Spirituality in our modern age is a personal affair regardless of the various pathways or disciplines that one may follow.

Yet even though there is an abundance of avenues for spiritual endeavor, there is generally a universal agreement on the principle of unity:

If reality is unified, then we must also accept that everything is essentially equal.

There are many ways that one may be introduced to this philosophy. We may have been brought up around it via our family. We might have had a profound revelation in a one-off experience. Some are initiated through ongoing paranormal activity. Others just intuitively feel it.

Altered mind states could have been the catalyst. A gradual or instant revolution could have occurred in our mind where synchronicity deposed coincidence. There could have also been an influence by assorted texts and teachings which infer this similar conclusion. In retrospect, uncovering the wisdom of unity most likely occurred via a combination of channels.

Transcending the illusion of disconnection is a personal path.

Regardless of the series of events and informational resources that led to our personal awakening, together we have a responsibility to continually heal and grow our internal and external worlds. This is because the collective mental and physical landscapes that we inhabit are transcending their states of suffering, like we are.

If we are all unified, then irrespective of how peaceful we have set up our internal environment, our external environment is still a reflection of our fundamental nature, including what is in harmony and what isn’t.

The personal awakening is synonymous to the collective awakening.

A Global Metaphysical View

Unity can be used as a universal term to describe the outcomes of various fields of thought.

Examples include: energy, mind, consciousness, hologram, light, love, spirit, the source, the field, the Akashic Field, the zero-point energy field, quantum field of possibilities, the collective unconscious, undivided wholeness, Nirvana, one or God. If these are all equal to each other in terms of their agreement that a unifying principle exists, then we have arrived at an agreed global metaphysical position which incorporates both our rational and intuitive hemispheres.

The primary nature of reality is unified.

Regardless of what reality is literally made of, whether its essence is of a material or immaterial nature, it’s irrelevant to our goals. As long as we agree that a property of reality is unity, and that unity inherently implies that everything is fundamentally equal, then together we can get on with making this earthly experience fair and peaceful for all.

Earth’s global culture needs to heal and grow as one.

That is why an agreed metaphysical view for our global society has significant implications for our future (see here for a discussion of our united global culture). From both a personal and societal standpoint, as well as a rational and intuitive standpoint, we know to treat everyone and everything uniformly.

The way we care for ourselves should be equivalent to the way that we care for others. Our philosophical and practical systems should also ensure that each person has access to the resources they need to adequately survive and thrive.

Because we are unified, the suffering of others is a reflection of our own suffering.

No matter how far we may be personally removed from it, the reality is the majority of our fellow man is distressed from a lack of external and/or internal resources. The former is strongly influenced from an unequal distribution of food, water, shelter, infrastructure, education, medicine and political representation, whilst the latter from a lack of knowledge and skills in emotional regulation and psychological balancing, as well as a poor conceptual capacity to face and overcome the challenges to establishing and maintaining one’s inner peace.

Suffering is pandemic across the so-called developing and developed nations.

Translating a Global Metaphysical View into Practice

When we individually undertake a process of spiritual introspection, we all arrive at the exact same place; unity. Yet when we translate that wisdom into practice, the result is a plethora of personal, philosophical and cultural differences. That is why so many distinct religions exist, especially because the expression of how we should operationalize this perspective is subject to the environmental influences present during its inception and development.

There are infinite expressions of unity.

Now that many people undertake this process outside the context of pre-established models, it is no wonder that there are so many individualized methodologies to spirituality. And there’s nothing wrong with that either; there is no one strict way to live, so as long as it doesn’t conflict with the primary principle of unity and its inherent implications, then it should be encouraged and embraced.

Regardless of the personal path we choose to take, spirituality is a journey of enlightenment for both the inner and outer realms.

The Health and Growth of the Self

We are all subject to suffering of the self and it is our personal role to transcend it. But our health is much more than is usually defined; it’s not just our physical and mental well-being.

The reality is we have many layers of our life to take care of including our physical, psychological, emotional, philosophical, sexual, behavioral, creative, social and spiritual vitalities. With this in mind, we should be continually asking ourselves what areas need more attention and what strategies can we implement to heal and grow. We also need to find a true love for ourselves.

Therapeutic and developmental practices which harmonize all of our life vitalities ensures that we raise our vibration and align ourselves closer to our spiritual path.

Even though we literally make the free choice on how we think, feel, act and live, we are still strongly influenced by our environment, such as parents, peers, culture, society, government and the age we live in. Therefore, as an adult we are both independent and conditioned agents. But we can transcend our conditioning. The time we become truly free is the time that we take full responsibility of ourselves and ensure that we, not anyone or anything else, are the most influential factor for how we evolve for the rest of our lives. That of course means taking full responsibility for how we think and feel.

To be truly free, we must empower ourselves to lead our thoughts and emotions.

It’s the basics. Excuses which blame something or someone for our thoughts and feelings just don’t cut it on the spiritual path. Spiritually, we have experiences for growth; we are co-creators of our experience. Now this doesn’t mean that there aren’t consequences for the actions of others which hurt us, the response we provide is incorporated into the overall context of the negative and positive vibrations that they’ve attracted into their life.

If people act unjust, then justice will inevitably be served.

The new age mantra that “everything happens for a reason” may be true in the sense that experiences have innate information that we can capitalize on to progress us on our path of enlightenment, but it is equally true that proportional actions need to transpire in response.

Just like we should respond to the injustice we serve ourselves, we should also respond to that which surrounds us. The tricky part is determining what that response should be which is why we draw on both our rational and intuitive capacities to guide us.

Not only should we accept our experiences, but also respond to them accordingly.

It is true that we make so-called “mistakes” which deliver us to our destiny, however that doesn’t mean we should make that same choice again. We should learn from it. There are innumerable times that we have had an undesirable experience which resulted in our growth, regardless if it was influenced from the actions of ourselves or others. And that’s what we need; to learn, to heal, and to grow.

We need to harmonize our energies and become our new, more developed selves in every moment. When we conceive of our experience this way—where our wants are the healthy and unhealthy desires of our ego and our needs are the experiences we require for sustained growth—then we always have something to offer ourselves.

If we process each experience as an opportunity to learn, regardless of how undesirable that experience is, we always get exactly what we need: growth.

Every moment is therefore an opportunity to progress our health and well-being. When we treat ourselves and others disappointingly, we should process it in the context of our learning and then make amends.

The same applies when somebody treats us poorly; when we are exposed to underdeveloped actions by others, we should embrace it as a part of us, as well as give a calculated response in return. After all, we have accepted that we are fundamentally united. For example, what information and energy can we embrace from it? Is there some action we can do to encourage the health and growth of both the internal and external worlds?

When we embrace our experience, we must develop a healthy balance between awareness, acceptance and action.

The Health and Growth of Society

Mindful living is an integral aspect of spirituality.

Allowing ourselves and others to make poor choices without negative judgement is vital, as is reasonable and realistic judgement in general. Radiating positive and loving vibrations is too. We should understand ourselves as a pulsing and energetic vibration—an instrument of sound adding to the orchestra of reality which encompasses us. We should lead from our heart and consciously influence the collective vibration of our shared reality.

Maximizing the impact we have as co-creators amplifies the awakening of our collective consciousness.

This means being loving, patient, compassionate, empathetic and understanding. But as described above, it also means taking action to influence the health and growth of our society. It’s a misconception to think that just because everything is meant to be, that it will naturally balance itself out without our intervention.

It is as much our responsibility to undertake appropriate responses to our outside world as it is to our inside world.

Just like there are some justified ramifications within our social models of law and ethics, there are also measures that we must apply in response to our external environment. This does not necessarily mean that the law should be taken into one’s own hands, but more so that as an individual within a global culture, actions need to be taken to rectify the injustices of our world which violate the philosophical principle of unity.

The earth and our species needs help to come back into balance.

For example, our leading philosophical and pragmatic compasses are contributing to some major ecological, social and individual injustices—systems that need to be addressed through calculated measures. If we just sit back and allow it to continue, it will. That’s why collective action needs to balance these injustices out, so we need to decide how we will personally contribute to our shared goals.

Caring for the external world really is as important as doing it for our own internal health and growth.

There are many injustices that currently plague our planet, including many social and political dysfunctions. There are several movements which aim to ensure that the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual vitality of every human being is cared for and developed in our future, all you have to do is research online.

It is a shared responsibility that we transform our world.

It is by having a true sense of the healing and growth that is required for both the inside and outside of us which reflect a holistic approach to spirituality. Once we have that awareness, we should aim for acceptance of why and how it needs to change, as well as the application of strategies to facilitate the therapeutic and developmental process that we and our society so desperately need to work through.

Together we must unite because together we are one.

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Author: Phil Watt

Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photos: Vinoth Chandar/Flickr, Vox Efx/Flickr