Unity
by Rabbi Rami Shapiro

In what way does spirituality cultivate unity?

It doesn’t. What spiritual practice does is reveal the essential unity and interdependence of life. Unity is a given. It is only ignorance that perpetuates the illusion that something can exist apart from anything else.

And yet there is no doubt that diversity is an equally obvious fact of life.

Unity is not the opposite of diversity. The opposite of diversity is homogeneity. To think otherwise is to mistake oneness for sameness, and this isn’t the case at all. Think of the ocean for a moment. The ocean is a single system producing an infinite number of waves, no two of which are exactly alike, and, at the same, no one of which is ever anything other than the ocean itself.

So unity is the realization of the interconnectedness and interdependence of all things with all other things. Where does the notion of nonduality come into play?

Again let’s go to our ocean/wave analogy. The ocean is one, unity. The waves are many, diversity. The two are not separate from each other, and a greater wholeness embraces them both. We realize this greater wholeness when we realize that ocean and wave are both water. From the point of view of ocean we have unity. From the point of view of waves we have diversity. From the point of view of water we have nonduality. Whether we look to the unity of the ocean or the diversity of waves, we are always looking at the same fundamental nondual reality, water. Realizing that ocean and wave, whole and part, are both water is the nondual realization.

And what is the value of this realization?

It is liberating. It reveals everything as the play of the One Thing, what I call God. Once I realize that God is playing me, I no longer have the urge to play God. Knowing it is all God frees me from having to make things in my own image. I am now free to play along without fear of losing. Since it is all God, there is no winning or losing. Play is for its own sake. This radical sense of nonduality ends any illusion that life is a zero-sum game; that for me to win others must lose. Now I can play for the sheer joy of playing.

But if you no longer care about winning, you won’t care about another’s losing. Where is the justice and compassion element in all this?

The question is this: What’s the game we play knowing that it is God who is playing? My answer is, the game is love. Winners give and receive more love; losers give and receive less love. The only way to win is to love more, to be more compassionate, to create a more just world. Since we are naturally driven to want to win, once we realize the true nature of the game—love—we can trust ourselves to work toward more and more love.