About Not-Two Is Peace

by Carolyn Lee, PhD

The message of Not-Two Is Peace is not merely that human beings should work to resolve the world’s urgent crises, but that we must do so in a radically new way. At its core, this book is a call to uncover an entirely new disposition within ourselves, a fundamentally different consciousness, from which to engage the grave global challenges arrayed before us.

The striking notion put forth in this book is that what humanity must now grow beyond is nothing less than the fundamental orientation of searching for solutions to the world’s problems. Adi Da’s core argument is that the orientation of trying to find or create unity and peace out of all the divided interests of separate groups of people is “not it”—and is, in fact, no longer workable. Rather, what humankind desperately needs today is a profoundly new paradigm, which is summarized here as the principle—and working-presumption—of “prior unity”.

Prior unity is not just a philosophical concept or ideal. It is the structure of existence itself, as ancient seers have declared and even modern physics has demonstrated. To experience and presume prior unity obviates the search to “cause” or “create” unity or peace. The work becomes one of enacting and magnifying the prior unity that is already the felt reality. It is to enable the inherent prior unity of people to come forth on all levels of the world stage. It is a profoundly different context within which to work.

The practical means proposed by Adi Da for manifesting this prior unity is a “Global Cooperative Forum”. This forum would serve the common interests of all of humankind, because it would operate on the basis of the new paradigm of prior unity, which would grant it a unique and inherent moral integrity.

All the fundamental global matters would be in its purview, but approached as one living process, rather than as a multiplicity of competing issues. Participation in the forum would depend upon people’s ability to set aside their personal, national, religious, ethnic, or other forms of identity, to accomplish the work at hand. The paradigm of prior unity would grant them the capacity to merely be there as human beings representing all of humankind.

Adi Da is not naive. He simply speaks the truth as he sees it, with no withholding and no armoring. He is fully aware of the complexity of establishing and maintaining such a forum. Extraordinary leadership, vast programs of education and immense structures of communication will be required. But Adi Da points out that this is the very moment in human history where global interconnectedness—exemplified in today’s technology, such as the Internet—can provide the means to shift the consciousness of humanity in a finite period of time. Nothing even remotely like this has ever been possible before.

The means exist, but the clear message and force of mobilization to use that means for the universal good has yet to emerge. Adi Da is emphasizing that the people themselves—we, the six billion inhabitants of earth—can, and must, cooperatively enact our fundamental will to survive, be free and preserve the Earth.

It is essential that morally enlightened individuals with the skills and connections to bring this forum into being come forward and combine with like-minded others to bring the profound truths stated in the book Not-Two Is Peace into a living form. Adi Da is entirely blessing and empowering humankind with his spiritual influence to make this leap.