3. External diversity and internal unity of all people

The spiritual identity is the same in every human being, much like we all breathe the same air. Although the left and right hands are individually different, they still form a unity: the connecting element is the common bloodstream, without which both would not exist. People see the two hands, but not the common blood and, above all, the same life that makes up these hands. That is why they perceive every other person as an opposite without recognising the common substance. This connects us even more than it does two twins on the materially visible level. People inwardly represent a spiritual unity like the fingers on a hand, which are outwardly individually different but in reality are one through their invisible core, through their very existence. This is how they are connected to each other and to everything. That is the unity of all being. Those who recognise this and live accordingly live in harmony with everything and everyone, live in an awareness that Christianity calls the ‘Kingdom of God’ and are loved, cared for and fully secured and protected. The life practice of these enlightened and courageous people under this umbrella proves it.

Just as a string of lights can have different bulbs, some with 10 watts, others with 100 and therefore with different levels of brightness, some with small holders, others coloured, etc., so it is the same energy that makes up the life of the carriers. It is it that ‘holds the world together at its core.’ (Goethe, Faust I, Night) Without it, the string of lights would not be a string of lights; they would only be inanimate pieces of plastic and metal. The light bulbs are the carriers of light, but not light itself. We always identify with the shape of the light bulb, never with its energy, our divine potential, and above all, our divine identity.

The ‘light’ – that is, the life – is what every body needs to manifest itself. It is also the one life that uses our body as an instrument for our experience, for true self-knowledge. This also includes the mind, which on the one hand deceives us about our actual spiritual identity, but on the other hand also leads us to it, depending on whether we let it function from ‘above’ or from ‘below’ and in which direction we then use it.

Almost all people identify only with their minds and bodies. Therefore, they have no understanding of the change of forms: one is first a toddler, then an adult, then an old person, but one is always life. And when the leaf of the tree withers and is shed, the life of the tree does not die. The core of a human being is life, that is, the earthly form of spiritual procreation: God breathed the breath of life into the clod of earth (Gen. 2:7). It is like the sun: each of its rays is light (knowledge) and warmth (love) in the soul of the individual, regardless, how much of it our consciousness allows to pass through.
I am essentially the same as every other human being, i.e. we have the same origin and the same substance, as Rumi vividly illustrates:

‘Count a hundred apples or quinces:
They do not remain a hundred, but become one,
when you make them into syrup.
The essence knows no division.’
(Mesnevi I, 685)

At our core, each person is closer to me than a Siamese twin. Like me, they carry the I, the one life, the intuition, the conscience, the inner voice, whether they act on it or not. Just as we breathe the same air, we all have the same life. Those who see their counterpart as a person of flesh and blood and not primarily (!) as a spiritual/divine being are blinded by appearances. They do not see that a hand is in a glove. My relationship with the other, especially with an enemy, reflects that with the Creator. It would be the same as if I were to talk to a ventriloquist after his performance and only address the puppet on his arm. This realisation of unity does not mean, for example, that you should fall around your enemy’s neck. That would be earthly emotional, whereas on the spiritual level it is purely intellectual understanding. Quite the opposite, it does not at all release one from bringing him to his earthly punishment. It is simply ‘only’ about understanding the common substance. Because then this change of consciousness manifests itself in the fact that in the individual (!) Life the enemies gradually disappear. Furthermore – and this is the further development – enmity between people in general is increasingly diminishing. The consequences would be sustainably visible, which becomes immediately apparent when we look at the war in Ukraine, the Gaza Strip, South Sudan and, in general, all violent conflicts between people. This also applies to the way people treat nature, which they are constantly violating.

Looking at the outer person obscures the view of his inner core. This ability will be referred to in the following as ‘looking through’. This spiritual way of seeing through the surface of the person to the ‘hand in the glove’ is a central component of love of one’s enemy (see chapter 7). The common life energy is the basis for the inner equality and fraternity of all human beings, beyond all outward diversity. The pedagogue Maria Montessori implemented this principle in her pre-school educational work:

‘The secret of education is to recognise the divine in man…’
(The Little Writings 4, The Place of Man in Creation)

The experience of the past millennia shows that the admonition of the oracle of Delphi, to recognise one’s true self (gnothi se auton), is not yet fulfilled. But only with its realisation is individual redemption from the ‘vale of tears’ (Luther) of our planet possible. In other words, without the knowledge of one’s own earthly and spiritual dual nature, there can be no redemption for man. In addition to the – unconscious – awareness of self-preservation of the mammal, it is about the awareness of one’s spiritual identity, about the ‘Kingdom of God’, which cannot be found anywhere geographically or in space, but only within oneself. It is about the liberation of this very ‘captive splendour’ (Robert Browning: Paracelsus). In this way, one leaves the path of the ventriloquist’s doll, which tries to live without him.

This truly understood incarnation, the realisation of one’s own inner essence, can be found in a Ghanaian fable in which an eagle chick falls into human hands and learns the behaviour of a chicken from the other chickens in the chicken coop. Only a knowledgeable person teaches him how to use his wings, whereupon the now fully-grown eagle, after many attempts, realises how to fly and flies towards the sun (!).

MR1805: 3d Illustration with sea eagle iStock

In the film ‘Matrix I’, Neo embarks on the journey from ‘chicken’ to eagle, from small-time crook to the chosen one. This is the path that all spiritual teachers, trainers, masters, healers, etc. have taken to their destiny, as have contemporary authors such as Tolle, Walsch and many others. This potential is inherent in every human being, regardless of the number of stages or reincarnations it takes to travel this path.
The spiritual path frees you from the negative control of the ego, generates a significantly increased tolerance for frustration and brings about self-respect, a previously unknown sense of self-worth. You then become an expression of that instance that you actually already are, but which needs to be ‘activated’.