Posts Tagged ‘Cooperation’

Survival Stress Versus Cooperative Living

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

The common state we all share is survival stress, or a very tangible form of what Adi Da calls the self contraction (in its most basic gritty form). It is the ordinary driven compulsive life. Any one who has at any time experienced real poverty will appreciate just how strong everything connected with basic survival is

There is not much room for airy philosophy then. You need to eat, be clothed and have a roof over your head and provide for your family, absolute basic needs. In that situation you may justifiably cry out to a creator God for better fortune. I once saw a man on a religious documentary praying for a new stove, or to get his current one miraculously fixed. Watching it, it seemed absurd to me, but it was because I was not in his desperate condition. I had also forgotten that I have been in that same state and I have done similar things to this man and much more, so there is no self-righteousness about it, when you are in that sort of space, you have very limited means, very little room to move, any solution real or imaginary may seem worth trying.

My friend is unable to leave an intolerable living arrangement because of his survival stress (he needs a roof over his head and cannot pick and choose), so he constantly makes bad choices because the choices that are available are very limited, he is trying to practice Adidam Student Life without any real freedom to do so, the tension he endures makes real equanimity unrealistic (at least)

For these and many more reasons Adi Da Samraj suggests cooperative living as a fundamental solution to the comon survival stress we all endure to different degrees.

Cooperative Living may create a “buffer” for all who share in the project. However it is not just a survival buffer wherein people cooperate together in order to make their conventional lives easier (though that must be an aspect) It should also be a means to support “The life of equanimity”, which is basic student practice in Adidam It should simplify, clarify and promote the conditions for a life of consistent well being and conscious choice, rather than one of unconscious compulsion, driven by survival stress.

Imagine how much stress you could release from your life if you agreed to live simply, to reduce the costs of life, and to cooperate with one another. This cooperation is the true politics to which I call My devotees. When will you abandon your castle and live in common with others? All of a sudden, you will have excess money, excess time, excess energy, more time for Spiritual practice, less money wasted in consoling yourself with the ordinary life. You can use your resources to develop your cooperative life and the circumstances and the facilities you share with others. That is what I actually Call you to do! Live on the basis of truly right principles of living, and live very happily, very productively, and have full time for all the practices of the Way of Adidam. Just give up your diversions and stop trying to blend in with the herd of the common world. Embrace the principles that enable you to handle all your life-business while living in this world of stress.

Adi Da Samraj

Not Two Is Peace

Friday, February 13th, 2009

The 3rd and final edition of Not Two Is Peace by Adi Da, on global cooperative order and liberated global living is now in print.  In many ways it is an very unusual book, written with the very highest consciousness in mind and a call to real action from that very consciousness, in a nutshell, non duality as unified action –a vision of humanity acting as one unit, based in the intuitive capacity of all men and women to know their inherent unity– rather than the endless divisions we know as our tribe, religion, country, village etc

This book is written with great passion and urgency, as an essential spiritual call advocating Reality itself (rather than any other religion or even Adidam ) as its starting point, but its address is not to Divine Enlightenment, but to practical changes in the world for the benefit of all living things

I mentioned it is an unusual book, because it taps directly into a great deal of very obvious truth, things known by just about everyone, yet rarely verbalized as if the most obvious truths  remain unseen and unspoken. Such as the whole concept of “prior unity” for humanity, once deeply considered this concept may reveal itself as obvious somehow, but unless stated clearly would have remained hidden or unnoticed.

Not Two Is Peace envisions the capacity for global change to the world situation passed to humanity, as one collective voice and active power, usurping all localized power bases by the sheer and unstoppable weight of a collective global voice, enforcing right action across the planet

Its essential call to action is based in  “everybody-all-at-once”– the united power of humanity speaking and acting as an essential force for change– founded in “prior unity”–the inherent and always knowable non-dual and formless one Reality at the Heart of all beings– (these 2 key concepts are used frequently throughout this book) The concept of a  Global Cooperative Forum is introduced as the fundamental means to initiate and empower the  “everybody-all-at-once” phenomenon

Anyone interested in world change at any level will find this book at the very least interesting and inspiring, it is also written to individuals or “everyman”, in some sense it is also a grass roots liberating call (and this should not be overlooked), hence it subtitle  “The Ordinary Peoples Way of Global Cooperative Order” and the text is much less demanding and non-centric to Adi Da himself as Spiritual Teacher, than many of his other books.

There is also a beautiful print of one of Adi Da’s artistic images in fold out style towards the end of the book. There is an online version of much of the text here,

The terrible problems that are occurring politically and naturally in the world today are the result of pattern-driven human unconsciousness. Human beings are continuing mechanically, trying to repeat modes of effort, even modes of thinking, that were workable — up to a point — in the past, but that are no longer workable now. A new kind of human consciousness is required — based on the working-presumption of prior unity, and on an understanding of the indivisibly single world in which everyone is living. This involves not only the notion that there is such a single world, but it requires grasping the necessity for cooperation, and the necessity to function on the basis of an understanding that the Earth is a single system, and humankind (likewise) is a single whole. Humankind must not be forced to function under some kind of totalitarian singleness. Rather, humankind must function cooperatively — in the sense that everyone is living together on Earth, and functioning through a mechanism of global principles that are benign and right and true   - Adi Da