The Quest for Unity
By Cher Gilmore
On January 6, with the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, we witnessed one of the most extreme demonstrations of division and discord in this country since the Civil War. A middle-school student from Truckee, California, who had visited the capitol previously to lobby Congress on our climate crisis had this to say:
The events on January 6th shook me to my core: it was hard to believe that the same building that I had been in and been so awed by was now filled with protesters and being ransacked. I had never seen our country so divided and so different from the unity that I had believed in. I remember standing below the beautiful ceiling in the Capitol dome, reciting our nation’s motto, E Pluribus Unum: out of many, one. Out of many, our country has always been one. This motto gives me hope that we can repair the ties that have been broken and become an indivisible nation once again.
Extreme polarization is where we are right now, and although many have expressed abhorrence for this kind of violent conflict and their desire to somehow return to unity, politicians have offered no path to that end. What is unity, anyway? Is it complete agreement on everything? The dictionary offers two pertinent definitions: 1) the absence of diversity; unvaried or uniform character, and 2) oneness of mind, feeling, etc., as among a number of persons; concord, harmony, or agreement.
I would suggest that in speaking of national unity these definitions are inadequate. For a nation as diverse as ours in religious preference, race, country of origin, native language, educational level, etc., no unity will ever be possible using the first definition (nor would it be desirable). As for the second, I submit that “harmony or agreement” would apply at a national level only to fundamental values. Unity would never be possible if every citizen had to agree on every issue.
Fortunately, our most fundamental values are enshrined in our Constitution, beginning with the central role of the American people, as described in the preamble: “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” There they are — our fundamental values: justice, liberty (freedom), tranquility (peace) and promoting the general welfare.
If We the People can agree on these fundamental principles (justice, freedom, peace, the welfare of all), and act on them, then we can achieve the unity that will harmonize our wide diversity into a peaceful accord. The question is, how do we get there from where we are now?
We have help
According to British author and esotericist Benjamin Creme, we have close at hand a group of enlightened teachers who have mastered all of Earth’s lessons — including how to create and maintain unity in diversity — and become Masters of Wisdom. Led by Maitreya, the head of the group and World Teacher for the Age of Aquarius, the Masters are the custodians of Earth’s plan of evolution. For millennia they have guided humanity from behind the scenes and inspired all our greatest achievements through men and women in the world. Now they are preparing to work openly with us at this unprecedented time to offer help and advice as we’re confronted by multiple simultaneous crises.
Mr. Creme delivered this hopeful message for over 40 years before his death in 2016, lecturing worldwide and writing 17 books about Maitreya, the Masters, and their imminent public emergence. In A Master Speaks, Volume Two, which he edited, the Master with whom he was in personal contact discusses the failure of politicians and the help that’s needed:
Useless, in this context, are the tired ideas of backward-looking politicians, steeped in the glamours of position and power….
The failure of governments is precisely their failure to see that their true role is to look after the well-being of their people. …They have lost touch, for the most part, with the needs of those whom they claim to represent. The glamours of power and authority overcome, as often as not, their desire to serve….
The people know the true nature of their need but require a strong and fearless representative to give it voice. Already present, that representative, Maitreya, is working quietly to influence the direction which events will take.
Maitreya and the Masters speak of the same fundamental values as does our Constitution, but they emphasize that all — not just some — of the fundamental values are necessary to arrive at peace. That is, we can’t enjoy peace unless we embrace both freedom and justice for the common good — which generate the unity to move it all forward. The following excerpts from Unity in Diversity: The Way Ahead for Humanity, and A Master Speaks, Volume Two, illustrate that point and describe how Maitreya will work with us:
Maitreya’s task is to galvanize world public opinion and focus it through a few simple ideas, so that people everywhere are calling for justice, for freedom; for sharing as the only way to achieve justice and the end of war, the creation of peace. Peace and the end of terrorism are dependent on the creation of justice, and only one thing will accomplish that: sharing the resources of the world.… [UID]
Justice, it will be found, needs the calm waters of Trust for its achievement. … Sharing alone will bring men, trusting, to the table where Justice will be achieved and Peace assured. [AMS]
Sharing–Unity–Peace: the connection
The desire to share is the natural action of unity, says Mr. Creme’s Master, so when we decide to share our resources we will have achieved unity — oneness of mind, agreement — on our fundamental values (freedom, justice, the common good). And sharing our resources more equitably will bring peace. Although we aspire to them in our founding documents, these necessary preconditions for peace do not yet exist in this country or in the world, but the Masters will point the way forward.
In the U.S., we enjoy relative freedom, but are short on justice, as exemplified by the systemic racism that has permeated our society for centuries, the vast income inequality, and the rejection of individuals or groups that don’t reflect the predominant culture. People in many other countries are still struggling for freedom as well as justice. And, it should be added, the solution — sharing resources — applies within as well as between countries. As long as a few wealthy individuals and corporations are unjustly allowed to own or control most of the resources of any country, that country will be ripe for violent protest, terrorism, and even revolution. We are seeing that today.
The challenge of individuality
Perhaps the greatest challenge to realizing unity is the extreme individualism we developed and cultivated during the outgoing Age of Pisces. The qualities of Pisces are individualism and devotion to one’s ideals — ours, as opposed to all others’ ideals and beliefs — and while our solar system has been in alignment with that constellation during its circuit around the heavens, we have been energetically influenced by its qualities. So rather than cooperate, under the influence of Pisces we have honed competition to a fine art, elevating our individual personalities and causes to extremes in order to better crush any opposition to our goals and plans. We tend to see other cultural, national, religious, or racial groups as the enemy, and treat them as such.
But now our solar system is moving closer to the constellation Aquarius, whose energies stimulate brotherhood, cooperation, and synthesis. As the incoming energies of Aquarius overlap the waning energies of Pisces, people still aligned with Piscean individualism will often find themselves in conflict with those promoting inclusive Aquarian structures and processes. This division in our U.S. Congress has been on display for some time — with a horrifying crescendo this year. As we proceed closer to Aquarius — that is, further into the Aquarian Age — we will see greater cooperation and more civil attitudes in our members of Congress as well as society in general.
This is not to say that individuality per se is a bad thing. Not at all. We developed it for a purpose, as Benjamin Creme explains in Unity in Diversity: The Way Ahead for Humanity:
We are individuals. That is our God-given being. The thing is to get that individuality under control. Do not impose it on groups. Do not impose it on other people. You must never give up your individuality, but you put it at the service of the group. … Everybody, from their very individuality, has something that no one else can give. That is the diversity of the group.
In the same book, Mr. Creme’s Master explains that the underlying purpose of all life is the creation of unity, and that by doing so we express the interconnectedness of all atoms. He says we must channel our wide diversity into a unity of purpose to solve our problems:
When Maitreya, himself, emerges in the very near future, he will underline the need for unity in all our undertakings. He will show how essential it is that we find an identity of purpose, as men and as nations, in solving human problems, thus putting our potent individualities at the service of the group.
How, one might ask, will the Masters lead us beyond our armed camps to the conclusion that we must share our resources in order to achieve peace? Well, the first step toward sharing is the realization that humanity is One, which Maitreya will demonstrate publicly when he is invited to appear on worldwide media, expected in the near future. He will speak to all of humanity at once, silently, telepathically, so that each of us will hear his words inwardly in our own language. He will speak of our true reality as spiritual beings, the high source from which we came, and the depths of forgetfulness to which we’ve fallen. And he will show us clearly where we’re headed if we choose to continue on our present destructive path, rather than share the world’s resources and transform the world.
Thus will he prove the inner connection among all people. In this way, on this day, we will know without a doubt that we are One humanity. Seeing each other as brothers and sisters of one great family, we will be more inclined to share resources with each other, just as parents share their family’s food equally among all the children.
Our spiritual crisis
Humanity’s needs are the same everywhere, but as we’re living now, the enormous economic disparities among people — from the ultra-rich to the homeless and displaced who have nothing — make a mockery of our essential Oneness. Maitreya has said we are actually in a spiritual crisis — we don’t know who we are or how we’re interconnected — but it is playing out in the political and economic fields and therefore must be addressed and resolved there.
Unfortunately, in the U.S. today, a political solution in the form of national policies to stimulate economic justice seems unlikely, although several proposals that would in effect be a form of sharing are being widely discussed: a Universal Basic Income (UBI), radically reforming our tax structure, and a “wealth tax.” Any of these policies would begin to create economic justice, leading to greater unity and peace, but the need is now, and our national politicians are in deadlock.
Much must be done — and soon — to create the measure of equity and justice necessary for peace. It may take Maitreya and his group to demonstrate our Oneness and galvanize the voice of the people before we see vigorous national or international action. But with the Masters’ help and activated “people power,” boosted by the ascendance of Aquarian energies, unity — the prerequisite for sharing and peace — is within reach.
This article previously appeared in Evolve Magazine.
Cher Gilmore is a writer and speaker who has long worked with Share International.
More information about the emergence of Maitreya and the Masters of Wisdom into the everyday world can be found at Share-International.org. For a free monthly e-newsletter see share-international.us/newsletter/archive.
Read the books by Benjamin Creme: ‘A Master Speaks Vol. II’ and ‘Unity In Diversity’ — or listen to selected audiobooks.
