My First Word
Foreword to The Basket of Tolerance – 1981
by Adi Da Samraj
This is the late-time, the dark epoch, East and West. This is the long-prophesied time of the setting sun, the Western sun. This is the time of the decline of the mind and the culture of the rising sun, the Eastern sun. Nevertheless, this can, by Grace, become the time of the re-Orientation of Man, in which mankind turns about, relinquishing the setting of the eye upon the dimming lights of ego-“I” and end-time, and revising the eye upon the Dawning and “Emerging” Light of Divinity and Truth.
Now the human world is in its “Western” and “Westernizing” phase. For centuries, there has been the slow motion toward this grotesque mockery of end-time, wherein all, now at the end of day, look forward only to their long-anticipated..nightlife of lower and subhuman and always struggling occupations of body, emotion, and mind. Now, after many centuries, in which the “Westernizing” of mankind has been slowly developing, as from infancy (or the first stage of life), and through a yet dependent childhood (that was of the nature of the second stage of life), the human world has collectively achieved its universal adolescence (or its ambiguous and immature third stage of life).
The “Western” time of Man is that epoch which corresponds to the first three stages of any individual human life. Now that “Western” time is in its critical adolescence. Therefore, like any individual adolescent, the human world, in its collective adolescence, is characterized by ambiguity (relative to any kind of dependency, any kirid of “authority”, or even any demand from without). And, in that critical ambiguity, the adolescent stridently and obnoxiously declares and seeks every possible kind and illusion of independence, even as if to make a “kingdom”, not of God (whether within or without), but of egoity, and of psycho-physical, and especially lower functional and gross (or “materialistic”), desiring.
In this adolescent “Western” (or sunset) time, the “kingdom” is ruled by the separate and separative ego-“I”, one by one, and every “one” suspects and accuses every other “one” of threatening the “freedom” of the suspicious and accusing ego-“I”. It is true that, as one God-Man much favored by the West is said to have declared, “the kingdom of God is within”. Therefore, That Which Is God (or Truth, or Reality) must Rule within every one, or else even the outer “kingdom” (of this world) will become merely a chaos of absurd, and dark, and “materialistic”, and ego-bound, and Godless, and Truthless, and un-Real diversions from the Ruling Company of the Divine “Monarch” (Whom only the Heart can hear and see).
In this dark time, the “kingdom of God” is, it would seem, neither within nor without. For most, it does not exist. Rather, for most, it has been sacked, destroyed, overruled, forgotten, become no longer “fashionable” to discuss. Nevertheless, even in this time of the politics of “reality”, and the society of “reality”, and the “culture” of “reality”, and the science of “reality”, and the arts of “reality”, and even the religions of “reality”, or even all the empty and fleshy monotonies and mere “ego-systems” of this would-be “utopian” era of the “realism” of mere lowness and illusion (bereft of the Light of the Infinite Mass of the Divine Reality and Truth), it must be Said that, now that this sunset time of night games is upon all, the Diurnal Fuse yet Crackles overnight, and will Make an inevitable Dawning. And, in the meantime, much can be Said and Done to bring the nightwalkers to Rest, and to Awaken them Early, to Feel toward the inevitable Morning, and to watch for the Flying Horse of Dawn that Lights the Single Eye and Heart, and Restores the Divine Kingdom within, and (if only there is Compassionate Love) without as well.
The “Western” and “Westernizing” Man (male or female), including even all the “modern” and “modernizing” human world, is deeply set in rebellion. This dark time is thoroughly characterized by a reactive and adolescent (or immature third stage) egoic, and ego-bound, and ego-binding rebellion against all that is not the ego-“I”-and, thus, this dark time is even aggressively set against all that is God, or Truth, or Reality, and all that can be described as true “authority”, and all “authority-figures”, and even all “others”, and, at last, even all of the general society, and, of course, the State, and, likewise, even the total natural world (for the adolescent ego will not endure “dependence”, even on its own necessary supports), and so also even the entire cosmic order (or, ultimately, even all that is not “self”, or ego-“I”).
This is the vulgar time of “Narcissus”. There is no “kingdom” now, for each and all are mad “monarchs” and false “authorities”, making a universal “democracy” by destroying all “Kingship”, all “Queenship”, all Rule (within and without), replacing the “Center” everywhere with “Centerless” mobbery and refusal, and the constant “no” and caricaturing satire of “uncourtly” and merely “realistic” behaviors, intrigues, controversies, and suspicions, always making sure that no head rises above the rest, and that no head bows to any foot, and that all are constantly reminded of their blowing backsides and how that “means” there is no “soul”, no God, no Truth, no Ultimate and Divine and Only Self, but only mocking contempt of these is allowed (and mocking contempt of any one who dares to be made serious and Sublime by What only the Heart can hear and see).
Because this is the late-time in its approaching adult year, this Full Basket of Tolerance is Made and Given as a Gift to one and all, With all My Blessings, from My Heart, and with the Most Perfect Intention that every one is to see The Divine Light of Truth, and that every one is to hear The Divine Word and Silence That Breaks the Heart, and that every one is, by a Graceful listening, to come to Rest, and turn about.
And I Am here (now, and forever hereafter) to Shine and Do and Magnify This Divine Light of Truth, and to Utter and Shape and Magnify This Divine Word and Silence That Breaks the Heart, and to Confess and Make and Ride and Be The “Bright” Dawn Horse That (now, and forever hereafter, Appearing) Will Awaken every one.
Basket of Tolerance – Beezone Introduction
First Word – Dark Time
https://beezone.com/beezones-main-stack/myfirstwordbaskettoleranceadapted.html
Book List
List of Books
Partial List
Preface – 1988
Introduction to the Basket of Tolerance – Laughing Man Magazine
Introduction to The Basket of Tolerance – Richard Schorske, Laughing Man Magazine
Basket of Tolerance – Student Series Introduction
Human History is One Great Tradition
The Basket of Tolerance – Human History Is One Great Tradition
Basket of Tolerance – Introduction
Basket of Tolerance – Hinayana Buddhism
Basket of Tolerance – Preface
Basket of Tolerance – My First Word
Basket of Tolerance – My First Word
Basket of Tolerance – Epilogue
Esoteric Anatomy and the Great Traditions of Human History