12 Laws of the Universe

The Law of Divine Oneness: We are all connected

Oneness. The awareness of non-duality. Unity. Wholeness. Merging with the universe.

So what is needed to be more conscious of out oneness? We need t cultivate becoming an every day non dual mystic like Jesus - we need to practice his way of knowing, being, loving and expressing in the world

Jesus modeled and exemplified nonduality more than anyone else giving us any systematic teaching on it, the capacity to be open, inclusive, and tolerant of paradox. “the unitive state” through emptying himself

Our inability to fully understand him and seriously follow him may be partly because we have not been taught how to see nondually ourselves.

The egoic voice is the one that puts duality into our world and disconnects us from others.

The ego allows hierarchies of love and acceptance when the heart clearly states there is none because it needs to be above everything.
This selfishness comes from a place of fear, which is the constant state the ego wants us in because it cares how we look to others. It fights to be in control, but this fearful state is an illusion, which we can overcome when we look at the circumstances with the eyes of love. The Divine, which is pure love, connects directly to the soul, and it has no fear.

The dualistic mind is essentially binary, either/or thinking. It knows by comparison, opposition, and differentiation. It uses descriptive words like good/evil, pretty/ugly, smart/stupid, not realizing there may be a hundred degrees between the two ends of each spectrum. Dualistic thinking works well for the sake of simplification and conversation, but not for the sake of truth or the immense subtlety of actual personal experience.

“A mind that does not need to separate and exclude in order to perceive reality will encounter far less resistance in the current of life and inflict far less violence upon others.” CB That’s what nonduality means. It’s more than just the ability to hold both sides of a paradox in mind simultaneously; an abiding sense of oneness with God. It is the capacity to see with the eyes of God, which is to say, the eyes of love. It’s not what we see, but how we see it.

The Tree of Life is a symbol of the interconnectedness of all life. It is also a symbol of the eternal nature of the soul. The tree has its roots in the ground, representing our connection to the physical world. Its branches reach up to the sky, representing our connection to the spiritual world.

Our physical bodies need the Earth to nourish us, while at the same time, our souls originate from the Universe (or Source) and will return to it once our bodies perish. Likewise, through the Universe, we are not separate; we are connected to all things.

It typically represents the interconnectedness of all things in the universe and the idea that everything is connected to one another.

In Genesis 2:9, we read, “And out of the ground made the Lord God grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst thereof.”

TOL - , Diunital Both and, as well as Non Dualistic
TKOGB - To grant the knowledge of good and evil sees separation and division - Dichotomus Either or Dualistic

Our greatest strength lies, not in how much we differ from each other, but in how much – how very much – we are the same. Eknath Easwaran

The most important lesson I have learned in the fifty years I have spent working toward the building of a better world is that the true work of social transformation starts within. It begins inside your own heart and mind, because the battleground of human transformation is really, more than any other thing, the struggle within human consciousness to believe and accept what is true. Thus to truly revolutionize our society, we must first revolutionize ourselves. We must be the change we seek if we are to effectively demand transformation from others. - John Lewis,

We’re all just walking each other home. — “Treat everyone you meet like God in drag.” Ram Dass

Sacred Text

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
“Though his state was that of God, yet he did not deem equality with God something he should cling to. Rather, he emptied himself, and assuming the state of a slave, he was born in human likeness. He, being known as one of us, humbled himself, obedient unto death, even death on the cross.”

Philippians 2:5-8
The Creator Himself, at one and the same time, knowledge, the knower, and the known ... There exists nothing which is not united to Him and which
He does not find His own essence. He is the type of all being, and all things exist in Him under their most pure and most perfect form.
— Kabbalist Moses Cordovero, Page 74 of Kabbalah: The Way of The Jewish Mystic by Perle Epstein, 1st edition from my mother's library

Everywhere you turn is the Face of Allah.
Qur'an 2:115

Story

Gigi’s practice of kenosis follows a cycle, but when you let go of anything you tend to cling to, you are practicing kenosis. It is an intentional choice to let go for your own good and, as we see in Gigi’s story, also for the good of others. “Kenosis came to me unbidden when I lost my full-time job in 2008 and ran out of money a year later,” Gigi continues. “It came tasting like betrayal, a setup.”
“The most difficult time of this period, the kenosis of kenosis for me, was the 20 months I stayed with an activist in her 80s in exchange for helping her continue to live independently in her two-bedroom apartment. My stay was difficult because the day-to-day details that were my responsibilities mattered less and less to her, and it became more difficult for her to understand the necessity of taking care of them. Secondly, the room where I stayed shared a wall with the apartment next door. The neighbor’s television was always on and always loud.
“I did not sleep well. Poor sleep colored my ability to be present to the woman I was supposed to help. Six months into my stay, everything came to a head: unexpected cleaning to be done yet again on my day off. An argument. Angry shouts. Later conversation about what happened. Me not remembering my hurtful words. Once reminded, a vague memory — my wakeup call. I saw a side of myself that shocked me. I reflected on why I couldn’t remember what I knew I had said.
“I kept my promise and lived there 14 more months with further opportunities to empty myself. I took my anger to God out of love for her and myself, and, in doing so, deepened my love for her and for me. This contemplation emptied me of my anger without removing the stress of that living situation, yet I was empty enough to serve in love.”

Gigi writes, “In Mark 12:28–34 [a scribe asks Jesus] ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ Jesus replies with the entire Shema, beginning with ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.’ Oneness is where Jesus begins his response, and his answer ends with oneness.
“God is one, so God’s greatest commandment is not only two, but one. We love God as one, and we are one with our neighbor in love.
“How do we do this, live this love? How did Jesus live it? Through kenosis. The word ’emptied,’ a translation of the Greek word ekenose, is a mindset not fixed, but a process, a dance that unfolds as follows:

A loving recognition of oneness or unity or union with God,
Letting that recognition go,
Allowing the sense of separateness to arise,
Letting it die,
Allowing the resurrection of the sense of oneness with God, and
Letting it go to repeat the cycle.”

Poem: In a world of Angels by Carl Scott Harker

Seated at my local Medical Center
Waiting in the extended lobby
For a lab appointment
Having nothing better to do
I imagined everyone around me
As angels

Now depending upon your point of view
You might imagine
A gathering of Jesuses
A meeting of scientists
The buddha in everyone
A club of billionaires
A glade of elves...
Wherever your belief system takes you

I saw angels walking,
Some in scrubs
Some in civilian clothes,
There were old angels
Limping angels
Coughing angels
Bandaged angels
Child angels
Infirm angels...
Yet as angels do
They all had a glow

A boring wait had become
A beautiful world

Then a door opened
My name "Carl" was called
Blood was drawn
A urine sample was left,
In the storage cupboard,
My hands washed
The techs thanked
And back in my car, I was,
Driving home
Not realizing that
For a few minutes
I was an angel, too.

Meditation: Paul Ferrini

Father/ Mother God:
Help me to feel my oneness with you and my equality with my brothers and sisters.
Help me to recognise my judgments and to look within for correction.
Help me to give up shame and blame and to learn from my errors so that I do not repeat them.
Help me to care for my body, my family, my community and my planet.
Help me to create what is for my highest good and for the highest good of others
Help me to be responsible for my creations.
Help me give up victim consciousness and realise that I am a powerful person with many creative choices.
Help me to stand up for myself in a loving way without attacking others or seeking to influence the choices they need to make.
Help me offer freedom to others so that I may receive it in return.
Help me reach out with compassion to those in pain, in grief, under stress, or in limitation of any kind and offer them hope and encouragement.
Allow my heart to open to them.
Allow my eyes to see beyond the behaviour
that is motivated by fear and unworthiness.
May I offer to others and to myself the unconditional love and acceptance you offer to me.
Help me to master my skills and talents so that I may place them in your service and fulfil my purpose here.
Help me to step into the role you would have me play in inspiring, empowering and uplifting others.
Help me to trust my gifts and give them without expectation of return whenever the opportunity arises.
Help me to give freely and love freely surrendering the outcome to you.
Help me surrender the need to control so that I can live spontaneously and with your grace.
Help me to understand and heal my wounds so that I don’t push love away or block its presence in my heart and in my relationships.
Help me soften and become vulnerable.
Help me learn to ask for help and trust the help that you offer me.
Allow me to heal the past so that I can enter the present fully.
Allow me to become a doorway for the healing of others and let me walk courageously through the door that has been opened for me.
Help me surrender what is false and establish in what is true firmly and with conviction.
Help me to walk my talk, listen deeply, and speak only when I have something helpful to say.
Help me to understand that the Friend is always with me and my only purpose is to be a Friend to others.
Help me detach from name and fame and surrender all forms of external authority so that I can be guided by the authority within.
Allow me to know at all times and in all places that the highest good of others is and will always be my highest good.
Let all that separates me from others fall away so that I may recognise the One Self in all beings.
Allow me to complete my work on earth with care and humility and return to you when my work here is done.
May all veils and barriers that separate us dissolve so that I may dwell fully and completely in the heart of your love.
And so it is

Rumination

Lamps are different, but light is the same.
Rumi

Benediction

MARK BERRY – EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT
O Breathing Life, your Name shines everywhere!
Release a space to plant your Presence here.
Imagine your possibilities now.
Embody your desire in every light and form.
Grow through us this moment’s bread and wisdom.
Untie the knots of failure binding us,
as we release the strands we hold of others’ faults.
Help us not forget our Source,
Yet free us from not being in the Present.
From you arises every Vision, Power and Song
from gathering to gathering.
Amen

The 1st Law of the Universe: Divine Oneness - Oneness through Emptying yourself!