Within all human beings, no matter what part of the world they’re
from, what their environment has been, what culture they come from, what
their religious tradition is, there lives a certain kind of greatness.
Everyone knows that this greatness lives within them. We call it
different things, but the bottom line is that we all have a central wish
to be as good, true, kind, and as profitable a human being that we can
be. It’s in our very DNA. And that divine code if you will, is the same
in every human being. We just dress it differently.
Within every individual there lives a wish to embody something grand,
beautiful, kind, true, and loving. None of us – no matter where you go
in the world – can escape the need we have to realize the truth of
ourselves. And this longing we have to be free, to know ourselves, and
to express ourselves, was given to us by something sacred. Nothing in
the world has the right to take it away from us.
We all have common needs: the need to love; to grow as human beings;
to continually perfect ourselves; and to integrate our lives with the
universe around us. These needs are common to all of us, regardless of
the place in the world we live in or the discipline we grew up with. The
commonality of these needs means they were placed in us by something
that came before our culture – that came before our religious
backgrounds and traditions.
It is honoring the true needs we have as human beings that places us
in relationship with that which put those needs within us – that places
us in relationship with that which transcends all boundaries, that
transcends all of the moralities and the mores, and all the other things
that currently govern and divide human beings. If you know the truth of
yourself, you will find freedom, because to know the truth of yourself
is to come back into relationship with these essential needs that were
put in us so that we could discover our connection with something that
is timeless.
We share an uncommon possibility as human beings, which arises from
the fact that we all share common heartaches. No matter where you go in
the world, you’ll find men and women in one way or another whose dreams
have been broken, who have lost something that they love or someone they
love, who have a regret or a disappointment that they’re unable to
shake free from.
As a rule, when we meet people with problems, the first thing we tend
to do is distance ourselves from them because “I already have enough
pain.” But we can start to understand that in the truest sense of the
word, this man or this woman is in fact a celestial brother or sister
because we have the same needs. And if I am going to be able to help
another human being – to hear, to understand, to bring any light
whatsoever into the heart or mind of another individual – I do so
because I have found that understanding first in myself. And the extent
to which I am capable of adding some light to the life of another human
being, is the extent to which I have first found that light in myself,
and know that we all hold that light in common. In that common sharing
of a new understanding lies the uncommon possibility for a transcendent
life that we all have as human beings.
There have been great individuals in the past who have truly helped
and changed mankind – individuals like Christ, Buddha, and Mohammed.
Compared to them, our efforts to help one or two people discover the
truth of themselves and their connection to the sacred may seem
insignificant. But one of the most beautiful things you will ever learn
is that no one on this earth is more important than you – not important
because other people say you’re important, or because you have some
social standing or you own possessions that lend you a sense of power,
but because it is the individual who changes the world.
Long before there was Christianity, or Buddhism, or Taosim, or
Hinduism, or Islam, or any other religion, there was an individual who
felt compelled to learn the truth of himself in response to a need
seeded in him by the celestial. When that individual was touched by what
he had reached for – and that was reaching for him, then he brought
forth what he discovered within himself. And those discoveries became
what we now call the world religions. They all started with an
individual. And each of us, in our own way, and in scale, is meant to do
the same thing.
Add to that this one important and beautiful idea: You cannot add a
measure of light to any measure of darkness that doesn’t change the
darkness everywhere. This is a law in physics. How much more true is it
when it comes to us and the world we live in? If I understand a truth,
if I embody it, if I become the instrument of that awareness, then
wherever I go, whatever I do, no matter who I’m with or what is taking
place, the very discovery and relationship I have to that little bit of
light in myself changes everything around me, and the Universe itself.
What is really empowering is the recognition that this little bit of
understanding, this little bit of awareness, this little love we may
have for what is true and timeless, changes all human beings, makes it
possible for all creatures on this earth to have a different order of
being. It is possible because the being of the individual changes first,
and then that higher being is all there is.
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