Working Together

The Sun Never Says

Even after all this time

The sun never says to the earth,

"You owe Me."

Look what happens with

A love like that,

It lights the Whole Sky.

Hafiz, free rendering by D. Ladinsky

“We all breathe the same air.“ (Reshad Feild)

Is this statement appealing to us? It may be sometimes, but by imagining literally that we all breathe the same air, we will certainly be confronted with a whole range of unpleasant feelings. However, we simply cannot reject the fact that we are all interconnected! The great challenge is, we have to get beyond any like or dislike in this matter. Then we will make a very big step towards overcoming separation and what a true practice of compassion! "Beyond right or wrong there is a place we meet each other.“ (Mevlana Jelalu'ddin Rumi)

Moreover, what a beautiful theme for cooperation! It is not at all

complicated to explore the basics of our existence. This simple statement can really teach us to take responsibility for what we breathe in and breathe out. Imagine a business meeting where at least a few participants are aware of the quality of their breath. What a possibility for change!It is physics that the breath contains water and that water is a conductor of electricity. Thus our thought forms, that are electrical impulses, constantly create the atmosphere around us.

Brotherhood

A real spiritual group, or school, does not impose itself upon the individual, but provides a place of service and an opportunity for transformation...

…We cannot do anything alone because we are all interconnected. This is why agreement is so necessary. When we realise the interconnectedness of all things, we might understand the meaning of the saying, "You cannot pick a flower without the troubling, of a star". The power of God manifests through agreement. The many working groups and communities are all part and parcel of the need for agreement in the relative world. As form breaks down around us, as religions and systems break down, we will need this sense of universal brotherhood and agreement. Brotherhood must be based upon cooperation, and cooperation can only be based upon knowledge. We all need to work together; we need to know about each other. We need to know what the other is doing so that we do not duplicate the work.

(from "Alchemy of the Heart" by Reshad Feild, Chapter "Brotherhood" )

God is the only Friend

In the West, there is often the misunderstanding that there is something to achieve on this journey. There is nothing worse than spiritual ambition! Rather than remembering, we push away the beautiful world of possibilities by forgetting the One Creator, the One God for us all, Who gave us His Trust at the beginning of time.
Let us wake up and remember! Let us remember that God gave us His Trust, and that we are all, each one of us, made in His Image. Therefore let us travel together, hand in hand, making each moment of our lives a sacred act of conscious living. As we do so, we will surely come to realise the meaning of the great words, "He who knows himself knows his Lord"; for there will be no more room for "two" and thus love, lover and beloved will finally seen to be one.
Hu dost! He is the Only Friend!

(from "Inner Work I" by Reshad Feild, chapter "God is the only Friend")

The walls that divide us

"In several of my books I have mentioned "the three walls" that divide us - walls that divide us from one another and from the realization of Unity for which we yearn. It is this yearning which brought us to study and work together in the first place. These are the walls of envy, resentment and pride."

"When I was first told of these walls, it all seemed too easy, and since it was necessary to translate what I was being told from Turkish into English, I felt that there must have been some mistake. What arrogance! It is the very simplest of concepts that are often the most difficult to face. It is when everything is very simple that the mirror is almost too close for comfort."

(from "Reason is Powerless in the Expression of Love" by Reshad Feild, chapter "The Walls that Divide us" )

God, ever blessed
and exalted is He,
says:
"My love is by necessity
for those who
love one another in Me,
for those who
sit with one another in Me,
for those who
give generously
to one another in Me,
and for those who
visit one another in Me."

Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi