This article is about diversity and unity in our expression of spirituality. It was written for the Spring 2006 edition of GreenSpirit magazine published by the Association for Creation Spirituality in the UK. The ideas about the diversity of spiritual paths and the image of the flower were drawn from my book The Science of Oneness: A Worldview for the Twenty-First Century.

It’s Easter Sunday as I start to write. Here in the north of Scotland, Spring’s resurrection is in full flow. I kneel, worshipping, as gently and with thanks I ease winter weeds from the ground and speed their transformation back to soil. With blessings, I welcome the less vigorous harbingers of summer’s glory. With joy I greet crocus and tulip, primula and pansy, aubretia, polyanthus, broom and berberis.

In the woods, buds swell, split, unfold; new growth thrusts through autumn’s leafy legacy. Bold daffodils nod golden heads, whilst closer scrutiny reveals the first shy celandines and wood anemones. Bird songs blend with the music of wind-strummed trees. Bright warmth alternates with soft showers.

I walk. Seeing and seen, hearing and heard, touching and touched. My feet feel the angles and textures of the land. My hands greet, caress and bless trees and shrubs. My eyes drink colours and patterns, light and shade, movement and stillness. My skin welcomes warmth and coolness in turn. My ears and eyes observe the courtship of birds, and the aerial dance as a crow repels a pair of buzzards. At times, I am stopped in my tracks by heart-aching beauty, or the call of a tree.

There is joy and gladness, a sense of oneness with all life, with Gaia. And there are darker feelings too. Grief for old trees, wise friends, felled by winter storms or a chainsaw. Anger at what we are doing to the Earth. Frustration at the slow pace of change, and how little I can do to speed it. Despair that Homo Sapiens, this glorious experiment, seems bent on self-destruction. And reluctant acceptance that both yin and yang, positive and negative, are inseparable parts of life. Unless I open to the pain, I cannot experience the fullness of joy.


Our modern western civilisation proudly and loudly proclaims that there is no meaning or purpose. Cosmos, Gaia and humanity just happened by pure chance through the outworkings of blind laws. And yet, beneath this sterile worldview, I sense a different reality. At the heart of all existence lies a deep Mystery. Why is there consciousness, matter and life rather than nothing? Where do they come from? I know in my heart, beyond all doubt, that a Spirit, a Consciousness, a creative Being dreamed the cosmos into existence for ineffable reasons of its own. I know I am an indissoluble part of this Whole. I know that, whether we wish to or not, we are still co-creating our world with each other and Spirit. And I know that our purpose and responsibility is to guide the evolution of humanity, Earth and cosmos into the ways of love and wisdom, beauty and truth.

As I contemplate this inner, heart knowledge, I face the challenge of expressing it in ways that make sense to the rational mind. And I face the awareness that absolute Truth lies far beyond normal consciousness. I grasp at strands blowing in the wind, glimpse flashes from facets of the infinite jewel, peer out at reality’s wide landscape through a slit. And my perceptions are coloured by my worldview, culture, beliefs, values, life experiences, and the structure and processes of my brain.

Wherever there is faith in THE Truth, intolerance follows. Belief in the possibility of absolute Truth is a gate through which evil enters the world. The Crusades, the Inquisition, Nazi and Marxist pogroms, genocide, the excesses of capitalism, the dogmatic claims of mechanistic science, terrorism … Every form of knowledge, every religion, every perception brings gifts. But each is a single window onto reality. And there are many windows, many vistas, many landscapes.

With these provisos, let me try to explain my spiritual understanding. I experience Spirit in two ways that sometimes seem in conflict. One is Spirit as the transcendent Source of all Existence, the Ground of all Being, as Ultimate Reality. Spirituality, in this case, is about relationship with this Being; about pursuing enlightenment, unity or salvation through meditation, prayer, ritual, devotion and service to the Divine. Many spiritual traditions proclaim this to be the highest path, the goal of which is to lose self in union with God, or in the ineffable experience of cosmic consciousness.

My second experience of Spirit is as my deepest inner nature - as ‘the god within’. It flows from recognition that, if Spirit is the Source of all Existence, then I am embodied Spirit, and hence every aspect of my life and being is inevitably spiritual and cannot be otherwise. And similarly, every other being, every object, the whole of material reality is also a perfect expression and manifestation of Spirit. Spirituality in this case is about the sacredness of existence, and living an ordinary, everyday life in a sacred way. Possible spiritual paths and practices include creativity, vocation, conscious partnership and parenthood, aware consumerism, community life and service, connection with nature and service to the Earth.

Sometimes pursuit of the transcendental path leads to a denial of life and the body, and an unbalanced asceticism. A similar lack of balance occurs when our material culture denies the spiritual nature of physical reality. For me, then, spirituality seeks balanced development of both the transcendent and immanent aspects. And it recognises that there are many possible spiritual paths from which we may choose.

These ideas are expressed in the image of a flower. At the heart of the flower is our present experience of life, the now, of immanent Spirit. And out beyond the petals is what I have called our revelation of transcendent Spirit. Each petal represents one of the many possible spiritual paths, such as mysticism and contemplation, relationship and parenting, emotions and feelings, community, withdrawal (the hermit), service and social action, creativity and art, music, the senses and sensuality, healing, nature, the intellect and science, and religious ritual. Each of these and myriad other paths moves out along the edge of the petal from present experience towards a deeper connection with transcendent Spirit, and then back towards a stronger expression of immanent Spirit in a cyclical process of spiritual growth. Some of us may choose one path, one petal for a lifetime, and emphasise either the transcendent or the immanent. Others of us may move from one path to another over time, or even follow several paths at once, with a more dynamic balance between immanent and transcendent. In my own case, my life encompasses elements of most petals, with a dynamically shifting emphasis over time.

This is how I see Spirit and spirituality now. But my perceptions are undoubtedly distorted and clouded, and may be different to yours. Perhaps I am mistaken. Perhaps in the future I will come to different conclusions. It is through openness to diversity, and the synthesis of all our perceptions that we draw closer to the truth.