Oneness in a time of division - a #Unitarian view #MoreinCommon

Human beings have many modes of being and doing.  That simple statement is the first step towards drawing a contrast, towards differentiating.  We find we cannot live without differentiating – seeing this nourishing foodstuff as different from that poisonous one, in the primal animal sense, is crucial to our survival.  There are times when we must contrast, differentiate, divide, reject.

But we also have another mode of being and operating: that of integrating, of drawing everything together in some sense of order and oneness, of displaying some form of comprehensiveness from every viewpoint, of merging and the dissolving of barriers.  So there are times when we dissolve, integrate, unite, encompass.

It is false philosophy that sets out one of these modes of being as superior to the other.  There are times for ebbing and times for flowing, and we, in tune with all life, are in the flow of the dance between the two.  Nonetheless, we do hear from wise teachers in all ages that we are in the habit of spending too much time in the contrast-differentiate-divide mode, giving rise to much tension and animosity, wars and atrocities, between persons and communities.  We are advised to love our enemies, to see that other persons are no more than ourselves in different lives, to integrate all opposites – to notice that when we define one something as beautiful we necessarily and unavoidably are defining another something as ugly (with the inference: “so don’t do it”).

There are always fault lines in a nation but, when they are complex to define, people generally just rub along with them.  It is when clear and explicit divides are forced in front of us, in a way that we cannot ignore, that life becomes raw, awkward and abrasive.  Since the lead up to the Scottish referendum on independence from England, Wales and Northern Ireland the United Kingdom has been continuously in a time of division.  In fact, look at Northern Ireland and I defy anyone to say we have ever lived in a United Kingdom. This latest referendum on the UK remaining in the EU or leaving the EU will not mark the end of the era of division.  Despite sane calls for healing, for seeing what we have in common over and above what divides us, the spirit of the times is for disintegration and disestablishing the old order, for a complete revisiting of identities and where we fit in our little worlds.

It is difficult to live or even to promote the Unitarian message that “there’s a certain mysterious, undefinable sort of one-through-ness to all of life” in these times.  It would be dishonest to pretend I am operating in a uniting mode at present.  I am finding that people I have been in the habit of being with from time to time are no longer attracting me; in fact I have designs for being near them no more.  I find that my daydreams now include desires for some quite disruptive events to be visited upon our country, in a way that I would have found quite offensive some years ago.

I think I am instinctively detecting that the storm hasn’t yet hit.

I think that these years are the years of storing up the potential energy that – on some day that is coming closer now – will inevitably resolve the rising tensions, not in the way hoped for by those sane voices asking for togetherness, but rather by a big kinetic explosion.  And I think my daydreams are signs that I don’t like this time of waiting, of waiting for the kettle to boil.  Let’s get it over and done with; let’s have the volcanic eruption; let’s blow ourselves apart so that we can then have the dust settle and then experience a time of getting familiar with a new order.  Let’s get on with it.  And this way of thinking is not wrong, or bad, nor even sinful where I use the word sinful in

its original meaning of “missing the mark”. In fact, more and more I think it is on the mark and to the point.  This is a dividing and yes a divisive time and such times are necessary before a new pattern can emerge.  I think of Siva the transformer god who dances destruction and re-creation into the world in the same way that you or I would turn a kaleidoscope to make a new pattern (does anyone remember kaleidoscopes these days?). (Try the link https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Kaleidoscope.webm/220px--Kaleidoscope.webm.jpg  link to Wikipedia video of kaleidoscope action  )

This divisive way of being is new to me and it feels rather strange.  It won’t stop me being courteous to people even if they disagree with me; it won’t stop me reaching out my hand where help is needed: but it will change where I go and whom I choose to associate with; it will mean I wear a badge to display my viewpoint where before I used to hide and disguise my position.  And I will do those divisive things not despite, not running counter to the wisdom of the world’s teachers and prophets; but because as a Unitarian I can see that we should not idolise oneness and togetherness, any more than we should idolise anything else.  Because in a healthy system there are appropriate times and places for blowing things apart.  Roll on the second Scottish referendum on independence.