Is it possible to experience a sense of oneness while at the same time appreciating the uniqueness of each individual?  My brief blog today focuses on one of the many thoughts of a most admired person concerning this awakening to wholeness in living.

“In spiritual fellowship men are one in the divine,

and this shared oneness embraces the absolute uniqueness

of all individual differences.”

Marc Edmund Jones

I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts concerning this idea.

The Earth energies around Glastonbury are experienced by many people to be very powerful.  In the gardens it is possible to feel these earth energies from the moment of entering the cobblestone path under the archway of plants.  In this extraordinary place it is possible to “appreciate the interconnected and vibrant forces that sustain life upon our Planet.”

Peace, Brother

Solitary Sunday.

Mist on muddy canal

Dances ever so slightly.

Crow caws,

A fish rises.

The splash widens in circularity,

Defining a serenity

To be absorbed and cherished.

Jonas Mather

From 1953 to 1981 Peace Pilgrim walked more than 25,000 miles on a personal pilgrimage for peace.  She vowed to “remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food.”  In the course of her 28-year pilgrimage she touched the hearts, minds, and lives of thousands of individuals all across North America.  Her message continues to inspire people all over the world: www.peacepilgrim.org

May you have an opportunity to do so, come to the home town where Peace Pilgrim was born, Egg Harbor City, New Jersey on the weekend of July 16-18 for our  annual Peace Pilgrim birthday celebration.  For more details please see: http://www.peacepilgrim100.org/index.htm

From Peace Pilgrim:

The power of thought. “Do you know that every moment of your life you’re creating through thought?”

Bringing our lives into harmony with the laws that govern the universe. As Peace said, to attain inner peace we need to align the way we live with our beliefs.

Finding our place in the life pattern. We are all cells in the body of humanity — all of us, all over the world.  Each one has a special contribution to make, and the guidance to find our mission in life comes from within.

These are my commitments to embrace abundance in living. This day I offer a prayer of thankfulness to God for life, for love, for all people in the world and for the ever-growing abundance manifested each moment. Choosing to perceive us all as one, I serve my fellow human beings while fulfilling my unique purpose through the expression of my personality and talents. Today, a complete rebirth from new realization in situations, circumstances and events brightens my path. I rejoice in deeper inner communion with God. In the presence of divine bounty, I communicate to everyone my appreciation for the abundant gifts in our hands.

Would you like to share your own commitments with me?

“May I be in peace.

May my heart remain open.

May I awaken to the light which is my true nature.

May I be healed.

May I be a source of healing for all beings.”

I would love to share with you some of my comments and would love to hear yours.

Peace Pilgrim, who walked more than 25,000 miles for peace, sharing her core values for an expansion of consciousness, said, “Love is the greatest force on earth. Love conquers all.” She was referring to the great potential each of us has to manage conflictive situations with love. Using the transformative power that love offers.

This is a good opportunity to comment in detail of an incident that happened to our traveling friend and its message of peace. She once was struck by an upset adolescent, with whom she had begun to walk. He had wanted to go on the trip, but was afraid of breaking a leg and being left behind. Everyone was afraid to be with him as he was an enormous boy, the size of a football player, and was well known for being violent occasionally. On one occasion he struck his mother so hard, she had to spend several weeks in hospital. All feared him; but Peace Pilgrim offered to walk with him.

As they reached the top of the first hill, everything was going well. But soon a storm appeared. The boy was terrified because the storm was so close by. He reacted, suddenly approached Peace Pilgrim and hit her. She didn’t run although perhaps she might have, as the young man carried a heavy backpack. Even though he was striking her, Peace Pilgrim could feel only the deepest compassion for this young man who was so ill psychologically as to strike a defenseless, and older, woman. Peace Pilgrim countered his rage with love even while he was beating her … and with this he stopped.

He said to her, “You didn’t hit me back! Mother always hits me back.” In spite of his upheaval, Peace Pilgrim’s reaction elicited kindness in the boy. He felt remorse and condemned his own actions.

In summary, the young man stopped being violent and today is a useful person in the world.

Plato described love as the union of two souls with the same divinity. Jesus Christ said: ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ Taoist Chuang-Tzu taught that through love we experience the inherent connections between ourselves and others, seeing the creation as one. Marc Edmund Jones commented that the testimony of the world is towards unity. Buddha saw that understanding and love are one.

To see her blog, Why does Haiti suffer so much please click here.

I could feel her pain and compassion as she expressed her ideas and appreciated her efforts to express a wide variety of potential explanations as to what truly is a very complex situation. The suffering Haitians are enduring is in my heart and soul as well. In light of such devastation I would like to offer some thoughts about the meaning of pain and suffering in managing life challenges. From my perspective, the goal that is sought and achieved through pain is a transcendence of baffling difficulties by the free and somewhat paradoxical choice or acceptance of greater difficulties. How does this work? (1) Pain gives way to the finer intensity of faith and aspiration; (2) Human dissatisfaction may result in restlessness that transforms into creativity and constructive acts for the well-being of our fellows, one of the areas where we see this now is in the creative ways around the world that are being developed to speed up the adoption of orphans; (3) Suffering of soul brings the opportunity for sacrificial dedication in ameliorating the lot of humankind, so clearly seen in the efforts to rescue survivors and to provide medical care even with very scarce resources.

In Haiti we are now witnessing the manifestation of all three scenarios with the participation of people from all over the world which offers us all the opportunity to experience the functioning of the global community in co-operation for the good of all. My prayers and love are with all Haitians.

In a message of hope and inner peace, it is a privilege to post my friend’s Jonas Mather’s Poem as he shares his inner light with the readers of my blog this day, also published on his book, “Shards”. Oneness is eternal.

Rebirth

In the instant always

Sunrise, sunset.

Eternal cycle bound to continue

Until sun’s end

And anew

When the universe resumes its course

In continuing rebirth.

To end is to begin.

During a trip to Glastonbury, England, I had the privilege to meet author Anthea Mitchell, from the Heart Centre, and through time we have had most inspiring conversations. I am joyful to share with you this day what her friend John O’Donohue wrote:

“Behind each face and voice lies the silence of the heart. This silence is as old as the universe. It holds within it a time before vegetation clothed the earth, or animals walked, or sound echoed. This silence waits quietly under thoughts, beneath actions, relationships, behind days, nights and names. … it is in this sanctuary that experience is sifted and transfigured. It is where our vanished day secretly gathers. This silence is the home of memory and identity. It houses the spirit which coheres, articulates and shapes each human life.”