_DSC8388-EditAs a being, a single entity, where do we begin, where do we end? Is there even a line that can be drawn that would separate us from everything else? In the mystic journey to union, or re-union, are there really any lines at all?

From our perspective today, we can see that the world is getting smaller, and that differences are becoming better understood. Never has it been clearer what the sentiment uttered twenty-five centuries ago by Socrates meant: “I am not an Athenian or a Greek but a citizen of the world.”

But when we start out, do we have any idea where we came from, or where we’re going? Rumi has a wonderful way of pointing out our common spiritual heritage; how a common Creator and common principles guide us all in our evolution: “Every form that you see has its original in the divine world. . . When you came into the world of created beings, a ladder was set before you, so that you might pass out of it. At first you were inanimate, then you became a plant; afterward you were changed into an animal. At last you became human, possessed of knowledge, intelligence, and faith. Next, you will become an angel. Then you will have finished with this world, and your place will be in the heavens. Pass into that mighty deep, so that the one drop, which is yourself, may become a sea.”

As we undertake our journey from dividedness to transcendence to union, looking back, anyway, we recognize even more clearly that all is one, even from the very beginning. Transcending our separateness, we merge into the oneness we always were.