UNITY IN A WORLD OF DIVERSITY

BRIAN JONES explores unity in a world full of challenges and diversity. Through different analogies and his own personal experience with meditation, he finds effective ways to achieve unity through the silence of the heart.

- BRIAN JONES

It was a long flight from Los Angeles to Singapore. Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, I took another one of many walks from my seat to the back of the plane for a much-needed cup of coffee.

Three women stood there, all from different countries, each one holding a small baby. A lovely and nonsensical conversation was going on; each mother amusing the other’s baby with an assortment of gaga and coo-cooing baby sounds. It was apparent that none of the mothers spoke the languages of the others, and yet three babies were having quite a fun time, innocently laughing, not caring what language or which mother was entertaining them!

I was gleefully immersed in this special moment. I found the innocence, love and happiness that so effortlessly flowed a wonderful example of how we are all inextricably united. We come into this world with such purity, with a heart wide open, but quickly we begin to realize, “These are my hands, this is my foot, these are my toes.” Soon enough, I, me, and mine are here to stay.

“Unity” has many levels of meaning. We are united by love as well as by hate, we are united by country, by race, by culture, and even by the football team we support. But in these cases, our experience of unity is limited, accompanied by a feeling of exclusiveness – my team is better than yours, my political party is better than yours, my religion is better than yours, etc.