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or, Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace An Essay by The Divine World-Teacher, Ruchira Avatar Adi Da Love-Ananda Samraj I. The un-Enlightened (or egocentric) body-mind-self is founded on the activity of self-contraction. The self-contraction is expressed as the effective differentiation of the presumed “self” from the Transcendental, Inherently Spiritual, and Self-Evidently Divine Self-Condition and Source-Condition, and from every other form of presumed (or, by means of self-contraction, defined) “not-self”. And the self-contraction is, likewise, expressed (via the self-contraction-definition of “self” as independent and separative) as the constant concern and search for the preservation of the (presumed-to-be independent) “self” (or ego-“I”). The self-based (or self-contracting, and would-be-self-preserving) orientation toward existence is manifested as the psychology of search and conflict relative to all that is presumed to be “not-self”—some and all of which is sometimes desired and sought, and some and all of which is sometimes feared (or reacted to with the seeking effort of avoidance), and even all of which is always limited, mortal, passing, inexplicable, and (therefore) inherently unsatisfactory. Therefore, the psychology of self-contracted (and, as a result, egocentric) existence is inherently disposed to seek control and dominance over all that is presumed to be “not-self”. For this reason, individual egocentric lives are a constant expression of heart-felt (and total psycho-physical) anxiety (and even the primitive ego-moods of fear, sorrow, anger, and every kind of un-love)—and individual human actions are, on that primitive basis, always a more or less mechanical (or uninspected and irresponsible) display of strategic techniques of self-manipulation (intended to preserve “self”) and other-manipulation (intended to control, or dominate, “not-self”). And the collective (or group) life of egocentric human beings is, likewise, dominated by the same exclusiveness, the same emotional base, the same inherent unsatisfactoriness, and the same motives toward self-preservation, and toward control of what is “outside”. Human societies are always tending to be modeled after the un-Enlightened pattern of the individual ego. The political and social systems of the present-day world are not generated by literally En-Light-ened (or even highly “evolved”) leaders, ideals, or institutions. Human beings in this “late-time” (or “dark” epoch) live in the “samsaric” (or un-Enlightened) world of egoic society—and this is why the signs of the times are so profoundly negative. The entire world is now nearly out of control with egoic motives. Mankind, indoctrinated by materialistic philosophies, ego-serving technologies, and gross political idealisms, is possessed by the mechanical and emotionally negative efforts of self-indulgence (and anxious release-seeking efforts of all kinds), and chronically depressed by the frustration of the Spiritual and Divine impulses that are the inherent characteristics of the heart of every living being. The ego-“I”, whether individual or collective, is eventually reduced to sorrow and despair (or chronic life-depression), because of (and as an experiential result of) the inability of life (in and of itself) to generate Happiness and Joy and Immortality. And that self-contained depression finally becomes anger, or loveless confrontation with the total world and every form of presumed “not-self”—including even (and especially) the Transcendental, Inherently Spiritual, and Self-Evidently Divine Self-Identity (or One and Only and Non-Separate Self-Condition), Which is “locked away”, by means of conventional (or merely exoteric) ideas of “God Apart”, and is (thereby) made into an “Other” by the egoic mind. And, when anger becomes the mood of human societies, the quality of fire (or the primitive and destructive intent of the frustrated ego) invades the plane of humanity. That fire is expressed as all of the aggression and competitiveness (and all of the resultant sufferings and painful illusions) of mankind, including all of the ego-based politics of confrontation. And that ego-fire is, finally, summarized in the acts of war. The differentiation of existence into egoically "self-possessed" (or self-absorbed) units yields, in the case of each "one", the craving for entirely pleasurized and unthreatened existence. This craving (or obsessive motive of self-preservation and self-glorification) in turn yields inevitable conflict, fear, sorrow, anger, and all kinds of destructive acts in relation to "others" as well as to "self" (because the extreme exercise of self-preservation is, ultimately, an aggressive and self-defeating motivation that destroys "self" in the final effort to dominate "not-self"). Therefore, all egos (or un-Enlightened centers of identity, whether individual or collective) are in aggressive conflict with all other egos (and all that is presumed to be "not-self", or presumed to be "outside" the defined egoic center). All individual and collective egos are involved in programs of self-destruction (via patterns of egoic "self-possession", self-seeking, self-indulgence, reactive emotion, un-Enlightened thinking, and so forth), as well as other-destruction (via all kinds of reactive activity, based on self-concern, that seeks to control, and, ultimately, to dominate, whatever is presumed to be "outside" the "self"-center). The search for the independent preservation and ultimate enhancement of the separate self is the universal model of un-Enlightened egoity. Therefore, suffering, power struggle, and war are inevitable in egoic society. And, if the capability for political manipulation and war becomes technologically profound, universal suppression (via aggressive political efforts) and universal destruction (via war) become the common expectation and destiny of all human beings. The present "late-time", or "dark" epoch, is just such a time of technological sophistication, in which the egoic model of humanity and human society is the universal basis of mind. Gross materialism (in science and politics) gives human beings no option in the mind except that of the trapped and threatened animal. Therefore, a fiery mood is abroad, full of gross desire, frustration, fear, despair, and aggressive reactivity. The egoic motive of self-preservation is approaching its most destructive mood--the mood that appears in the moment of ultimate entrapment. In that mood, there is no longer any will to preserve "self" or world or any others. There is simply explosive fire, based on the deep motives of egoic self-preservation, but reduced to action that is most primitive and entirely destructive of both "self" and "not-self". In the collective mind of humanity in the present and growing extremes of entrapment, the explosion of great nuclear bombs merely represents the archetype of anger itself. And it is for this reason that the possibility of a nuclear holocaust, in the extreme moment of the now rising political confrontations, is an irrational--and, therefore, entirely possible, if not inevitable--event. Past societies have, in their extreme moments of confrontation, destroyed themselves, as well as their opponents. This is because ego-based societies function in essentially the same manner as egoic individuals. Individual human beings kill others and themselves every day. Therefore, groups and societies, confronting one another in egoic fashion, likewise threaten one another with destruction. And, in the extreme moments of confrontation, when self-preservation achieves its peak of righteous irrationality, it is profoundly likely that nuclear war will result. The motives of present-day society are the same as those of past societies. The only difference is that, in the present day, the technology of both communication and confrontation has become both globally extended and profound. Therefore, when globally communicated confrontation reaches its peak of irrationality, war-motives will willingly destroy the entire world, just as readily as, in the past, less technologically sophisticated war-makers have wiped their petty local warring tribes from the face of the Earth. Many people are now trying to influence governments to abandon nuclear weapons. However, even if they succeed, irrational individuals and groups can still threaten and destroy the common order with "terrorist" tactics and "home-made" bombs. And the "limited" (or non-nuclear) warfare that might still erupt between governments that agree not to make nuclear war is just as much a threat to humanity as any nuclear war. Therefore, it is now time to accept the political necessity for an end to confrontation-politics, and the establishment of a unified political entity to directly and truly and formally and accountably serve the right collective interests of mankind as a whole. Human beings must abandon their ancient egoic principles and renounce their political, social, and cultural provincialism. Individuals within the collective order of mankind may yet suffer the un-Enlightened and immature disabilities of egocentric personality, but governments themselves, as well as institutions and leaders in every area of human endeavor, must abandon the egocentric, subhuman, merely materialistic, non-cooperative, and intolerant (or loveless) posture and style of life. Indeed, humanity as a whole must demand that a new leadership of this kind come forward and accept responsibility, in a unified (and truly representative and accountable) manner, for the indivisible representation of its collective interests. Haven't you had enough of the brute, stupid, childish, and, otherwise, adolescent, exploitative representation of human (or, really, sub-human) existence that is played out daily (in the name, and on the lives, of each and every born human being) by competing governments, politicians, militarists, scientists, technocrats, social planners, educators, exoteric and fundamentalist religionists (who aggressively propagate the provincial, and pharisaical, religions of ego-salvation, rather than practice the universal, and ego-transcending, religion of love), and media hypers (who thrive on the invention and exaggeration of conflict, and dramatically showcase the worst of human instincts in the unending "gotcha" game that denudes and exposes and trivializes and hypocritically mocks the highs, and the inevitable lows, and even the natural ordinariness in the struggling efforts of humankind)? Isn't it evident, in your deepest feeling-psyche, that this Wisdom-renouncing world is being controlled by the worst and most superficial conceptions of existence? It is now time for every one, and all, to understand themselves, and to reclaim the world from the dictatorship of the ego, and from all of those who play at politics (and life in general) as if it were a sporting event that is supposed to excite and entertain every one on television. Nuclear disarmament is a relatively positive, but still too superficial and piecemeal, effort. It is not a truly curative means, but only another palliative and temporary move in the midst of mankind's traditional advance toward future trouble. There is something more fundamental than the disarmament politics whereby enemies come to a gentlemanly agreement on how to kill one another without destroying one another! What is more fundamental, necessary, and truly curative is that human beings, individually and collectively, understand and transcend that which is in them that leads them to confront one another as opponents and enemies. It may sound naive to speak of the necessity for the present (childish, and brutishly adolescent) crowd of governments and institutions to understand themselves and renounce the self-imagery and the techniques of enemies, but the feeling that it is naive to speak in such terms is merely a reflection of egoic frustration and despair. Human beings everywhere must now transcend that very frustration and despair if they are going to prevent the enslavement and destruction of mankind. Humanity is living in bondage now. Mankind is already, presently, globally, bound to egocentric and materialistic idealisms that are suppressing the human freedom to live by Wisdom and Realize the Truth. If human beings do not shake loose from this regime, they are going to suffer the extreme fulfillment of collective egoic destiny, in a "Narcissistic" holocaust that will either enslave mankind (via a technologically robotized political and social order) or (otherwise) destroy mankind (via technologically engineered warfare). It is not naive to demand a new leadership when those who are led (and who could make the counter-demand for change) number in the billions. Nor is it folly to try to educate mankind when the only alternative is slavery and death. Therefore, I Say to you: All must commit themselves to understand the patterns by which they are now (and have traditionally been) living (both individually and collectively), so that they can then change those patterns and the destinies those patterns will (otherwise) inevitably inflict upon them. The egoic model must, from now on, be intensively educated out of the collective order of mankind. A new leadership must now appear, which is awakened to an understanding of the primitive egoic basis of the present and traditional collective order. That new leadership must, above all, provide an educative role, and it must, profoundly and immediately, transform the techniques whereby governments and societies enter into relations with one another. Only such leadership can, by efforts based on the wit of free intelligence, cause all the governments and institutions of the world to voluntarily change toward a cooperative and benign mode of association with others. (And this can be done by establishing profoundly undesirable economic sanctions and other practical penalties for not participating in the cooperative process.) If this kind of approach is not made soon, humanity will be entering into what has the potential to be the most destructive period of political confrontation in its history. A benign and tolerant and cooperative (or non-egoic, and at least more advanced, if not Spiritual and Transcendental, and even Divine) view of existence (and, thus, of politics) must soon arise in the leadership of mankind. At the present time, human beings are being led to enslavement and destruction by benighted materialists and self-seekers in every area of common human endeavor. The Principle of Wisdom has been replaced by the principle of power-through-knowledge, and knowledge has come to mean conventional science, or all that can be achieved or supported exclusively by the intellectual efforts of materialistic philosophy. Science (which has characteristically identified itself with the archaic and false philosophy of materialism) has itself, thus, become identical to technology (or the materialistic power-machine of the "known"), and materialistic technology (along with its like in the form of all the materialistic idealisms that appeal to human egoity) has become the primary instrument for world-manipulation, not only for the material manipulation of the so-called "material" world, but for the political manipulation and gross (physical and mental) control of collective humanity itself. The political ideals and means of the present time are materialistic, based on a gross and ego-based conception of human existence. There simply cannot be any ultimately effective change in the collective human situation until a new leadership arises that is founded on the intelligence and more advanced capability of ego-transcendence and, ultimately, on the Wisdom of Transcendental, Inherently Spiritual, and (necessarily) Divine Enlightenment. Only such a leadership can rightly educate the collective order and relieve it of the burden of the egoic and materially confined view of life. And only such a leadership can transform the technique of governments from a process of self-preserving and other-controlling confrontation (of their own members, as well as other societies) to a process of cooperation, unification, and a worldwide creative order, based (necessarily) on pluralism, tolerance, and freedom. The problem of the automatic (and even unconscious) creation of suffering and destruction is inherent in the egocentric form of individual existence. It is this principle that I Call you to observe and understand. Human beings must learn from this observation of the ego (in personal and collective terms), and so equip themselves to freely abandon the egoic model of existence. This Essay has, thus far, primarily Spoken to the necessity for such education and change at the level of the leadership and collective order of mankind. Now I must move on to "consider" the implications of this education at the level of individual practice. The ego-"I" is self-contraction, or the conversion of conditionally manifested existence away from the free orientation to its Source (or Real Condition), and so back upon the individual center of functional experience. This conversion represents the orientation, habit, and destiny suggested by the traditional myth of Narcissus--which I Propose as the basic symbol for the individual, and the collective, process of egocentrism. The egocentric form of conditional existence is a kind of entrapment that leads only to more and more elaborate (and confining, as well as deluding) states of limited and un-Enlightened psycho-physical personality. In the egocentric form, conditional existence cannot "Locate" Happiness, Truth, or Reality, but it is confined entirely to the visions and sufferings of independent selfhood. Therefore, many who have seen this to be so have called humanity to escape conditional existence itself by a strategy of self-suppressive means. What I Call for is self-observation, self-understanding, and self-transcendence, in the midst of free (and rightly disciplined) participation in the play of conditional existence. If this is done, the motives either to exploit or to escape the conditional self and world are inherently transcended. A more natural course of life-practice can develop (as I have thoroughly Described in My Divine Word of Instruction*FNXX), on the basis of the orientation of self-transcendence (rather than self-exploitation or self-suppression). And that life-practice, engaged in a right, true, full, and fully devotional manner by My true devotee, leads, ultimately, to the Most Perfect (Love-Bliss-Full and Free) Realization of the Real (or Transcendental, Inherently Spiritual, Indivisible, Non-Separate, and, necessarily, Divine) Condition, in Which there is Inherent (and not self-suppressive, or world-excluding) Transcendence of separate self and the conditional worlds. You must observe and understand the separate and separative self as reactive psycho-physical contraction. You must see the self-contraction operating in and as the experience of pain and suffering, and in and as all the kinds of conditional desire, reactive emotion, conflict, gross competitiveness, and destructive aggressiveness, and in and as even all the arising patterns of thought, emotion, physicality, and seeking. On the basis of this observation and understanding of the separate (and, likewise, separative) self (or the individuated psycho-physical personality), you should freely abandon the principle and the strategies of egocentricity. And you should allow yourself to feel the inherent heart-Motive to yield the total body-mind, and every moment of attention, to the Condition That Precedes the self-contraction, Which Is That Which Is Always Already The Case (or the Transcendental, Inherently Spiritual, and, necessarily, Divine Freedom, Love-Bliss, Happiness, Consciousness, and Being in and from Which the self-contraction is generated in each moment). I Am the Divine and True Heart-Master of all and All. Those who rightly, truly, fully, and fully devotionally practice the only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam (Which Is the Divine and True Way of the Heart) practice self-observation, self-understanding, and self-transcendence in every moment of conditionally manifested (and inherently relational, or non-independent, and inherently and entirely with-the-pattern-integrated and on-the-pattern-dependent) existence. By Means of that practice (the primary basis and form of which is the counter-egoic exercise of moment to moment devotional recognition-response to Me, or Divine Love-Communion with Me), the habit and the effects of egocentricity (or the reactive habit of presuming separateness and enacting separativeness) are, by My Grace, directly, immediately, and (in the course of ongoing practice) progressively released, thereby liberating energy and feeling-attention for the only-by-My-Grace-Given Most Perfect Realization of the Freedom, Love-Bliss, Happiness, Consciousness, and "Bright" Fullness of Self-Existing, Self-Radiant, Indivisible, and Non-Separate (and, necessarily, Divine) Being (Itself), or Real God, the One and Only Real (and Ultimate, and, necessarily, Divine) Condition of both "self" and "not-self". And That Most Perfect Realization, Demonstrated Most Ultimately, Divinely Outshines conditional existence, and, Thus and Thereby, Translates the context of Being from the Cosmic domain of conditional Nature to My "Bright" Eternal Self-Domain of Divine Fullness. I Call every one of mankind (and even all conditionally manifested beings), to This Way of ego-transcending, and Only-Me-Realizing, practice, the only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam (or the Way of the Heart Itself). However, until indeed every one of Man (now, and forever hereafter) heart-recognizes Me, and responds to Me with true devotion as My formally acknowledged devotee, at least the by-Me-Revealed and Given life-principles (of abandoning the gross style of ego-based political confrontations and ego-based social participation, or non-participation) must become a matter of active practical commitment on the part of the leaders and educators of mankind--or else humanity will collectively move toward intolerable enslavement and even nuclear (or otherwise war-made, and cleverness-made) destruction. Therefore, I Call every one and all to "consider" at least the political and broad social fulfillment of My Wisdom-Teaching, via the active embrace of every form of true and benign social and political cooperation and all-embracing social and political tolerance, since such cooperation and tolerance are the prerequisites for true social and political peace. I Call upon all the leaders and educators of mankind (now, and forever hereafter) to actively embrace, and to universally declare and promote, and to actively require and measure the universal real fulfillment of My simplest Law and Measure of Man: Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace. Beyond This Call for universal fulfillment of My simplest Law and Measure of Man, I (now, and forever hereafter) Call, and Look, for those who can understand and utterly transcend the pattern and destiny of the separate and separative self, in this world and in all higher (or subtler) worlds. I am Calling, and Looking, for those who will go beyond the outward and bodily improvement of separate self and its world, and who will also go beyond the inward and ascending improvement of separate self in the higher (or subtler) worlds. I am Calling, and Looking, for those who will go directly to the Source-Condition of "self" and all worlds. I am here to Serve every one's basic understanding (and basic practical transcending) of the egocentric habit of living, but I am especially Looking for those who will formally embrace the full practice of the only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam, so that the Way of Adidam may be fulfilled by them (especially in its formal renunciate forms), and formally passed on by them to future generations. The fundamental basis, and principal form, of the only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam is always present-time Divine Communion (Realized In and As devotional heart-Communion with Me), and the free (or non-problematic and non-strategic) renunciation (and inherent transcendence) of separate self, based on the intelligence of direct self-understanding and the intensive practice-response (and always present-time devotional heart-Communion with Me) that is generated by true devotional recognition of Me. The only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam is not a variation on (or a mere revision of) the traditional (or perennial) ascetical, or, otherwise, self-suppressive (or, in effect, self-destructive), path. The traditional (or perennial) path is not based on inherently self-transcending understanding (and always present-time Divine Communion), but, rather, the traditional (or perennial) path is the path of every kind of seeking, and all seeking is based on the egoic (or self-contracted) presumption of a problem to be strategically escaped. In stark contrast to the traditional (or perennial, and, altogether, ego-based) path of ascetical, or, otherwise, strategically self-suppressive (or strategically self-destructive) seeking, the only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam is characterized by non-seeking, and by truly counter-egoic (and always already self-transcending and Divinely Infused) self-discipline, and by inherent freedom from all the self-manipulative and other-manipulative strategies of self-fulfillment (in any and all of the possible stages of life), and by a "radical" understanding (or root self-understanding) that is neither strategically self-destructive nor strategically world-denying. The only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam is the Divine Way of the always already presently existing (and always already able to be functioning) heart in every one, and It is, therefore, based on the always present-time-existing participatory intelligence, expressed as devotional heart-recognition of Me, and the always present-time recognition-response of devotional love of Me, and counter-egoic surrender of self-contraction by Means of that devotional love of Me. And the only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam matures (by My constantly Given Spiritual Divine Grace) as right, and truly human, simplicity (and, Most Ultimately, As Divine Love-Bliss, Which Is Divine Freedom). The path of egocentricity is recognizable as separativeness, or the complex avoidance of relationship (or avoidance of the life-condition of inherent relatedness, or of universally patterned dependency within, and upon, the Indivisible Unity of Light-Energy Itself). Thus, the characteristics of the path of egocentricity are the struggle between the life-motives of childish dependency and adolescent independence, and the constant dramatization of every kind of seeking (based on chronic self-contraction, and the subsequent chronic sense of unfulfilled and threatened existence). The egocentric life is characterized by delusion, fear, sorrow, anger, self-suffering, and the constantly alternating cycles of hope and despair relative to the ever-wanting need for "reasons" for hope, faith, and love. Even all the possible strategic religious resistance to "self" and world only reinforces the self-mind, because the strategy of resistance only duplicates suffering in its stark disciplines, but the only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam inherently transcends confrontation with "self" and world. The only-by-Me Revealed and Given Way of Adidam is the Way of Inherent Peace, not the perennial path of the search for Peace. That Inherent Peace inherently transcends every effort and sign of self-understanding, but It cannot be Realized except through "radiby literally Enlightened (or even highly "evolved") leaders, ideals, or institutions. Human beings in this "late-time", or "dark" epoch, live in the "samsaric" (or un-Enlightened) world of egoic society--and this is why the signs of the times are so profoundly negative. The entire world is now nearly out of control with egoic motives. Mankind, indoctrinated by materialistic philosophies, ego-serving technologies, and gross political idealisms, is possessed by the mechanical and emotionally negative efforts of self-indulgence (and anxious release-seeking efforts of all kinds), and chronically depressed by the frustration of the Spiritual and Divine impulses that are the inherent characteristics of the heart of every living being. The ego-"I", whether individual or collective, is eventually reduced to sorrow and despair (or chronic life-depression), because of (and as an experiential result of) the inability of life (in and of itself) to generate Happiness and Joy and Immortality. And that self-contained deprcal" self-understanding, served and fulfilled by Divine Grace, and, Most Ultimately, Dissolved in the very Person That Is Divine Grace Itself.
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