Namaste. I honor the universal wisdom of unity that resides within every person.

The lamps are different, but the Light is the same.
So many garish lamps in the dying brain’s lamp-shop,
Forget about them.
Concentrate on essence, concentrate on Light.
In lucid bliss, calmly smoking off its own holy fire,
The Light streams toward you from all things,
All people, all possible permutations of good, evil, thought, passion.
The lamps are different, but the Light is the same.
One matter, one energy, one Light, one Light-mind,
Endlessly emanating all things.
One turning and burning diamond,
One, one, one.
Ground yourself, strip yourself down to blind loving silence.
Stay there, until you see
You are gazing at the Light with its own ageless eyes. (Rumi, “One One One)

The Riddle of Identity

Understanding unity is about understanding identity. Who are you? What is your relationship to others and all else in the world? You are both an independent being, with your own personality and style, and you are also a part of a greater whole.

It’s a riddle. Consider this famous identity riddle. A man is looking at a portrait. "Whose picture is that?" someone asks, and the man replies: "Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man's father is my father's son." At whose picture is the man looking?

Now if you have a brain like mine (that is, creative but with limited logic), then you assume that the man is looking at a picture of himself. But that is to miss the logic of the riddle. It helps to start at the end. Seeing as there are no brothers, then “My father’s son” is “me”, therefore that man’s father is me, therefore the man is looking at a portrait of his son. Crystal clear?

“Look, tell me who's playing left field. Who's playing first. I want to know what's the guy's name in left field? No, What is on second. I'm not asking you who's on second. Who's on first! I don't know. Third base!”

Understanding who you are is just as complicated as the ancient riddle and the Abbott and Costello baseball skit. It’s a moving target. If you set up your identity as a baseball diamond, “I” would be on first base, “me” would be on second base and “myself” would be on third base. You run around, chasing a fixed sense of who you are, only to find that it constantly changes. So what is home base? Lets look to Jesus’ parables for a clue.

The same word is used in Aramaic for “parable” and “riddle”. The purpose of Jesus parables was to draw from his listeners a new realization, a shift in perspective. If you realize the Light within, you will realize salvation (homebase). Salvation is an end to the obsessive striving for and protection of a fixed identity, and an open surrender to the self in dynamic relationship to all that is.

It’s like the tee shirt that says, “I’m unique, just like everybody else.” As unique as you are, don’t fall for the delusion that your uniqueness gives you some fixed identity. Your uniqueness might even bolster your ego, your false sense of separateness in the world. That will be the cause of great suffering in your life, and dis-unity in the world. But if you use your unique and evolving humanity in service of a greater purpose, you will build comm.-unity and bolster a healthy and ever changing sense of self.

Unity in a Greater Purpose

Do you see the point? You are both a self, your own unique and garish lamp, and you are the Light that is all possible permutations. Unity compromises neither, but it does prioritize the One Light.
Unity assumes difference, but the difference has a higher purpose- the greater Whole.

Maybe this fun story will shine some light on the subject-

Rabbi Bloom was conducting his very first service at one of London’s oldest synagogues. All was going well until he got to the ‘Shema’ prayer - half his congregation stood up. Those still seated started yelling ‘sit down’ to those standing and those standing started yelling ‘stand up’ to those sitting. Although Rabbi Bloom was knowledgeable about much of the law, he didn’t know what to do. He thought it must be something to do with the synagogue’s tradition.
After the service, Rabbi Bloom consulted Abe, the synagogue’s oldest member. "I need to know, Abe, what the synagogue’s tradition is with regard to the Shema prayer. Is the tradition to stand during this prayer?"
Abe replied, "No, that is not the tradition."
"So the tradition is to sit during Shema?" said Rabbi Bloom.
Abe replied, "No, that is not the tradition."
"But," said Rabbi Bloom, "my congregation argue all the time. They yell at each other about whether they should sit or stand and ..."
Abe interrupted, exclaiming, "Aha, THAT is the tradition!"

Now, I don’t know if that is an example of unity, or disunity. Without the shouting and arguing, I suspect it’s an example of unity that respects difference. Unity celebrates diversity, because diversity serves a greater purpose, that is, community; healthy dialogue, respectful disagreement, agreeing to disagree.

Vine and Branches

Jesus had one particular parable that helps to describe the riddle of unity. He said, “I am the vine. You are the branches.” Each vine has roots. The roots are your preferred religious tradition, or your personality style, or your gender or sexuality, or whatever makes you who you are as a separate self. Roots are important. They keep you grounded. But they also exist to help spread branches. Without branches, the roots become isolated and could easily wither. In fact, they depend on each other. But the branches are a broader expression of the vine.

No separate quality or identity can fully or adequately describe who you are at your essence. At your essence, you are the I Am that is the vine.

In moments of great insight, when your mind is uncluttered by the need to protect identity and uniqueness, "the great door opens a crack" and you catch a glimpse of the Wholeness of which you are a part.

Have you ever had the experience of looking long and hard into another human being’s eyes? I went to a conference a few years back where this was the opening exercise. It’s quite amazing. Once you get over the awkwardness of the exercise, you see many layers. They come and go without any predictable pattern. You see color and texture, size and shape. Maybe you see a small blood spot or sty. You get occasional glimpses of your own reflection, and in these moments you get some insight into how you appear in the world to others. And in rare moments, you see beyond all of that. It becomes like a series of mirrors where the reflections have no end; a deep, even infinite, tunnel of light. In this moment, the great door opens a crack, and you catch a glimpse of the Wholeness of which you are a part. This is the basis for unity. You celebrate the differences, but you don’t stop there. You look for an underlying Greater Whole.

Gandhi – the Example Par Excellence of Unity

One of the greatest examples of unity that this world has seen is Mohandas Gandhi. He lived in a world where the racism was overt and tragic. The success he had in liberating an entire nation grew out of his ability to bring together people of different faiths and classes. He frequently would say, “I am not only a Hindu; I am a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew.” His Ashram accepted persons of all castes, including untouchables. Gandhi referred to the untouchable class as the Harijan, the favored children of God. 

Once, when Gandhi was traveling in South Africa, he was in a first class sleeper carriage. Mid journey, he was told he would need to move to third class due to his skin color. Gandhi wrapped his arms around the armrest and refused to budge. It took several police officers to physically move him. Gandhi was determined and crafty.

One particular episode in his life stands out as parable of unity. It was 1947, just after independence from Great Britain. Civil war was in full flight! Hindus and Muslims were slaughtering each other. In the middle of this chaos, the Hindu leader Gandhi was fasting in the hope of jolting people out of their prejudice and violence.

He was near death from starvation when a crazed man, a Hindu, confessed to him, "I killed a child! I smashed his head against a wall!"
Gandhi asks, "Why?"
"Because they killed our son... my boy! The Muslims killed my son!"
Gandhi gently tells him, "I know a way out of hell. Find a child, a child whose mother and father have been killed - a little boy - and raise him as your own. Only be sure that he is a Muslim..."

If that was the end of the story, it would be a kind of peace and unity, but Gandhi goes further.
Gandhi says, "And you must raise him as a Muslim." The Hindu man dropped to his knees and sobbed. He now had to search for profound levels of forgiveness within himself.

Tolerating diversity is fine as far as it goes. Unity is a celebration of diversity that grows out of a true understanding of identity.

The Work of Unity

This notion of unity applies to all your relationships. If you can look your partner or friend in the eyes, see the uniqueness that each brings, see a reflection of yourself, and then see beyond that to the Light that draws you as One, then there will be far fewer conflicts in your relationships.

Unity is also a profound antidote to the troubles of our world today. If Israelis and Palestinians could look deep into each others eyes, respect diversity, see each other and then see beyond to the Light that is their common humanity, the bloodshed would stop immediately.

The Inauguration this past Tuesday was a wonderful celebration of unity in diversity. Leave aside your own political preferences, your opinions about Obama, and your opinions about the various participants in the proceedings. Just consider the event as a national celebration of unity in diversity. You couldn’t help but be moved. This whole event appeared to help the nation evolve several steps in terms of unity in diversity.

Much of the world was inspired to get up and be part of the unity work, in the words of Reverend Lowery “to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.”

So many were inspired to do their part towards a world where, in the words of Isaiah 9, “6The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 9They will not hurt or destroy
   on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

Are you inspired and prepared to do your part for the unity of the world?

Reverend Lowery said this at the closing Benediction of the Inauguration-

“work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around ... when yellow will be mellow ... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.”

All those prepared to be part of the work of unity, say “Amen”.
All those prepared to celebrate diversity, but seek a common humanity, say “Amen”.
All those who celebrate uniqueness, but see beyond it to a Greater Whole, say “Amen”.