Behind all differentiations in the multitude, behind all antagonisms, we ultimately find unity.
It is less a law of nature than a state of being, which is the root and source of everything that came into being later. The original human being originates from this unity, and yet we are apparently further away from it than ever before. What happens when a significant part of humanity returns there?
Humanity is currently caught up in a number of conflicts that one would have thought were a thing of the past.
In Europe, a war is being waged about which no one knows how it could reach a quick and peaceful end.
The war between Israel and Hamas is escalating (as of the end of October 2023), and the warring parties’ desire for a final solution (note the almost painlessly formulated abstraction) and the efforts of large parts of the global community to contain the conflict are engaged in a tug-of-war. Nevertheless, it is noticeable that fewer and fewer people are demonising one party to the conflict as a whole; on the contrary, they know how to differentiate and acknowledge the complexity of the situation. It also looks as if more and more people on both sides are able to perceive and acknowledge the fear and pain of the other.
In the medium term, perhaps the realisation that the pain accumulated over generations will only continue to pile up if everyone carries on as before will make solutions possible. However, I think that something else will also come into effect: the ability of people to recognise themselves in their counterparts and, as a result, the ability of humanity to perceive itself as a real entity, across all borders.
At the same time, humanity continues to find itself in a bundle of crises that have arisen from the normality of the Western lifestyle: growing consumption of land and resources, the littering of the planet and the associated extensive destruction of nature, which will consume our means of existence via species extinction and climate change if we do not reorient ourselves and understand that we need to limit ourselves. It is difficult to move from more to less and to appreciate the freedoms of the latter; it is difficult to shed habits and to differentiate within ourselves between the perceived – and realisable – spiritual and psychic expanse and the limited material resources that we all have to share.
At the beginning of January 2023, I attended a conference on “global domestic policy”. It was about illuminating the bundle of problems outlined above, not without presenting initiatives that pursued global understanding of common values or dedicated themselves to concrete actions to minimise energy consumption in schools or to plant greenery in their own surroundings. At the dining table, the complexity and seriousness of the situation found its expression in stimulating discussions. When I curiously asked to what extent the known environmental problems had led to changes in daily life, all my conversation partners denied this. Knowledge is not yet action. What to do about the backlog of reform?
The world interior space[1]
In the course of their spiritual development, many people have come into contact with spiritual fields that can be bridges to oneness. Many are looking for this special kind of connection, for a space of encounter in which they can shed the corset of their limited opinions and possibilities as part of a greater whole.
Wherever people follow a spiritual path, unifying spiritual fields emerge. The planetary spirit itself has a spiritual field that can be experienced by people. In my perception, Rainer Maria Rilke felt nothing else when he wrote his poem Es winkt zu Fühlung in 1914. There he shows the path of all life into a perceptive, loving unity:
(…) Who calculates our earnings? Who separates
us from the old, the bygone years?
What have we experienced since the beginning
but that one recognises oneself in the other?
But that something indifferent warming up with us?
O house, O grassy slope, O evening light,
suddenly you almost bring it into visibility
and lean on us, embracing and embraced.
The one space reaches through all beings:
World interior space. The birds fly silently
through us. O, I who want to grow,
I look out, and within me there grows the tree. (…)
In his poetry, Rilke approached this inner world for a long time until he was finally able to see and articulate it clearly. Today it has become tangible for many, first of all in encounters with like-minded people.
Besides, more and more people are awakening from their seeming domination of nature to the fact that they are part of this world interior space and are thus experiencing its beauty, but also the responsibility for the whole that comes with it. Humans and nature, humans and fellow human beings come closer together in a new way. This leads to a growing compassion for all living things and a decrease in rivalry, enmity and blind self-interest as the substantial oneness in the depths of the soul reveals itself. Nevertheless, as long as we continue to live our daily lives on the basis of our traditional individuality, conflicts of interest will remain.
An approach to life
Participating in unifying spiritual fields or perceiving the soulful inner space of the world can give birth to a new consciousness in which deeper understanding and connectedness converge. Head and heart thus rise from isolation and explore a new, more comprehensive life. Nevertheless, the influence of old habits and an outward-looking attitude (which we still have in common with the majority of humanity) remains; fears also remain which can be easily triggered as long as we don’t find the one foundation of life in the depths of the divine unground.
Nevertheless, it is possible to abstain from large and small conflicts in the knowledge that, in the deepest essence, there can be neither enmity nor even foreignness. Withdrawing from the media hype, which has to announce new scandals, crises and disasters every hour in order to generate attention, is a healthy attitude. The quest for unity is not fulfilled if we allow the media to plunge us into every conflict, only to be urged to choose sides again. Perhaps it is possible to perceive the power of global astral upheavals in particular moments and consider whether this is not akin to being truly captured.
Where do I stand? What can and should I do in my immediate context? These are questions you can ask yourself. Many do this and break free from old structures. Long-held paradigms can fall away, for example the pursuit of wealth, which is seen as proof that you have done something very important right. Or the almost dogmatic pursuit of profit maximisation in businesses, in which the pursuit of power and ownership coincide with the fear that what I don’t do, my competitor will do tomorrow… New initiatives and structures are emerging – a globally interconnected world community cannot exist without structures – but on a different basis. Examples are the economy for the common good (Gemeinwohlökonomie) or local currencies.
If there are enough people freeing themselves from the captivity of blindly pursued interests through a process of spiritual awakening, the superordinate structures – governments, large corporations – can also act differently. The causes for which people join forces always reflect the common denominator of all. So far, for example, states have been unable to do anything other than interpret the material interests of their citizens and represent them accordingly: and the most fundamental common denominator seems to consist of the pursuit of power and property. Whether it is to secure resources or to defend national security in distant wars: Corporations and states will continue to do so: Only a real turnaround by many can change that.
The universal as the integrating essence
Those who are able to open up their individuality towards the universal will bring spiritual and mental unity into the world as a state of being. Only those who can fundamentally open up and, yes, surrender their ego to this universal can help to overcome the blockages of habits, the protection of interests and the rule of existential fears by setting an example for others through their own transformation. People who are the One(ness) and not just feel it can achieve a great deal.
This transformation will not create a paradise on earth. But our planet will remain a school for the soul where people can learn and grow. We humans will continue to be fragile and mortal and, in our ignorance, we will also have the capacity for evil. We can then face these challenges without being too distracted from the search for true humanity by the rat race as we know it now.
In the Indian Mahabharata, there is the philosophy of the yugas, the eras that follow each other in lawful succession. According to this, we find ourselves in the Kali Yuga, the fourth and darkest age, in which morality declines until it approaches zero. This is followed by a Golden Age, a Satya Yuga, which is also understood as the age of perfection. Different sources identify 2012 and 2025 as this turning point to a new age, and we now find ourselves in its dawn, if we follow this view. As is perhaps obvious, this transition does not mean a direct path into the light – humanity is still going through a dark age in which initially the awareness increases that it is reaping what it has sown.
They are people who plunge into the abyss of non-being, as it were, in order to emerge from it as universal entities that can bring about a smoother transition for everyone. Within them, something all-encompassing can be experienced through the essential absence of any kind of self-centredness, which is why they make recognisable the vastness of true humanity. They are not only inspiration, but concrete help – they lift the lid of fears, desires and limitations under which many others live. They radiate insurmountable strength that sweeps away all incrustations. This group makes the difference because it makes the universal, liberated humanity recognisable for many: as the sustaining and all-fulfilling purpose. It overrides all earthly goals, which inevitably fall short, and casts a radiant light into our darkness.
Only from the primordial divine source emerges an all-encompassing unity out of which people can work for the greater whole without failing due to inner limitations. It depends on the people who are able to reveal the purpose that outshines everything else, everything old, whether humanity continues to head towards a narrowing of its living sphere due to its sluggishness or whether it is able to clean up within itself and in the world. This makes the difference between a civilisation that perishes and a civilisation that manages to transform itself.
Transformation
We do not need to look outside to ask ourselves who these creatures of light are and not even wish to meet one of them. Those who experience the world interior space as the beginning of a new existence will be able to decide on pursuing the thread of this beginning instead of using it solely as a place of retreat or occasional uplifting.
Then more profound and further-reaching fields can open up, enabling real transformation – transformation of the soul, which is the beginning of transformation right down to the very substance. If we take seriously the oneness of all being and recognise it as the original source and seed of our own being, then love and perseverance open the way to transformation and thus to the original human field of life. We then take the path to oneness, thereby keeping it open for everybody else.
The whole world can become a spiritual school of the spirit in which the oneness of universal humanity is being taught without words, and the former main subject “Those who sow suffering will reap suffering” will have then become obsolete. It depends on all of us whether this will happen
[1] This expression refers to Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem Es winkt zu Fühlung.
