Diversity and Inclusivity

Centers for Spiritual Living around the world are doing a series this year on the values of Spiritual Living – The values that those of us who chose to live a spiritual life hold dear – and consider both internally in the quiet of our prayers and meditations – as well as out in the world in which we live.

This month’s Value is Spiritual Living as Diversity and Inclusivity
We value, embrace and celebrate the individual uniqueness and contribution of all people as they express through differences of gender, ethnicity, culture, history, experience, talents and sexual orientation. We include representatives from all our organizational constituencies in leadership, sacred service and decision-making.

So two of our spiritual principles are
ONENESS – We are all one – we are all connected – we all come from source or source energy – we are made of God Stuff – the same stuff at the core essence.

UNITY – the state of being united or joined as a whole

Talk about Our beliefs – what attracted us – and wow are we different

How else can we embrace Oneness if not with acceptance, respect, and the understanding that each individual is a unique expression of one creative power? Individual differences include race, sexual orientation, gender, beliefs, politics and much more. And celebrating diversity means allowing and welcoming it with an affirmative attitude.

So why then are we so damn different and think that the other is not Divine??

According to an old Hindu legend, there was a time when all human beings were gods, but they abused their divinity. So, Brahma, the chief god, decided to take the divinity away from them and hide it somewhere they could never find it.

Brahma called a council of the gods to help him decide where to hide the divinity. “Let’s bury it deep in the earth,” said the gods. But Brahma answered, “Humans will dig into the earth and find it.” Some gods suggested, “Let’s sink it in the deepest ocean.” But Brahma said, “No, Human will learn to dive into the ocean and will find it.” Then some gods suggested, “Let’s take it to the top of the highest mountain and hide it there.” Brahma replied, “Humans will eventually climb every mountain and take up their divinity.” Then all the gods gave up and said, “We do not know where to hide it, because it seems that there is no place on earth or ocean that human beings will not eventually reach.”

Brahma thought for a long time said, “We will hide their divinity deep into the center of their own being, Humans will search for it here and there but they won’t look for the divinity inside their true selves”

All the gods agreed that this was the perfect hiding place, and the deed was done. And since then, humans have been going up and down the earth, digging, diving, climbing, and exploring, searching for something, which already lies within themselves.

“Divinity lies within us all”

And….All means All! Yes it includes people viewed as good and bad. People that we support or rail against with all our human strength.
We all have the powers of discernment and choice and so this can lead us in as many different directions as there are people!

Ernest Holmes Quote from the Science of Mind
Since everything is an individualization of the Universal, every spark is alike in that it is divine. It is made of the same Cosmic stuff, but no two sparks are identical. The process in Nature is the multiplication of an infinite variation of unified identities, no one of which is identical with the other, even though each and all are in the same field.

And so To Be Human Is to Embody Paradox
We are both human and Spirit, a mashup of Divine perfection and human flaws. The personal challenge for each of us is to live with this paradox—to overcome our human errors and the human errors of others, while seeking the fuller expression of Divine perfection.

So why then is it so hard to see this in each other? Why does the Right implement policies that are hurtful to so many? And embraced by so many as a salve for their fears of “other”? Why does the Left shut down free speech on campus when someone is speaking what they vehemently oppose? And so hatefully mock what we don’t like – but OMG Saturday Night Live nailed it last night!!

Yesterday I facilitated an online class on the Abraham book Ask and it is given.
• It turned out that just one person from Chicago was on the call and during our check-ins she shared how upset she is with the state of affairs in our Country.
• She attended the Women’s March in Washington DC and has long marched for women’s rights.
• Just last night she met with other activists and was profoundly frustrated about what could be done.
• I listened and shared with her my growing role as a broad-based organizer with the newly formed interfaith group in Tulsa call ACTION.
• I shared with enthusiasm and joy about the process of organizing and revealing and understand of relational power and how to use it to bring about positive change in our communities.
• And then we came back to the law of attraction – She called me into this perfect divine conversation. She reflexed back the divine spark in me and soaked up some real practical and divine guidance on how to channel her energies of fear and doubt into action and good!

We are constantly calling life into our experience – including the nastiness of today’s political climate. I pose that there are two ways through this time. One is to go entirely within. Check out. Om it up.

The other is to be in relationship. Real relationship. Social media doesn’t change minds but it does start fires. Real relationships bring change and understanding.

Turn to someone near you. What one thing/experience/person most influenced your values today. – Go

“But the mind is filled with the accumulated doubts of the ages, as though a vast abyss of doubt, fear and uncertainty were standing between you and your desires.”
This Thing Called You, page 9

LESSON POINTS moving into next week
• Spirituality is more of a journey toward acceptance than an attempt at perfection. Self-love and acceptance is the key to growth. Without it, you cannot move forward in life.

• Emerson observed, “There is a crack in everything God has made.” Perhaps it is through that crack where God enters. Perhaps our open wounds are an open invitation to healing.