In spiritual circles we like to live by this popular principle: All Are One. And the first time I heard this, it did bring to mind my connection to the entire planet; dolphins, flowers, puppies, and the people that I love. 

But practically, All Are One is an inconvenient truth. Sure, it’s easy enough to embody when you are in meditation, and comfortable in the seclusion of your home. But get out into the real world of opposing beliefs, and it’s a totally different story. Remembering our oneness, while at the same time being offended by those who we believe are wrong, can become pretty difficult. 

Here at Unity our goal is to move into an All Are One consciousness because it’s how we embody the Christ consciousness (or centered self): compassion, connection, cooperation, equality, and belonging. These are qualities that bring more love and goodness into the world. 

It’s duality, extremism, and fundamentalism that keep us polarized and competitive. And polarization tears us apart. When we are super focused on how anyone who disagrees with us must be wrong and stupid, we cannot express compassion, and all the other qualities of our Christ Consciousness.

It’s not enough to have compassion and empathy for our loved ones, or the people who share our opinions and values. To walk the walk, and express our Christ nature, we’ve got to be able to have compassion for the most difficult people we know (or know of). 

This is what Christ meant when he talked about turning the other cheek.

I recently found myself in a situation where I metaphorically had to turn the other cheek. A woman at a chamber breakfast was loudly voicing her parenting opinions, and I happened to strongly disagree with them. 

It’s true, when it comes to parenting, I have some wicked strong beliefs. And when I was a new mom I got on a soapbox every opportunity I could. It’s a wonder I had any friends at all, I was so consumed with discussing the benefits of my parenting style.

I was also completely polarized. I could not accept anyone else’s parenting philosophy, and if they parented differently than I did, well, they were flat out wrong, and I was gonna make sure they knew how wrong they were.

And then one day someone who was very precious to me confided that she could not parent the way I did. She told me she was worried I’d judge her. It broke my heart that because of my judgy behavior she believed I would not love and support her. 

That was a divine blast of grace. I found that I was fully capable of loving and supporting her, even though I still had the same strong opinions.  

To embrace the spiritual truth, All Are One, doesn't mean giving up our opinions. It means giving up the need to be offended by differing opinions.

When we really believe All Are One, we embody a powerful, new consciousness that helps us let go of the us vs. them mentality. We move into wholeness thinking and a whole new paradigm of connection, community, and belonging. 

Walking the Walk: This is a video about the power of walking the walk, and how to utilize the Unity principles everyday.