Adidam Academy Courses

May-December 2008

Summary listing of all courses
Courses open to everyone
Courses for the third congregation of Adidam
Courses for the second congregation of Adidam

• On this page you can see course listings and information and links for class schedules and registration.
  
  
• To find out about the Virtual Classroom and the various modes of instruction we offer, go to the Virtual Classroom page.
  
  
• For more information or help, see our Contact page and connect by email or phone.

Summary Listing of All Courses

Open to everyone
501 The Da Avatar-An Introduction to the Life and Work of Avatar Adi Da
502 The Reality-Way of Adidam
503 Preparing to Practice the Way
513 Easy Death
514 The Ancient Walk-About Way

Open to the third congregation of Adidam (and others)
311 The Knee of Listening
312 My “Bright” Word
313 Easy Death
314 The Complete Yoga of Human Emotional-Sexual Life
315 The Ancient Reality-Teachings and The Lion Sutra

Open to the second congregation of Adidam
201 The Walk-About Way
210 Developing the Way

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Courses Open to Everyone

501 The Da Avatar-An Introduction to the Life and Work of Avatar Adi Da
A recommended introduction to the life and work of Adi Da Samraj from His birth to the present. Students will gain an understanding of the uniqueness of Adi Da within the context of the Great Tradition of human wisdom and spirituality. Courses 501, 502, and 503 are newly prepared and presented by James Alwood, one of Adidam’s most senior writers and educators, and they reflect significant changes in how Adi Da’s life and work, and the Way of Adidam, can be understood. These courses comprise the essential educational stream for all who wish to become Adi Da’s formal devotees.

4 weekly sessions. Several modes and schedules. Self-paced available: Yes

Start: Thursday, August 14 at 5pm Pacific time.
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Canada Shannon
Cost: $100
Click here to see registration information

Start: Wednesday, September 10 at 8pm Central European Time.
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Robin Temple
Cost: $100
Click here to see registration information

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502 The Reality-Way of Adidam
An introduction to “radical” devotion, right life, and “Perfect Knowledge”, the essential elements of the Way of Adidam. This course is based on the most up-to-date instructions and teachings of Avatar Adi Da, which simplify and clarify the foundation and practice of the Way of Adidam.

4 weekly sessions. Several modes and schedules. Self-paced available: Yes
Start: Sections for this class are constantly being scheduled. Please call the Academy Registrar at 503-327-8835 to get information about the next available class.
Prerequisites: None
Instructors: James Alwood
Cost: $100
Click here to see registration information

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503 Preparing to Practice the Way
A cultural and practical intensive required to prepare for formal initiation into the second congregation of Adidam.

4 weekly sessions. Several modes and schedules. Self-paced available: No
Start: Sections for this class are constantly being scheduled. Please call the Academy Registrar at 503-327-8835 to get information about the next available class.
Prerequisites: 501 and 502, or the equivalent.
Instructor: James Alwood
Cost: $200
Click here to see registration information

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513 Easy Death
The text for this course, the third edition of Easy Death, is a collection of remarkable talks, essays, and stories by which Avatar Adi Da draws the reader through a truly transformative process beyond fear and bewilderment about death and dying. In this extraordinary book, Adi Da Offers both the Wisdom and the practical means for serving others in the death process and for participating rightly, and in the spirit of ecstatic surrender, in our own inevitable death.

Several modes and schedules. Self-paced available: Yes
Start: Sections for this class are constantly being scheduled. Please call the Academy Registrar at 503-327-8835 to get information about the next available class.
Prerequisites: None
Cost: $150
Click here to see registration information

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Courses for the Third Congregation of Adidam

An extensive series of 20-week teleconference courses
based on specific books by Adi Da Samraj.

Instructor: Anne Henderson
All classes meet for 20 1-hour sessions, beginning the third week of October 2008.
Tuition is $300 ($60/month).(Books purchased separately)

Information and registration FOR COURSES 311 - 316 ONLY
call (707) 928-5560.

 

311 The Knee of Listening
This course is essentially a form of contemplation of the Mystery of Avatar Adi Da’s Divine Incarnation and Ordeal of Re-Awakening. A close study of Part I of the book, the autobiographical portion of The Knee of Listening, allows us to comprehend the uniqueness of Adi Da’s Realization and Revelation, as well as to understand the progress of practice in the Way of Adidam, as exemplified in His Own Life. Further study from Part II, about Avatar Adi Da’s Adept-Links to the Great Tradition of humankind, reveals the roles of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda in preparing the Vehicle of Avatar Adi Da’s Divine Incarnation.
Avatar Adi Da's incomparably instructive and inspiring Spiritual Autobiography will be offered, as always, on Tuesdays at 4 pm and 7:30 pm. Open to 3C, 2C, and public

Comments from previous Knee Of Listening students:

My search for Truth in the past led me to witness miracles, experience extraordinary dreams, and have out-of-body experiences. I tried everything from fruitarianism, to Christian revivals, yoga, devotion, and Native American ritual, but none of that gave me what I wanted. What I wanted was a real, present-time, tangible, personally felt, personally documented revelation about God and Truth!—and that is what I receive from Adi Da in His Knee Of Listening and in these classes. I look forward to each Knee Of Listening class with an almost childlike excitement, and I love to be with others who are devoted to Adi Da.

I have always believed that God must be everywhere, in all time, for everybody. Avatar Adi Da truly confirms that belief.

--Harley Huffman, musician and music teacher

Over the last months, preparation for The Knee Of Listening class became sacred time set apart in my life to grow in relationship to Beloved Adi Da. One of the many gifts of the course was the lovingly made requirement that I apply myself to truly understand the real depth and scope of what Beloved Adi Da is Offering to us all. In the face of that depth and scope, my thinking mind would spontaneously surrender to my heart to allow the profundity of Adi Da's message to transmit itself to me. I am amazed at Anne's ability to teach such an intricate text with intelligence, humor, and love. Thank you so much.

--Amy Parent, M.D.

The Knee Of Listening course taught by Anne Henderson has truly been a blessing for me. It has energized my life and reoriented me to the primal relationship to my Beloved, Adi Da Samraj. Anne is a great teacher and a wonderful conveyor of Beloved Adi Da's Teaching and Revelation. Thank you, Anne.

--Cliff Paine, nurse and carpenter

The Knee Of Listening course is a priceless opportunity to study Adi Da's extraordinary journey and timeless Gift to all. Anne's down to earth approach to instruction guides students to a deeper understanding of Adi Da, as she shares her leelas and her understanding of Adi Da's Wisdom-Teaching with obvious devotion and sensitivity.

--Marilyn Drinnan, payroll manager

Anne has a wealth of knowledge about Adi Da's Life and Teachings and she draws her students into a contemplation of Who Adi Da Is that has greatly enhanced my understanding and appreciation of Him.

--Laith Wilson, accountant

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312 My “Bright” Word
This collection of the earliest Discourses Given by Avatar Adi Da in Los Angeles grounds us in two fundamentals of the Way of Adidam: the devotional relationship to Him and the understanding of “Narcissus”, or the self-contraction. This study immerses us in the beginner’s practice of “listening”, in which we develop the capability for devotional resort to Avatar Adi Da and begin to understand the true nature of human suffering. We learn how, by His Divine Grace, it is ultimately possible to be Drawn beyond identification with the body-mind and the conditional world into His Divine State of Freedom and Happiness.

This class will not be offered this semester.

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313 Easy Death
In this collection of remarkable Talks, Essays, and stories of His Blessing-Help, Avatar Adi Da draws us through a truly transformative process in relation to our deepest fears and bewilderment relative to death and dying. In this extraordinary text, Avatar Adi Da Offers us both the Wisdom and the practical means for serving others in the death process and for participating rightly, and in the spirit of ecstatic surrender, in our own inevitable death.

When: Wednesdays at 5 pm PST. Open to 3C, 2C and public

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314 The Complete Yoga of Human Emotional-Sexual Life
Bhagavan Adi Da Offers uniquely comprehensive and liberating Guidance through and beyond the maze of delusion and suffering that is our emotional-sexual adaptation. In addition to the principal Text, this course draws upon other Texts in which Beloved Adi Da has Communicated about the emotional-sexual dimension of life, including The Dawn Horse Testament, The Incarnation of Love, Love of the Two-Armed Form, and The Enlightenment of the Whole Body.

When: Mondays at 5:00 and 7:30 pm PST
Prerequisites: permission of the instructor. Open to 3C & 2C

Here are a few comments from devotees who are just finishing the class:

Avatar Adi Da's Wisdom on human emotion, sexuality, and social egoity illuminates these areas of human complication and suffering with incomparable Clarity--even Humor! He Gives all the "information" we could possibly need to understand our unhappy early-life patterning and He Gives His Divine Blessing and Inspiration to actually transcend that patterning in resort to Him. This course has had tremendous practical value for me, as a devotee, as a husband, and as a father--and I recommend it to anyone.

--Bob Maes, 3C, retired IBM executive

Use this class to take care of life business!~I highly recommend~it. Page after page of life-changing Wisdom and profoundly practical Instruction from our Beloved Master has put me in the position to understand the True Love that Beloved Adi Da Talks about as the only Way out of ego-bondage.

--Harley Huffman, 3C, musician and band leader

The study and participation encouraged in this class on Beloved Adi Da's emotional-sexual Wisdom is a most gracious offering! Active participation with Beloved Adi Da's Wisdom-Instruction, actually practicing His Admonitions, day by day, opened my heart to emotionally revealing and ego-transcending action in life.

-- Amy Parent, M.D.

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315 The Ancient Reality-Teachings and The Lion Sutra
In late 2005, Beloved Adi Da looked at The Heart of the Ribhu Gita, a text from the Advaitic tradition, and was moved to make His own "rendering" of the text. His intention was not to "re-write" the text from the "Point Of View" of His Own Realization, but to illuminate the fullest meaning and intention of the text, as only another Realizer can. Over the next few months, Beloved Adi Da went on to render several other traditional texts, which, He said, "are outstanding among the most important texts ever written".

The Ancient Reality Teachings is comprised of the "renderings" of those few Buddhist and Advaitic texts chosen by Beloved Adi Da and the Discourses He Gave after reading His "renderings" to devotees gathered with Him at Land Bridge Pavilion and worldwide via the internet.

The Lion Sutra (The Perfect Practice of Perfect Knowledge), studied in the second half of the class, is Beloved Adi Da's comprehensive summary of the Perfect Practice of Adidam, which Perfectly Completes and Perfectly Realizes the practice and Realization described by the great sixth-stage Realizers.

To truly engage the listening practice in relation to these works at the Feet of Bhagavan Adi Da is to allow ourselves to receive His Transmission, to begin to be relaxed, by His Divine Grace, "from your agitated, contracted identification with the body-mind and its play and become capable of simply Standing in the Native Position".


When: Wednesday 7:30 pm, Thursdays 1:30, 5:00, and 6:30 pm
Prerequisites: permission of the instructor. Open to 3C & 2C

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Courses for the Second Congregation of Adidam

 

201 The Walk-About Way
The essential foundation intensive of study and life adaptation for all new novice student-beginners in the Way of Adidam.

24 weekly sessions. Several modes available. Self-paced available: No
Start: Sections for this class are constantly being scheduled. Please call the Academy Registrar at 503-327-8835 to get information about the next available class.
Prerequisites: None
Principal Instructor: Steve Benson
Cost: $450.
Click here to see registration information

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210 Developing the Way
This course is recommended for current novice student-beginners aiming to fully establish the practice. The context of the course is Darshan of Adi Da and the cultivation of recognition-response. A simple but potent daily study schedule focuses on “radical” devotion, right life, and “Perfect Knowledge”. Online discussion forums make it possible for students to communicate among each other and with the instructor even outside of the class sessions. The forums will also be used for recording responses to Darshan, study, meditation, and the daily form of practice. Students can interact with devotees from different regions who are taking the course.

8 weekly sessions. Several modes available. Self-paced available: No
Start: Sections for this class are constantly being scheduled. Please call the Academy Registrar at 503-327-8835 to get information about the next available class.
Prerequisite: 201, or a previous version of the basic novice program.
Principal Instructor: Steve Benson
Cost: $200
Click here to see registration information

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