Principal – Oneness: Spiritual Truth is Truth is Experiential
All knowledge is part of the whole knowledge.
Once you have seen the larger pattern,
You cannot go back to seeing the part as the whole.”
Ursula K. LeGuin, Four Ways to Forgiveness (as cited by Wolff, p. 192)
From “Original Wisdom, Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing” by Robert Wolff, Inner Traditions, Rochester Vermont, 2001:
“We in the West know our world from seeing, hearing, and measuring what we assume to be a complex thing with many parts. We rarely use any of the other five senses we recognize to know reality.
“In other areas of the world people know from experiencing their world as a living, organic whole, where everything relates to everything and where we blend in as but another part of that whole. That experience is not seeing, or hearing, or measuring – it is a direct experiencing of all that we are.” P.192
“All who are in touch with the natural world can sense energies, emotions, and intentions of people and animals. If we listen, we can know – all we need to do is give up being in charge. Knowing inside is not something unusual; it is how we are. All humans can have that connection with All-That-Is. The connection is within us.” P. 197
* * * * * * * *
I stumbled and groaned with words trying to communicate similar experiential occurrences I have had. From the Preface of my 2nd Edition of “How the Bible became the Bible,” Balboa Press 2020;
“Understanding How the Bible became the Bible has to do with trying to see the personalities in the Bible as real people—as real as your next-door neighbors. When you can see a bit of yourself in biblical characters, you will also see a little of them in you. Opening that little window of understanding, depending on your willingness to change your thinking, will allow a small breeze of spirituality and human Oneness into your very being. Welcoming that little breeze is the key to your ability to begin the journey to finding peace, joy, and acceptance in today’s world of turmoil.” p. xxiii
Also, from my concluding chapter:
“Jesus’ message was such a simple, powerful one. It still is. It doesn’t save us. It transforms us. Over the four centuries after his death it got garbled, complicated, and twisted. It still is.
glory of this world or the material things we have,
But
By the love and compassion we have shown to others every day of
our life—without fame or glory or thanks—just in the name of love,
And
Maybe all the little things we do for one another is the most
significant thing you and I might do in our life-time.”
—Mi Sun
“Although I remain unsure of the spiritual persuasion of this Oriental philosopher, I believe I can hear Jesus clapping his hands and shouting: “Hallelujah, brother! Amen! To live this way is to be in the reality of the eternal here and now of the new Kingdom of God I came to proclaim.”
“If you’ve had my experience or experienced your own version of Emmaus, then we can be put in a room and we’ll all be able to identify, talk, and laugh at our foolishness, as well as cry with joy and sadness. Some of us in the room will call this Spirit that changed our lives Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit, or God, or the Universal Consciousness, or the Great Spirit, or our Higher Power, or the Mind of God, or Universal Truth. The reality we’ve all experienced, however, will be recognized and honored. The terminology won’t really matter.
“That is, it won’t really matter until …
• Some of us make the words that make sense to us—become the only words that anyone can use;
• Some of us institutionalize those words into verbal formulas;
• Some of us institutionalize the verbal formulas into an organizational model;
• Then, we’ll fear, distrust, and eventually hate each other for not agreeing about how we‘ve institutionalized the reality of the Lord of Love.
“Rather ironic, isn’t it? At least now we know it isn’t really a new story, so we can have hope. It’s the same tension that’s exhibited throughout the Old Testament. It’s the same tension that was instrumental in the development and selection of the contents of the New Testament. Read or reread the prophet Hosea in the Old Testament (discussed in Chapter 4). It’s the same old tension. Yet the prophet Hosea out-loved his wife’s (Gomer) rejection of him; the love of God out-loved the error and egoism of human-kind at Jesus’ Crucifixion. The priests really didn’t win out over the prophets. I don’t believe the biblical literalists will win out over the reality of the Spirit of Love and Truth.
“As I stated in the Introduction: I believe it will make a significant difference if people simply begin to say, ‘This is the path I have chosen in order to know and experience God, as I understand God rather than ‘This is the only path to God.’” pp. 257-58
Blessings, Don
How the Bible Became the Bible - Exploring how the Bible came to be and why a literal interpretation of it may be dangerous. This exploration may open a door to your continued spiritual growth.