The Great Shift: From Separation to Unity

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The Great Shift: From Separation to Unity

The Great Shift: From Separation to Unity

by Marc Gregory and Cher Gilmore

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Gary Butterfield on Unsplash

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Today we see everywhere fragmentation in human thinking, alliances, and actions—splits that are causing chaotic conditions at all levels, from personal and local to national and global, in every field of endeavor. Fortunately, this chaos is only a temporary condition resulting from three extraordinary happenings now taking place: an evolutionary leap we’re preparing to make in human consciousness, new energies entering the planet and stimulating that leap, and the presence in our midst of the World Teacher and his group, the Masters of Wisdom.

These three happenings are intricately woven together and will ultimately result in the creation of a new civilization of peace, security, justice, and material sufficiency for every person on the planet. In the meantime, however, we would do well to understand the fundamental reasons for our current crises and how we can resolve them.

Most of humanity’s pressing problems stem from the fact that we fail to grasp the binding unity underlying all our diversity. We consequently identify with just about everything—our position in life, our religious and/or political beliefs, our economic status, our country, our family, our racial background, our desires and dreams—everything but that basic, essential unity. Thus, our misplaced alliances to these notions often deny us any real understanding that we are all truly one.

Our lack of understanding of this overall unity has led humanity to the precipice of disaster. Politically, governments the world over struggle to find consensus on basic issues of human rights, justice and tolerance, so great is the present atmosphere of distrust and division. Belligerence and posturing take the place of negotiation and diplomacy, as many governments—none more than that of the United States—seek dominance rather than cooperation, control rather than peaceful co-existence. Consider, for instance, U.S.-China communications.

Socially, deep divisions along racial, ethnic and religious lines continually threaten to break into hostility and even all-out war. The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a case in point. The tragic immolation of the Yemeni people at the hands of the Saudi regime is another. Racism, ethnic intolerance and long-held tribal hatreds bedevil attempts at mutual understanding and reconciliation. Even within nations themselves, some groups, usually small but disproportionately powerful economically, hold others in the tight grip of oppression and subjugation. Take, for example, the tiny group of obscenely wealthy people who are buying influence, perverting legal systems and subverting fair and transparent election processes in the United States.

Economically, we have reached a point where, according to Oxfam International, less than 25 people in the world have a collective net worth greater than that of the bottom half of the world’s population. Recently, a handful of the world’s richest men have seen their fortunes increase by billions as a result of a worldwide health crisis. And so, the attendant discrepancies in living standards between the wealthy and the poor, between rich nations and developing ones, continue all but unabated. In a world with a ten percent per capita surplus of food and resources, 21,000-24,000 people*, many of them children, die daily due to malnutrition and related causes. Hundreds of millions struggle to make ends meet in conditions of substandard housing, infrastructures, wages and living conditions. Over three billion people on the planet must make do on five dollars a day or less.

Environmentally, the world’s prevalent economic model of consumption, competition, and economic growth at all costs has brought us to the brink of ecological catastrophe. The continuous burning of fossil fuels to satisfy our needs for energy, coupled with the indiscriminate clear-cutting of the world’s rainforests—all done for short-term financial profit—have demonstrably heated up the environment. The effects of global warming, from hurricanes and floods of unprecedented magnitude to wildfires of unprecedented scale and destructiveness, take their toll yearly in terms of human lives, displacement of populations, loss of infrastructure and other essential frameworks for existence.

And now, almost as a result of historical inevitability, a global health crisis has brought the world to a near total standstill. It took an illness that respects no borders, political systems, economic ideologies, religious dogmas, racial, gender or age profiles or any other kind of illusory division to begin to compel us to take note, to observe and honor that underlying unity that binds us all.

The pandemic has also brought us to a point of no return. There will be no going back to the old ways of doing things, to the same interminably destructive “business as usual.” And as harrowing and tragic as have been many of its consequences, as unpleasant as is the difficulty with which we are now confronted, the pandemic now also compels us to reconsider the way we conduct life on this planet. That alone may be the greatest gift this terrible illness can give us.

We must understand that we are One.

The truth of our oneness is borne out by recent discoveries in quantum physics. Every atom in Cosmos is connected to every other atom, and there is, neither philosophically nor palpably, any separation. This view is substantiated as well by the essence of all the great religious and spiritual teachings of the world, and by the words and the actions of all the great sages who have come down through the ages to guide and instruct us. All are One. All is One.

So what keeps us from experiencing this oneness? A prime factor is that we’ve been living under the influence of Piscean energies for the past approximately two thousand years, which are characterized by individuality and devotion to one’s own ideals—with little consideration for others’ ideals and beliefs. Now Earth’s orbit is moving closer to the constellation Aquarius, whose energies stimulate brotherhood, cooperation, and synthesis. As the waxing energies of Aquarius overlap the waning energies of Pisces, conflict often results between those aligned with Piscean and those aligned with Aquarian structures and processes. That divide is strikingly evident in the U.S. Congress. As we proceed closer to Aquarius—that is, further into the Aquarian Age—we will see greater cooperation and more conciliatory attitudes in that body as well as society in general.

A second major factor affecting our experienced reality is the entrance into our world of a group of incorruptible Teachers, unparalleled in their enlightenment and wisdom, unequalled in their ability to love and to serve. They are the Masters of Wisdom. At their head stands a being of extraordinary spiritual potency and understanding: Maitreya, the World Teacher for the Aquarian Age. These Masters are the custodians of the divine plan for our planet, a plan that embodies the sweep and the force of evolution itself. They have come at this time to guide us safely into the future.

Maitreya embodies the energy of love and brings it to the planet in potencies beyond our comprehension, and his energy is further amplified by two great spiritual beings known as the Avatar of Synthesis and the Spirit of Peace and Equilibrium. The effect of these powerful cosmic energies on humanity is to amplify whatever tendencies characterize an individual; both negative and positive traits are equally stimulated. This, explains Maitreya, is to put before humanity two opposing lines of action, clearly delineated, so that we can intelligently choose the kind of future we want. In biblical terms, it is the ‘Sword of Cleavage,’ setting brother against brother.

When Maitreya is invited, as expected, to speak to the world through a worldwide satellite hookup, he will explain clearly the two choices before us: to continue with business as usual and ultimately end all life on the planet, or to share the world’s food and resources more equitably so that everyone is guaranteed the basic necessities of life. If we choose sharing, he promises we will create a brilliant civilization the likes of which has never been seen on the planet. He has said that he knows our hearts, and therefore knows what our choice will be, but nevertheless we must make the choice consciously.

Stimulated and inspired by the new energies flooding into the planet and the presence of Maitreya and the Masters of Wisdom, we will make a gigantic leap in consciousness. Many individuals have already done so, but after Maitreya’s worldwide telecast, the masses of humanity will know themselves as divine for the first time and a monumental shift will take place. The presence of these great souls is the guarantee that, despite the outward conflict and disharmony, humanity has before it a future of lasting peace, harmony and universal brother and sisterhood—if we choose it and work together to implement new structures.

In truth, we have been preparing for the coming era of unity for a very long time. Beneath our conscious awareness and inspired on inner planes by the Masters, three experiments in identity-building have been taking place—studies in how diverse groups of people might come together in a cohesive whole. In the United Kingdom, groups representing many parts of the Commonwealth of Nations—53 diverse and wide-ranging countries—live closely side by side. While they strongly maintain their national identities, they live together in relative peace.

In contrast, the United States has welcomed representatives of many European and other countries who migrated here, mixed together, intermarried, and ultimately produced something entirely unique: an American. The third experiment, the old U.S.S.R., represents unity in diversity on a larger scale. Its now independent states are separate, but part of a vast federation.

While in a broad sense these experiments seem to be going rather well, our handling of the three great political ideologies—democracy, communism, and fascism—is more problematic. According to British author Benjamin Creme, these ideologies represent humanity’s distorted attempts to express the three aspects of God: love, wisdom, and will. Ideally, democracy would reflect the love nature of God, communism divine wisdom, and fascism the benevolent will of God. Gradually, each ideology will evolve into a better reflection of the divine idea and the three will coexist in harmony. Today, however, followers of each form are convinced that their system is the only viable one and are prepared to plunge the world into a nuclear war to defend it.

As if responding to this dilemma, one of the Masters dictated the following words of encouragement to Mr. Creme for Share International magazine, and they were later published in Volume Two of his book A Master Speaks:

Fortunately for man**, he is never left without help when it is needed. However difficult the circumstances, however great and grave the dangers which he faces, of one thing he can be sure: he will never be abandoned by his Elder Brothers. Time after time in men’s long history, when all seemed lost and the future of man perilously unsure, our succour has been forthcoming and the forward path of men restored once more. So it is today at this tumultuous time when men stand in a maelstrom of warring forces, unsure of the next step and all but overwhelmed by the enormity of the task ahead.

Emerging from our ancient retreats, we redirect our thoughts and steps to aid our struggling brothers. To show, by example, that all is not lost, that another and better way exists for men to organize their lives; that unity and happiness come from justice and freedom; that sharing is the natural action of unity and the simple answer to all man’s woes.

Sharing, then, must be the bottom line for the immediate future in all our endeavors. Another message from that same Master, quoted in Mr. Creme’s book Unity in Diversity: The Way Ahead for Humanity, puts it in eloquent terms:

The answer therefore is simple: the implementation of the principle of sharing provides the solution to the divisions in our planetary life. Nothing less will do. Sharing is divine, part of God’s plan for his children, and must one day become manifest.

And when men share, the divisions will grow together, the separations will be healed; and through the three major political structures the Love, the Will and the Intelligence of God will find a truer reflection. A true Democracy in which all men participate will take the place of the present sham. A new spirit of freedom will invest the Communist ideal with warmth and love. A truly spiritual hierarchy embodying the beneficent Will of God will one day replace the present authoritarian regimes.

Thus will it be. Thus will the outer forms reflect the inner divine life and purpose and so present to men new modes of expression and relationship through which their growing sense of the nature of God can be realized.