In this book, Avatar Adi Da Samraj offers His unique renderings of the dharma of the great sages of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, including Gotama Sakyamuni, Nagarjuna, Shankara, and Ribhu. Rather than simply translate their teachings from available source texts, Avatar Adi Da, Himself a Realized Master, respeaks them as one who has personally realized their truth. In these renderings, Avatar Adi Da reveals that the Buddhist “Nirvana” and the Advaitic “Brahman” point to the same transcendental condition. Avatar Adi Da’s transmissions restore to these texts the profound communication intended by the spiritual masters who created them.

This generous anthology includes six commentaries by Avatar Adi Da (from His Essays and Discourses) about the traditional texts, as well as masterful “translations” of key texts from the great sages of Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism.

The Work I have done in this book is an effort to make the traditions speak plain, completely apart from all other kinds of concerns, including scholarly conventions and purposes. This book is about approaching these texts entirely on the presumption that Truth is the matter of importance—because that is the mode, or disposition, of the texts themselves.

—Avatar Adi Da Samraj