“See ye no strangers; rather see all men as friends, for love and unity come hard when ye fix your gaze on otherness. And in this new and wondrous age, the Holy Writings say that we must be at one with every people; that we must see neither harshness nor injustice, neither malevolence, nor hostility, nor hate, but rather turn our eyes toward the heaven of ancient glory. For each of the creatures is a sign of God, and it was by the grace of the Lord and His power that each did step into the world; therefore they are not strangers, but in the family; not aliens, but friends, and to be treated as such.” Abdul-Baha
Peace without unity to me is like a fish without water. Unity provides the basis, the common vision and clay for which we can work together to create peace. We have countless examples of superficial ‘peace’ in the world today, just open the newspaper or turn on the 6pm news and we see flashes of momentary and transient ‘peace deals’ between nations or within nations, lasting only until the next uprising or war breaks out. The bottom line in mankind’s present attempts to create peace is that there is no spiritual base to their negotiations, there is an attachment to one’s own identity or difference, there is no recognition of what binds us together - our inherent nobility, the unifying force that connects every member of this planet together. We fix our gaze on ‘otherness’, on prejudices of race, sex, religion, socio-economic background, we separate, divide, even physically build walls to stop ‘difference’ from interfering with our lives, which of course breeds more injustices and the conflict continues. And what is at the root of this vicious cycle? A fractured, dichotomised, dis-unified view of humanity.
By seeing unity as the starting point for the construction of peace in the world, we are focusing on what connects us, what we have in common, like the blood that runs in our veins, not to create homogeneity and uniformity, but to learn and develop from the unique capacities and insights of each other. In consultation for example, we have a variety of opinions and yet when a decision is reached, through the combination of these differing ideas, it is acted out with total unity, that is how effective and lasting action takes place. If one member of the consultation decides not to follow through on the decision taken, or imposes his or her own will during the decision process, nothing will come of their collective efforts. We are as strong as the weakest link in the chain. Unity implies the removal of self, one of greatest obstacles we have in the world today obsessed with the individual, unity implies the ability to truly listen and understand difference, the ability to detach from one’s opinions in order for true progress and justice to be reached. Starting any process with a focus on unity implies there is something at work greater than just ourselves, what we are combined is far far greater than what we could possibly achieve individually.
