Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace

I Offer the Communication in this Letter out of Compassion and Love for all human beings and for the entire world.

This is the moment of truth for humankind. Critical choices must now be made, in order to protect the continued existence of human society and of the Earth itself.

This letter is a Call to righten the collective moral disposition of humanity, and to establish a truly cooperative global human community on that basis.

In this Message to all, I call upon the leaders and educators of humankind to actively embrace, and to universally declare and promote, and to actively require the universal real fulfillment of the simplest Law and Measure of humankind, which I have stated in the form: "Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace". The acceptance of this Law as a universal discipline is the basis for (progressively) resolving the current plight of humankind.

I. Why War Must No Longer Be Allowed

Until the twentieth century, the destructive potential of war, though great, was (nevertheless) limited. There was a limit to the number of governments that had access to the most powerful weapons, there was a limit to the destructive potential of those weapons, and there was a limit on the geographic range over which such weapons could be exercised. Therefore, the violence and devastation of war, though horrific, was nevertheless (to some degree) contained.

Since the mid-twentieth century, the previous restrictions on the destructive potential of war have ceased to be the case. The ability to manufacture or obtain technologically sophisticated weaponry (whether nuclear, chemical, or biological) is no longer limited to the few, to the governments of the wealthiest and most powerful nations. Indeed, such weapons can potentially be obtained even by small groups of people determined to further their own particular agendas, at whatever cost. And the destructive potential of existing weaponry is now sufficient to cause unimaginable devastation. Thus, humanity is faced with two new and dangerous realities: The number of parties with relatively easy access to extreme weapons of war is proliferating rapidly, and the destructive power of those weapons is virtually unlimited.

In the past, it was only the "superpowers" that had the most destructive weapons. Thus, there was a time when it was plausible for a superpower to presume that, by using conventional weaponry, it could keep outbreaks of armed violence under control, at least to a "satisfactory" degree. However, that time has passed.

When sophisticated weapons of mass destruction are in the hands of many, war (and even armed conflict altogether) ceases to be something that can be "won". The governments of the world are, in general, acting as if they do not understand or accept this current reality. Since the twentieth-century, war itself has become a threat to all of humankind—not merely to the parties directly involved in any particular conflict. Therefore, just as slavery came to be recognized as inhumane and (thus) unacceptable, so also war must be made obsolete and no longer to be allowed. War is a past way of doing things that no longer makes sense and can no longer be accepted as an appropriate instrument of policy in the modern world.

It may seem naive and idealistic to say that war must no longer be allowed, but this call for the eradication of war is, in fact, a necessary response to two basic realities: (1) the vastly increased availability of the weapons of mass destruction and (2) the ego-based (or self-centered) nature of the un-Enlightened human being. Given these realities, war must no longer be allowed as an option—the risk involved is far too great.

Therefore, in order to ensure its own survival, the human family must collectively make the choice to refuse and repudiate all acts of war. When that refusal and repudiation occurs, the governments of the world (and even military oriented "interest groups" of all kinds) can be collectively called upon to reject the very possibility of waging war. And , in order to hasten that collective rejection of war, people everywhere, and (particularly) leaders in all fields of human endeavor, must join in speaking this warning: War simply must be ended now—before it destroys humanity and the Earth itself.

II. The Root of War

The un-Enlightened human individual is in a state of constant concern for his or her self-preservation (even though this concern may not always be conscious). This self-based, (or egoic) pattern (or orientation toward existence) is manifested as the psychology of search and conflict relative to all that is presumed to be "not-self". Thus, human beings are inherently disposed to control and dominate all that they presume to be "not-self". For this reason, individual egocentric lives are a constant expression of fear, sorrow, anger, and un-love. Except for the greatest saints and sages, every individual—whether "leader" or "follower"—is controlled by this egoic pattern. And the collective life of egocentric human beings (expressed in organized groups of all kinds, including governments) is dominated by the same motives toward self-preservation and toward control of what is "outside"—leading to the collective expression of fear, sorrow, anger, and un-love.

As I have written (in "On Liberation from ego and egoic Society, or, Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace"), "Mankind, indoctrinated by materialistic philosophies, ego-serving technologies, and gross political idealisms is possessed by the mechanical and emotionally negative efforts of self-indulgence (and anxious release-seeking efforts of all kinds), and chronically depressed by the frustration of the Spiritual and Divine impulses that are the inherent characteristics of the heart of every living being. The ego-'I', whether individual or collective, is eventually reduced to sorrow and despair, because of (and as an experiential result of) the inability of life (in and of itself) to generate Happiness and Joy and Immortality. And that self-contained depression finally becomes anger, or loveless confrontation with the total world and every form of presumed 'not-self '—including even (and especially) the Transcendental, Inherently Spiritual and Self-Evidently Divine Self-Identity (or One and Only Non-Separate Self-Condition), Which is 'locked away', by means of conventional (or merely exoteric) ideas of 'God Apart', and is (thereby) made into an 'Other' by the egoic mind. And, when anger becomes the mood of human societies, the quality of fire (or the primitive and destructive intent of the frustrated ego) invades the plane of humanity. That fire is expressed as all of the aggression and competitiveness (and all of the resultant sufferings and painful illusions) of mankind, including all of the ego-based politics of confrontation. And that ego-fire is, finally, summarized in the acts of war."

III. A Truly Cooperative Global Humanity Community

The only way beyond the chaos and destruction of war is for humankind as a whole to embrace the discipline of a truly cooperative global community. It is essential that each and all the peoples and nations of the world go beyond their separate desire for dominance—by (each and all) relinquishing their wish to establish their separate racial or ethnic group or their particular tradition of religion or their separately idealized political system, or their any independently and exclusively presumed self-interest as supreme. Instead, humanity must accept its responsibility to manage itself as a globally interconnected total community—and (in the disposition of cooperation and tolerance) that total (or truly global) community must deal with the immense practical problems confronting the living world today (including overpopulation, disease, ecological and environmental problems, economic problems, and so forth). Through this cooperative global community, humankind must collectively address the terrible suffering (whether brought on by war, exploitation, poverty, or the harsh realities of nature) that is endured by vast numbers of the world's human (and non-human) population.

The active leaders of the cooperative global community (not only in government, but in every area of human endeavor) will have a uniquely great responsibility—for, even if individuals developing within the collective order of humankind yet suffer the self-caused disabilities of egoic living, the leaders who serve the cooperative global community must (without fail) preserve and protect the well-being of humankind (and of even all of Earthkind) as a whole, by really and consistently abandoning the self-centered, non-cooperative, and intolerant (or loveless) manner of life and the policies and activities that flow from it.

Humankind should realize (and gratefully accept) that it (and even all of Earthkind, and Earth itself) has had enough of humanly-caused global destructiveness and violence. As a collective, humankind has become a dreadful mob of competitive egos—head-to-head, toe-to-toe, always threatening "showdown" and "winner-takes-all". It is a matter of the greatest present-time urgency that this prevailing global mood of political separatism, end-game competitiveness, and endlessly multiplied divisiveness be immediately and thoroughly and universally and permanently (or by means of the formal establishment of a global cooperative order of world populations) relinquished—such that the entire world population of humankind becomes universally intelligent with the heart-positive mind of cooperation and tolerance.

It is estimated that 160 million people were killed as a direct result of war during the twentieth century—vastly more than in any other century in the history of the world. This is a certain and heart-breaking sign that the human world is not being patterned

and managed (or governed) correctly. In order to survive through the twenty-first century (and succeeding centuries), the peoples and nations of the collective human world must cease to support the political conventions of competitive conflict (or all of the merely nationalistic, or separatist, and aggressive approaches to political problem-solving, based on racial, ethnic, traditional religious, economic, and otherwise idealized differences). Such great changes in human life and governance can be made—on the basis of cooperation and tolerance. Indeed, for the sake of all present and future humanity (and even all of Earthkind), these changes must be made—in a non-violent manner, and via the gentle but persistent rejection of war (and even of inherent, or systematic, separativeness) as an appropriate instrument of world politics.

The only way to solve the current world-situation is for everyone to "lose face"—instead of everyone demanding to "save face".

All of humankind should, as a formalized collective, "lose face" together—by acknowledging that, unless human beings live in formally established and formally maintained cooperation and tolerance, they inevitably. sink into grossly and universally destructive behavior. Only by everyone "losing face" together will the collective of human beings be able to regenerate moral strength and authority that is necessary if human beings everywhere are to require cooperation and tolerance of each other—and only when there is first such a regeneration of universally equalized moral strength and authority will there be a universal agreement to create and maintain a truly cooperative and tolerant global human community.

This is how humanity can (and should, and must) exemplify its collective and intrinsic heart-Realization of the Greatness of the Real.

IV. Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace

My Call to the natural order of all human beings is this: Accept, with humility, that your rightful position (and that of every one) in the world family of Earthkind (including humankind) is not the "ego-place" of separateness, separativeness; domination,

and control, but the "heart-place" of ego-transcending cooperation and tolerance. Only on the foundation of ego-transcending cooperation and tolerance is it possible for peace (or right life) to be established among living beings of any form or kind. Indeed, this Call to Right Life and Peace is a great and absolute moral Law, which I have Epitomized in the equation "Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace". It is absolutely essential that the universal collective of humankind formally embrace and really enact this universal moral disposition.

"Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace" is the Great Alternative to the egoic path of inevitable universal destruction—and, therefore, that moral Law must become a universally accepted (and expected) moral and practical self-discipline. The collective human family should formally, fully, and finally refuse to allow war. Through this gesture (or fully enacted agreement), the gathering of the Earth-wandering peoples of the world can feel their real strength and connectedness to one another—and their collective power to transform the "usual" (or "real") politics of egoity, and so actually create and maintain human peace in the natural world. Everyone should become positively disposed to the establishment of a real and true global cooperative human community—because that global cooperative human community is not merely a "utopian ideal", but a practical and actually realizable necessity for the physical survival and the natural well-being of humankind and even all of Earthkind.

V. No One Can Win—But Everyone Can Lose

For thousands of years, humanity has generated its history on the egoic (or separative) basis of opposition, confrontation, and competition. That history represents the developmental period of human infancy, childhood, and adolescence—and that early-life history must now (and forever hereafter) come to an end, in the truly adult generations of humankind.

To this end, people should not be "concerned" about how much has to be done in order to bring about this universal human change that aligns human existence to the intrinsic moral Law of Right Life and Peace. Rather each one who agrees with this Call of Mine to humankind must —from now, and forever hereafter—simply, actually, and consistently do what is necessary to communicate and serve this Call and to directly, practically, and positively address all the grave issues that humanity now faces. In this manner, people everywhere must come to the point of fully accepting that this universal embrace of the global order of human (and truly cooperative, and really mutually tolerant) adulthood must and will be done, and that there is no other acceptable option. The collective human world must relinquish the confrontational disposition (or the political and social idea of mutually exclusive `"opposites") and enter into cooperation (and the idea of inherent unity, unqualified relatedness, or oneness). Otherwise. the human species is risking its own total self-destruction—as well as the destruction of even all of Earthkind, and of Earth itself.

To bring the cooperative global human community into existence is not a matter of creating some kind of monolithic "world government". Rather, it is a matter of global cooperation among governments (or among representatives of various collectives) a global cooperative politics that is no longer based on mutual opposition, unmanaged competition, or strategic efforts to dominate. The politics of confrontation and competition must be disciplined by the real (and really exercised) mutual dependency of human beings and human collectives on one another. If that great shift of principle in the exercises of human collective life is made to occur (by a universal', formal, re-agreement), then humankind (and even all of Earthkind) will have the possibility of a rightly Realizable future. On any other basis, even the possible survival (not to mention the possible "future" or "success") of humankind (and even all of Earthkind, and of Earth itself) is already compromised and without reason for optimism.

The Peace Law of cooperation and tolerance must be embraced as the necessary politics of the future. Cooperation and tolerance is the necessary and exact "price" for peace—the "treaty cost" for the survival of humankind, Earthkind, and Earth itself. This is the necessary "new paradigm" for the human design of future effort.

The traditional game of "winning the spoils" must come to an end. If the competitive mode of history is continued, no one is going to win—and everyone can (and, inevitably, will) lose. Humankind must come together (cooperatively, tolerantly, and as a whole) to solve the dreadful mass of problems that are already really and concretely affecting (and, otherwise, set to affect) human lives all over the world. And, fundamentally, there is only one effective "medicine", one underlying Law (or Principle), one practical moral basis upon which all of this can be positively and successfully addressed: Cooperation + Tolerance = Peace.

No one can win the separative wars of the tribes of human mind—but, in a truly cooperative global human community, all will win, everywhere on Earth.

VI. Preserve the Gift of Human Existence on Earth

Let every one act on his or her heart-desire to preserve this world of Earth and its kinds of life.

Let every one act on his or her heart-yearning to serve the rightening of the world-civilization of human beings.

Do not allow this precious gift of human existence to be reduced, degraded, and annihilated.

Do not allow this precious world of Earth and Earthkind to be destroyed

Preserve these gifts by doing, and demanding, what Is Right Life and Peace.

I Offer you these Words as a Thorn of Warning and a Breath of New Life.

I Say all of this in Certain Love—for you, and for every one.

from Avatar Adi Da Samraj