“This is what I have read in the faces of men and women, in the book of the world, and in the scroll of the heavens, which is writ with stars The great lesson to be learned is the truth of the Oneness of All. This knowledge carries with it all the rest.

“It causes one to follow the precept of the Son of Mary, who said: ‘And thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength;’ and ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ When Man grows into a consciousness of the truth that All is One – that when one loves God he is loving the Whole Thing that his neighbor is indeed himself – then he has but a few more classes to pass through before he passes into the ‘High School’ of Spiritual Knowledge.

“This conviction of the Oneness of All, carries with it certain rules of action – of Divine Ethics – which transcend all written or spoken human laws. The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man become a reality rather than a mere repetition of meaningless words. And this great lesson must be learned by all – and all are learning it by degrees. And this is the aim of the present stage of Spiritual Evolution – to know God as He is: to know your relationship with others – to know what we are. There are greater schools, colleges, and universities of Spiritual Knowledge beyond us, but these are the lessons taught in the grades in which we are at present.” ~William Walker Atkinson (aka Yogi Ramacharaka)

Scrolls of Heaven

When Mr. Atkinson speaks of a Book of the World and the Scrolls of Heaven that are “writ in the stars,” it is an obvious allegory. Studying the world, the stars, or both, will very likely not gain you much spiritual knowledge. Not much real spiritual knowledge is found in books or any other worldly things unless you can look beyond the physical and the literal to see the spiritual meaning hidden in allegory. Even then, the knowledge is only partial. So there are no actual scrolls in Heaven, but there is great Spiritual Knowledge to be found there. To gain such knowledge, we must raise our levels of consciousness. We must also practice Divine Ethics by at least trying to practice the truth that All is One and we are part of that All.

A Consciousness of Truth

It is the goal of spiritual development to reach that level of consciousness where Truth is known and the most important part of that Truth is that we are all part of the One. When we reach that level of consciousness, even temporarily, we don’t just believe that All is One and we are part of The One, we Know that we are. There is a big difference between believing something and knowing that it is true. Many of us often behave in ways that are contrary to such beliefs, but when they become Knowledge instead of beliefs, acting in violation of such Divine Knowledge is unthinkable.

Love Thy Neighbor

It is hard to love thy neighbor when thy neighbor robs us or is a rapist or murderer. We know we should love everyone, but we often find we can’t love those who do evil things. We also find it difficult to love those in a foreign country who wage war against us. But when we have truly become One With The All, there are no foreign countries, there are no enemies, there are no species of being that is against us because we are One with all of them. So just as we continue to love ourselves when we do something wrong, we will love all people, all beings, all of The One, because it is ourselves doing all those things.

“Seek not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.” ~John Donne

John Donne was talking about the bell at a church that would ring when someone died. The general interpretation of what he said is that we are all going to die eventually, so that is why the bell tolls for thee. That is not quite correct. What it really means is that we are all part of The One, so when any person dies, a part of us dies. When we reach the level of consciousness that allows us to Know that Truth, we will understand. Until then, we must practice ethics, live in peace and love as much as possible, and also practice our spiritual development techniques to help us move closer and closer to that level of consciousness.