Dear Pogue,

I have spent much time with things spiritual and during that time I have come to recognise certain constants in the world. They are not things that people usually consider or even realise exist. I thought I’d like to share with you the things I have found over a series of short letters and, as always, would be interested for your thoughts.

I am going to call my observations Principles. Some others, observing these factors have referred to them as Laws. I don’t think it really matters, but it is interesting that others have seen these too.

So, seat belt on, baseball cap turned backwards (obligatory when dealing with deep truths) cool sunglasses in place, here we go.

The Law of One

Basically, this principle is that everything and everybody are connected. There is no separation much as we would all like to declare our individuality and strut our stuff. Our individuality is actually an illusion. Yes, we all have differing manifestations of this Oneness (because, well, it is just too large for each of us to manifest its entirety) which leads to us creating the myth of individuality but everything we are comes from a single Source.

Do not feel lonely, the entire Universe is inside you.

Rumi

Yes, I know, I have finally flipped out. I can almost hear you asking ‘what craziness is he into now?’ But come with me a little while.

Albert Einstein told us “everything is energy” and as such told us all is of the same essence (and we don’t think he was crazy although I’m sure there were those who thought so when he was alive!). However, this was not an original thought and, whether he realised it or not, he was reiterating something found in a number of spiritual teachings. Listen:

Hear, O Israel, The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.

Deuteronomy 6:4

Sri Krishna said: O Arjuna, I am generating the seed of all existences. There is no being – moving or unmoving – that can exist without Me.

Bhagavad Gita 10:39

So, if all is energy then everything is of the same substance, the same stuff. It just manifests differently. Think water. It manifests as ice, water, and steam, but it is the same essence just vibrating at a different frequency in each state of being. Make sense? Still got your baseball cap on backwards?

This energy has been given a variety of names at different times in differing settings. Scientists talk of the Unified Field, some philosophies use the term Universal Consciousness whilst religions have a wealth of terms which can be generalised as God – Krishna, Allah, Jehovah, Lord, Bhagwan to name a very few.

Now, whilst most adherents of religions would vehemently disagree, however you choose to give expression to this it is the same thing and everything comes from and is part of the same essence. Hence, everything is connected.

Doesn’t that put our behaviour under the spotlight? Whilst you and I can do whatever we want to do, if we are willing to succeed to the consequences, we now need to consider that those consequences effect not only us. Get your head around that. Everything is connected. How much better it must be to put out kindness, joy and love than selfishness, greed, and hate. How much better to add positive than negative. And how we need to grasp that if we do wrong to our neighbour we are eventually harming ourselves and those we love. Jesus really had something when he instructed his listeners to “do unto others and you would have them do unto you”.

People normally cut reality into compartments and so are unable to see the interdependence of all phenomena. To see one in all and all in one is to break through the great barrier which narrows one’s perception of reality.

Thich Nhat Hahn

Then, think, if we disregard nature we are eventually effecting our own well being. That disregarded plastic bag of mine, dropped on the beach eventually became part of a disaster in an ecosystem.

Edward Lorenz talked of The Butterfly Effect, that small actions can have an eventual massive impact in the world. I won’t go into that. After all, this was supposed to be a short letter but I will leave you with a few lines from a poem used by Benjamin Franklin in his The Way to Wealth which sums it up.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For want of a horse the rider was lost,
For want of a rider the battle was lost,
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost,
And all for want of a horseshoe nail.

Yours, sharing your essence,

Wic