Opinions of Saturday, 16 September 2023

Columnist: Nhat Hanh

The heart of the matter is always our oneness with divine spirit, our union with all life

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The Law of Divine Oneness is one of the fundamental laws governing the universe. It’s from this law that all other spiritual laws spring.

The law says that my life, your life, and all things seen or unseen is connected to universal force. It teaches that human beings, living and non-living things are linked through creation.

We are like the spokes of a bicycle wheel that spring from a central point to get hooked to the wheel. If one is broken it affects the whole wheel.

Our thoughts, our words, and our actions have a profound effect on the people around us. When you see your neighbor and everything around you, you see the divinity in them.

Your life is an expression of the divinity that resides in you. You must know that you are not truly alone; you are energy and everything around you is energy. You are all the time interacting with the field of potentiality and the infinite field of creativity and possibilities.

It’s important to realize that your thoughts become things. Your thoughts, words, and actions are projected on the universal screen. They are returned to you as your real-life experiences. If your thoughts are evil, bad, and unwholesome, you attract bad and unpleasant things into your life. If your thoughts are pure and radiate positivity, you will attract good things and have delightful experiences in life.

You also need to understand that the field of universal force is pure love, compassion, and abundance of everything. Here there is no scarcity.

When you understand the law of Divine Oneness, you can take advantage of it to transform your life. You can manifest virtually anything you want provided your thoughts, words, and actions are aligned with this field of potentiality, creativity, and abundance.

Your understanding of the law of Divine Oneness will make you more responsible in how you interact with your fellow human beings and the natural environment.

One cannot do without the other. The sun though a non-living thing provides sunlight that plants need for their growth. Human beings take in oxygen provided by plants. Plants use carbon dioxide provided by man.

Everything is interconnected and interdependent. When we destroy the natural environment, we are destroying the very source of our livelihood. If we destroy the natural environment, future generations will not forgive us.

Our knowledge of the law of Divine Oneness should compel us to adopt sound environmental management practices to halt further degradation of the natural environment.

Treat every human you meet with respect and dignity. We all share the same energy. You are a subset of universal energy just like everyone else. From birth, you live until your time is up when you die and return to the soil from which you were made. The same applies to everybody. If you hurt your neighbor, it affects you as well whether you realize this or not.

To get your thoughts, words, and actions to align with universal force, practice daily meditation. Meditation allows you to come into the presence of universal energy. You are actually communicating with the Divine Spirit.

When your meditation is effective, you may receive messages from the universe in the form of an idea, a voice, a dream, a hunch or a glimpse. Excellent ideas from the universe may drop into your soul, spirit, or mind. Most inventors got their ideas that way.

If you don’t want to muddle up your inner dialogue, avoid being judgmental. We are often seen assigning reasons for unexplained and unwanted events that happen. We hastily judge others for certain things when they also exist in us.

For instance, if someone steals, we all condemn the act. Meanwhile, at a certain point in our lives, we have also stolen; it’s just that we were not caught.
Knowing the law of Divine Oneness will let you approach life differently. Treat everyone with a compassionate heart, love, and peace.

If you want good things in your life, be generous with those same things. If you want money, give money. If you want love, spread love. If you want peace and happiness, make life peaceful and happy for others. Always remember, you get what you give.

In a nutshell, never lose touch with your humanity and all things seen or unseen, we are all connected to one field of Consciousness. Try to be aware of your thoughts, emotions, and how you react to situations and people in your life. Also, try to be conscious of your choices.

Being conscious of how your actions affect your life and of the people around you can help create a sense of belonging, a sense of being a part of something greater than just your ideas.

Knowing that we are all connected through creation will position you to make useful contributions to the human family based on love. Your life must be lived for others to derive much joy, fulfillment, and satisfaction in life. Your personal mantra could be, selfless service to humanity with honesty, integrity and ethics without harm to anyone.