Adi Da

In the last years of his life, Adi Da began to exhibit his digital art and photography. Followers reported that he died of cardiac arrest on November 27, 2008, at his home in Fiji, while working on his art.

In his later years, Adi Da focused on creating works of art intended to enable viewers to enter into a "space" beyond limited "points of view". He 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. His work was also shown in New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Miami, and London.

In 2007 Adi Da's works were included in an official collateral exhibition to the Venice Biennale in Italy. The exhibition was curated by Italian art historian Achille Bonito Oliva. The exhibit then moved to Florence. This solo exhibition in Florence was the first to show contemporary art with Renaissance art, juxtaposing Domenico Ghirlandaio's perspectival Last Supper with Adi Da's aperspectival monumental fabrications.

In a foreword to the 2004 edition of Adi Da's autobiography The Knee Of Listening, religious scholar Jeffrey J. Kripal described Adi Da's total corpus as being "the most doctrinally thorough, the most philosophically sophisticated, the most culturally challenging, and the most creatively original literature currently available in the English language".

Following the death of spiritual teacher Frederick Lenz (Zen Master Rama) in 1998, some followers of Lenz joined Adidam. 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.

In the late 1990s Adi Da often spoke of dark forces that were becoming increasingly powerful in the world, telling devotees of his constant engagement with these forces and his unarmoured receptivity to the pain and misery of the countless people suffering. These processes, he said, had a devastating effect on his body, and in April 2000, while traveling in Northern California under the care of devotees, he became almost completely physically incapacitated. On April 12, at Lopez Island, in the presence of a number of devotees, he again experienced a process of disassociation from the physical resembling death. In this event, he said, he became fully established as the "Bright" Itself, in a living demonstration of what he calls "Divine Translation". Only the knowledge that his work in human form had not yet been completed, he said, maintained his connection to the world and drew him back into embodiment. 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". He 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. He nonetheless continued to write books, make art, and give discourses, but with an increased emphasis on what he called "silent Darshan".

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. Doctors found his vital signs to be present, although his breathing was almost imperceptible. They eventually succeeded in resuscitating him. He later described the episode as a "literal death experience" with a special significance for his teaching work. His reassociation with the body was accompanied, he said, by a profound impulse of love and compassion for suffering beings. This impulse initiated a complete descent of the "Bright" into his human body, so that the divine became incarnated in human form in an unprecedented manner. The event became known in the Communion as his "Divine Emergence".

Adi Da founded a publishing house, the Dawn Horse Press, to print his books. He was praised by authorities in spirituality, philosophy, sociology, literature, and art, but was also criticized for what were perceived as his isolation and controversial behavior. In 1985, former followers made allegations of misconduct: two lawsuits were filed, to which Adidam responded with threats of counter-litigation. The principal lawsuit was dismissed and the other was settled out of court.

In 1985, accusations of misbehavior by Adi Da and some of his followers attracted media attention. Adi Da and Adidam (then known as Da Free John and The Johannine Daist Communion) were subjects of almost daily coverage in April of that year in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Mill Valley Record, and other regional media resources. The story gained national attention with a two-part exposé on The Today Show that aired May 9 and 10.

The church issued conflicting statements in response to the coverage. A lawyer for the church said that controversial sexual activities had only occurred during the "Garbage and Goddess" period years earlier. Shortly after, an official church spokesman said that "tantra-style encounters" of the kind described in allegations were still occurring, but were mostly confined to an inner circle. This confirmed the stories by former members that such activities had continued up to the time of the lawsuits and interviews in 1985. The church said that no illegal acts had taken place and that the movement had a right to continue experiments in lifestyles.

Two lawsuits were filed against Adi Da and his organization in 1985. The first was brought by Beverly O'Mahoney, then wife of the Adidam president, alleging fraud and assault (among other things); the suit sought $5 million in damages. Adidam threatened to file its own lawsuit against O'Mahoney, as well as five others who had been named in stories and interviews making allegations of abuse (no suit was ever filed). Adidam charged that allegations against the church were part of an extortion plot. The O'Mahoney suit was dismissed by the court the next year. The other lawsuit and two threatened suits in the mid-1980s were settled with payments and confidentiality agreements, negatively impacting member morale. Since the mid-1980s, no lawsuits have been filed against Adi Da or any Adidam organizations.

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. He later renounced this affiliation, becoming publicly critical of Adi Da and the community surrounding him in Fiji. Feuerstein devoted a chapter to Adi Da in his 1991 book Holy Madness: Spirituality, Crazy-Wise Teachers, and Enlightenment. In the introduction to the 2006 edition, Feuerstein describes having edited the sections devoted to Adi Da to reflect these changes in opinion.

From 1980 to 1990, philosophical theorist and author Ken Wilber wrote a number of enthusiastic endorsements and forewords for Adi Da's books, including The Dawn Horse Testament, The Divine Emergence of the World-Teacher, and Scientific Proof of the Existence of God Will Soon Be Announced by the White House! Wilber also recommended Adi Da as a spiritual teacher to those interested in his own writings.

In 1979, Adi Da changed his name from "Bubba Free John" to "Da Free John" ("Da" being a Sanskrit syllable meaning "the One Who Gives"), signifying to his devotees the divine nature of his revelation as guru. He also established a second ashram in Hawaii, now called Da Love-Ananda Mahal. Over the next decade, Adi Da changed his name several times, saying it reflected differences or changes in the nature of his message and relationship to followers. Subsequent names included Da Love-Ananda, Dau Loloma, Da Kalki, Hridaya-Samartha Sat-Guru Da, Santosha Da, Da Avadhoota, Da Avabhasa, and from 1994, Adi Da Love-Ananda Samraj, or Adi Da.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, Adi Da (then Franklin Jones) assumed the name "Bubba Free John", based on a nickname meaning "friend" combined with a rendering of "Franklin Jones". He and Nina divorced, although she remained a follower. In January 1974, Adi Da told his followers that he was "the divine lord in human form". Later that year, the church obtained an aging hot springs resort in Lake County, California, renaming it "Persimmon" (it is now known as "The Mountain of Attention"). Adi Da and a group of selected followers moved there and experimented in communal living. Most followers relocated from Los Angeles to San Francisco, where Dawn Horse Books also moved.

While the primary spiritual center of the church is Naitauba Island, Fiji, there are two officially designated ashrams, or "sanctuaries", belonging to Adidam in the United States, with another in Europe, and another in New Zealand. Followers of Adidam have been ambitious and prolific in their dissemination of Adi Da's books and teachings; however, the church is estimated to have remained more or less constant at approximately 1,000 members worldwide since 1974, with a high rate of turnover among membership.

Asian-Religions scholar Scott Lowe was an early follower of Adi Da and lived in the community in 1974. In an essay later analyzing what he had witnessed as well as Adi Da's subsequent career, he perceives a pattern of "abusive, manipulative, and self-centered" behavior, saying "does it necessarily follow that the individual who is 'liberated' is free to indulge in what appear to be egocentric, hurtful, and damaging actions in the name of spiritual freedom? I personally think not, while acknowledging the subtlety and complexity of the ongoing debate".

In 1973, Adi Da traveled to India to meet a final time with Swami Muktananda. They disagreed on a series of questions which Adi Da had prepared, creating a rupture in their relationship. They later criticized each other's approach to spiritual matters. 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 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. Others present remained skeptical, witnessing nothing supernatural.

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. He wrote prolifically about his spiritual philosophy, creating the Dawn Horse Press in 1973 to publish his books. It continues to print many Adi Da-authored titles. Best known among these is The Knee Of Listening. First published in 1972, it has been reissued in a number of editions, undergoing extensive revisions and additions. The first edition was 271 pages long; the latest is 840. The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements quoted a follower of Adi Da as saying:

In 1972, Adi Da opened Ashram Books (later Dawn Horse Books), a spiritual center and bookshop in Los Angeles. He 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. He began giving discourses, soon attracting a small following due in part to his charismatic speaking style. He taught in a traditional Indian style, speaking from a raised dais surrounded by flowers and oriental carpets, with listeners seated on the floor. He incorporated many elements of the guru-devotee relationship associated with the Kashmir Shaivite and Advaita Vedanta schools of Hinduism, but also expressed original insights and opinions about both spirituality and secular culture. As the gathering grew, he introduced disciplines related to money, food, sex, and community living. He 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 1972, he began to teach "radical understanding", described as "a combination of discriminative self-observation and guru-devotion". With the number of followers increasing, a formal religious community—"The Dawn Horse Communion"—was established.

Even before Adi Da opened the ashram bookstore in Los Angeles in 1972, he stated that people need holy places where Spiritual Force is alive. 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. His intention was to establish a "set-apart" hermitage for his spiritual work in the world. Adi Da Samraj became a citizen of Fiji in 1993. It was his primary residence until the end of his life.

Adidam refers to both the organization of Adi Da's devotees and the religion he taught. The organization, or church, founded initially in 1972, went by many earlier names, including the Dawn Horse Communion, the Free Communion Church, the Laughing Man Institute, the Crazy Wisdom Fellowship, the Way of Divine Ignorance, and the Johannine Daist Communion. Adi Da's devotees recognize him to be a spiritual master who is the Avataric incarnation of the "Bright", or Conscious Light itself.

Adi Da initially became known in the spiritual counterculture of the 1970s for his books and public talks and for the activities of his religious community. He 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 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". He 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. The autobiography, entitled The Knee Of Listening, was published in 1972. It included a foreword by the well-known spiritual philosopher Alan Watts, who on studying Adi Da's teachings had reportedly said, "It looks like we have an avatar here. I've been waiting for such a one all my life". In the foreword, he wrote: "It is obvious, from all sorts of subtle details, that he knows what IT's all about… a rare being".

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". He 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. During the visit Adi Da reconciled with Rudi.

After returning to New York, Adi Da and Nina became members and then employees of the Church of Scientology, leaving after a little more than a year of involvement. Adi Da returned to India for a month-long visit in early 1969, during which he received a handwritten (and formally translated) letter from Swami Muktananda, granting him the spiritual names Dhyanananda and Love-Ananda, and authorizing him to initiate others into Siddha Yoga. In May 1970, Adi Da, Nina, and a friend named Pat Morley traveled to India for what they believed would be an indefinite period living at Swami Muktananda's ashram. 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. Three weeks after arriving, he visited the burial place of Bhagavan Nityananda and, by his account, received an immense transmission of the Shakti-Force. According to his autobiography, he began—to his great surprise—to see visions of the Virgin Mary (which he interpreted as a personification of the divine feminine power, or shakti). The vision of Mary directed him to make a pilgrimage to Christian holy sites. After embarking on a two week pilgrimage to holy places in Europe and the Middle East, he, Nina and Pat returned to New York. In August 1970, they moved to Los Angeles.

Swami Muktananda, a disciple of Bhagavan Nityananda, was a well-known guru who had brought his tradition of Kashmir Shaivism to the West, establishing meditation centers around the world. Adi Da received formal permission to visit the ashram for four days in April 1968. Muktananda encouraged him to end his studies with Rudi and study with himself directly. In his autobiography, Adi Da related how he was granted shaktipat initiation, the awakening of the Kundalini Shakti that is said to reside at the base of the spine, which deepens the practice of Siddha Yoga meditation. Adi Da described experiencing an awakening to the Witness consciousness, beyond identification with the point of view of bodily consciousness. He began to study formally with Swami Muktananda.

Feeling that Adi Da needed better grounding, Rudi insisted that he marry Nina, find steady employment, improve his physical health, end his drug use, and begin preparatory studies to enter the seminary. As a student at Philadelphia's Lutheran Theological Seminary in 1967, Adi Da described undergoing a terrifying breakdown. Taken to a hospital emergency room, a psychiatrist diagnosed it as an anxiety attack. It was the first of a number of such episodes, each followed by what he described as profound awakenings or insights. He described the episodes as a kind of "death" or release from identity with the presumed separate persona, after which there was only "an Infinite Bliss of Being, an untouched, unborn Sublimity—without separation, without individuation. There was only Reality Itself … the unqualified living condition of the totality of conditionally manifested existence". A comparable pre-awakening process had been described by the renowned Indian sage Ramana Maharshi. Feeling none of his Lutheran professors understood this experience, Adi Da left and briefly attended St. Vladimir's Russian Orthodox Seminary in Tuckahoe, New York. Disillusioned, he moved back to New York City and found employment with Pan American Airlines, hoping this might help him fulfill his desire to visit Swami Muktananda's ashram in India.

In June 1964, Adi Da responded to an intuitive impulse to leave California in search of a spiritual teacher in New York City. Settling in Greenwich Village, he became a student of Albert Rudolph, also known as "Rudi", a dealer in Asian art who had been a disciple of the Indian guru Bhagavan Nityananda. When Nityananda died in 1961, Rudi became a student of Siddha Yoga's founder Swami Muktananda, who gave him the name "Swami Rudrananda". Having studied a number of spiritual traditions, including "The Work" of G.I. Gurdjieff and Subud, Rudi taught an eclectic blend of techniques he called "kundalini yoga" (although it was not related to the Indian tradition by that name).

In the context of this exploration of consciousness in 1963, Adi Da experimented with various hallucinogenic and other drugs. For 6 weeks he was a paid test subject in drug trials of mescaline, LSD, and psilocybin conducted at a Veterans Administration hospital in California. He 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. While living with the support of his girlfriend, Nina Davis, in the hills of Palo Alto, he continued to write, meditated informally, and studied books by C.G. Jung, H.P. Blavatsky, and Edgar Cayce, in order to make sense of his experiences.

Adi Da graduated from Stanford University in 1963. His 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. In the last decade of his life, Adi Da focused on creating works of art intended to enable viewers to enter into a "space" beyond limited "points of view". These works were primarily photographic and digitally produced large works of pigmented inks on paper or canvas, and monumentally sized works of paint on aluminum. He labeled his art "Transcendental Realism". He 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. His work has also been shown in New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Miami, and London.

Born in Queens, New York and raised on Long Island, his father was a salesman and his mother a housewife. Adi Da claimed in his autobiography, The Knee Of Listening, that he "was born in a state of perfect freedom and awareness of ultimate reality", which he called the "Bright", and that he "sacrificed that reality at the age of two, so that he could completely identify with the limitations and mortality of suffering humanity" in order to discover ways to help others "awaken to the unlimited and deathless happiness of the Heart". A sister, Joanne, was born when he was eight years old. He 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. He 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. His 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 Samraj, born Franklin Albert Jones (November 3, 1939 – November 27, 2008) was an American-born spiritual teacher, writer and artist. He was the founder of a new religious movement known as Adidam.