The problems humanity faces—war, overpopulation, exploitation, prejudice, oppression, greed, hate—are just the symptoms of a disease. We need to treat the symptoms, but to cure the disease, we need to eliminate its cause. The cause of the disease is ignorance of some basics. First, that we are not unconnected, independent beings whose particular welfare can be achieved at the expense of the general good. The cure for this is the recognition that we are all one with each other, and ultimately with all life in the universe.
Despite the superficial cultural and genetic differences that divide humanity, we are remarkably homogeneous. Biologically, we are a single human gene pool, with only minor local variations. Psychologically, we all experience pleasure and pain, hope and fear, and are looking to be happy. Intellectually, we have the same curiosity about our place in the universe and the same power to discover truth.
However, in order to really feel this, we have to realize a second truth: that we are not essentially our physical or psychological make up, but a spiritual Self that is beyond any limitation and separation. As long as we are identified with our personalities, it will be difficult to feel that we are all united, because our lower mind can only perceive separation. It is only as we realize more and more our spiritual nature that we can feel part and parcel of the totality of existence. And as the feeling of unity with all other human beings, with all other life forms, begins to be a dominant factor in our lives, we will realize that we cannot either harm or help another without harming or helping ourselves.
To know this is to be healthy in body, whole in mind, and holy in spirit. That ideal is expressed in the following words, known as the "Universal Invocation," written by Annie Besant, the second President of the Theosophical Society:
O hidden Life, vibrant in every atom,
O hidden Light, shining in every creature,
O hidden Love, embracing all in oneness,
May all who feel themselves as one with thee
Know they are therefore one with every other.
