Practical Unity

Linda Heron Wind

Unity is not a new concept. Every religion has it in its sacred teachings and lately it is showing up everywhere, even in mainstream physics and other sciences. To science, embracing a unified world rather than a separate world is as great a paradigm shift as was releasing the belief that the Earth is the center of the solar system. Unity has been there all along but only now is science able to verify it. What is new is the ability to apply the concept of unity to our daily lives. Many of the popular teachings such as The Secret and Eckart Tolle's works are based on unity, and they prepare us to enter into an era of living unity.

Applying the understanding of unity to our daily lives is what I call "practical unity." Most of us are aware to some extent of the places in our lives where we do not function from the awareness of unity. Anywhere we experience conflict, judgment, a need to control something, sadness, anger, frustration, fear, disappointment, or other uncomfortable emotions, we are not living unity. Emotions are certainly part of the human experience but perhaps they are there to point out where our perspective is that of separation rather than unity.

All of us have been raised on a steady diet of separation so it is no wonder that we have many unconscious programs that operate as though the world and everything in it is separate from us. Yet something within us also yearns for connection and unity, for even as children we get "separation anxiety," when we are removed physically from the only source of connection we know. Perhaps this is the beginning of our misperception - if we cannot perceive something with our five senses then we are separate from it. Or maybe that original separation occurred with our embodiment at birth. Whatever the source, we identify with what appears to be a separate human body and a world filled with separate things that affect each other only through physical means. So much for appearances!

What is true is that there is and can be no separation. We are all part of the same thing and each other and there is no way to say where I end and you begin. Our minds, that were designed to allow us to function in this world of separateness or illusion, have as hard a time comprehending unity on a practical level as they do the understanding that all time is now, everywhere is here, and infinity.

My mind always feels a little like it just went through a blender when I even try to think about these concepts that seem to be outside the physical laws and our five sensory physical perception.

Practical unity is a challenge to the mind and requires using an expanded awareness beyond the five senses. We access this awareness on a feeling level through our hearts and intuition, and it often seems to be contrary to what our physical senses are telling us. For example, when I listen to a person describing their current problem in their life, I also feel them as a part of me and the whole. In that expanded awareness, no problem exists. That awareness is more difficult when someone is pushing my button, but I could choose see that they are here at the perfect time and in perfect harmony with the larger good allowing me to see myself more clearly through them, and they through me.

Problem solving through unity utilizes the awareness that the problem and the solution are both part of each other and me as well. The best way that I can describe it is that we are part of this great field of all possibilities and what we focus on within that field becomes knowable through our five senses. All is present in the invisible whole but only the parts we focus on become visible in the physical world. What we see is not a cause nor is it fixed, but it is only a temporary result of our inner focus. Perhaps a good metaphor is that of a TV - all channels are present and accessable but only the one that is tuned is visible.

I suspect that there will be many shifts in how we go about our lives as we continue to realize practical unity. It will affect our relationships with ourselves, each other, our environment, how we work, what we eat, and every aspect of our being. I invite you to look at your daily life and see where unity can enlighten your thoughts and actions. Ask yourself the question, "If I knew myself to be one with that person (tree, animal, problem, ________ ), how might I think or behave differently?" Only by living unity in each moment can we say that we have fully mastered the concept.

Unity awaits
Our enlightened awareness
Patiently present

If you have comments on this newsletter or ideas for future topics, call Linda Heron Wind at (585) 924-5620 or send e-mail to LHWind@aol.com.

Page last modified January 2009 by RMC