Unity is plural

前天我把一本之前阅读到半途而废的书本读完。
其中让我印象深刻的是这一篇, 特地抄录在这里:

UNITY IS PLURAL
This generalized principle states that unity is not "one". Instead, "one" cannot exists. Unity is, at minimum, two--meaning two or more. This principle is significant because the concept of only one God violates this generalized principle.

This principle explains why there are arguments and wars. Whenever we think there is only one way, one answer, or one solution, this principle is violated and peace is disturbed. I remember as a kid in church, cringing every time I heard the preacher say, " There is only one God and only one way to God, and that way is through our church and our religion." Even as a kid, I wondered why there couldnt be more than one way to God.

When a religion claims to follow the one and only true God, that religion is cruising a fight. Or if they propose there is only one path to God, they are again inviting a challenge--a fight. Today,we are still at war over who is following the one and only God. When I visited Jerusalem , the Holy City, Christians were in conflict with other christians. They did not need Muslim or Jews to have a fight.

Taking this principle further, man could not exist if woman did not exist. We would not know up without down, in without out, black without white, fast without slow, positive without negative,right without wrong, or heaven without hell. In politics, we will always have, at minimum, a two-party system.We will always have liberals as long as there are conservatives. When dreamers wish for one-world government, i know they dont understand this generalized principle.

A one-world government is not possible because "one" cannot exist alone.

This principle explains why being politically correct or excessively polite is ineffective. The reason many people want to be politically correct-or nice to everyone- is because they afraid of criticism. They try to keep everyone happy. In reality, instead of making people happy, politically correct people are often too polite, and therefore, often ineffective.

Every book I write gets criticized. I expect it. I welcome it! Being criticized means I am saying something. I am often asked if I am shocked by what some people say about me in their weblogs. My reply is, "I'm glad I've upset them. It means Im saying something." Successful people are criticized. Unsuccessful people are not.

Just think about how many people criticize political or religious leaders such as president, prime minister, Pope, or the Dalai Lama. Even men of God arent spared the wrath of an opposing point of view. In the world of sports, professional teams and star athletes wouldnt make the big bucks if there were no opposing teams and no other star athletes. Without disease we might not cherish health, nor would we need doctors. And if humans always agreed, we wouldnt need attorneys-which might not be such a bad thing.

Comprehending this generalized principle also explains why there will always be attorneys, police,and the need for soldiers. His holiness the Dalai Lama is more famous because of Communist China. Without the Chinese, His Holiness might truly be the simple monk he describes himself to be. As my sister stated earlier, the world has more years of wars than years of peace.

In the bible, we find examples of this generalized principle. In the story of the great flood, Noah loaded his ark with animals marching on board, two by two. This principle also explain the reason why inside of everything good lives something bad, and vice versa. Understanding this principle.gave Kim and me the courage to take our leap of faith because we knew if we faced the bad, we would find the good.

We opened the book with the quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald :"The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." We, as human, are losing our intelligence. We have hell on earth because too many people think in terms of one God, one religion, one right answer, and only one set of values. Too many people want to make themselves right and everyone else wrong.

The principle of "unity is plural" guided Kim and me toward God by giving us the clarity to not take sides on opposing ideas; rather, we do our best to see validity in all ideas. We learned faster because we didnt get caught up in looking for that one right answer, believing all other anwers were wrong. We could see right and wrong in all answers. We didnt judge ourselves as good or bad, right or wrong, successful or a failure. After a while, we came to see our weakness as strengths, handicaps as advantages, and failures as successes.

Knowing that humans were given a right foot and a left foot-- rather than a right foot and wrong foot--allowed us to keep moving through some extremely difficult times, trusting our intuition, which is the connection between our conscious and subconscious minds.

Rather than argue and attempt to change another person's point of view, we simply moved on, realizing there would always be, at minimum, two opposing ideas and find our own path between those two or more ideas.