Unity

[koan]

Just read this from my Zen calandar:

I believe in the essential unity of all that lives. Therefore I believe that if one person gains spiritually the whole world gains, and if one person falls, the world falls to that extent.

- Mahandas K. Gandhi

What thinketh you?

[Beth]

Depends on what she means by "falls" and what her definition of "spirituality" is, I would think.

[Ted]

koan

I do have a great respect for Gandhi. In many ways I can agree with that statement. In many ways we are all connected.

Shalom
Ted

[koan]

I think this thought/statement is an example of why some people can not judge others but feel the suffering and the accomplishments of all their fellow humans as if it were their own suffering and accomplishment.

It is a great expression of compassion.

[nev]

I believe that unity is inclusive of thought and behaviour. I believe that there should be unity within ourselves first before we can try to unite or consider being united with others. If our spiritual belief is one thing, but our thoughts are different, or our behaviour is another, or we communicate differently then we are not united within and therefore can never be united without.

Anything that we do that harms ourselves, regardless of extent, is a nail against our spiritual and physical being. That therefore then serves to hurt our unity within and without.

I therefore agree with Gandhiji.