Lake of Radical Understanding

Nestled among the oak and pine clad slopes of Cobb Mountain, The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary, the original Hermitage Retreat Sanctuary of Adidam, is the birth place of Fear-No-More Zoo. Though still small this location is the largest and most developed expression of Fear-No-More Zoo to date. In early November of 1974, on His 35th birthday, Adi Da Samraj was gifted with a beautiful golden pheasant. The arrival of this bird into His company moved Him to begin His sacred instruction on the necessity for humans to develop a right and sacred understanding and responsibility toward the non-humans.

Today, here on The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary, Fear-No-More Zoo is a beautiful, healing, and contemplative domain. It has become one of the unique sacred elements of the Adidam community. Fear-No-More is one of the seeds of a great vision of Adi Da Samraj, a vision of all beings living in right spiritual relationship with one another, in cooperation, tolerance and peace, informed by the gift of contemplative surrender to the Very Divine Being.

Fear-No-More Zoo is one of the sacred places in this community. Feel what its particular components are. The more I get to do what I intend there, the more you will observe it. But even as it is, as simple as it is, it immediately awakens a certain congenial disposition in you, if you go down there sensitively, of course. It's another place of worship, a kind of walking, petting worship. It awakens compassion for all living beings, just being down there. And a feeling of Non-"difference", of Unity. I spend a lot of time around non-humans—keep pets and so forth. To Me, they are the same as human beings—in the ultimate sense, the same. I do not imagine them being lowly or separate, or different in any sense whatsoever.

And that's what you should realize when you go there. That's how you should use it, to support your sadhana. All the places of the ashram are sacred, have a special meaning, purpose, and significance, a special purpose. And the zoo is one of them. It's about "fearing no more", about going beyond the knot of separate self, being in the condition of the samadhi of communion with Me, and (at the level of form) feeling structured in a Great Unity.

- Adi Da Samraj

Bactrian camels Jingle Baba, Google Mama and Peaceful Baba

Living within the holy site of Fear-No-More Zoo, the animals are served as the spiritual beings we understand them to be. One of our primary focuses is to ensure that we support their Divine contemplation. This includes all of the practical, medical, educational, training, and safety factors that are a natural and responsible part of caring rightly for any living being, as well as being contemplatives ourselves. We serve the animals, rather than merely "keep" them. Striving to support their spiritual, social, and cultural lives is an important part of their right care. Their habitats and enclosures are conceived of, and related to, as sacred, living, environments, rather than as cages.

Camels, llamas, emus, giant tortoises, frogs, parrots, birds, chameleons, pigs, horses, insects, and other animals presently make up the culture of non-humans here. They are a group of beings whose sign and expression of Divine contemplation serve as an example to everyone who visits and comes to know them. The trees and plants, the stream and the land itself, within and upon which Fear-No-More Zoo is situated, are also regarded and served with the same care that we give the animals.

Fear-No-More Zoo is a sign that My work extends beyond human beings. It provides Me with a point of contact with non-human beings, but also represents a sign to others of the fullest extension of My work. The zoo should represent the broad range of My teaching.

Also, people get lessons (here) relative to relating to non-humans. This is the way to learn to relate to other beings in the truest moral sense.

If they are taken out of their natural habitat, or if their natural habitat is destroyed, whoever does that has the moral obligation to understand what their requirements are, including having a society of their own species with one another. And, also, an understanding of what they can be moved to do with human beings."

-- Adi Da Samraj, November 1995

"Stim", a Jackson's Chameleon

Here at The Mountain Of Attention Sanctuary, Fear-No-More Zoo lies within an expanded domain of inter-related holy sites. This larger area is named "All True Things Park". Represented within this park of "All True Things" are the major aspects of the conditional universe. Each of these major aspects is acknowledged and served through our understanding of the Unity of all life. There is the Fear-No-More Zoo, representing the vast realms of non-human existence, and our human and Sacred relationship to them. There is a temple dedicated to the feminine aspect of the universe. The masculine aspect of the universe is represented in a temple and a great tree. There is a temple that honors parents and children, birth and death. The blessing seat of the Divine in this world is also worshipped in a beautiful temple. And seemingly out beyond the park itself, but still intimately connected to it, is a holy site that honors the Divine's extension and emergence into all lives, to touch and awaken all humans and all non-humans. This is the birth and growing place of the "Vision of Fear-No-More". Here, from among the tall trees on this sacred land, may all beings always understand and stand free.

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