New Paradigm Thinking

Call to Unity

“New paradigm thinking, relevant to all human endeavor, posits the interconnectedness of all people. The poet John Donne wrote, ‘No man is an island, entire of himself; every man is a piece of a continent, part of the main.’ This is not just an economic, social, or emotional truth; it is a spiritual, or ultimate truth, and thus will always be reflected across the board in human affairs.”

Marianne Williamson (The Healing of America, p.160)

          I keep coming back to this truth—that everything is one—because I believe it to be, as Marianne Williamson says, Ultimate Truth. If we, as a species can deeply understand this, perhaps there is hope for us to remain viable. That sounds very doom and gloom, I know, but I believe this to be true: 1) unless we take seriously the state of our planet, and 2) take action to turn it around, we will not be here 100 years from now.

          Because of the way we are woven together into one garment—not just humanity, but all of creation—when there is degradation in one area, all parts are affected. When there is deep economic inequality, for instance, we are all at risk. Oppressed people reach the end of their tolerance, and they begin to fight back, as anyone would. That has happened throughout history and is happening right now in various places around the globe—on American streets, in Beirut, in Belarus, in Pakistan, just to name a few. Historically, when people can bear oppression no longer—when the odds are never in their favor, and they gain nothing from their silence and submission—they rebel. Rebellions turn into revolutions and revolutions turn into wars. And wars affect everybody.

All our systems are interlinked, whether internally or externally. A war, or a famine, or an epidemic in any place has ripple-effects throughout the world—supply chains are up-ended, commodities are scarce, currencies are devalued leading to poverty and hunger;  poverty leads to desperation and rebellion. Internally, when we have an organ system that is not working properly, everything in the body is affected, and body becomes dysfunctional. When one member of a family is sick, the whole family is at risk. Do you see where I’m going with this?

We cannot escape the fact of our interconnection with people we don’t even know on the other side of the globe, or with the natural world on which we are dependent for our food, or with the heartbeat of the planet that sustains all of it. If we can awaken to this reality—the same reality that applies to all living beings on Planet Earth—then it is possible for us to make a giant evolutionary leap that moves us beyond any notions of division or separateness to an understanding of the Ultimate Truth of our unity. This is a Spiritual truth. Everything is part of one continent called Creation.

                                        In the Spirit,

                                        Jane