The Unity of Existence

March 6, 2011

Over 48 years ago I ventured into a UU church seeking to expand my appreciation for being human and being a part of humanity by using the full capacity of human intellectual inquiry.  I had a deep appreciation of the ethical values of my Christian background but was dissatisfied with the idea of a supernatural basis for faith.  I needed a more rational approach, which I thought would lead to a better basis for faith and actually more fulfillment in living.  The appreciation for intellectual integrity and the tolerance of individual viewpoints that I found in the UU tradition were so inspiring and enduring that I’m still here. 

An effective faith needs to be based on an insight so penetrating that it is transforming.  I believe a good candidate for such an insight would be the idea of the unity of existence.  We do not exist apart from the physical world or apart from each other.  We are commingled with the entirety of existence—all of the physical world and all of the creatures of the world.  We are a part of everyone else, and they are a part of us. 

The implications of this insight result in some remarkably simple guidelines.  Love is better than hate.  Peace is better than war.  Protecting the environment is beneficial to us because we are a part of it.  Treating others kindly is beneficial to us because we are a part of them.  In addition to this, I also believe that every individual is capable of determining what is beneficial to existence and what is not.  You, however, cannot claim to know what “goodness” is if you practice “badness.”  The evidence of your action is more revealing than your verbal claims of understanding. 

Algernon Black, a sensitively insightful Ethical Culture Society Leader, sums up my feelings with this statement:

“We are all of one life, of one origin [meaning we all enter life through birth],

and one destiny [meaning we all leave life through death].  We share life together,

no matter what there is of good or evil.  There is enough suffering in the world.

We owe it to one another to make life sweet, not bitter.”