In 2011, the Vajra Mountain Sangha was born. With the support of our community the Vajra Mountain Sangha is coming together to initiate a community that has as its basis living the awakened life. There are a number of projects under the scope of the Sangha, including a Prison Program that serves to bring Adi’s teaching into local prisons. In addition to retreats, dharma gatherings, and programs such as the Lotus Unfolding Spiritual Training program for the on-going support of deepening awareness.
From a young age, Adi (born Paul Marino) felt that Love was more important than anything else. Unknowingly, this subtle knowing led him to seek to understand God. As a teenager, Adi developed a fascination with shamanism and ‘expanding consciousness’. Years later, in 2003, Adi had an awakening to the essential nature of Self which profoundly transformed everything that he had thought was real.
After working intensely with a Navajo medicine man and studying the mystical traditions of the world, Adi left for India in search of a fully enlightened Master. After a rigorous search he stumbled upon Sri Ramana Maharshi, where the search ended. Ramana’s invitation was to discover the Self, which is always one’s natural state of being. He gave us the beautiful gift of self-inquiry in order to find out “Who Am I, Really”.
Later meeting and working with awakened Masters, including Gangaji, Adyashanti, and Elle Collier Re, Adi began teaching and pointing others to the living Truth that is one’s own nature. Adi brings a simple and direct style that doesn’t waste time with non-essentials. He draws on the wisdom traditions of Christianity, Advaita Vedanta, Zen, Tantric Buddhism, and Yoga in his teachings. The challenge here is to dive deep into yourself in order to find out what’s really, really True. These teachings are meant for those who are no longer interested in attaining anything special, but who are interested in the truth that is available always in the yearning of the Heart.