Unity was the overall theme of the 57th Inauguration Ceremony for President Barack Obama’s second term.
As the President proclaimed in his inaugural speech “Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation, and one people.”
President Obama emphasized that we can do anything as long as we do it together,
“America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it — so long as we seize it together.”
“With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom….”
Inauguration poet Richard Blanco also echoed the theme of unity and oneness in his poem “One Today.”
He reminded us of all the things we share, that we are connected through
one sun “one sun rose today….”
one light, “All of us as vital as the one light we move through”,
one ground, “our ground rooting us to every stalk of corn….”
one sky, “One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked their way to the sea”
one moon, “always one moon like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop and every window…”
and most importantly, one country,
“of one country—all of us—facing the stars
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it—together.”
All these words of unity and togetherness are very uplifting. Is there any way that “we the people” can make them real, rather than just beautiful inaugural rhetoric?
We have heard Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote “be the change you wish to see in the world” many times. We all want unity, but how can we be unity? How can we be one with our fellow man and also with the sun, moon, and stars?
Quantum physics has identified the unified field of natural law—a transcendental field underlying all manifest phenomena in Nature.
At this level, all the different force fields and matter fields are seen to be simply different aspects arising out of one single unified field. They are united at their source, and then through sequential symmetry breaking, they diversify to form what we see as the manifest universe.
This underlying unified field is parallel to the deepest level of our own Being—our consciousness in its pure, undivided state. The experience of this self-referral state of consciousness—transcendental consciousness—is a state of unity, complete oneness.
The more we transcend and access this state of pure Being, through techniques like Transcendental Meditation, the more we grow in unity in our lives, and the more we’ll feel a greater oneness and connection with everyone else and all of nature. Enlivening unity on this level creates an effect of unity from within, which spreads to the whole environment.
Let’s not leave it only to our politicians’ rhetoric or limited actions to create unity in our country and the world. Let’s “be the change” simply by transcending to the field of unity within ourselves. Let’s create unity from the field of unity itself, and then enjoy all the diverse expressions of that unity which our country collectively represents— unity enjoying diversity and diversity enjoying unity.
