About The Text

The story of The Mummery Book plunges the reader into the realm of potent archetypes, a world far more mysterious (and far more meaningful) than everyday thinking. Raymond Darling experiences a series of incidents that represent key transformations in the process of his human and Spiritual growth. It is on a deep, and even surrealistic, level (rather than on an ordinary surface level) that this sequence of incidents "makes sense". Each of the incidents encapsulates a whole world of experience, and each incident is narrated in a style of language that particularly fits its mood.

The start of The Mummery Book establishes the voice of the Narrator throughout the book, guiding the viewer in the unique transformative process this play is meant to evoke.

"The Incident" begins with a mysterious account of Raymond Darling's birth into the "world of Mom and Dad". We then witness the core incidents of Raymond's childhood, in which he makes essential discoveries about the nature of life and human relations. Much of Raymond's contemplation is concerned with the nature of "the room"—in other words, the nature of the human body-mind that we all find ourselves apparently "living in". Raymond's childhood comes to an end when Raymond is "thrown out" of Mom and Dad's world into the world at large, where he must pursue his own destiny. With penetrating vision and unguarded vulnerability, Raymond quickly measures the mass of humanity and finds a realm of chaos and disorder, in which cultures and families engage in war on every front, without any awareness of their true condition.

Raymond is rescued from this horrific vision by his fascinating and mercurial teacher/guide, Meridian Smith, who takes Raymond to a lake called "Dreamer Circle". There Raymond listens to the philosophical musings of Moode Thom, an old fisherman who has been searching for God but has finally despaired of his search.

Once again, Meridian Smith rescues Raymond from this dead end of common human seeking and experience—this time leading him into the forest. Meridian assures Raymond that the forest is where he will find the "True Water" (in other words, the true medium in which we all exist—which is Consciousness Itself).

Eventually, Meridian leaves Raymond to find his own way. Raymond wanders deep into the forest, losing all sense of the world behind him, until he discovers "Secret Lake". There Raymond receives the shocking vision of "Awful, Wondrous True Water", as it appears in the form of a Great Bird. After being undone by this confrontation, Raymond then finds his "Quandra" (an obvious play on the word "quandary"), his true loved-one.

Raymond and Quandra fall into the most intense love-embrace, overwhelmed to find the beloved of the heart. But the intensity of their mutual love soon breaks both of their hearts in the stark knowledge of inevitable loss, and Raymond takes his leave of Quandra in an intentional search to find "His True House"—the space where "He" and "She" are one without being confined to the mortal cage of human love.

Here, and throughout The Mummery Book, the relationship between Raymond and Quandra is a representation not only of an intense human love-relationship but also of the "relationship" between the two fundamental Principles of Being—the ("male") Principle of Consciousness and the ("female") Principle of Energy (or Light).

As soon as Raymond leaves Quandra, he enters a harrowing circus of tests and possibilities, where his love for Quandra seems to be ritually mocked at every turn. These rituals purify his love for her, such that he is left with a one-pointed remembrance of Quandra, untouched by his surroundings.

Raymond remains steadfast, looking always for the Way to his True House. His steps lead him first to the "Tabernacle of Saint-and-Ear", a religious institution with piercingly ironic detachment from the Divine Reality (or "True Water") Raymond has come to know.

There he finds, to his astonishment, that the enormously fat and self-important preacher, Evelyn Disk, has created an entire religion about Raymond. Adi Da Samraj's portrayal of Evelyn Disk and his followers is a biting satire, a no-holds-barred expos? of how egos inevitably make religion into a meaningless mummery.

Despite the obvious falseness of Evelyn's presentation, Raymond consents to go along with whatever Evelyn asks him to do—because Evelyn promises that he will reunite Raymond with Quandra.

This consent, or surrender, in the midst of the most intrusive and ridiculous circumstances, is what makes Raymond's Way truly heroic. He remains so one-pointed in his love of Quandra that he eventually passes through all attachment to her even as a mortal other, and discovers his True House, thereby. In his final gesture at Saint-and-Ear, Raymond refuses the trap set for him with a "radical" act. This twist at the end of "The Incident" contains a scathing commentary on the falsity of humanity's religious endeavors as well as a Revelatory simplicity about the nature of Reality.

Outraged at Raymond's refusal to participate in their hollow ceremonies, Evelyn and his followers have Raymond "duly punished". The Narrator paints a stark portrait of the difference between the open hypocrisy of the Saint-and-Ear religionists and Raymond's Way of doing Love.

With remarkable vulnerability in the face of his conditions, Raymond demonstrates his non-separate Conscious Awareness even in the midst of his punishment. He continues his contemplation of Quandra and of Reality altogether, ultimately Realizing and Confessing that he is already One with Quandra (in other words, that Consciousness and Energy are Always Already One) and that the search for Unity is (therefore) entirely unnecessary.

The final Revelation of Raymond Darling's Realization is made in this last section of "The Judgement". Adi Da again combines profound Spiritual insight with the total vulnerability of the human condition, such that the viewer is made to feel both of these qualities, simultaneously, at a depth beyond that which one would normally choose. This is the quality of Raymond's Realization itself: he is utterly combined with the human condition and yet he simply exists in the Domain of Infinite and Eternal Love-Bliss-Light.

The Epilogue reveals Adi Da Samraj as the Narrator of this epic parable, and gives a name to the voice behind all that the viewer has just seen and experienced. Adi Da calls the viewer to enter the mysterious process demonstrated by Raymond in The Mummery Book, and to leave behind the mummer's ways for good.