futility of his work, Adi Da described the feeling of the life-force leaving his body, before collapsing, going into convulsions and losing consciousness.

Adi Da later described the episode as a "literal death experience" with a special significance for his teaching work.

Adi Da began a period of intensive fasting, before leaving Fiji for California.

Adi Da later traveled to New York City, London, Paris and Amsterdam, silently giving his blessing to all who came visibly into his sphere.

Adi Da actively supported Lenz's followers joining his organization; according to religious studies professor Eugene V Gallagher, Adi Da claimed to have been Swami Vivekananda in a past life, with Lenz having been Vivekenanda's disciple Rama Tirtha.

Adidam later acquired the property on Lopez Island where this had taken place, renaming it "Ruchira Dham Hermitage": the event itself, which Adi Da discusses in detail in part 19 of The Aletheon, is referred to as "The Ruchira Dham Event".

Adi Da wrote that it marked the definitive end of his "active" teaching work: from now on he would simply transmit his state, requiring devotees to become responsible for their reception of that.

Adi Da nonetheless continued to write books, make art, and give discourses, but with an increased emphasis on what he called "silent Darshan".

Adi Da had four children: three biological daughters with three different women, and one adopted daughter.

Adi Da maintained that human beings are always demanding an explanation for the existence of the world or the bodily "self".

Conversely, Adi Da affirmed that the proper beginning of philosophy is the intrinsic apprehension of the egoless, indivisible, non-separate, and acausal nature of Reality or Conscious Light.

Adi Da developed a schema called "the seven stages of life" which he says is a precise "mapping" of the potential developmental course of human spiritual experience as it unfolds through the gross, subtle, and causal dimensions of the being.

Adi Da categorized the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages of life as the highest respective stages of human development.

Adi Da stated that the seventh stage has nothing to do with development and does not come after the sixth stage in a sequential manner.

Seventh stage Realization is a permanent, natural state of "open-eyed ecstasy", for which Adi Da employed the Sanskrit term Sahaj Samadhi or Seventh Stage Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

Adi Da claimed to be in the seventh stage of life, most perfectly realized as Conscious Light Itself, which is absolutely unconditional and is therefore permanent.

Adi Da's devotees recognize him to be a spiritual master who is the Avataric incarnation of the "Bright", or Conscious Light itself.

The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements noted that "[w]hile acknowledging his debts to both Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, Adi Da asserted the originality of his own religious teaching".

Adi Da said that after his death there would not be any further teachings or "revelations", and that his message was complete.

Adi Da was emphatic that no individual assert themselves as his representative or heir.

Adi Da produced a variety of literary and creative works, primarily the large number of books that he wrote.

Adi Da authored more than 75 books, including those published posthumously, with key works including his autobiography, The Knee Of Listening, spiritual works such as The Aletheon and The Dawn Horse Testament, and literature such as The Orpheum.

Adi Da wrote prolifically about his spiritual philosophy, creating the Dawn Horse Press in 1973 to publish his books.

Adi Da invests himself spiritually in all of his writing, and that transmission can be received through reading any of his books.

Adi Da's master's thesis, "a study of core issues in modernism, focused on Gertrude Stein and the leading painters of the same period", demonstrated his interest in art.

Adi Da was invited to the 2007 Venice Biennale to participate through an official collateral exhibition, and was later invited to exhibit his work in Florence, Italy, in the 15th century Cenacolo di Ognissanti and the Bargello Museum.

Adi Da's work has been shown in New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Miami, and London.

In 1982, yoga and religion scholar Georg Feuerstein formally became a follower of Adi Da and wrote a number of introductions to Adi Da books.

Adi Da later renounced this affiliation, becoming publicly critical of Adi Da and the community surrounding him in Fiji.

Adi Da heavily edited subsequent editions of his books, for which they have been criticized as auto-hagiography and self-mythology.