As a child I had great difficulty accepting as dogma the various religious, philosophical, political and social ideologies that I encountered. I could not understand why I should blindly accept any specific ideology when I was ignorant of others, which I knew existed but to which I was not yet exposed. At the time I did not really know why I was not as accepting as others wanted me to be. Still, I admired my fellow students who seemed sure of their belief in one religion or another, in one philosopher or another, in one political ideology or another. At the time, I assumed that they were more intelligent than I was or perhaps they were seeing more than I was. At times, I felt inadequate. I was in no position to argue, since I did not have enough information on the various alternatives. Perhaps I chose the biological and physical sciences for further study because of their greater precision and exactness. As I reflect on that period of my life, I now see that I had developed a system of avoidance, which kept me away from things that I did not fully understand. Thus, I succeeded in keeping myself in ignorance and drifted through a supposedly successful professional life without fully understanding humanity and the depth of my own spirituality. However, as I travelled across the globe, I encountered humanity in its vast diversity and began to comprehend the human being in its entirety rather than within the scope of the limited dogma that was fed to me in early life. In time, I became a seasoned explorer and voracious reader of the diverse religious scriptures and the philosophical, social and anthropolo- gical literature.
And that is how I discovered the fundamental principles, which is at the core of our humanity. I have always sensed and felt the presence of the universal spiritual power, although for a long time I was bamboozled by the cacophony of noises coming from the myriad religions and religious institutions, many claiming to have a monopoly on the path to God. However, my own personal experience with humanity across the world has left me convinced of the common and shared spirituality of humanity and that spirituality is not limited to any one religion or one group of religions. That common spirituality is something that I now sense and feel every day of my life. It is something that overrides the imposing influence of religion, culture and race. I now strive to be just as much at home in a church, in a temple, in a mosque, or wherever I find myself in the company of other human beings. I strive to be able to embrace and love all human beings as my brothers and sisters, despite their individual beliefs and religions. I strive to always see goodness and godliness in all human beings. Despite my concerns for the tribal nature of our religious institutions, I totally embrace the fundamental principles, which I see as defining the spiritual foundation of our humanity and as the common message of all major religions. It is Leo Tolstoy who ob- served that "the foundation of all faiths is the same" and Mohandas Gandhi who later noted that "the fundamental ethics are common to all religions." I believe that human beings are all spiritually connected and that we are on a journey to progressively express more of our spirituality and thus release more and more of our potential goodness. It has been a slow and torturous journey that is reflected in the continuing coming together of humanity, despite our many ongoing conflicts and wars. This progressive coming together of humanity is otherwise referred to as the development of civilisation. I believe that humans are endowed with the capacity to take our civilisation to a much higher level through the continuing unification of our humanity.
The unification of humanity can only come through the greater expression of our inherent goodness. It is building a world in which there is more love and compassion and less hatred, oppression and violence. This all translates into human beings becoming more aware of the common spirituality that cuts through our religions and cultures. A true measure of the expression of our spirituality is how well we embrace and work with other human beings. Human development is about our spiritual development. Humans know this intuitively, hence the universal acceptance of the desire for peace in our society and peace in the world. We know that hatred, oppression and violence is the outcome of our tribal behaviours and that it is wrong. Our spiritual journey is a movement away from the divisiveness of tribalised thinking. We have been on that journey of spiritual development for over 10,000 years. There is no doubt that the world is a more unified place than it was 100 years ago or 50 years ago and I believe that this trend is continuing. The world is becoming a more moral place. Morality cannot be taught. It can only be discovered. Virtues do not come from an external source. Goodness is within us. God is within and connects all of us. I am an optimist. I do not adhere to the doom and gloom that is so often expressed about the future of our humanity. Human history tells me otherwise. Let us train people, and in particular our youth, to live in hope and to have a more optimistic perspective on the future. We have a spiritual responsibility to become free humans before we become caged, and there are many cages waiting to entice us in. Let us help our youth to see the inherent goodness in themselves and to live out their full human potential. I am challenged to continue striving to live out my true spiritual self.
