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For thousands of years, most human beings have said they want peace and hate war. And yet, for all the energy and goodwill the human race has brought to the task, peace is not present. Every violent act seems to carry an inevitable force that leads to further violence. Even worse, with the invention of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, war can now make earth unlivable for most of the humans and non-humans alive today.
In the past year alone, over forty regions of our planet were involved in some form of armed conflict. The recent terrorist attacks in the United States have underscored the violent nature of the current social and political reality on the planet. Clearly, we need to understand ourselves in a more profound way. Clearly, we need to take a new action, to change the dreadful possibilities we currently struggle against. We need a very different mode of human society, and we need it urgently. THE PEACE LAW
This discipline is challenging and far-reaching. It will not eliminate all human conflict—nothing can. However, it will grant us time to grow. It will take away the dreadful threat of global annihilation. COOPERATION + TOLERANCE = PEACESM
No, this will not mean a utopia. But our lives can become an essentially benign process. We can be oriented toward growth and spiritual realization, rather than perpetually stuck in the drama of our petty differences. UNIVERSAL WORLD-PRAYER
Adi Da Samraj offers this non-sectarian resource to everyone. He provides a radically new and inclusive map, which can steer us beyond the limitations and imbalances of our past. This New Paradigm can help us create a benign common destiny, and a world in which all beings are free to deepen the practice of their chosen path of spiritual life and sacred culture.
Here are three of the most significant elements— ONE: THE SEVEN STAGES OF LIFE
The first six stages include growth in the physical realm of flesh and bone, the subtle levels of mind (including the realms that we see in dreams), and the root feeling of being a separate "I"—which is called the causal dimension.
Instead, each of the six stages can be dissolved in the always present Realization of the seventh stage—a Realization which Avatar Adi Da Gives in any moment of devotional surrender to Him as the Divine Person. The radical importance of this difference cannot be overstated. Even as every level of growth develops, the peace and understanding of the seventh stage is always available, already true, and never needs to be sought. In fact, seeking of any kind only hides this radical understanding from our present awareness.
This seven stage model is more than a powerful tool for understanding human growth and possibility. Through this model, the diverse Spiritual traditions of the world can be seen to form a single Great Tradition. The often conflicting philosophies and practices can be understood as reflections of different points of view, which depend on the stage of life being addressed in each tradition.
You can learn more about the seven stages of life on the Adidam Library Site. Adi Da's complete elaboration of the seven stages is available in His book, "The Seven Stages Of Life", which is available for online purchase from the Adidam Emporium. TWO: LIVING BEYOND OUR PRIMARY DIVISION
The second tendency is the orientation to subjective reality—the realms of "inner" experience. In this mode we want to be free of involvement with physical experience and we pursue an untouchable state of no suffering. This is the mystical orientation, generally associated with Eastern cultures.
Because both tendencies are present in everyone to varying degrees, we feel what seems to be an unavoidable dilemma: we are both moved to make conditions ideal and to transcend them at the same time. This dilemma is often dramatized on a large-scale, in conflicts between religions, cultures, and nations.
In the Way of Adidam, these two primary strategies are progressively understood and released. Ultimately, in the seventh stage of life, the devotee goes beyond all dilemma, and neither the material nor the mystical have any binding effect. THREE: THE BASKET OF TOLERANCE
Avatar Adi Da created The Basket Of Tolerance as a resource for the study and understanding of the collective tradition of truly human culture, self-discipline, and perennial religion and Spirituality.
More about The Basket Of Tolerance can be found on the Great Tradition section of the Adidam Library Site. FREE MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION
The book of The Seven Stages Of Life is available now from the Adidam Emporium. |
"Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace"