Drawn from all religions, spiritual movements, modern science, and other sources.  It is an attempt to bring together in brief the essence of the teachings needed for the emerging unity-and-diversity global civilization.

Eighth revision 2001
Seventh revision 2000
Sixth revision 1999
Fifth revision 1995
Fourth revision 1994
Copyright 1977, 1995

We the People hereby declare our interdependence -- our connection to the Source of All Life and to all life forms.  We affirm that diverse individuals, groups, and networks are necessary for the creative development of humanity; and that to strengthen UNITY-AND-DIVERSITY throughout the universe is our individual responsibility and privilege.

We therefore pledge --

* To affirm the existence of a Supreme Beingness, called by any name or no name;
* To advance both individual initiative and human fellowship through mutual trust,     understanding, and respect;
* To seek the truth in the spirit of love;
* To integrate reason and faith, science and religion:
* To ensure that all aspects of life be kept in dynamic balance for maximum health and well-being;
* To respect the teachings of the prophets and sages of all time and cultures;
* To provide present and future generations with the opportunity for full realization of their potentials; and
* To build with joy a new civilization of freedom, justice, and peace founded on reverence for life.

We the People therefore proclaim our interdependence.  We shall kindle the torch of hope, link hands over space and time, and fulfill our interdependence through action.

Copyrighted by Unity-and-Diversity World Council

The goal of achieving "unity-and-diversity among all peoples and all life" is a new idea whose time has come.  It derives from the fact that the emerging global civilization is based upon pluralism, which means that there are many races, religions, cultures and organizations all needing to be included within a new and worldwide synthesis.  No longer will any one religion or ideology be the dominant teaching or organization that controls the direction of modern life.  Rather, there will be more and more acceptance of diversity among these paths, but at the same time an increasing degree of cooperation and mutual support.
   Unity-and-Diversity itself is a new and modern consciousness, one which is aware of its identity with one humanity and with the entire universe.  At the same time, its substance is drawn from all religions and spiritual movements, science, and other disciplines -- ancient and modern.  Though having leaders and traditions of its own, it in no sense seeks to compete with or replace the historic religions of the world.  In other words, its basis is UNIVERSAL, having continuity through past, present, and future.  While its glimpses of Ultimate Reality must be able to withstand the tests of criticism, analysis and time, its scriptures are never completely written, its story is never completely told.   Hence, its participants from all racial and religious backgrounds stand in need of openness, flexibility, and a deep feeling of humility at the mystery of the universe.
   The basis of Unity-and-Diversity is fully democratic; that is, it recognizes both individual freedom and the need for progress in the direction of its goals.  For this reason it welcomes the discoveries of science into its pattern of growth.  By means of the mutual cooperation of science and religion as two separate but complementary phases of civilized life, tremendous heights of creativity and fulfillment can be reached; whereas, without this relationship today's confusion is certain to continue.  Science approaches Ultimate Reality primarily by means of reason following the results of its research and analysis.  Religion, on the other hand, gains its major power from revelation or intuition.  Either without the other is eventually doomed to inadequacy; together they are mutually reinforcing and self-correcting.  Advocates of Unity-and-Diversity therefore proclaim that science and religion must proceed hand in hand for the peace and general welfare of the world.
   From this follows the special character of Unity-and-Diversity, and here some definition is needed to clarify what is meant.  Religions are usually thought to have been revealed at a particular time by a personal God, and therefore all truth refers back to that unique revelation as the ultimate standard of all future happenings.  In contrast to this concept, Unity-and-Diversity also accepts the validity and benefit of new truth, whether by inner revelation or scientific discovery.  Truth, in other words, is constantly in the process of unfoldment; and while the ultimate nature of life is ONE, it may or may not be conceived in a personalized form.  At this point democracy is definitely imperative; diversity of backgrounds and sensitivities is certain to result in a diversity of views regarding the ultimate meaning of life.  The great need in the world is not for uniformity but for UNITY-AND-DIVERSITY.  Life is ONE, though people conceive of it in a variety of ways.  This clearly indicates the need for many paths, and it is the purpose of Unity-and-Diversity to establish an effective basis of cooperation between these religions and with all other fields of human endeavor.
   There are those who rebel against institutions, saying that great ideals become antiquated dogmas once they are gathered into organizational form.  But, without some type of group the people who profess certain convictions too easily retreat from them in times of crisis.  Unity-and-Diversity has a message of its own; and because this message needs to be studied, developed, and proclaimed to the world, it must have an organization (or "organism") behind it.  The question of whether or not such an organization is necessary should actually be replaced by "what kind of organism can keep the door wide open to unending growth and expanding horizons of truth, as well as maintaining a cooperative relationship with existing organizations?"
   The Central Scriptures provide the core, but not the totality, of the scriptural writings of Unity-and-Diversity.  The complete document, called World Scriptures, includes the central witness of each path of life, viewed through the eyes of science and the universal spirit.  While each will retain its identity, the thread of unity will of necessity run through all, since the entire universe appears -- on the basis of science and experience -- to be harmonious on every level.  Hence, this document is the point of convergence of something many times its size, but containing the central message of all the rest.
   Again, interpretation is the vital part of this undertaking.  Translations of the different scriptural writings have been made many times, so that organizing them into one publication would be of no great worth for the aforementioned purposes.  Rather, the scriptures which follow are hopefully presented from a unified, all-inclusive viewpoint, while expressing the essential uniqueness of each path within the Unity-and-Diversity Wheel.
   All writings not identified as from a specific source are by the author/editor, Rev. Leland P. Stewart.

REV. LELAND P. STEWART grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he obtained two Bachelor of Science degrees -- one in mathematics and the other in mechanical engineering.  While working as a test engineer for the General Electric Company and planning to study further at the Harvard Business School in preparation for administrative work in industry, he suddenly came to the realization that his life was to be headed in another direction.  Mr. Stewart then applied and was accepted at the Harvard Divinity School, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Theology degree in 1953.  He was ordained by the Universalist Church of America at Little Falls, New York, in 1954,
   During his time in industry he wrote a book entitled From Technological Power to Lasting Peace, which outlined his thinking along general and philosophical lines.  During the time he spent at Harvard Divinity School, he worked on a 400-page compilation of  the scriptures of the world's living religions and modern inspirational writings called World Scriptures.
   Since his entry into the life of world spiritual and community leadership, Rev. Stewart has served, and continues to serve, as a Co-founder and Central Coordinator of the Unity-and-Diversity World Council (UDC), bringing high energy to the practice of universal cooperative co-existence.  The Council began during 1965, when the General Assembly of the United Nations declared International Cooperation Year.  The Council has its headquarters in Los Angeles.
   Rev. Stewart is also the Founding Minister and Director of Ministry Training of the Unity-and-Diversity World Fellowship, a specialized affiliate of Unity-and-Diversity World Council, Inc.  The Fellowship is responsible for the ministry training and the holding of worship services.  Leland has also been teaching with the Los Angeles Unified School District for many years.
   Leland and his wife Elizabeth live on Los Angeles' Westside, where they continue working together on various aspects of the UDC endeavor.  The Stewart's have two daughters, Deanna and Lynn, both of whom are married and living in California.  They also have a son, Dana, who presently lives in Arizona.  Deanna and Lynn both have two children.  Elizabeth is also a Unity-and-Diversity minister.
 
 

Unity-and-Diversity is an outgrowth of the modern world and its emphasis on democracy.  This movement's birth comes through the discovery amid the diversity of religions and ways to live.  Its goals are: (1) to accept as valid in the existing religions and cultures whatever truths show soundness in the light of scientific research and human experience, (2) to demonstrate how these many paths are related, and (3) to prepare the way for each path to be part of a world civilization without losing its identity.  No single religion or way of life is any longer adequate to meeting the needs of the entire world, but by means of mutual respect and cooperation all paths may be woven into the fabric of a world culture.  In this manner the true greatness of the past will be maintained  without thwarting the progress of humanity toward a unified and peaceful world.
 
 

The person who reads about Unity-and-Diversity may wonder what is distinctive about its perspective.  Following are a number of statements which indicate its general characteristics, as well as its relation to all paths.

Almost all of the major living religions have some belief of prophetic developments beyond their own times.  For example, Christianity speaks of the second coming of Christ after the days of calamity, a large segment of Judaism adheres to some type of Messianic hope, and Buddhism teaches that Buddhas emerge in every great crisis, the Maitreya being the major enlightened one of the next era after that in which Buddhism began.
   A dogmatic religion of today would no doubt say that all these prophecies have been, or will be, fulfilled in one individual.  However, evolution and experience indicate that a modern way of life must rest on non-dogmatic premises.  Revelation has occurred in the past, is taking place in the present, and will continue as long as human beings survive.  In fact, all persons do, at one time or another, reveal something of the meaning of life.
   Unity-and-Diversity accordingly proclaims that the age of one world is the great new era about which all religions have dreamed, that during this time life throughout the world will find new unity and significance, and that consequently all prophecies will in some measure be fulfilled.  The Christ, the Messiah, the Maitreya, the Mahdi (Islam), the return of Krishna (Hinduism), the Shah Bahram (Zoroastrianism) -- all these and others will appear in one person or in separate persons during the age now being born.  There is no need to quarrel over whether Baha'U'Llah is the second coming of Christ, or Ramakrishna is the second coming of Krishna, or someone else fulfills one of the other prophecies.  Any person who has valid insights regarding the new era is to some extent a true prophet, and anyone who claims revelation for him/herself and cannot stand the test of science and time is similarly false.  Likewise, the true leader is one who surrenders his/her existence to the call of the new era and gives the remaining years of life to the realization of that high calling.
   The age of one world is producing sages and seers and many types of adherents.  Of these the prophet is the most rare.  Nevertheless, there are already a number of such persons, and others are likely to emerge in the future to further clarify the meaning of the age now being born.  The nature of democracy requires that everyone who feels so guided take some part in this process and not wait for the one who will carry that role for us.  Thus the principle of Unity-and-Diversity implies the need for "group avatars": that is, core groups of people committed to a common purpose who devote themselves to the many needed dimensions of unfoldment related to the emergence of the new civilization.

If we seek real fulfillment in our lives, following a particular path and yet striving to realize our total potential and to relate to all paths, we will find some place for each of the following twelve guidelines:
   Let us --
(1) Be in tune with the Spirit of All Life, called by any name or no name.
(2) Practice meditation, contemplation, and prayer.
(3) Show all-embracing love toward all beings.
(4) Experience the true nature of our self and our universe.
(5) Cultivate truth, goodness, beauty, and respect.
(6) Live simply and harmoniously with our whole self.
(7) Use our energy for vigorous and constructive activity.
(8) Rejoice in our connection with all human beings and all life.
(9) Strive for peaceful family and community development.
(10) Get involved in improving the world's condition.
(11) Preserve the best of our universal heritage.
(12) Take heart and act upon our ideals.
May we experience each of these dimensions of our total being and discover their interrelationships.  At the same time, we ask to become a responsible participant in the emerging global civilization based on the dynamic integration of diversity among all peoples and all life.

(1) Spirit of All Life -- Let ourselves be used for the growth of Spirit in all peoples and all life.  Our Inner Knowing is to be trusted: by being attuned to It we find security.  Through faith in the Supreme Beingness, called by any name or no name, comes a feeling of hope and thankfulness which can be passed on to all.
(2) Meditation, Contemplation, and Prayer -- Let us set aside time for going within as a necessary part of our existence.  Its fruits are dispassion, inner peace, understanding, strength of conviction, and union with the Ultimate.  Through this reflection let us seek to transform our lives.
(3) All-embracing Love -- From compassionate concern for others come love, humility, mercy, nonviolence, and a quest for world unification.  Let us treat others as we would have others treat us.
(4) Nature of Self and Universe -- Let us be open to experiences in life that come unsought.  May we allow our true nature to unfold as it will, not trying to dominate or control where patience and letting alone are the better way.
(5) Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Respect -- Let us cultivate these qualities in our everyday existence.
(6) Simplicity and Harmony -- Let us seek to live a simple and balanced life.  May we be moderate in our desires and sincere in our attitude toward others.  Let us relax, be calm and unassuming.
(7) Vigorous and Constructive Activity -- Let us express the dynamic of our faith by summoning our utmost vitality in its behalf.
(8) Rejoicing and Connecting -- Let us celebrate all human beings and all forms of life.  May we accept the challenge of living and show gratitude for the meaning in each moment of existence.
(9) Family and Community -- Let us participate in family and community development with enthusiasm and common sense.
(10) World Improvement -- Let us take part in the improvement of the world's condition.  May we apply appropriate scientific techniques to the solution of global problems.
(11) Preservation of the Best -- Let us develop awareness, appreciation, and concern to preserve the best of our total heritage.
(12) Acting Upon Our Ideals -- Let us complete the cycle of our own life by fulfilling our ideals and dreams.  May we act in concert with one another to improve the quality of all of our lives, our institutions, our environment, and our global future.

A Universal Declaration of Moral and Spiritual Values is an affirmative declaration of principles to live by in the unity-and-diversity global civilization now emerging.  However, while we are affirming what to do, it is also important to state what types of conduct are essential to avoid in order to clear the way for what is possible.  Below are twelve such avoidances.
   Those who seek to be fulfilled individuals will resolve to avoid the following temptations:
(1) Living as if no Higher power exists
(2) Needlessly killing any living creature
(3) Committing adultery
(4) Taking what is not ours
(5) Telling lies
(6) Gambling, overeating, or hoarding material goods
(7) Being prejudiced against any ethnicity, culture, or religion
(8) Hating another person or form of life
(9) Living in fear and anger
(10)Damaging or destroying property
(11)Smoking, drinking excess alcohol, or consuming other drugs
(12)Doing anything which keeps the energy of the Supreme Beingness from expressing itself in every aspect of our life!

The essential characteristic of the Unity-and-Diversity Person lies in the ability to accept and to integrate all of the features of the human self which in various ways are given unequal supremacy in the other types of personality.  The Unity-and-Diversity Person is at once strongly active, meditative, and receptive.  Such a person will by nature understand and sympathize with the (other) types of personality and religious attitude, but he/she will be unable to take as ideal any of these types of persons or any of their directive attitudes.  They will all seem to have stressed something essential to the development of the full human self, and yet to have distorted some phase of this self by giving it exclusive dominance.  The friendliness of this individual's attitude to other personalities will be tempered by a critical rejection of each of them when proposed as models for human life.
   The Unity-and-Diversity Person will wish to incorporate the significance which men and women have found in the Buddha, Dionysus, Prometheus, Apollo, Christ and Mohammed, but will be unable to take any of these ideal images as a supreme deity.  Such a person of the present epoch will wish to incorporate the complex levels of the self which have been acquired in the process of social evolution and which have received objective expression in the arts, in science, and in moral and material technologies.  Yet this individual will wish to utilize the deep and persistent biological heritage of humanity and will be attentive to personal differences and loyal to the differences which distinguish the individual from others.  Such a person will have to delineate an attitude characteristic of his/her own individuality, and to trace the intellectual and aesthetic and cultural implications of this attitude.  He/she will have to build a distinctive religious orientation.
   To get a sense of this attitude to life before us fully and more concretely, let us consider six sentences chosen out of eighty (American) young people as expressing best the kind of person they would like to be.
(1) We should have a sense of humor about ourselves, a sense of detachment about our fate, yet be able to live outwardly a life rich in enjoyment and activity.
(2) We must cultivate flexibility, develop many-sidedness, admit diversity in ourselves, and accept the tension which this diversity produces.
(3) Periods of solitude and periods of joyous celebration are both necessary to the good life.
(4) We should be friendly and considerate of other persons, and yet not sacrifice the development of our own unique self.
(5) No scheme for living proposed by the religions and moralities is entirely suitable for every person, yet each scheme can offer something to everyone; we should use all of them, and no one alone.
(6) Life should contain enjoyment, action, and contemplation in about equal amounts; the satisfying life is found in their dynamic integration.
   The Unity-and-Diversity Person, to other types of beings, will seem no distinctive type: he/she will be regarded as trying to be all -- and becoming nothing.  Such a person will appear as too detached and restrained to those of more imperative natures, too active, sensuous, mystic, abandoned to more detached persons.  This individual will seem to have made too much concession to society to those who float their ship through throwing over the social cargo; he/she will seem too individualistic, anarchic, revolutionary to those who seek salvation on the social raft.  The radicals will link the Unity-and-Diversity Person with the conservatives and the conservatives with the radicals.  The West will find such an individual too oriental and the orient too occidental.  The Unity-and-Diversity Person will, at once through from different points of view, seem too balanced and too chaotic.

More and more, people realize that the things that divide them into hostile sects are transient and insignificant beside the deep faiths of the heart that unite them.  More and more they come to see that our theological systems are but broken light of the Eternal, that the universal elements in religion are the only permanent elements, and that the river of spiritual truth cannot be made to flow in any one regular and undeviating channel.  With all neighborly associations, and the common experiences of joy and sorrow, and the common admirations of things true and lovely an of good report, bringing people together, it will be hard indeed if matters of fallible opinion can forever keep them apart.
   More and more, intelligent people weary of bigoted partisanship.  They begin to appreciate how much good there is in schools of thought or forms of worship alien from their own.  Let us agree to live by these deep, central, vital teachings of religion.  In the hour of noble resolve or high aspiration, who now thinks of the dividing lines of doctrine?  Theological divisions are no longer incompatible with brotherly love and cordial fellowship.  If we remember the blessing on the peacemakers, if we feel that preaching wrathfully or bitterly poisons even truth itself, then, surely, the seeming difficulty of diversity-in-unity and unity-in-diversity will cease to oppress us.

In this section are the teachings of Unity-and-Diversity which are most fundamental to its establishment in the modern world.  They answer questions such as: How did the idea of Unity-and-Diversity develop?  How can a movement devote itself to the good of the whole human community?  Is it possible to find unity and still allow for freedom and individuality?

Religion must define the relation of the individual to the Source of All, the destiny of the individual which follows from this relation, and the rules of conduct from this destiny.  And the universal religion, the fundamental principles of which are identical in all faiths, entirely satisfies these demands.  It defines the relation of the individual to God as that of a part to the Whole; it deduces from this relation the function of the individual as the increase in him/herself of the divine element; and from this function it deduces practical rules from the principle of acting toward others as you wish others to act toward you.
   The most basic truths of the universal religion of today are so simple, comprehensible, and near to the heart of everyone that it would seem sufficient for all parents, rulers, and teachers to instill into children and adults these simple truths of the religion common to all peoples -- the essence of which is that the spirit of God lives in all beings, and the practical rule of which is that we need to act towards others as we wish others to act toward ourselves -- for the whole life of humanity to change of itself.
  "The human soul is a lamp of God," says a wise Hebrew proverb.  The individual is a weak, miserable animal until in his/her soul there burns the fire of the Eternal.  But when this fire kindles, and it kindles only in a soul illumined by faith, that individual expresses the greatest power in the world.  And this cannot be otherwise, because then it is no longer his/her power which is at work, but the power of God.

Baha'U'Llah wrote about an international language many years ago.  He says that as long as an international language is not accepted, complete union between the various sections of the world will be unrealized, for we observe that misunderstandings keep people from mutual association, and these misunderstandings will not be dispelled except through an international auxiliary language.
   General speaking, the peoples of the Orient are not fully informed of events in the West, neither can the Westerners put themselves in sympathetic touch with the Easterners.  Their thoughts are enclosed in a casket; the international language will be the master key to open it.  Were we in possession of a universal language, the Western books could easily be translated into that language, and Eastern peoples could then be informed of their contents.  In the same way the books of the East could be translated into that language for the benefit of the people in the West.  The greatest means of progress towards the union of East and West will be a common language.  It will make the whole world one home and become the strongest impulse for human advancement.  It will upraise the standard of the oneness of humanity.  It will help to make the earth one universal commonwealth.  It will be a major cause of love between persons everywhere.  It will soon cause good fellowship between the various races.
   Along with the need to unify the dating of the world's calendars comes the need for a single language in common.  This is not to say that all other languages should be abandoned, because they will not be for many centuries to come, if ever.  What is needed is a single language as the accepted medium for world communication as a supplement to local tongues.  It appears that American "English", after much alteration and simplification preparing the way for absorbing new words from all the world's traditions, will become this language, inasmuch as America is apparently destined to be the foremost leader in the establishment of a new world culture.  However, all should be open to the possibility that a completely new language will be adopted, or that the computer will make possible personalized simultaneous translation.

I see the human race engaged in the tremendous experiment of living on the planet called earth.  From the point of view of humanity as a whole, the great aim of this experiment must be to make life more truly and more fully worth living.
   The scientific spirit and the religious spirit both have their parts to play in this experiment.  If religion will but abandon its claims to fixity and certitude, then it can see in the pursuit of truth something essentially sacred, and science itself will come to have its religious aspect.  If science will remember that it, as science, can lay no claim to set up values, it will allow due weight to the religious spirit.  In the past, religion has usually been slowly and grudgingly forced to admit new scientific ideas.  If it will but accept the most vivifying of all the scientific ideas of the past century, that of the capacity of life, including human life and institutions, for progressive development, the conflict between science and religion will be over.  Then both can join hands in advancing the great experiment of humanity - of ensuring that all shall have life, and have it more abundantly.

The present is in every age merely the shifting point at which past and future meet, and we can have no quarrel with either.  There can be no world without traditions; neither can there be any life without movement.  There is never a moment when the new dawn is not breaking over the earth, and never a moment when the sunset ceases to die.  It is well to greet serenely even the first glimmer of the dawn when we see it, not hastening towards it with undue speed, nor leaving the sunset without gratitude for the dying light that was once dawn.
   In the spiritual realm we are ourselves the light-bearers, and the cosmic process is in us made flesh.  For a brief space it is granted to us, if we will, to enlighten the darkness that surrounds our path.  As in the ancient torch-races, which seem a symbol of all life, we press forward, torch in hand, along the course.  Soon from behind comes the runner who will outpace us.  All our skill lies in giving into his/her hand the living torch, bright and unflickering, as we ourselves disappear in the darkness.

Our life is like a prism: its three sides are doing, feeling, and knowing, corresponding to the old-fashioned hand, heart, and head.  Each is a doorway out -- to the world of action; to the world of art, music, religious ritual, literature; and to the world of externally registered thinking, from a stone circle to a nautical almanac, from a calendar to a chemical balance.
   People are happily of diverse moods.  Some have "a practical turn of mind", are essentially people of action, who make things hum and get things done.  Some are "people of feeling", going out by the emotional doorway, essentially people of artistic insight, and sometimes, as poets and seers, the makers and shakers of this world.  Some are predominantly people of intellect, who "elect to know, not do", who discover causes, uniformities, laws, and who try to think things out.  The makers of new knowledge have transformed human life, giving it a new freedom and fullness.
   Every intellectual combatant seeks more or less resolutely to gain an all-round or synoptic view of his/her experiences and thereby develop a philosophy.  This must be for most people in a large degree a matter of temperament, according as the practical, the emotional, or the scientific mood is dominant.
   To turn to the old-fashioned hand, heart, and head, these are not only doorways out, they are portals in.  For life is like a dome, always with its concave and convex side, subjective as well as objective.  Thus there is the inner world of drives and "urges", desires and ideals, which lead externally to action; the world of feelings and emotions which lead to art; and the world of intellectual experimentation , which has its external expression in, let us say, the archives of science.  All these are natural and necessary expressions of the developing human spirit, and it is in the deepest sense unphilosophical to pit one against the other, or to make antitheses between the different glimpses of reality which are to be obtained from each of the three great doorways of our being.
 
 

Unity-and-Diversity proclaims that God is ONE, that the ground of Being or Reality is unified, regardless of its many interpretations by different individuals and religions.  It says also that a personal God is a symbol or approximation to that Ultimate Reality, but not this Reality itself.  Democratic religion permits of an unlimited number of conceptions of the Source of All Life, but says at the same time that the goal of life is to come as close as possible to uniting with the Ultimate in its totality.
   Unity-and-Diversity understands that there are three major avenues of approach to the meaning of God (Spirit, Oneness): (1) to unite with the Ultimate, (2) to come to know ourselves and our relation to the universe; and (3) to search for lasting happiness.  These three approaches (and all others) are ultimately the same.  Thus, many names for the goal of life are possible, so long as their meanings are realized as ONE.

Two persons are hotly disputing as to the color of a chameleon.  One said, "The chameleon on that palm tree is of a beautiful red color".  The others, contradicting him, said, "You are mistaken; the chameleon is not red but blue".  Not being able to settle the matter by arguments, both went to the person who always lived under that tree and had watched the chameleon in all its phases of color.  One of them said, "Sir, is not the chameleon on that tree of a red color"?  The person replied, "Yes, sir".  The other disputant said, "What do you say?  How is it?  It is not red; it is blue".  That person again humbly replied, "Yes, sir".  The person knew that the chameleon is an animal that constantly changes color; thus it was that he said "yes" to both of these conflicting statements.
   The formless likewise has many forms.  The devotee who has seen God in one aspect only, knows it in that aspect alone.  But he who has seen it in manifold aspects is alone in a position to say, "All these forms are One, and God is multiform".  It is formless and with form, and many are its forms which no one knows.
   The person who tries to give an idea of Ultimate Reality by mere book learning is like the one who tries to give a complete understanding of a city my means of a map or picture.

There are various types of people in the world.  Some may be matter-of-fact, common-sense rationalists, who do not care for forms and ceremonies; they want intellectual, hard, ringing facts, and facts alone will satisfy them.  Then there are the Puritans, the Muslims, who will not allow a picture or a statue in their place of worship.  Very well!  But there are other persons who are more artistic.  Such persons want a great deal of art -- beauty of lines and curves, the colors, flowers, forms; they want candles, lights, and all the insignia and paraphernalia of ritual, that God may be envisioned.  Their minds take the Eternal in those forms, as others take it through the intellect.  Then, there are the devotional persons, whose souls are crying for God; they have no other idea but to worship God, and to praise the One.  Then again, there are the philosophers, standing outside all these, mocking at them.  They think, "What nonsense they are!  What ideas about God!"
   They may laugh at each other, but each one has a place in the world.  All these various personalities, all these various types are necessary.  If there ever is going to be a universal religion, it must be broad enough to supply food for all these persons.  It must supply the strength of philosophy to the philosopher, the devotee's heart to the worshippers; to the ritualist, it will give all that the most marvelous symbolism can convey; to the poet, it will give as much of heart as he/she can take in, and other things besides.  To make such a broad way of life, one has to go back to the time when religions began and take them all in.
   The watchword, then, should be acceptance and not exclusion.  Not only toleration, for so-called toleration is often blasphemy.  Believe in acceptance.  Accept all religions that were in the past, and worship with them all.  Go to the mosque of the Moslems; enter the Christian's church and kneel before the crucifix; enter the Buddhist temple and take refuge in Buddha and his law.  Go into the forest and sit down in meditation with the Hindu, who is trying to see the Light which enlightens the heart of everyone.
   Not only should one do all these things but also keep one's heart open for all that may come in the future.  Is the Book of Life finished?  Or is it still a continuous revelation, going on?  They are marvelous books -- these spiritual revelations of the world.  The Bible, the Vedas, the Koran, and all other sacred books are but so many pages, and an infinite number of pages remain yet to be unfolded.  Leave it open for all of them.  Stand in the present, but open yourself to the infinite future.  Take in all that has been in the past, enjoy the light of the present, and open every window of the heart for all that will come in the future.  Salutation to all the prophets of the past, to all the great ones of the present, and to all that are to come in the future!
 
 

Civilizations, of which religions form the core, pass through unending periods of growth and decay, rise and fall.  When the unifying quality of a civilization has been spent, when a society has contributed its greatness to the ongoing procession of the universe, it inevitably decays and fades into the background.
   Today the civilization of the Western world is well into such a period of decline.  In its place a new civilization is rising -- the age of one world.  This is the time when science and religion will unite to discover a far greater and vaster universe than was ever before conceived.  It is the age in which all cultures will form the basis of a world culture, all religions will meet in an interfaith context of dialog and experience
   Let us rejoice in the new age being born, but keep in mind that it too will die in the course of time, giving way to another age in the far too obscure future.  An age lives only to the extent that its members are creative, which means that they are in tune with its deepest meanings.  Let us therefore take our places in the emerging global civilization.

                              The Vision of the World

I dipped into the future,
Far as human eye could see,
Saw the vision of the world,
And all the wonder that would be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce,
Argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight,
Dropping down with costly bales;
 

Heard the heavens fill with shouting,
And there rained a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies
Grappling in the central blue;

Far along the worldwide whisper
Of the south wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples
Plunging thru the thunder storm;

Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer,
And the battle flags were furl'd
In the Parliament of man,
The Federation of the world.

There the common sense of most
Shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber,
Lapped in universal law.
 

   Would You End War?

  Would you end war?
  Create great peace --
  The peace that demands all of us,
  Our love, our life, our truest self;
  Plunge us into the smelting fires of a work that becomes
     our child;
  Coerce us to be ourselves at all hazards, with the toil
     and the mating that belong to us;
  Compel us to serve --
  Give us a hard peace: a peace of discipline and justice --
  Kindle us with vision, invite us to joy and adventure;
  Set us to work, not to create things
  But to create persons,
  Yes, ourselves.
  Go search your heart, O world --
  Turn from the machine to the person;
  Build, while there is yet time, a creative peace --
  While there is yet time!
  For if you reject great peace,
  As surely as vile living brings disease,
  So surely shall your selfishness bring war.

Our hopes for the evolution of humanity and our most indispensable guide are bound up with all that we can learn of our past and all that we can measure of our present.
   Humanity has been brought into a line with the rest of life; a mysterious chasm has been filled up; a few fruitful hints have been received which make the development of all life more intelligible.  This has, on the one hand, given a mighty impulse to the study of nature and to the accumulation of facts now seen to bear such infinite possibilities of further advance, just as the discovery of America in the fifteenth century produced a like spirit of adventure which led people to all parts of the globe.  On the other hand, this devotion to truth, this instinctive search after the causes of things has become what may be called a new faith.  The fruits of this scientific spirit are sincerity, patience, humility, the love of nature, and the love of humanity.

Science and religion will definitely join hands in the global age.  Religion will provide insights into the higher life, and science will seek to verify these insights or refine them.  Together they can continue almost indefinitely to increase the depth of our understanding of life and the strengthening of the social fabric; separately they can only succeed in destroying each other and the entire civilization.
   Technology (the practical utilization of scientific discovery) also has a part of play in the uplifting of values, but first it must find its appropriate place in the total picture.  It must aid our total progress by providing techniques for the unification of the world, but it needs to be very careful to center itself not upon its own gain, but rather upon the betterment of humanity and all life.

The object of the cultural framework of a civilization is, more than anything else, to insure the fact that the values held by the people will be "right side up" -- that is, that most important ideals and objects will be valued highest, and lowest ones valued lowest.
   At the present time, because society is in a transitional period between older patterns and modern civilization, people's values have been turned upside down.  Instead of ordering their lives to seek the highest, the majority of people have tried desperately to satisfy themselves with anything less.  Particularly in the United States, money has been the guiding light, and its results are now being made manifest.
   Actually, this notion should be carried a step further.  The United States has achieved its main sense of unity and accomplishment in the general area of science and technology so far in its history, and technology has provided the main mold in which U.S. values have been cast.  Since technology is almost completely empirical, based upon numbers and techniques built up by trial and error, an over-developed "practical" sense tends to emerge.  Everything is good only to the extent that it works and sells.  This attitude has now come to pervade not only technology itself but the great majority of the society.  Emphasis upon what is popular and what sells best and what produces the best show is the code of our day.  From all of this, money arises as the dominant symbol of desirability and success.
   Perhaps the words best able to describe what must happen to reverse this self-destructive trend are "rebirth", "regeneration", "transformation", or the phrase "coming to be in tune with Life".  Life has its natural laws, and those who overlook or disobey these laws only find unhappiness in their path.  There is but one goal that makes life meaningful, although the paths to be followed are many.  Money cannot provide the standard of value, but real values can balance and provide a meaningful place for money.

Neither science nor machines are responsible for the ills of civilization.  They are blind instruments in our hands.  Humanity alone is accountable for its troubles.  We have misused technology and built a world that does not fit us.  We have become too weak to control ourselves and to manage our institutions.  The only remedy is to remake humanity according to the true laws of nature, and to give us such an environment as is appropriate to our specific constitution.  This is the task that has been forced upon us.
   The making of humanity requires a profound knowledge of the body and the soul.  This knowledge lies within our reach.  For the jurisdiction of science extends over the totality of the things that can be observed, over the spiritual as well as the physiological.  The observational method brings us into intimate contact with concrete reality.
   To an unbiased observer, we appear as a mental and organic wholeness, intimately bound to environment.  This unity, on account of its structural multiplicity, never repeats itself.  Each individual is a history identical with no other.  We are without our like in the whole universe.  Although not entirely comprised within the physical realm, and capable of escaping from time and space, we remain bound to our cosmic and psychological environment, and ultimately, to our economic and social institutions.  The solution of the great problems of civilization depends on the knowledge not only of the aspects of the person, but of the entire person inserted into a group, a nation, and a race -- ultimately, on the science of humanity.
  The era drawing to a close has brought about the progress of machines.  The era on the threshold of which we stand must be dedicated to the progress of humanity (and all life).  The contribution to knowledge during the first part of the 20th century was characterized by the development of institutions for analytic research, and by the creation of specialists and sub-specialists.   In order to be useful, analytical data have to be integrated.  Time has come for the thought-tight compartments, in which sciences are imprisoned, to be made to communicate, for the information thus obtained to be applied to the living system, consisting of individual and environment.  Institutions for synthetic research are needed for this remaking of humanity, for the prevention of mental and organic deterioration, and for the improvement of the individual and of civilization.
   The scientific institutions already in existence are concerned primarily with material values.  Human values are spiritual as well as material.  And the spiritual is within the reach of scientific method.  Is it not more important to improve humanity than the goods consumed by its members?  Are health and comfort of value if we become mentally and spiritually worthless?

Humanity does not exist outside of the individual, nor without him/her; the individual does not exist outside humanity and without it.  The individual and society are the object one of the other.  Their apparently contradictory rights are, in reality, mutual duties.  The moral dignity of a society is measured by what it does to educate and form the personality of its members; the moral dignity of an individual, by what that individual does for his/her associates and for the social body to which he/she belongs.  The well-being of one necessarily depends on that of the other.  Where individuality is weak, without initiative or energy, the social body, whatever its extent in space, is neither strong nor really great.
  That society which, to maintain itself, oppresses individual persons and sacrifices their rights and their culture to its own tranquility is like a mother who should devour her children.  The individual who through selfishness exploits or destroys the social bond is like the perverse or heedless child who, to keep warm, sets fire to the parents' house.  Social authority and individual autonomy are not more hostile, and can no more legitimately be opposed to one another, than the final destiny of the individual from that of humanity.

America has to date laid such great stress upon quantity of work and degree of specialization in most areas of school and employment that a whole re-evaluation of the nature of human life seems necessary.  In this process it appears that the proper place of religion and its leadership in a civilized culture will also emerge, along with the dual role of all civilized living.
   A society which is to survive must be based upon vital relations between individuals.  It must also have many specialists; in fact, every person in one way or another is a kind of specialist.  That is, all of us have some task or tasks to perform which we can do better than the average person passing by.  It may be as a factory worker, executive, or homemaker -- it matters not the degree of specialization -- rather, it is important to recognize that all people in a society at some time or other have this role to discharge.  At the same time, if these people were only concerned about their specialties, the society would inevitably collapse, because only those who were related to one specialized area would have contact with one another.  It is a psychological fact, in the first place, that the human being needs a variety of interests and concerns in order to approach maturity.  And it is a sociological fact that a civilized culture gains its integration through the interrelations of its members in religion, philosophy, and the arts, as well as in political and economic areas.  The point is that individuals need to discover and sustain their dual roles in society: one as specialist and the other as human being involved in and to some extent responsible for a cultural pattern.  It is through the latter concern that the otherwise isolated individual can find sufficient ties to the society as a whole in order to be personally secure.

Many persons are so unclear as to the difference between past and present that they find their only sense of security in the past.  For them the present is, at least in part, a degeneration of the past or an only-dimly-lighted future.  History becomes for them only a piling up of events on a single plane, rather than an evolution of life through many stages.  Let us, therefore, consider how this problem may be clarified.
   The substantial growth of individuals and societies occurs by eras, if we can survey history very broadly.  In each era certain patterns become meaningful, and a whole society emerges as an expression of these patterns.  The inheritance of Europe in this respect is that of the Christian era, which had its highest point in the Middle Ages.  The Protestant era itself (1500-1950) has been a period of experimentation and adjustment, laying the groundwork for the modern world, the global age, which is now being born before our very eyes.
  As participants in a new age it becomes our responsibility to accept its forms and message as soon as we can grasp what they mean.  To retreat into the patterns of a former age is only to cheat ourselves and to halt progress.  Specifically, we need to adopt the physical appearance, the clothing, the home design and decoration, the way of worshipping and in every other area the ways of living that are part of this new age.  This is definitely not the same as saying that we should all be alike in these new ways; in fact, the basic principle upon which the modern world is being built is that of "unity-and-diversity".  At the same time, there is much that will be common among differing persons.
   The values which we wish to preserve from ages past should either be blended into the modern pattern or set aside where they can be recognized and appreciated as representing a former age.  For instance, the symbols of traditional religion should either be given a modern meaning (that is, as part of a world culture) or else placed in museums.  Antique furniture should be treated as collectors' items or as part of historical establishments, rather than retained in everyday usage.  Rituals of former times, either in religion or elsewhere, should either be given modern meaning or be replaced by customs of significance to the new era.  Readings from scriptures such as the Bible should be seen as expressions of religion corresponding to the period of history in which they were written, and parallels should be drawn portraying the present-day situation.
   Here, then, is the way to live in the NOW of the new world and yet be respectful toward the greatness of former times.  Live in the pattern of our day, but draw sustenance from the entire span of history and from the traditions of bygone ages in all parts of the world, as well as from the modern era itself.
 

The Voyage of Democracy

   Sail, sail your best, ship of Democracy,
       Of value is your freight: "T'is not the present only;
       the past is also stored in you.
   You carry not the venture of yourself alone;
       not of the Western continent alone;
   Earth's resume entire floats on your keel,
       O ship, is steadied by your spars;
   With you Time voyages in trust; the antecedent
       nations sink or swim with you,
   With all their ancient struggles, martyrs, heroes,
       epics, wars, you bear the other continents;
   Theirs, theirs as much as yours, the destination
       port triumphant;
   Steer then with good strong hand and wary eye,
       O helmsman, you carry great companions!

Who has dreamed the dream of the land America is yet to be?  How many of us have sold this great home of freedom at a price far below her true worth because we have not seen her potential for leadership in the modern world?
   America is by far the youngest of the great nations of the world.  Moreover, she is the only major country which has not passed through one of the historic eras of civilization.  Instead, the United States has inherited for herself the greatness of all the ages of the past by becoming a land of freedom and by admitting persons from all other lands throughout the world.  What she has not yet done is to assimilate all these traditions and to provide leadership in making from them a new, world civilization.
   It is the destiny of the United States of America to become one land made from many.  The U.S.A. will rise or fall in approximate proportion to her ability to accomplish this monumental task.  All the enlightened leadership and diligent effort she can summon are desperately needed, because America must be the proving ground for the new world society.  No other country has the required inheritance or the youthful spirit for this groping toward a better way of life.  Hence, the U.S.A. must search herself and the whole world to find any and all resources which can be called to this task.
   The time has come; the world waits.  Where are "the brave and the free"?
 
 

All religions and ways of life deal with the individual's ultimate concerns, the search for a sense of certainty regarding the mysteries of life.  Unity-and-Diversity likewise has some answers to these ultimate questions, but with a difference.  The answers which follow are not dogmatic assertions; they are modern principles already substantiated by much scientific research.  Nevertheless, no finality is claimed for them; one can only ask that they be analyzed further in cases of doubt before being discarded.
  Several of the writings are poetry and for analysis should no doubt be stated in more concrete terms.  At the same time, poetic writings carry an impact perhaps far greater than that of prose; for this reason they were chosen.

Science has brought to the attention of the world the importance of reason in relation to life; it has shown how life may be improved through the application of intelligence to analyzing the universe in all its parts.  But the stress on reason, while having served to demolish old values and traditions, does not by itself have the power to create new ones.
   A number of contemporary prophetic figures have stated that the trend is now toward wholeness, and that this is the basis upon which the new world civilization will be built.  Wholeness refers both to the individual and to society; it calls for the integration of reason and faith, intellect and emotion, science and religion.  In fact, it demands that all of life be reappraised in the search for universal principles.

From almost the earliest day of American life, due to the influence of certain religious leaders, came the modern principle of "at-one-ment".  This idea implies that the ultimate goal of the human race is to be in harmony with the Divine.  This is what is known as at-one-ment: that the individual by means of reason and intuition should eventually be "at one" with all of life.
   The final destiny of the human race, as implied by Unity-and-Diversity, is also contained in this affirmation.  It is that, in the fullness of time, humanity will be in harmony with itself and with Ultimate Reality.  This clearly implies direction rather than complete fulfillment, since in a finite world perfection can only be approached and not fully attained.  Nevertheless, the means is the end, so that the Experience of Divinity is to be found in the steady approach toward the Divine.  To say this in still another way, the individual achieves harmony with life by first accepting his/her limitations and then seeking to realize full beingness through self-development and social participation.

We cannot describe the natural history of the soul, but we know that it is divine.  I cannot tell if these wonderful qualities which house today in this mortal frame shall ever re-assemble in equal proportion in a similar frame, or whether they have before had a natural history like that of my body; but this one thing I know, that these qualities did not now begin to exist, that they circulate through the universe; before the world was, they were.  Nothing can bar them out or shut them in, but they penetrate ocean and land, space and time, form and essence, and hold the key to universal nature.  I draw from this faith courage and hope.  All things are known to the soul.  It is not to be surprised by any communication.  Nothing can be greater than it.  Let those fear and those fawn who will.  The soul is in its native realm, and it is wider than space, older than time, wide as hope, rich as love.  False pride and fear it refuses with a beautiful scorn; they are not for her.  Instead, she puts on her coronation robes and goes out through universal love to universal power.
 

Knowing Eternity

   Attain to the goal of absolute emptiness;
   Keep to the state of inner peace.
   All things come into existence,
   And from there we see them leave.
   Look at the things that have been flourishing;
   Each goes back to its origin.
   Going back to the origin is called peace;
   It means reversion to destiny.
   Reversion to destiny is called eternity.
   One who knows eternity is called enlightened.
   One who does not know eternity runs blindly
    into miseries.

   Knowing eternity, one is all-embracing.
   Being all-embracing, one can attain maturity.
   Being mature, one can attain full understanding.
   Being in full understanding, one can attain supremacy.
   Being supreme, one can attain the Eternal.
   One who attains the Eternal is everlasting.
   Though the body may decay, that one never perishes.

Ethics and mysticism are in great conflict in the thoughts of most persons today.  Many say that mysticism suggests escape from life and its responsibilities.  They imply that one must choose between ethics and mysticism as the basis of one's faith.
   Actually, ethics and mysticism are inseparable in all mature religious living.  Mysticism is the root of religion, and ethics is its flowering.  The former relates the individual to the whole of life; the latter gives us corresponding ways to exist in the world of living creatures.  In the modern world, however, ethics must go deeper than in interpersonal relations; it musts include all that lives.  The guiding ethical principle for modern persons is that of reverence for life in all its forms, both organic and inorganic.  But this ideal itself has its root in mysticism -- in the sense of a fully meaningful universe.  Only through a mystical awareness can we ultimately know how to be reverent toward all life and shape our own existence accordingly.

The beginning of thought, a beginning which continually repeats itself, is that the individual does not simply accept his/her existence as something given but experiences it as something unfathomably mysterious.  Life-affirmation is the spiritual act in which we cease to live unreflectively and begin to devote ourselves to life with reverence, in order to raise it to its true value.  To affirm life is to deepen, to make more inward, and to exalt the will-to-live.
   At the same time, individuals who have become thinking beings feel a compulsion to give to every will-to-live the same reverence for life that we give to our own.  We experience that other life in our own.  We accept as being good: to preserve life, to promote life, to raise to its highest value life which is capable of development; and as being evil: to destroy life, to injure life, to repress life which is capable of development.  This is the most fundamental principle of the moral, and it is a necessity of thought.
 

Love

 Then a young woman said, Speak to us of Love.
 And the prophet raised his head and looked upon the people,
    and there fell a stillness upon them.
 And with a great voice he said:
 When love beckons to you be sure to follow.
 Though its ways are hard and steep.
 And when its wings enfold you, yield to it,
 Though its voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind
    lays waste the garden.
 For even as love crowns you, so shall it crucify you.  Even as
    it is for your growth, so is it for your pruning.
 Even as love ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest
    branches that quiver in the sun,
 So shall it descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging
    to the earth.
 When you love, you should not say, "God is in my heart", but rather,
    "I am in the heart of God".
 And think not that you can direct the course of love, for love, if it
    finds you worthy, directs your course.
 Love has not other desire but to fulfill itself.
 But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your
    desires:
 To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another
    day of loving;
 To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
 To return home at eventide with gratitude;
 And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart
    and a song of praise upon your lips.

Then Peter came up and said to Jesus, "Master, how often shall my neighbor take advantage of me, and I forgive?  As many as seven times?"  Jesus said to him, "I do not say seven times, but seventy times seven".
   "Therefore, lasting happiness may be compared to a kind who wished to settle accounts with his servants.  When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand dollars; and as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, with payment to be made.  So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything'.  And out of pity for him the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.  But that same servant, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow servants, who owed him ten collars; and seizing him by the throat he said, 'Pay what you owe'.  So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you'.  The man refused and put the debtor in prison till he could pay his debt.  When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they reported to their lord all that had happened.  Then his lord summoned the servant and said to him, 'You wicked servant!  I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me; and should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?'.  And in anger his lord delivered him to the jailers, till he could pay all his debt.  So also lasting happiness will escape you if you do not forgive your fellow human beings from your heart."

After they had returned to the crowds, Jesus said, "Lasting happiness is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a person found and covered up; then in great joy the individual goes and sells all that he/she has and buys that field".
   Another parable he put before them, saying, "Lasting happiness is like a grain of mustard seed which a person took and sowed in the field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
   "Again, lasting happiness is like a merchant in search of find pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold everything and bought it."
   Jesus also told them another parable.  "Lasting happiness is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened."
   And he said, "Lasting happiness is as if a person should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow.  The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear."
   "Have you understood all this?"  They said to him, "Yes".  And he said to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been trained to find lasting happiness is like a householder who brings out of his/her treasure what is new and what is old".

Freedom is not a value in itself.  It is good because it provides opportunity to achieve values.  Our sane desire is not to be an anarchist in the world in order to demonstrate our freedom; rather, it is to achieve the good.
   The unit of bodily freedom is not the hand or the foot, for they cannot depart and do as they please.  Only the body acting as a unit can be free.  When it does act as a unit, the individual cells achieve a higher type of freedom than one-celled animals.  So, the unit of human freedom is not a person, but a race.  Acting as a unit, the race can achieve a higher type of freedom than can the separate individuals.  Failure to realize this fact means individual and social tragedy.  The wise and good person is one who sees his/her life as an integral part of all life for all time and who lives by that vision.
 

Good and Evil

 And one of the elders of the city said, Speak to us of Good and Evil.
 And the prophet answered:
 Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
 For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst?
 Truly when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and
    when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.
 In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: and that
    longing is in all of you.
 But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the
    sea, carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest.
 And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends
    and lingers before it reaches the shore.
 But let not the person who longs much say to the one who longs little,
   Why are you slow and halting?"
 For the truly good ask not the naked, "Where is your garment?" nor
    the homeless, "What has befallen your house?"

Death

 Then a woman spoke, saying, We would ask now of Death.
 And the prophet said:
 You would know the secret of death.
 But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
 The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind to the day cannot unveil
    the mystery of light.
 If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide
    to the body of life.
 For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
 In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge
    of the beyond;
 And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
 Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
 Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands
    before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honor.
 Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear
    the mark of the king?
 Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

Since Unity-and-Diversity contains implicit within itself a concept for building bridges between religions and civic groups, as well as fostering the wholeness of the person, this movement must develop and establish the appropriate form of organization (or better still "organism") to implement the growth of its ideas and ideals.  Following are some of the central notions for such an inclusive approach:

Worship as a whole needs desperately to be reconceived.  What is important is the unity of the whole and not just the message of the sermon.  Every element in the entire service should mirror the theme or central thought of the worship service: every prayer, meditation, reading, hymn, offering dedication, and all other rituals.  Every service should carry out its theme even without the need of a sermon; in fact, the sermon should probably be a preparation for worship rather than its supposed climax.  Worshippers should respond just as readily to the readings, music, and meditation as to the sermon; otherwise worship too easily becomes primarily a lecture, which is the death of a creative church.  It is the effect of a diversity of elements carrying out a single theme that will make the greatest impact on the largest number of people.
   In connection with worship, people who come to a sanctuary should be thought of as a "congregation" -- that is, participants along with the leader -- and not as an audience (those who come to listen and watch).  Worship must create a live atmosphere of quiet and sharing, so that all meditate together as follow-seekers after a higher life.  Passiveness has been the attitude of most church-goers in recent times.

Communities should encourage centers for the growth of the whole person.  This should be not just on Sunday, but throughout the entire week.  Particularly, this means that emphasis needs to be placed upon meditation and prayer; people should be encouraged to come in at any time during the week.  All worship should begin by attempting to establish the atmosphere of meditation -- that is, without glaring lights and distracting noises.  In this way the mind will be induced to seek the subtler realities and the releasing of emotional tensions.  The need of persons to be meditative during a part of their normal living should be recognized and encouraged, just as should some form of participation in social service.
 

Prayer

 Then a priestess said, Speak to us of Prayer.
 And the prophet answered, saying:
 You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also
    in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
 For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether?
 And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for
    your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.
And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to pray, she
               should spur you again and again, though weeping, until you come
    laughing.
 When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that
    very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.
 Therefore, let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy
    and sweet communion.
 For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you
    shall not receive.
 And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted;
 Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall
    be heard.
 It is enough that you enter the temple invisible.

To most people within one of the historic religious traditions the word "scripture" means their own central religious document or documents.  Until the present time there has been so little interpenetration of religions that the majority of people still think that their religion is the only one of great importance for today.
   In order to get an adequate idea of the meaning of the term "scripture", we must first look at religion more broadly.  All major religions have their own scriptures, which to them are held as sacred.  Followers of some religions are not as dogmatic as others about what scripture is and what it is not, but they do prize certain teachings of their religion above all others.
   Today it should not be necessary to define in concrete terms which documents are to be considered as scripture.  For a universal approach to come about, much of what once was scripture should lose this authority.  At the same time, the very large volume of great religious literature that has been written since the beginning of recorded history should be opened to consideration once again.  In fact, insofar as is possible, the way needs always to be left open for new scriptural writings or for the use of neglected ones.
   What then is "scripture"?  It is the writings of people of all ages and cultures which are found to be most valuable in helping persons to live by the highest that they know -- that is, to expand their circles of experience and to unite themselves with the whole of Life.  In the long span of history what is looked upon as scripture is the document or documents which people at all levels of society discover to have this type of meaning.

As the meaning of Unity-and-Diversity emerges, so does the need for a symbol to be its major guide and sustainer.  Symbols are a form of art which, when given meaning, can say a great deal more than words are capable of expressing.  Many people will remark that a symbol cannot just be adopted arbitrarily, and they are correct.  The greatest symbols are those which in some way or other express actual historical beliefs or situations.  The cross, for example, gained its meaning through the crucifixion of Jesus.  Similarly, the Buddhist wheel of the law took on its significance against the background of the Hindu conception of human life.
   But today also has a situation so predominant and so characteristic of this age and those to come that it needs to be symbolized as one of the cornerstones of Unity-and-Diversity.  We are living for the first time in "one world".  The ends of the earth have become our neighborhood in the short space of a century or so.  The desperate need of our generation is for a whole culture to support what is already a physical fact.  This clearly means that we must enlarge the circles of our experience, that we must begin to think in terms of all-inclusiveness.  We are all on one planet and in one universe, with a larger destiny in common than could have been conceived until recently.  Edwin Markham understood this idea very well, and he also symbolized it in his poem Outwitted:
   They drew a circle that shut me out;
   Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
   But Love and I had the wit to win:
   We drew a circle that took them in!
   The circle seems to be the most ideal, and is currently the most widely accepted symbol to suggest our modern situation.  We need unity and universality in the world, and the circle can symbolize these ideals for us.  Then, too, the circle can be conceived as infinitely small, where the source of Being or Ultimate Reality is to be found; or infinitely large, thus suggesting all-inclusiveness.

Symbolism of many types needs to be given a much greater place in life than it maintains at present.  The circle has been stressed as the main symbol, but even this can be elaborated in any number of ways to express its diversity of meanings.  In addition, the candle is most appropriate as a symbol of light (enlightenment, understanding).  It can be used not only alone, but with several colors to represent the diversity of faiths.  Other types of symbols are pictures, statues, figurines, stained glass windows, metal, or other symbols of historic religions.  All these and many more can be used at certain times and in appropriate ways to enhance the meaning of worship and of life generally.

Consultation is a most important phase of the work of bringing about wholeness of the person.  In the Middle Ages, confession was the parallel practice, but the abandoning of this form of human relations by many religious groups does not dispense with the need for a democratic type of aid from a trained individual in matters of family and religious importance.  Such leaders should usually have office hours, just as doctors do at the present time, so that persons in need of help can come in without an appointment or on short notice.

The older spirit in missionary activity has been that of converting people from one religion to another, regardless of how effective the established religion might be.  Behind the whole effort was the assumption that the missionary group had "the truth", which others must accept in order to be saved.  This concept of truth is contrary to the spirit of democracy and to the discoveries of science, since it implies that truth is fixed and the exclusive possession of a particular group.
   Many individuals and institutions have so rebelled against this dogmatic attitude in missions that they have rejected the need for any missionary work (other than social service).  Actually, the need for bringing the distinctive message of each path of life to the rest of the world is always great, provided that conversion is not the main object in so doing.
   But even more important today and for the future is the urgency for proclaiming Unity-and-Diversity, because its message can and should unite the peoples of all racial and religious backgrounds.  The modern spirit of missions is not primarily to convert but to bring to the world a universal message.  Because the new message is that truth may be revealed or discovered in any part of the world or among any people (as has actually occurred in al past ages), it seeks to proclaim its glimpses of truth to all and to gather together those who, while being of many religions, or no religion, find its basic teachings meaningful in their lives.
 
 

Would that all persons were so constituted that in their lives all these elements of philosophy, mysticism, emotion, and of work were equally present in full!  That is the ideal of a perfect individual.  To become harmoniously balanced in all these four directions is the ideal of religion.  And this religion is attained by what we, in India, call Yoga (union).  To the worker, it is union between the individual and the whole of humanity; to the mystic, between the lower and higher Self; to the lover, union between that person and the God of love; and to the philosopher, it is the union of all existence.  The person who seeks after this kind of union is called a Yogin.  The worker is called the Karma-Yogin.  The one who seeks the union through love is called the Bhakti-Yogin.  The one who seeks it through mysticism is called the Raja-Yogin.  The person who seeks it through philosophy is called the Jnana-Yogin.  So this word Yogin comprises them all.

Now concerning spiritual gifts, friends, I do not want you to be uninformed.  There are varieties of working, but it is the same spirit which inspires them all in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good.  To one is given through the spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the power of healing according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another prophecy, to another ability to distinguish between people, to another various kinds of languages, to another the interpretation of languages.  All of these are inspired by one and the same spirit.
   For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with humanity.
   For the body does not consist of one member but many.  If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body' , that would not make it any less a part of the body.  And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body', that would not make it any less a part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing?  If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?  If all were a single organ, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.  The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you'.  On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body which we think less honorable we invest with the greater honor; and our unpresentable parts are treated with a greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.   If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
   Now you are the body of humanity and individually members of it.  And there are among you religious leaders, prophets, teachers, then helpers, administrators, speakers in various languages.  Are all religious leaders?  Are all prophets?  Are all teachers?  Do all speak with different languages?  Do all interpret?  But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
 
 

Humanity is like a bird with its two wings -- the one is male, the other female.  Unless both wings are strong and impelled by some common force, the bird cannot fly heavenwards.  According to the spirit of this age, women must advance and fulfill their mission in all departments of life, becoming equal to men.  They must be on the same level as men and enjoy equal rights.  This is my earnest prayer, and it is one of the fundamental principles of Baha'U'Llah.
   Some scientists have declared that the brains of men weigh more than those of women, and claim this as proof of man's superiority.  Yet when we look around us we see people with small heads, whose brains must weigh little, who show the greatest intelligence and great powers of understanding; and others with big heads, whose brains must be heavy, and yet they are witless.  Therefore, the weight of the brain is no true measure of intelligence or superiority.
   When men bring forward as a second proof of their superiority the assertion that women have not achieved as much as men, they use poor arguments which leave history out of consideration.  If they kept themselves more fully informed historically, they would know that great women have lived and achieved great things in the past, and that there are many women who are living and achieving great things today.
   The world in the past has generally been ruled by force, and man has dominated over woman by reason of his more forceful and aggressive qualities both of body and mind.  But the balance is already shifting; force is losing its dominance and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining ascendancy.  Hence, the new age will be an age less masculine and more permeated with feminine ideals, or, to speak more exactly, it will be an age in which the masculine and feminine elements of civilization will be more evenly balanced.

In its desire for purity and simplicity, religion has in the past tended toward celibacy in preference to marriage and family as the ideal way to attain the higher life.  Recall, for example, that Jesus never married, and that Gautama the Buddha renounced his wife and child in order to seek enlightenment.  Today, however, science and experience have given substantial evidence that the greatest possible fulfillment of personality comes through the establishment of creative family living.  This is not to say that all persons should marry, or that a poorly-formed marriage should be preserved at all costs; on the contrary, it is merely stating the psychological fact that maximum personality development takes place through the medium of the family.
   The family unit is a small society in itself, within which group living is in constant practice.  In any civilization the family plays a major role, exercising a balance of power with other institutions such as the state and church.  The major goal to be achieved in creative family living is to have enough meaningful rituals to assure healthy group relations, while at the same time allowing for individual freedom and growth.  If families are either very large or very small, this ideal becomes difficult, if not impossible, to attain; hence, moderate-sized families are usually best.
 

Marriage

Then the young woman spoke again and said, And what of Marriage, master?  And the prophet answered, saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Yes, you shall be together even in the silent memory of time.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping:
For only the hand of God can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together;
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

           Children

And the woman who held a babe against her bosom said,
Speak to us of Children.  And the prophet said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you;
You may give them your life but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot
       visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward or tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrow are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and he bends
       you with his might that his arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so he loves also the bow
       that is stable.

In all lives there comes, either consciously or subconsciously, a parting of the ways, a time when individuals decide to become who they really are or turn to the easier path of remaining within a group which gives no adequate meaning to their lives.  Those who would claim to belong in the former category of being individuals are the ones who have undergone some experience in which they are consciously aware of having been separated from traditional group norms to a certain extent, thereby sacrificing chose relations with those who cherish these norms.  Such persons are, though perhaps unknowingly, renouncing the ties which others feel are necessary for maintaining a sense of personal security; they are, to some extent, finding strength within that others must obtain from external sources.  Those individuals, therefore, know themselves and are able to build further upon inner strength, for they have found what is the only adequate basis for growth -- the personal security of spiritual consciousness.
During times of social crisis the parting of the ways is most significant, since the majority of any society is unable to overcome its own degeneration.  Hence, it becomes the responsibility of truly religious persons to express themselves and to organize into groups where their sense of meaning can find the most complete response.  Individuals need more than ever at these times to detach themselves from decaying groups and evil deeds, uniting instead with those who seek the restoration of spiritual values.

The rush and confusion of present-day existence seem to make life into a rather meaningless jumble of hurry and over-activity.  But those who can see their own lives in some kind of perspective will discover that there is, after all, a pattern to them; furthermore, with some understanding of this pattern and willingness to apply it, greater values can be gained for present and future generations.  Broadly speaking, there are three possible emphases in normal living -- growth, action, and meditation.  In the course of a lifetime all three of these generally enter to some extent, but their relative importance and stress are worthy of attention.  Most persons emphasize one of these phases more than the others in their lives as a whole, but despite this the stress does vary with the individual's age.
   In the first twenty or thirty years of life the "growth" phase tends to be dominant.  Childhood and youth generally pass through h periods of rapid change, growth, and self-discovery.  Until questions of marriage and family, as well as earning a livelihood, enter, the minds of maturing persons, transitioning tends to be the watchword most of the time.
   From the age of twenty or thirty till that of around forty-five to sixty is the time for the "active" or "Promethean" phases of personality.  Once one decides upon a career and a family, and settles down to working in the world, the period of active participation in events generally occurs.  This is the time when people most often seek to change the society in which they live, to apply their education and insights regarding a better world to existing situations where changes can best be made.
   The third and last period of life is that of "meditation" or the "Buddhist" stage.  Having been actively concerned for the changing of society, the twilight years of living can more readily and profitably be spent in reflection upon bygone years and the passing on of beautiful memories and experiences to others.  This is the time when one's physical powers are receding and one's endurance is lessening.  It is therefore very normal to withdraw to a large extent from the active world and develop the quiet and meditative aspect of the personality.  Modern society has yet to make proper use of this period of living or to benefit from its resources.  Mature persons who have led worthwhile lives can pass on a wealth of experience and advice to younger generations if given the opportunity.  (At the same time one needs to be careful of immature elders whose advice is that of a better-to-be-forgotten past; it seems that the world is filled to capacity with the latter type, while too few of the former now exist.)
   In all of these stages one must keep in mind that all three phases of personality are, and should be, operative.  Some persons will emphasize one stage throughout their lives by the very nature of their work and abilities.  Others will tend to equalize them during all of their years.  But it is possible to distinguish these separate stages for the vast majority of individual lives.

The person and the deed are two distinct things.  Whereas a good deed should call forth praise and a wicked deed disapproval, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked, always deserves respect or pity as the case may be.  "Hate the sin and not the sinner" is the teaching which, though easy to understand, is rarely practiced, and that is why the poison of hatred spreads over the world.
   This love is the basis of the search for truth.  I am realizing every day that the search for truth is vain unless it is founded on love.  It is quite proper to resist and attack a system, but to resist and attach its author is the same as resisting and attacking oneself.  For we are all subject to the same weaknesses and are manifestations of one and the same Ultimate Reality; and as such the divine powers within us are infinite.  To needlessly injure a single human being is to injure those divine powers within us, and thus the harm reaches not only that one human being but the whole world.

In my humble opinion, non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.  In the past, non-cooperation has been deliberately expressed in violence to the evil-doer.  I am endeavoring to show the world that violent non-cooperation only multiplies evil, and that withdrawal of support of evil should require complete abstention from violence.

                          Communion with Nature

  There is pleasure in the pathless woods,
  There is rapture on the lonely shore,
  There is society where none intrudes
  By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
  I love not humanity less but nature more
  From these our interviews, in which I steal
  From all I may be or have been before
  To mingle with the universe and feel
  What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

                                        Work
 

Then a ploughman said, Speak to us of Work.
And the prophet answered, saying:
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul
   of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger to the seasons, and to
   step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and
   proud submission towards the Infinite.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering
   of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings
   in unison?
Always you have been told that work is a curse and labor a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth's
   furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labor you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labor is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.
Work is love made visible.
       And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that
              you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and
              take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that
               feeds but half our hunger.
  And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a
               poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle
   our ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

Ch'ing, the chief carpenter, was carving wood into a stand for hanging musical instruments.  When finished, the work appeared to those who saw it as though of supernatural execution.  And the prince of Lu asked him, saying, "What mystery is
there in your art?"  "No mystery, your Highness," replied Ch'ing, "and yet there is
something."
   "When I am about to make such a stand, I guard against any decrease in my creative power.  I first reduce my mind to absolute stillness.  Three days in this condition, and I become oblivious of any fame to be acquired.  Seven days, and I become unconscious of my four limbs and my physical frame.  Then, with no thought of the Court present to my mind, my skill becomes concentrated, and all disturbing elements from without are gone.  I enter some mountain forest.  I search for a suitable tree.  It contains the form required, which is afterward elaborated.  I see the stand in my mind's eye, and then set to work.  Otherwise, there is nothing.  I bring my own natural capacity into relation with that of the wood.  What is suspected to be of supernatural execution in my work was due solely to this."

We human beings are apt to think that our race is the only object in creation that really matters.  We have developed a kind of class-consciousness in the presence of the universe.  The human race is all-important in its own eyes: nature is there to be ruled by us; her forces were meant to turn our wheels; her materials to be exploited for our enrichment; her laws to provide for our comfort; and the very stars in their courses to be yoked to our wagons.  We have still to learn that the human race is tolerated in the universe only on strict condition of good behavior.  If we neglect our citizenship there, or think that we can play fast and loose with the laws that are written there, laws that were not voted into existence by us, those other citizenships will come to grief.  This human class-consciousness in the presence of the rest of the universe is not a good thing.  It is a dangerous thing.  Unless we bear that in mind, our study of the rights and duties of the citizen is not worthwhile.

Most people, being rather unaware of the value of balanced living, are highly critical of the withdrawal phase of existence.  They tend to believe that the highest type of life is that carried out by constant activity in the society.  In fact, they have been so convinced of this idea that they have not cultivated interests and hobbies of their own which could aid them in becoming mature individuals.
   One might describe adequate living as a proper blending between "withdrawal and return", which means that the fulfillment of life necessitates both periods of activity in the world and periods of detachment from it.  During hours of activity one can execute the ideas conceived, or ideals strengthened, during the hours of detachment.
   Specifically, detachment is an absolutely necessary defense for individuals against a decaying society.  The only way in which a proper balance between individuals and social growth can be maintained is through our willingness to renounce our attachment to a particular group when its ideals sink low enough to make satisfactory human relations impossible.  There are times when the only mature course of action in a situation is to withdraw, either to reorient oneself or to begin a more worthwhile attachment.
  Of course, individuals must give group life a fair trial, and not be continually shifting our loyalties with the least little friction.  We must seek to learn when further continuance of a particular attachment is, and will remain, detrimental to both parties concerned.  At this point we must be willing to make the necessary withdrawal and readjustment.  In fact, there are occasions when an extended withdrawal is both justifiable and desirable.  No society can reach maximum growth until its members have learned the meaning of non-attachment as part of everyday living.  Its fruits are as great as its difficulty of achievement!

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
-- Sir Isaac Newton

If we withdraw our mind from the love of sensuality and apply it to the love of the virtuous; if, in serving our parents, we can exert the utmost strength; if, in serving our leaders, we can show great devotion; if, in relationship with friends, our words are sincere -- although many people may say that we have not learned, I would certainly say that we have.
-- Confucius

Not to be excited by praise,
Not to be grieved by blame,
But to know thoroughly one's own virtues or powers
Are the characteristics of an excellent person.
-- Tibetan Doctrine

The person who regards his/her life and that of fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost unqualified for life.
-- Albert Einstein

Wisdom cries aloud in the street;
   In the markets she raises her voice;
On the top of the walls she cries out;
   At the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
"How long, O foolish ones,
   will you love being ignorant?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
   And fools hate knowledge?"
-- Proverbs

Life is the center where the material and the spiritual forces of the universe seem to meet and to be reconciled.  Spirit is born in life.
-- Edmund W. Sinnott

Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Let the day's troubles be sufficient for the day.
-- Jesus

Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who ask receives, and the person who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
-- Paul the Apostle

The European invasion of the East was a deed of violence on a grand scale, and it has left us (Europeans and others) the duty of understanding the mind of the East.  This is perhaps more necessary than we realize at present.
-- Carl G. Jung

Feed the hungry, visit the sick, and free the captives.  As for orphans, do not oppress them.  And as for beggars, do not drive them away.
-- Mohammed
n
 There are certain duties which hold for one person toward another:
That one should greet the person upon meeting.
That one should generally accept an invitation when sincerely given.
That one should visit the person who is ill.
That one should love for the other person what one loves for oneself.
-- Mohammed

As long as the bee is outside the petals of the lily, and has not tasted the sweetness of its honey, it hovers around the flower making its buzzing sound; but when it is inside the flower, it noiselessly drinks its nectar.  As long as we quarrel and dispute about doctrines and dogmas, we have not tasted the nectar of true faith; when we have tasted it, we become quiet and full of peace.
-- Ramakrishna

The historical sources of (the) spirit remain an unfailing spring whose potency makes and will make for the healing of the nations.
-- William Ernest Hocking

Proclaim and publish to the people of the world a universal gospel that shall restore, in time, all the human species without exception.  The Inner Spirit makes people feel that behind every appearance of diversity there is an interdependent unity of all things.
-- George de Benneville

The greatest security seems insecure:
the greatest maturity immature.
-- Leland P. Stewart

A variety of experience is the best experience, but it benefits us only to the extent that we realize and make use of the good therein.
-- Leland P. Stewart

Human life should remain as a home of many rooms.  But the world with all its diversity can still be one in its allegiance to the elementary common purposes shared by all peoples.  Those boundaries that block mutual understanding will be worn dim by such international traffic in ideas, in exchange of goods and services.  Within each society the use of scientific methods in the study of human relations can adjust our culture patterns to the changes brought about by technology and worldwide economic interdependence.  This can happen.  It probably will happen.  But when?
-- Clyde Kluckhohn

In the future, as in the past, the common spiritual essence of the historic religions will, I believe, be humanity's guiding light.  When the ideologies have evaporated, and when individuals' long unsatisfied hunger for material possessions has been appeased, and when individuals have also been cured of temporary gluttony by satiety(boredom), them I believe, the ideals and the precepts that are embodied in the historic religions will come into their own at last.
-- Arnold J. Toynbee

In every age I come back
To deliver the holy,
To destroy the sin of the sinner,
To establish righteousness.
-- Bhagavad Gita
 
 

The central gospel (or "good news") of the emerging civilization is that there are many paths toward the fulfillment of life, and that each of these paths which is valid has one or more truths to teach that can be of benefit to all, including the devotees to that one path.  The capacity to share and rejoice in the similarities and differences among these paths is at the heart of the new civilization now unfolding.
   Specifically, many Christians have found it necessary to proclaim the "one and only" stance of this religion based upon Jesus' unique experience of dying upon the cross.  Other reasons have entered as well, but whatever the reasons the conclusion has seemed to be that the proper way to present Christianity was as the only religion of any consequence in existence.
   The same attitude has often characterized followers of other major religions as well.  Jews have thought of themselves as the "chosen" people.  Muslims have dogmatically stated that Mohammed was the last of the prophets.
   But in the midst of these lingering attitudes of exclusiveness, there is arising around the world inside and outside of the historic religions a sense that we are entering into a pluralistic world culture, in which it is alright to be Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, or to practice some other identifiable faith; likewise, it is acceptable to have had to leave one's traditional faith and join instead with a new religious movement.  In fact, it is even becoming possible to have no official religion; many such people are deeply religious in their own individual ways.
   There has, of course, been a period in which religion was considered archaic and totally unnecessary in any form.  Many people still retain very strong feelings on this matter.  However, a new consciousness is emerging as more and more people affirm that we are total beings -- body, mind, emotions, and spirit.  To leave out any one of these dimensions is to become incomplete.  With this in mind the essential quality of the religious impulse must be refocused and given validity.
   Being religious is not necessarily following a traditional path in a traditional way.  It is getting in touch with that essential quality within yourself which then resonates with the essence of life that is present in all beings, organic and inorganic.  As this process takes place, life becomes unified in consciousness and its unifying quality can then begin to emerge into specific human relationships, the attitude of human beings toward plants and animals, and even into the awareness of the relatedness of all other forms of life.  With this as the meaning of religion, that is no longer any reason to shy away from it.  In fact, just the opposite is true.  Harry Emerson Fosdick, a central figure in American religious life for many years, has stressed that no life is complete without its religious dimension.
  At the heart of the new age, the emerging world civilization, lies the gospel of the interdependent unity of all things.  All forms of life are interrelated with all other forms; none can exist without the others.  It is time, therefore, to proclaim this interdependence and to draw together those who feel ready to live by its dictates.  We are in the beginning days of the new dispensation whose transforming power has not yet been felt in a major way.  In drawing together these new beings more and more throughout the world, the good news of the age now coming into existence will be ever more widely heard and its fruits realized.
 

SOURCES prior to "Central Scriptures":

Ballou, Robert O., Bible of the World, Viking Press, New York, 1939
   Source for: Taoism Confucianism, Hinduism (except Upanishads), Buddhism
Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, Thomas Nelson and Sons, New York, 1952
   Source for: All Old and New Testament writings
Prabhavananda, Swami, and Manchester, Frederick, Upanishads, Vedanta Press, Hollywood, Calif., 1947
  Source for: All Upanishads
Gibran, Kahlil, The Prophet, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1949
  Source for: Quotations from the book
The judgment of the Bible of the World scholars was relied upon as to what parts of available scriptural materials were most worthy of selection for such books, except in the cases of the Holy Bible and the Upanishads, which were consulted directly.  However, all interpretations upon these and other sources are the responsibility of the author/editor alone.

INDEX

CENTRAL SCRIPTURES
Declaration of Interdependence
Introduction
About the Author/Editor

UNITY-AND-DIVERSITY AND ITS RELATION TO ALL PATHS

UNITY-AND-DIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE
The Fulfillment of Prophecy
A Universal Declaration of Moral and Spiritual Values
Expanding on These Guidelines
Twelve Universal Avoidances
The Unity-and-Diversity Person
Unity-and-Diversity Consciousness

BASIC TEACHINGS
The Universal Religion
The Universal Point of View
A Universal Language
The Great Experiment
As Bearers of Light
Three Doorways
The Ultimate -- a Modern Trinity
Forms of the Formless
The Acceptance of Diversity

THE AGE OF ONE WORLD
The Vision of the World
Would You End War?
A New Faith
Technology, Science, and Religion
Money and Value
The Remaking of Humanity
Humanity and the Individual
The Individual's Dual Role
Past and Present
The Voyage of Democracy
America -- From Many Made One

A MODERN SYNTHESIS
Wholeness as the Goal: Integration of Reason and Faith
The Final Destiny of the Human Race (At-One-Ment)
The Grandeur of the Soul
Knowing Eternity
Ethics and Mysticism
Reverence for Life
Love
Forgiveness
Lasting Happiness
The Purpose of Freedom
Good and Evil
Death

ORGANIZING FOR THE WELL-BEING OF ALL
The Importance of Worship
A Daily Center
Prayer
What is Scripture?
Symbolism
Other Symbols
Consultation
Missionary Spirit
Paths Toward Union with the Ultimate
Varieties of Gifts

OTHER TEACHINGS
The Equality of Men and Women
The Importance of the Family
Marriage
Children
The Parting of the Ways
Stages of Normal Living
The Deed and the Doer
Non-cooperation with Evil
Communion with Nature
Work
The Way of the Good Carpenter
The Relative Importance of the Human Race
The Value of Withdrawal

BRIEF STATEMENTS

A UNITY-AND-DIVERSITY GOSPEL:
Focusing the energies of the New Person and Civilization
 
 

webpage last changed May 15, 2008