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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Steve Taylor.

Good Morning.

One of my favourite spiritual books is The Upanishads, a collection of philosophical texts, composed in India around 2500 years ago. The essential teaching of The Upanishads is simple. The spirit inside us is also the spirit of the world, so that we are essentially one with the world. And this applies to human beings too, we are all essentially one, since we share the same spirit. As one of The Upanishads states, ‘you are that.’ Our illusory sense of separateness is the cause of all our suffering. When we transcend separateness, it is the end of sorrow and confusion.

Nothing causes as much human conflict as group identity - the thought that we belong to different groups with competing interests, and different histories, that allow us to withhold empathy and respect from one another. The Upanishads teaches us, that these differences are just superficial. Beneath the surface, we are all manifestations of the same spirit, like channels that flow from the same source. This is what makes it possible for us to sense each other’s suffering and joy. And this ability to empathise, triggers the impulse for kindness, to help alleviate each other’s suffering or encourage each other’s development.

As I have expressed it poetically:

Beneath all the distinctions between us
there is a place without identity
where we meet in oneness.

Beneath all the disagreements between us
there is a place without beliefs
where we meet in harmony.

Beyond our masks of personality
there is a place without pretence
where we meet in authenticity.

Beyond our different pasts
there is a place without time
where we meet in presence.

And once we meet each other there
we can celebrate our variety –
the infinite expressions of form
that arise from formless oneness.

Blessings.

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