We cannot separate awareness and compassion. Awareness without compassion is sterile and lacks depth, while compassion without awareness is blind and unable to respond creatively to real situations. Awareness married to compassion allows a real relationship to develop. It is only through understanding, through a feeling of relationship to the world, that we can go beyond the selfishness that characterizes so much of the modern world.
~ from REFLECTIONS ON EVERYDAY LIFE by Paramananda
Some Thing that moves among the stars, And holds the cosmos in a web of law, Moves too in me: a hunger, a quick thaw Of soul, that liquifies the ancient bars, As I, a member of creation, sing The burning oneness binding everything.
O Hidden Life, vibrant in every atom, O Hidden Light, shining in every creature, O Hidden Love, embracing all in Oneness, May all who feel themselves as one with Thee Know they are therefore one with every other.
The exerience of Oneness is not limited to just the great mystics of all the ages. Each one of us is invited to experience this Oneness and we can do so in all our endeavors. We can experience and utilize our Oneness when we are appreciating the beauty of nature, in our spiritual practice, in the creative process, and in our social action in the world. When we are feeling separate from our God source, we can find deep within us that knowing of Oneness to guide us back into the Light.
This is true faith: connection to the universe and its inner divine consciousness through freedom, individual uniqueness, regard for one's true personality, grounding of the divine within, all expressed through love. It saves, for it makes us one with that which endures and can never be lost. It gives peace, for it brings the gift of Oneness. We are only upset by that which is outside ourselves and threatens to come in and destroy, or by the reflection of the intruder within. If we truly know we are One with all that is, nothing is outside us, nothing can threaten, so there can only be peace.
There is an interconnectedness, a oneness, an interrelationship of all life. We are not separate, isolated beings, but are all part of the great mystery of creation.
It is interesting to note that modern scientific thinking in many ways points to a similar underwstanding. An example of this is Bell's Theorem, which is sometimes referred to as the "butterfly effect."
It holds that the beating of a butterfly's wings can have an influence on events far away, even on the other side of the Earth.
~ from "Friends Journal" (09/2002) by Richard W. Siebels
