Adi Da described his early years as being focused in two fundamental activities: investigating how to realize truth, and developing the ability to communicate that truth.

Adi Da was born in New York in 1939 and lived on a remote Fijian island from 1983 until his passing in 2008. He graduated from Columbia University in 1961 with a degree in philosophy and from Stanford University in 1966 with an MA in English literature focusing on the core issues in modernism.In 1964, he began a period of intensive practice in the traditions of human wisdom and spiritualityunder a succession of spiritual teachers in the United States and India, culminating in 1970 with his complete spiritual realization. Subsequently he began to offer formal instruction in spiritual practice to those who came to him.

In the early 1970s, Alan Watts, writer of numerous books on religion and philosophy, acknowledged Adi Da as "a rare being", adding, "It is obvious, from all sorts of subtle details, that he know what IT?s all about."

Over a period of many decades, Adi Da 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 in 2009.

Adi Da's principal literary work was the trilogy entitled The Orpheum. The Orpheum is also presented in theatrical form?as shown online at www.mummerybook.org. The book that Adi Da designated as his most important work is The Aletheon, which he worked on intensively for two years, bringing all of his most essential spiritual and philosophical communications into a final form. He completed his work on The Aletheon on the morning of his passing. The Aletheon is scheduled for publication in 2009.

Adi Da was an extraordinarily prolific artist, producing over 100,000 works. 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 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.

Adi Da was not political in any sense. Rather his address to humanity and the process of civilization--exemplified in Not-Two Is Peace--came from his lifelong commitment to communicating the truth of existence; uncovering both the driving forces of limitation and suffering, and the means to transcend them.