Oneness: Interfaith Inspiration

“God is like a mirror. The mirror never changes but everyone who looks at it sees a different face.” — Midrash Tanhama (Judaism)

“All life is one. The world is one home. All are members of one human family. All creation is an organic whole. No man is independent of this whole. Man makes himself miserable by separating himself from others. Separation is death. Unity is eternal life.” — Sivananda (Hinduism)

“We are already one. But we imagine that we are not, and what we have to recover is our original unity. What we have to be is what we are.” — Thomas Merton (Christianity)

“Do you think that God is only in your heart? You should be able to recognize Him in every garden, in every forest, in every house, and in very person.” — Shams of Tabriz (Sufism/Islam)

“The drop poured into the ocean is the ocean . . . All is one and is all in all.” — Meister Eckhart (Christianity)

“Truth is One and sages have called it by many names.” — Rig Veda (Hinduism)

“One perfect nature pervades and circulates within all natures. One all-inclusive Reality contains and embraces all realities. One moon is reflected in every expanse of water. Every reflected moon is one moon. The essence of all Buddhas is in my being. My essence is in their being. — Zen Master Yung-Chia Ta-Shih (Buddhism)

“There is only one God, all the ‘gods’ are but His ministering angels who are His manifestations.” — Omoto Kyo, Michi-no-Shiori (Shinto)

“Every object in the world has a spirit and that spirit is Wakan. Thus the spirits of the trees or things of that kind, while not like the spirit of man, are also Wakan. Wakan comes from the wakan beings . . . They are never born and never die. They can do many things that mankind cannot do. Mankind can pray to the wakan beings for help. The work Wakan Tanka means all of the wakan beings because they are all as if One.” — Sword, A Native American Dakota (Native American)

“La Illaha illa llha” – “There is nothing but God. Allah is the one light that illuminates heaven and earth.” — Qu-ran (Islam)

“Mysteriously existing before heaven and earth. Silent and empty. An unchanging oneness. An everchanging presence. The Mother of all Life. It is impossible to really give it a name, but I call it Dao. Without wishing to define it, it could be called “The Whole.” — Lao Zi, Tao De Ching (Daoism)

“Equalizing self and others is the foundation of all the practices that lead to enlightenment.” — Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (Buddhism)

“Sh’ma, Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai echad.” – “Hear, O Istrael, Adonai is our god, Adonai is One.” — Deuteronomy (Judaism)

“There can be no doubt that whatever the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, they derive their inspiration from one heavenly Source, and are the subjects of one God.” — Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’uillah (Bahai)

“Open your eyes now before you think you will die. When you die, you move to another world, like passing through a wall into the next room. But in truth there is no death, because God did not bring you to live in order to kill you. Live in God, to be, in everything, nothing. The nothingness of self in God is not death, but life.”

“You are the truth of God, but She is a hidden treasure, and the treasure of your own truth is hidden to you. Al-haqiqat illahi: The truth of God does not go. She endures in everything, and nothing could exist without the truth within it. The truth has no beginning. So nothing has the power to end Her but everything receives its essence from Her – Even death is true only by virtue of the power of truth.” — Shaykh Muhammad Said al-Hama ar-Rifa’l as-Shadhuli

This handout is from The New Seminary based in New York City. Lee Ann was ordained in 1999