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My First
Word
Foreword to The Basket of
Tolerance
by Adi Da (The Da Avatar)
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 kind 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.
Introduction
to the Basket of Tolerance
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