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    Prior Unity: The Basis for a New Human Civilization
    Prior Unity: The Basis for a New Human Civilization
    Prior Unity: The Basis for a New Human Civilization
    Ebook117 pages1 hour

    Prior Unity: The Basis for a New Human Civilization

    By The World-Friend Adi Da and Leo Burke

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    About this ebook

    The message of the book Prior Unity is that the impulse to peaceful, cooperative coexistence is humanity's "true north." The impulse comes from our root-intelligence as one single species, and, at the same time, reflects the inherent unity of all life. To satisfy what human beings truly want and need (security, and the opportunity for unlimited participation in our social, cultural and economic life), and to ensure a benign future for life on earth, we have no choice: We must transcend what separates us and build on the deep foundation we all share, which is our prior, or already-existing unity. The prophetic call running through the whole book is that if we want to find the real basis for a new human culture, we must look beyond the outer world of separate objects, others, and events to the source, the root-condition in which all our experience is actually happening. This is not a religious matter, nor even a spiritual matter in any exclusive sense. It is about the source-reality that has no name, that is not a deity, but which is the being-essence in which we exist, the limitless conscious awareness to which everyone of us has access, regardless of our beliefs or philosophy. This is not a book about politics as we know it. It is about uncovering the true basis for a new politics, a new social contract that is founded in, and expressive of, how things really are.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateJul 14, 2018
    ISBN9781942789048
    Prior Unity: The Basis for a New Human Civilization
    Author

    The World-Friend Adi Da

    Leo Burke was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1948. He is Professor of Management Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. He first discovered the World-Friend Adi Da in 1996 and has served as an emissary in bringing Adi Da's wisdom to the world since 2008.

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      Book preview

      Prior Unity - The World-Friend Adi Da

      First and foremost, people are members of the totality of humankind. Therefore, everyone should actively participate in the global cooperative. That is how it ought to be.

      Prior unity is the native state of humankind.

      Title

      Copyright © 2015 ASA. All rights reserved.

      First ebook edition, 2018 (text matches 2015 printed edition).

      No part of this book may be copied or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher.

      Is Peace 723 is an imprint of the Adi Da Foundation Press

      (3301 West Fullerton Ave., Chicago, IL 60647 USA)

      ebook ISBN: 978-1-942789-04-8

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2015930144

      NOTE: Adi Da’s communications in this book were adapted by the compilers following guidelines for such adaptation given by Adi Da during his lifetime.

      CONTENTS

      FOREWORD

      by Leo Burke

      INTRODUCTION

      The Real Revolution

      by Carolyn Lee

      ABOUT THE COVER

      PRIOR UNITY

      The Basis For A New Human Civilization

      PROLOGUE

      An Epochal Change Is Required

      PART ONE

      What Must Be Understood

      I. THE PRINCIPLE OF PRIOR UNITY

      There Is A Universal Conscious Force

      A Single Great Principle

      The Presumption of Prior Unity

      The ego-Culture of Separateness and The egoless Culture of Prior Unity

      Unity Is A Prior Condition

      A New Kind of Human Consciousness

      II. THE HISTORY OF DIS-UNITY

      The Human Tribes Are Face To Face

      Systems of Identity-and-Difference

      Moral Enlightenment

      Be Part of Humankind First

      The Old Paradigm Must Die

      PART TWO

      What Must Be Done

      III. THE HUMAN-SCALE POLITICS OF COOPERATIVE COMMUNITY

      The Retrieval of Inspired Culture

      Vibratory Participation

      The Urge To Participate

      The Impulse of Cooperative Union

      Cooperative, Human-Scale Community

      The Food of Life

      No Longer Exploitable

      The Fundamental Domain At The Center of Life

      The Fundamental Human Urge and Need

      IV. RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE GLOBAL TOTALITY

      The Whole Must Manage Itself

      The Big Picture and The Small Picture

      The Everybody Force

      The People and The Corporations Must Re-Civilize The World

      The Only Potential Civilization That Can Survive

      V. THE POLITICS OF PRIOR UNITY

      The Global Cooperative Forum

      (A Prefatory Note to Adi Da’s Essay No Enemies) by Carolyn Lee

      No Enemies

      EPILOGUE

      The Great Project

      THE WORLD-FRIEND ADI DA

      GLOSSARY

      FOR FURTHER STUDY

      FOREWORD

      For over two and a half decades I have taught, coached, and trained people who aspire to be genuine leaders. There are literally tens of thousands of books on leadership, thousands of programs, and hundreds of theories. Many of these tools add value in one way or another. But in all of these years, I have yet to find an approach or method that conveys the full context in which every leader must operate. Amazingly, we have failed to comprehend the ground on which we stand.

      In this brief volume, the World-Friend Adi Da masterfully conveys that the world is not only interconnected but, at its root-essence, is a prior unity, an indivisible whole. He offers this fundamental understanding not merely as a philosophical proposition, but as a direct and straightforward observation, albeit one with profound consequences.

      Throughout the ages, mystics and sages have shared the awareness that we are all one. In the twentieth century, physicists discovered that the physical universe is not a solid mass, but an ever-changing, unbroken flow of energy. However, as Adi Da conveys, the force of our outdated assumptions has until now rendered civilization incapable of incorporating these insights into the daily round of human affairs.

      We need not go on living in a prison of our own making. People around the world are beginning to step beyond the tired, separative worldview that has generated so much havoc. Prior Unity: The Basis For A New Human Civilization offers invaluable wisdom for the transition that is already upon us. It calls for powerful results—all intentionally enacted without any sense of division or opposition. This is not about utopia. It is about the creative, challenging, and long-haul work that requires impactful action, systems shifts, institutional change, and personal transformation.

      I am convinced that those who grasp the message of this book—those who really get it—will inevitably be the leaders of the future. This is what the world is calling for. It is now time to get on with it.

      —Leo Burke

      Director, Global Commons Initiative,

      Mendoza College of Business,

      University of Notre Dame

      INTRODUCTION

      The Real Revolution

      by Carolyn Lee

      As I write, it is twenty-five years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, on November 9, 1989, the day that thousands of East Berliners poured through the checkpoints for the first time, a human tide that could not be stopped. While reading an article commemorating that event, I came upon a photograph taken at the Berlin Wall the day after it was breached. In the photo, the wall, as yet, is still standing but the people on both sides have climbed up and are reaching over it to shake hands, to embrace each other in celebration.

      Berlin Wall, November 10, 1989

      Photo by Raymond Depardon, courtesy of Magnum Photos.

      These dazed, excited people have never seen each other before, but there is a recognition happening that is deeper than any outward familiarity. One can feel that, in the joy of the moment, they are no longer East German or West German. They are not even German, first and foremost. With eyes, hands, and hearts caught up in this epiphany

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