David Bell is an interfaith minister at Ann Arbor's Interfaith Center for Spiritual Growth. Find out more about the Interfaith Center and David Bell's path to becoming a minister in this article (published in the January through April 2014 issue of the Crazy Wisdom Community Journal).
By Rev. David Bell
The problems of the world can be narrowed to one mistaken belief. That belief is in separation. The solution to this problem is to understand that we are all one. All of the world's religions and spiritual paths have similar core beliefs. They all teach love, forgiveness, charity, kindness and some form of the Golden Rule. The belief in separation is augmented by the human tendency to look for differences instead of commonalities. We need not convert to any particular religion, but honor and respect for the core values of all religion is imperative. Only in a world of separation could such an oxymoronic concept as holy war or just war exist.
Essential to the concept of oneness is a deeper understanding of God. This is not to suggest that God can be fully comprehended by any human level of consciousness. With that proviso, let us move deeper. God is not a being. God is Being itself. Humans, being themselves persons, have insisted on personifying God from time immemorial. God has no gender; that is a personification. God has no religion, in the traditional sense, as that too is a personification. God is everything, a loving energy that has all wisdom, all power, and peace. God is in each of us as the very essence of us. God is unseen, unknowable, yet still an inherent part of us and all of creation.
““The belief in separation is augmented by the human tendency to look for differences instead of commonalities.””
God is Love, God is Peace. We have forgotten that we are created in the image and likeness of God and have, accordingly, lost touch with our true nature. We insist on being right, judging others in every possible way and finding fault and differences everywhere. We must make the extension of love our only task. And it is not so much a doing, as it is a being. The message from Jeshua ben Joseph is to “Be the love that you are!” The Course in Miracles tells us that only love is real. Only by releasing our fears and extending love in all ways can we hope to have peace in the world. We must see people of other religions as our equals, fellow souls on the path of remembering who we really are. Our mission is to be truly loving, unconditionally. There can be only one religion, because there is only one God, the God of us all. The rain falls on all of us, not just the “chosen.”
The biggest hurdle may be releasing our concerns over the external self, ignoring the spiritual essence of our being. We spend enormous energy worrying about what others think of us, about possible physical death, and filled with anxiety about all of the external world. Let us try to remember that ordinary day to day life is always a part of our existence. When we tap into the power of love, we can live in peace and equanimity with whatever shows up in our lives. God is love, we are love, and we have never left the essential connection of the Creator with the created. Consequently, there is truly nothing to fear. Whatever happens is simply the next phase in our unfolding adventure called eternal life. We cannot die, we cannot be lost, we are loved unconditionally forever. The final notion that I would share with you is from the introduction to the book A Course in Miracles:
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
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Rev. David T. Bell
Forgiveness is one of the most important tools in raising one's consciousness. It is a critical necessity in moving out of the past and dwelling in the present moment. Many live outside the present moment, either reliving past woundings, resentments and traumas, or fretting about future problems that have not yet arisen.