When I was anticipating going to this World Parliament, the idea was very thrilling to me. 
But it really wasn’t until I arrived there that I had any idea of what the experience would be like.  I was there for an entire week with around 5,000 people from all over the world together in a hotel in downtown Chicago.  People dressed in western clothes, women in saris, people in Sikh garb, men with turbans, some wearing monks’ robes from different faiths, priests and nuns with different habits.  People spoke different languages.  Most spoke English, but some did not and had interpreters with them to facilitate communication.

This morning I want to share with you some of my experience at this Parliament.  There were several representatives from the Interfaith Church of Metaphysics there.  Dr.  Daniel Condron gave a major address on Permanent Healing, Dr. Barbara Condron gave an address on Kundalini Rising, and a group of us presented a cantata called The Power of Prayer Around the World, demonstrating how people from different religions pray and the universal nature of prayer.

One thing was very clear during this week.  There are universal questions people ask.  Everybody has the same questions.  Everybody has the same kind of yearning and thirst to know who they are.  Everybody has the same kind of urge within them to know why they are here this lifetime; what is the purpose for being here on earth.  That includes  looking into the future, into the kind of influence that you want to have in the world, on humanity, or in your community, whatever and however big your world is.  It also extends to what you do every day when you get up in the morning.

Asking yourself, “Why am I living today?” is important, because you do need to have a purpose that motivates your daily activities in order for your whole lifetime to be meaningful.  As Benjamin Franklin said, “If thou dost love life, then do not waste time, for that is the stuff that life is made of.”  The everyday events, which might seem mundane when looked at one at a time, make up the entire lifetime.

It became clear to me during this week that there are many, many people who are aware that their day-to-day life is not  what their soul is craving.  They experience a split between what they do every day and what they imagine they could do over a lifetime.  When people are asking about the meaning of life, or seeking their purpose in life, they want to find out what I would call their assignment or dharma.  Each one of us has God’s image within us, and because of that it means that every single one of us has a very sacred duty that has been entrusted to us by our Creator.

When we were created by our Creator, we were given two gifts:  one of these was free will.  The other was our very existence.  We were created with our own ability to create.  Those gifts were entrusted to us to care for.  That means that it is our duty, not just to ourselves and to our fellow human beings, but our duty to God to use those gifts for the goodness of all concerned, for the benefit of all humanity.

It is our duty to make choices, it is our duty to use this existence that we have and to use it fully, and it is our duty to create.

The people who gathered together for this World Parliament were seeking to understand their place in God’s creation.  There was much discussion about the problems we face on this planet:  hunger, fighting, and pain.  There is a lot of strife.  All of these people from around the globe agreed that there are problems of pain and suffering in the world.  Everyone agreed that something needs to be done about it.  Not everyone agreed on WHAT needs to be done about it.

There were some people whose perspective on change was that we, the common people, as a Parliament, have a duty to clarify what the problems are so that we can bring this to the world leaders so that they can do something about it.  These people believe that it is up to the spiritual leaders and the governmental leaders to do something about it.   That’s interesting to me, because we are all in this together and to think that THEY will be able to do something about it is very much out-of-touch with the idea that each one of us has God within us.

Other people there believed that WE need to do something about it, and some people believed that I need to do something about it.  That’s where it all begins.  Think about it.  If you have a whole world full of people, and each person is saying, “They really need to do something about this!”  or, “You really need to do something about this!”, who is going to anything about it?

The person who is going to do something about it is the one who says, “I really need to do something about it, what is it that I have to offer?  What do I have to contribute?  What are the understandings that I have, what gifts do I have that I can bring to the situation?”   That is what causes change to come about.

No matter who you are, where  you’re from, what kind of background you have, you are always going to have needs.  You are always going to have desires.  So if you are always expecting that somebody else is going to take care of your needs and desires, you are going to be in pain, because you will be dependent on someone else to fulfill you.  That someone may not always be there exactly when you want something.  People start to get kind of cynical about other people when they think that’s how the world should work, when they think that someone else should always be there to take care of their needs.

Look at this from another perspective.  Everybody has understandings and gifts of their own.  If you approach every single situation with the idea, “What can I contribute to this?  How can I improve this situation?  How can I serve?  How can I add something to this person’s life?  How can I add to what’s already here?”, just think about what kind of world that would be!  What would it be like if every time you went anywhere, your primary thought was, “How can I cause an improvement here?”  Then do it!

With everybody doing something to add to the environment and serve the people they meet, we will have a much greater whole.  It is not true that there is only so much stuff to go around.  That is the kind of idea people get into when they are fighting each other thinking, “I’d better et mine first or otherwise there will not be anything left.”  “I’d better grab this land first, otherwise there won’t be any left.”  “I’d better grab this food first or there won’t be any left.”  “I’d better use these resources first before someone else gets them.”  Their idea is that there is a fixed amount of resources with not enough to go around, so if everybody gets what they want, then somebody is going to miss out.  Or, in order for me to get what I want, I have to get it from somebody else.  This is not true.

When each person is contributing and giving, there is always an abundance.  Have you ever planted a garden?  If you have, you know this.  You plant a few tomato seeds and a few zucchini seeds, you tend and care for them, and the plants yield an abundance of tomatoes and zucchini.  Most people who grow gardens and nurture the plants find that when it’s harvest time they give a lot of produce away.  They have way more than they can eat themselves.  This is abundance.  A few seeds, nurtured and loved, yield a huge return.

Think about this in your own life.  When everything that you do is a place to plant seeds of giving, loving others and helping others, rather than you trying to get something, you’ll always have plenty.  You have much more than “just enough” for yourself. When you aid others to abundance, you have abundance yourself.  This is a Universal Law of Abundance.

This practice of aiding others and thinking of others before yourself enables you to experience that God is within you.  You move from believing to knowing that God is within.  The word “God” is English and there are other words for the Supreme Deity in other languages:  Allah, Ahura Mazda, the Tao, Brahm, Jehovah or Elohim.  The name doesn’t really matter, because we all come from the same divine origin.  The same deity lives within each person.  So when your life is oriented toward giving, you are manifesting the “God” within you, and you can see that divinity in other people.

When you can see the “God” or divinity in another person, you don’t want to hurt that person.  In every religion I’ve studied, there are some words that describe the Golden Rule.  In the Bible it is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  In another faith it is “Do not harm others as you would not have harm done to you.”  In others it is, “Treat your brother as you would have your brother treat you.”  The words are a little different but the concept is the same.  I think most people would agree that this is a great idea, but how many practice it?

For example, if you are in a hurry, driving in busy traffic, and someone cuts you off, do you bless that person?  Do you think kind thoughts about them?  Or do you seek revenge and try to cut them off to “get back” at them or vent your anger?  Do you let someone in front of you in line at the grocery store if they have only a few items to buy and your cart is full?  Or do you think, “I was here first, and I’m short on time”?  If the store clerk gives you too much change and you know that they don’t know it, do you return the extra money or keep it?  Do you think about being in their shoes, having to pay for their mistake out of their own pocket?

When you are irritated with someone, do you talk to them to resolve the difficulty or do you talk about that person behind their back?  Would you want someone to talk about you behind your back?  Or would you want them to come to you to seek understanding?  These are some simple examples of everyday experiences that you can use to live up to your Godly potential.

Living the Golden Rule is one of the simplest ways that each of us can manifest our divine potential.  Ask yourself, “would I want someone else to treat me this way?”  If you can say, “Yes!” then you are probably giving and aiding others.  If your answer is, “No,” then change!  I think that most people practice the Golden Rule some of the time, and some people practice it most of the time, but very few people practice it ALL of the time.  These people are enlightened beings.  Each one of us could be an enlightened being!

During the Parliament there was a lot of talk about spiritual leaders.  During one of the sessions, a speaker on stage pointed to the audience of about 3,000 people, and said, “The leaders are YOU!”  He said, “Some of you here are prophets.  There is a prophet among you.”  Do you know that prophets come from the common people?  Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, they were people like you and me who had questions, just as we do.  The difference was what they did about it.  Instead of saying, “Well, I’ll never get those questions answered,” or “Why bother, no one cares anyway?” or “What can I do?  I’m just one person,” they decided to do something to find the answers.

A simple way to practice living in light is to realize that when you go to bed at night and rest your head on your pillow, you and your God are the ones you have to answer to.  That’s all.  You and your God are the ones with whom you need to be at peace.  So when you know that you have done the right thing, whether anyone else knows it or not, YOU know it and there is a peace you have that you carry within you.

The same thing is true when you know that you have not done the right thing, when you know that you’ve cheated someone or back-bitten someone, when you know that you didn’t follow through on a promise or commitment.  That’s why people often are anxiety-ridden, because they know that what they are doing is not right.  Just because you can get away with something does not mean it is right, or in alignment with Universal Law.  Even if no one else knows about it, you do, and it can end up destroying you with guilt, remorse, or pain.  This is what is known as conscience, a kind of inner compass that guides you to live in harmony with the whole.  You and your God know what you’ve done, so it is important to make choices that align with God’s plan and Universal Law.  This repeated practice becomes a permanent part of you and brings fulfillment.

During the Parliament there was a lot of talk about how we are all one.  Despite the differences in dress, skin colors, and accents, we are all one as children of our Creator.  We are all one as common descendants of the same God and we have the same Universal Truths that operate in our lives.

We are not all one when it comes to choices that we make in our lives.  We are not all the same religion, gender, race, or age.  We don’t all like to eat the same kind of foods.  We don’t all wear the came clothes.  In these physical ways we are all different!

So what does that mean?  On the one hand, we are all one, and on the other hand, we are all different.  That’s what a lot of people were trying to integrate

It means that we are different in the physical choices we make and in our physical characteristics.  The physical existence is temporary.  This physical body is temporary.  It will last maybe a hundred years.  Maybe only seventy, or eighty.  Maybe a hundred and ten!  But sooner or later it will die.  For some people their hair color only lasts them a few weeks until they change it to another color.  Your clothes last from a few days to several years.  Your language is temporary.  You don’t even develop it until you are a couple of years old.

So all of these physical differences and the choices people make, the different ways they express themselves, are changeable and fleeting.  What’s permanent and lasts forever is the Truth that you understand.  The love you share with other people is permanent.  That’s why it is important to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Even though you might find yourself in a situation where you are doing good deeds and other people are not, in the long run, you are the one who is going to benefit from the good that you do.  You always receive when you give.  The more you love, the more loving you become.  The more you give, the more generous you become.  The more you resolve conflicts, the more at peace you become.

How will we change the world?  By being the best we know how to be, and striving to be a little bit better each day.  Looking for ways that we can serve others and leave a place a little bit better than we found it.

If you ever think, “There is nothing I can do,” think again.  If you ever think that it is all in the hands of someone else to do it, it is not.  If you can see a need, it means that you have within you the resources and ability to fulfill it.  Our Creator has entrusted us with that ability. You may not know how, but you can learn.

Confucius spoke a lot about government.  He described how government comes from the inside out.  When each individual is self-governing, when we each listen to our conscience, when each person has an ethical and moral code that they live by, that is self government.  That’s how people are able to be good to one another and how people are able to be personally responsible.

When such people get together, this causes their relationships to be harmonious.  When you are harmonious within yourself, operating from a sense of conscience, the close relationships you have with your spouse, your children, your family, your friends, and your colleagues, are harmonious also.  When several harmonious families come together, then your community is harmonious.  When several harmonious communities come together, then your country and nation is harmonious.  When harmonious nations come together, then the world is harmonious.  This was Confucius’ dream and it is still true, based on Universal Truth.

These principles were recorded in a document that grew out of the experience of representatives of the School of Metaphysics and Interfaith Church of Metaphysics who attended the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions.  Two dozen teachers convened for nearly a year to compose the Universal Peace Covenant,  a guide to living universal principles in everyday life.  I want to close with one of its stanzas:

“Peace is an idea whose time has come.  We call upon humanity to stand united, responding to the need for peace.  We call upon each individual to create and foster a personal vision for peace.  We call upon each family to generate and nurture peace within the home.  We call upon each nation to encourage and support peace among its citizens.  We call upon each leader, be they in the private home, place of worship, or place of labor, to be a living example of peace, for only in this way can we expect peace to move across the face of the earth.”•