What To Do Now?
An Essay by Adi Da from his book Not-Two Is Peace
Wherever people come together collectively, a social contract is established—a social contract among egos. And, where social contracts emerge, collectives appear— including nation-states, and so forth. Such collectives are the setting within which human civilizations develop. As soon as any social collective comes into being, people expect certain benefits to come from the existence of the collective.
Fundamental among the expected benefits are increased security, increased longevity, increased leisure (or increased freedom from need), and increased enjoyment of life. Thus, when people enter into a social contract, by becoming part of a social collective, there is an expectation that at least a significant number of individuals in that social collective will be able to experience this fourfold benefit—of greater security, greater longevity, greater freedom from need, and greater enjoyment of life—to a more significant degree than they would if they were not part of the collective.
This expectation is particularly true in the case of such large-scale collectives as nation states. A rightly managed social collective does, indeed, provide a greater degree of these four principal life-factors —for at least some portion of the membership of the collective. However, the expectation of such benefits generates a dangerous illusion—a collective illusion based in the ego’s search for relief from all fear and threat. It is the illusion that conditions of security, longevity, freedom from need, and enjoyment of life can exist to an ideal degree. Furthermore, it is the illusion that, rightly, such idealized conditions characterize human life as it should be —and that, therefore, such conditions should be demanded by all human beings. And, finally, it is the illusion that such idealized conditions can actually be established on a fullest and permanent basis and maintained indefinitely on a large scale. Such is the fundamental illusion that arises in the context of human civilization—or, in other words, whenever there is a social contract among egos.
In reality, life is not secure. In reality, life does not carry with it any reason to presume longevity, or even one more moment of existence. In reality, there is no fundamental freedom from need, or from the struggle and stress of dealing with need. In reality, all enjoyment is fleeting.
It does not make any difference how much “civilizing” is done or how much group solidarity is created. No degree of civilization can change the natural reality of mortal existence. That is why “utopia” is an illusion. And that is why the expected “utopian” benefits of civilization—or, in other words, the expected “utopian” benefits of a social contract among egos—are illusory.
At best, a social contract among egos is an arrangement that produces a tentative and modest degree of increased security, longevity, freedom from need, and enjoyment of life—for some. And, in any case, such life improvements cannot be guaranteed to last. No degree of life-improvement can change the fundamental core reality that life is insecure, brief, full of need, and incapable of absolute fulfillment.
There are times in human history, such as the present world-moment, when the factors of security, longevity, freedom from need, and enjoyment of life are becoming increasingly threatened—experienced by fewer than before, and experienced much less by those who are accustomed to enjoying them to some degree. In such a circumstance, people begin to suffer a psychic crisis—a crisis in the psyche of egoity itself. Then political and social leaders start calling upon people to make sacrifices for the sake of the social collective—as if the mere fact of belonging to such a collective, on the basis of a social contract, is, in and of itself, a virtue. But the only reason people enter into any such social contract is in order to enjoy greater security, longevity, freedom from need, and enjoyment of life. There is no point in asking people to make sacrifices in order to belong to the social collective if the collective is altogether failing to provide any degree of security, longevity, freedom from need, and enjoyment of life, or is providing those factors to a much lesser degree.
Such is the current state of global human civilization. People are being asked to “tighten their belts”, to make sacrifices of one kind or another, in order to continue belonging to the existing social-ego contracts all over the world—nation-states, and everything altogether. But how long will people continue to be willing to make such sacrifices?
Civilization is in crisis. The human world altogether is in crisis. The notions of security, longevity, freedom from need, and enjoyment of life are showing themselves to be illusions—very tentative, and able to be enjoyed by only a relative few. And the relative few who enjoy such life conditions do so at the expense of others—and, in fact, on the basis of the suffering and exploitation of others.
Something new must emerge. That something new is not going to emerge from the pattern of nation-states, or even from the gathering of nation-states (in the form of the United Nations). That something new can only emerge from everybody-all-at-once—the power of humankind as a totality.
Humankind as a totality must relinquish the old civilization. It must accept that the old civilization is dead, the old civilization is gone, useless, non-productive. The old civilization can no longer provide security, longevity, freedom from need, and life-enjoyment for people. Less and less can the old civilization do anything useful at all. The old civilization is now profoundly degraded, and will only get worse with time.
A new mode of social contract must emerge—a mode of social contract not founded on egoity. There must now be an egoless mode of social contract—based on cooperation, tolerance, and universal participation and accountability. Such is the nature of the necessary global cooperative order.
In order for such a global cooperative order to come into being, there must be a core institution based on the universal participation and accountability of everybody-all at-once. I call that core institution the Global Cooperative Forum. The Global Cooperative Forum is the necessary transformative movement on Earth. — Adi Da
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Chapter headings from Not-Two Is Peace
Principles Regarding A Global Cooperative Forum
Introduction to Part One
I. On The Dangers of The Old “Tribalisms”, and The Necessity For A Global Cooperative Forum Based On The Prior Unity of Humankind
II. On The Necessity To Give Institutional Form To The Principle of Prior Unity
III. On Competition, Prior Unity, and Self-Management
IV. On Globalizing Humankind On A Cooperative Basis
V. On Non-Cooperation With What Is Wrong and On Mobilizing The Human Totality Based On The Self-Evident Truth of Prior Unity
VI. On Establishing Rules of Participation For A Global Cooperative Order
VII. On Zero-Point Education
PART TWO
Not-Two Is Peace
I. Anthroposphere
(The Natural Zone of Necessary Human Responsibility)—A First Word About The Unified Global Ecology of The Necessary New Mode of Human Civilization
II. Humankind Is Literally One Family
III. C + T = P: Formula For World Peace -- Cooperation plus Tolerance = Peace
IV. On Liberation From ego and egoic Society
V. The Time-Tested Politics of Unity and The Anti-Civilization Politics of Individuation
VI. All Modes of True Religion Point To Reality Itself
VII. Reality-Politics For Ordinary Men and Women
VIII. The ego-Culture of Desire and The ego-Transcending Culture of Love
IX. The Healing Power of Cooperative Human Community
X. Only Rightness Makes Justice True
XI. You The People
On The Necessity of A Global Cooperative Order of The All of Humankind
XII. Wash All The Flags (and Leave All Name-Tags and Placards At The Door)
XIII. To Take Moral Responsibility Is To Make Reactivity Harmless
XIV. The Global Necessity For Universal Rules of Participation
XV. Everybody-All-At-Once
XVI. Humankind-As-A-Whole Must Collectively Address Its Real Issues
XVII. The Dual Basis For Right and True Oneness
XVIII. Zero-Point Education
XIX. Right Life Transcends The Three Great Myths of Human ego-Culture
XX. The Global Celebration of Light-In-Everybody
XXI. Reality-Humanity
Self-Liberated From The Stave In The Wheels
XXII. No Enemies
XXIII. Two Is Not-Peace
XXIV. 723
The Free Declaration of The Universal Moral, Social, and Political Laws of True and Necessary Civilization
XXV. Is-Peace
PART THREE
Reality Itself Is One and Only
I. The Three Great Principles of All Truth
II. Language-Based Knowledge Versus Reality Knowledge
III. There Is Only Reality Itself—Which Is Real God—and No Other Is At All
IV. The Intrinsic Power To Righten World-Conditions
V. Always Be What and all That Is Not-“self”
VI. The Zero-Point and The Infinite State
VII. The Truth of Prior Unity Is The Intrinsic Self-Revelation of Reality Itself
VIII. What Is No-“point-of-view” Is all-and-All