#3: One Voice in Many
Whether the One Voice comes as a question or answer, it’s the Divine leading us to the revelation of what we already know.
I wrote my first manuscript when I was a neophyte on the spiritual path, and called it: One Voice in Many. Years later I found it buried in the back of a file cabinet. The pages were typed on an old portable Olivetti typewriter, before computers. What a surprise to meet myself as I was perceiving the world back then. The idea is that the Universal “We” speaks to every one of us through the mouths of every other one of us. We just need to listen without resistance.
We hear the One Voice in each moment in many ways. Whether it’s our own words, the words of a friend, or of a discarnate spiritual being, it is the One Voice. Whether the words sound Christian, Sufi, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist, it is the One Voice. The Voice speaking to me, speaks to a part of you, and what awakens you awakens me in some way.
So the quest for spirit becomes a conversation between the “We” masquerading as the “Me” and the “You.” It’s quite a discipline to practice belonging in the We — when my “I-self” is speaking, or listening. The One Voice reveals that speaker and listener are the same. It’s hard to grasp when we are so proud of being individuals; how could I and you be One when speaking and listening seem so totally different?
Common: shared by, coming from, or done by more than one; belonging to, open to, or affecting the whole
Ultimately, it is through the understanding of our common vulnerabilities and wisdom that we see self in other and come to an experience of our common love. We each have equal access to the one infinitely wise Source (it’s the real “We,” after all, that we live within), so if we share our world views with each other, trusting the One Voice, creating moments of commonality, we’ll begin to know that elusive oneness, or unity.
I seem to have begun my journey on the spiritual path without realizing it: I moved steadily forward by questioning the “givens” and backing into “better ideas.” Church seemed empty so I backed into a reverence for nature. I couldn’t justify why wars were fought over God and how one people’s interpretation of God could be incorrect while another was “ordained,” so I put all religions on hold and opened my mind to the truths all cultures hold dear. I suppose I was looking for the We.
I couldn’t find an idea of who or what God was, so I refused to say the word for a long time and sought an experience rather than a definition. The most I could come up with was that God is an energy that always was and always will be and trying to understand this enigma was my “religion” — and if I could live with that, that was faith.
I zigzagged onward. Puzzle pieces slowly dropped in place. I was troubled by how life could be so complicated, distracting, and draining when beneath the surface, there is plenty of peace, perfect functioning, energy, and wisdom.
Everywhere, I saw — and still see — people who spin off from and lose touch with their center, who forget the real “why” in life, and can’t remember who they are experientially. There are far too many authorities who haven’t earned their stripes serving up cosmetic answers and even untruths. Perhaps they’re speaking with the One Voice, reaching those who need to understand that particular partial view, so they can eventually zigzag their way, as I have, into greater, more encompassing world views and “We-dom.”
The way we individual selves think sometimes doesn’t make much sense. We look for the We in weird ways. When we feel weak, vulnerable, and insecure, we want others to be the same way. Yet when it comes to inspired self-expression and true success, we want to feel unique and special and don’t want anyone else to be like us. We lose our We-ness in the face of universal magnificence.
Isn’t it insane that the way we seek to be one with others reinforces, not our brilliance, but the idea that we’re powerless, miserable, and riddled with bad habits and character weaknesses? And the way we try to experience our magnificence offers us the empty reward of maintaining an isolated position, alone, without equals?
Basically, we perceive ourselves as separate from our own soul, each other, and the earth, and see the Divine and the universe as outside us. If original sin means “first misperception,” this is it. There is no outside of the We. We are alike in our LOVE and our fears are the mirages, the distractions that stall us. The One Voice comes on waves of harmony. Can we hear it wanting to express? Recognize it when it finds a clear path through?