A speech I gave awhile back...
"How do human beings understand an idea? Or, a better question might be: Are humans even capable of attaining a full grasp of what an idea truly is? We go through every part of life learning countless properties, first, by sensations that we suppose exist in the physical world around us; second, by reflections of our own mental operations. Exempting bodily reflexes, none of our knowledge is innate and we achieve knowledge through empiricism—which means through personal experience. It is common for us as human beings to have felt something so compelling that we actually convince ourselves that, without a doubt, “this” is what I’m feeling and “this” is now something that I must know. But to thoroughly know, meaning to thoroughly understand, something is to break it down in the simplest of terms. So what I’m going to attempt today is to make you all fully understand what UNITY is and how to be IN it…because I think it is something that is absolutely crucial for us as human beings to know in order to continue being.
You hear the word and other terms and ideas automatically come to mind. Some of you may be thinking about solidarity, camaraderie, togetherness, or even a circle…things that we have all together been taught and or have experienced to look at and feel in junction. But let’s set aside those random and automatic words that pop into your mind.
To be in unity means to be in one, whole, a unified set. In this union, diversity is completely non-existent; nothing is varied. This does not mean that unity is synonymous or even similar to monotony; no. Unity is nothing of the sort. It is the mode of being in harmony—one voice, one song, one key. It is the consistent standing on a single common ground: all in agreement, all in concurrence.
When the gaps of division have been closed by the coming together of persons, dispositions, or ideas, unity has been achieved. When we look at our neighbor and acknowledge the physical, biological and mental differences that are naturally formed, choose not to perceive them as discrepancies but accept them as one collection of wonders, unity has been achieved. When we use all of our senses to take in all that is around us and choosing to appreciate and support it all entirely, unity has been achieved.
Unity is pure and constant solidarity. It is the result of abominable bonds joining all things—unbreakable concordance. Unity is the full acknowledgement, acceptance and practice of the old saying: “All for one and one for all.”
If we could know unity, and I mean REALLY know what unity it, what it means and what it can do to us and for us…we wouldn’t see the plagues of hatred or violence, the crippling fear of judgment or the sadness caused by all of these things. If we truly knew and understood unity, we would finally not only SEE peace; we would hear it, we would feel it with our hearts as love, touch our fellow man and woman to feel it between our fingers, and then we'd speak of it as though it was the Ultimate Truth"