The Light Is One

The lamps are different

But the Light is the same…

Concentrate on essence,

Concentrate on Light.

What is Rumi really saying here? He goes on:

The light streams toward you from all things,

All people, all possible permutations of good,

Evil, thought, passion,

But the Light is the same.

 One matter, one energy, one Light, one Light-mind,

 Endlessly emanating all things…

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 seems to be getting at the essence of everything we need to know in this life: at our depths are we all connected; we are each and every one of us part of the one Light; what is true of the whole is true of the part; the personal is a reflection of the collective; and therefore, humanity is one, as Reality is one.

If it is true that the entire universe obeys the same fundamental laws of nature, then that would be what all things are dependent upon. There would be one law of growth, one law of change, and one law of transformation that everything is subject to. One process, or one pattern, characterizes growth and evolution on all levels at the same time.

The essence of transformation ~ muddle followed by resolution, or death followed by rebirth ~ is the same for the person as it is for society and civilization as a whole. The universe moves in patterned rhythms and cycles. History repeats itself. Civilizations rise, and they fall.

Could the story of religion be any different? With every process of every form of evolution being part of the same Reality, rather than being sporadic or haphazard, might the unfolding of the world’s religions be linked as well to a purposeful pattern shaping our evolution?

The story each individual religion tells is one story, that of the gradual but progressive unfolding of consciousness toward a greater and greater recognition of oneness. The earliest shamans and spiritual leaders, fascinated by the mysteries of life, developed sacred ways of being, as have all the messengers of God, that provided divinely inspired guidance. As the strength and cohesiveness of one spiritual heritage began to wane, another arose and this birth, death, and renewal cycle was repeated across many millennia around the world.

This Great Mystery still intrigues us more than anything else. Whether we call the designer of this pattern “the One Spirit,” “the Infinite Essence,” or “the Hidden Secret,” there is perhaps no subject more compelling than sacredness and how our consciousness relates to it.

Does this resolve the great paradox of the One and the many? We are born into and spend our entire lives in this physical realm of dualities, but we had our origin in the spiritual realm of oneness, and our sacred scriptures tell us that we will return to the realm of oneness.

So if there is only one reality, why do we persist in creating separate realms? This world of dualities and separation is only an illusion. Even here, all things are ultimately interconnected.

This indicates that as our perspective changes, our consciousness changes – and evolves. We start to become self aware in the world of dualities, first seeing all the dualities around us. And that is the way our life continues to unfold and evolve, until, one lucky day, we get a glimpse of the way things really are meant to be, even here in this mostly physical world.

Most of us have those experiences of oneness, but we may not always recognize them for what they are. And they are pretty difficult to hang on to, anyway. This is where the evolution of consciousness really comes in, having its greatest purpose, as that timeless, universal quest returns us to our original state of union.

The most important change in our time, and by far the most vital, is a change in consciousness. Our evolving consciousness is leading us nowhere if not to a consciousness of oneness. A new civilization, built upon a consciousness of oneness, is arising in our midst.

          The realm of Divinity is an indivisible oneness…

          The organization of God is one; the evolution of existence is one;

          The divine system is one…

Abdul-Baha