Discovering the Unity of Life

A much-loved spiritual teacher explains how to overcome separateness and insecurity, and live in wisdom and unity with those around us. Our society feels increasingly fragmented today, with a widespread sense of loneliness and alienation. What is happening here, and what can we do about it? Easwaran tells us that “What supports life, according to the mystics, is the principle of unity; what destroys life is separateness, the negation of this principle.” And he writes, “Because all of life is a seamless whole, suffering comes when we try to separate ourselves from it, imagining that a line can be drawn to divide your sadness from my happiness, your poverty from my wealth, your country’s war from my nation’s peace, nature’s destruction from my health.” But this separateness and selfishness are not our native state. Through meditation, we can recall the principle of unity, buried deep and forgotten in our consciousness. We can learn to be kinder, more patient, and to show respect to everyone, even to those who cause us problems. In doing so we become more secure, and we help others around us to become more secure also. This short ebook includes articles, insights, and practical advice for living in unity, together with detailed instructions in Easwaran’s method of passage meditation. “If we want to make the discovery that will fulfill all our desires and establish us in abiding joy,” he writes, “bringing to our life limitless love, wisdom, and beauty, then the mystics have described the path for us to follow. By following these simple rules of right living and practicing meditation regularly, we can learn to fulfill the supreme goal of life, which is to discover experientially that all life is one.”