Our consciousness has its source in unity, and this is where our search leads us. The goal of the spiritual journey is the transpersonal reality of the boundless consciousness that unites us with all of creation, with divine reality, where we came from.

Our quest is one of remembering this: where we came from, what our purpose here is, and where we are going. As our consciousness grows, all the pairs of opposites we encounter matter less and less. We gradually find a comfort level with them and eventually they even seem to merge into a greater whole.

At the deepest level, all things are one. As Brother Wayne Teasdale said, “Every person is a mystic. The call to the spiritual journey is always inviting us. We need only respond. In this summons, in the cave of the heart, we are all one.”

While each spiritual and religious tradition includes detailed beliefs and practices that promote the spiritual life, it is only in the mystical branches of those traditions that a deeper path to oneness is laid out. The mystic path is meant to lead us to union with the source of our being. Teasdale implies that we don’t have to be part of any one those traditions to have this same deep desire, or urge. It is an all-human trait, or characteristic, to want to seek union with the deepest part of who we are that comes from and connects us to our Creator, or to all of creation.

It is on this so-called ‘mystical’ path that everyone will find the same thing – at the deepest level all things are connected in an undeniable oneness. And all sacred traditions have their own tools and practices that are specifically designed to help any of us get there – prayer, meditation, deepening in the sacred writings, remembrance (of God), whirling dance, upholding the highest of ethical standards, ritual, initiation, vision quest, pilgrimage, yoga, seeing with the inner eye (the eye of oneness), and service to others, just to name a few.