This commentary serves to elucidate the personal gnosis of the Declaration of Understanding and Intent by its author. It does not serve as canon, but is intended to be the first example by which members of Unity of Divine Creation Ministry may express their own interpretation of the declaration; accomplishing the purpose of helping all of us understand God through each other’s expression and understanding. Through this action of expressing our own interpretation, we also simultaneously accomplish the purpose of refining our own understanding and becoming closer to God.
While this commentary does give a more in depth interpretation of each part of the declaration, it does not do service to truly explaining the nuance through which each part is expressed. There is much still to be said, since the individual experience is what generates the nuance that allows us to come closer to understanding the deeper aspects of creation insofar as we are able. This may be taken up in other volumes.
1. There is an original, single source of for all of creation.
We recognize that there is a hierarchy in creation that is exemplified by the relationship of any creator and its creation. Conceptually, if we were to refer to these relationships as levels of creation, one could trace a lineage up all levels of creation and end at a single creator from which all has come.
Some religions and spiritual practices have names for such a thing like God, YHVH, Brahman or Allah. Some may use phrases or descriptors like Lord, Almighty, All Powerful or All Glorious One. Others may not have such a distinct identity, and rather than using names or phrases that can be considered to personify something, they describe its qualities; like saying that it is an ever-evolving awareness or pure consciousness.
The nuance that we use to describe such a thing is based on our personal experience as extensions of it. But, what this principle establishes is that we all recognize we come from, and are part of, one thing; regardless of how, each of us ultimately experiences or describes it.
2. All in creation exists as an extension of this source.
Logically speaking, if there is an original source which is one thing, then in order for it to create, it would have to extend itself and find some way to individuate it from its state in unity. This extension is still of the original source, while it maintains a separate identity. For convenience, and due to our common experience, we may choose to describe this as separation, but the separation is illusory and exists only insofar as the natural laws determined by The Creator.
This act of creation may occur in a myriad of ways according to the laws laid out by The Creator. We may experience and express this in ways such as one thing splitting into two new things, like with cellular mitosis. Or, two things coming together to create a new, third, separate thing such as with human reproduction. Beyond our experience, this may happen with one creator creating four things with new identities, ten things creating one, or seven things coming together to create two.
Creation in this way may result in different 'layers' or 'levels'. This can be expressed through our current understanding of subatomic particles such as protons electrons and neutrons. According to some scientific models, a certain number of these particles may come together in the proper conditions and become expressed as something we perceive as an element. On the subatomic scale the particles still exist individually while we simultaneously recognize the existence of gold, for example.
As such, we can conceive of how a source consciousness, or creator, may extend, divide and organize itself while implementing certain laws in the system to create a unique experience. It could also grant free will within the laws of its creation so that each individuated aspect may in turn also become a creator. Under this theory, there may be many levels of creations between God and us as the human race through which we can trace a direct lineage, and the same applies to all of creation.
3. As extensions, we seek to expand our inherently limited understanding of the true nature of God, the alpha and the omega, to honor it.
As we exist in our current level of creation, we are governed by laws that limit our understanding of the true nature of God. As individuated expressions we are limited by our experience and perspective.
At certain levels of experience, creators may implement laws that limit access and understanding within the creation so that those within it may carry on with their will somewhat independent of the influence of their creator(s). We may understand this intention by our own experience in our level of creation where we are able learn new things about ourselves when we are put into new situations where our understanding is limited.
As individuated expressions, we seek to honor The Creator, its creation and our existence by trying to learn more about its true nature. By expanding our ability to understand the laws of creation laid out by The Creator and creators at many levels, we may learn how to be more in alignment with its will and honor it by executing that will.
4. The best way for us to understand the true nature of God is through our experience as individuated expressions.
Each of us, as extensions of God, are individuated expressions of our Creator. Since its will is for us to exist as unique individuals, there must be some inherent value in our existence. We may speculate this to be things like: we live to serve as examples; to provide raw information about experience to a collective whole; or through analogy such as being a key, or a puzzle piece to the meaning or experience of the whole of creation.
As such, each of us has a sacred, unique lineage tracing from our place in creation all the way back up to our Creator. Attempting to integrate and understand how this works, and what it means, is the individual's best way of understanding the true nature of creation, and one’s role in it. If we can expand our consciousness to encompass more 'nodes' along our lineage back to The Creator we can broaden our understanding on the true nature of God and its creation.
This sacred connection each of us has is a unique, divine gift. Making a true effort to understand our own experience and then express this for the benefit of all creation is a way to honor God. Respecting each other in this creation and allowing them the same opportunity to exercise this is another.
5. In taking all of creation as sacred and divine, we may further know God, the nature of creation, and therefore ourselves through the experience of others.
Taken in the sense that "experiences of others" is "the experience that others are having," the experiences of our perceived others is their divine gift. Allowing them the same opportunity to explore and express that is essential to fully understand creations and existence that blend both exclusive and mutual experience. Although we will by design never fully understand the experience of our perceived others, we can empathize and learn from their experience to further understand God and its creation.
Taken in the sense that "experiences of others" is "when we have an experience in which others are present and part of it," we are also able to learn more about ourselves and our own experience through interactions with each other. The inherent lack of information we have about the experience others are having makes the consequences of our decisions and actions unknown which enables a continuous generation of new experience and more opportunities to fully understand the nature of God and its creation.
Due to this, we see our community as a gift. Although it may not always generate experiences of joy and may occasionally generate experiences of suffering, with an open mind for understanding what actions generate what types of experiences we can make decisions that result in things we favor more in the future. By the very nature of creation, our community provides this opportunity and for this reason we cherish it.
6. We honor each individual's unique experience by supporting their personal journey from one of belief into one of knowing and understanding their existence as a divine, individuated expression of God.
Having the understanding provided by the previous examples, we honor the experience of each individual as their own divine gift.
As it’s been told through our human history, there are prophets, saints, and people of great compassion with great hearts that find the inspiration to fulfill their unique expression as God through vastly different ideas, philosophies, or religions. We may discern from this that God has expressed its beautiful qualities can be conveyed in a vast array of ways.
Taking this as true, our ministry wishes to respect and honor this principle by encompassing all faiths and all of these experiences as part of the Unity of Divine Creation. We want to bring in and attract people from all realms of experience into our Ministry to truly have many points of information on which to draw from and understand God and its creation.
To do this, our ministry and its ministers encourage teaching and collaboration through guiding and giving examples, while also being flexible enough not to preach adherence to rules that may not work for everyone, and not to proselytize. For example, we ask our members what their understanding of God is through their own experience and help them form their own coherent philosophies on what that means. We believe that this in turn brings them closer to God and being able to align their will with it.
7. The Will of The Divine is that the experience shared by all within its creation is that which results in the maximum benefit for all.
As creation takes place, The Will of The Divine (The Divine being The Creator), is that it happen in such a way that the knowledge of itself is integrated to be used for the benefit of all beings in its creation as it continues to unfold. The knowledge gained should result in an experience that is more favorable to all as the individual experience is further understood.
For our experience as the current human civilization, there is a lot of nuance to understand how this can be. A majorly important consideration is the factor of free will as it exists limited within certain layers of creation. With our free will, and limited ability to understand the nature of creation, we may certainly take actions which result in suffering. But with proper acknowledgement of the suffering, and integration of the understanding of the laws of cause and effect and how we generated it, this too can be used for the maximum benefit of all.
If this theory is true, then the principle itself may remain true although the experience through limited perspective may seem to contradict it. The maximum benefit for all beings may not be a linear progression in which each experience is more favorable than the last. The understanding of the nuances of situations elucidates this.
As such, we believe from a higher perspective, each individuated expression and the experiences it generates has potential as working for the benefit of all beings. And, as experiencers, we have the responsibility to discern this and bring it into being.
8. To be aligned with The Will of The Divine is to have our individual, free will aligned with this desire for the maximum benefit of all.
For things to be aligned means different things in different contexts. They may quite literally be pointing in the same direction on the same or different planes; they may seek together to accomplish the same end; or they may be in vibratory resonance with one another. To fulfill the will of our creator, which also benefits all of us as beings within its creation, we should seek to make sure our will and actions have this relationship with its will in all ways that it may be expressed.
While this may seem like an impossible task, especially when taking into account the amount of nuance described in the understanding of principle #7, it is beautiful in the sense that it does not require one to be overly technical with nuance. Acting with love and compassion as our core principles, we can accomplish this as the nuance is revealed to us by the grace of God by virtue of being in resonance with its will.
9. It is our collective desire to live with our wills in alignment with The Will of The Divine, and to live for the maximum benefit of all beings.
Having taken into account all of the previous principles, and sharing in this understanding, it is our desire and will to live in alignment with The Will of The Divine and to live our lives for the maximum benefit of all beings. Members of our ministry affirm this through our actions, meditation, prayer, or howsoever one chooses based on their experience. This is our service, in gratitude to the Creator for its desire to know itself and generate this experience of being for us to share in.
Addendum
Having explained my personal interpretation of the Declaration of Understanding and Intent, I would like to leave off with a prayer for our times.
This is just something that I started to use to center myself so that I can be more receptive to the presence of our Creator. It was born out of my studies of Buddhist texts with my old teacher Tulku Orgyen P'huntsok Rinpoche. In our studies we would give rise to Bodhicitta by contemplating on the nature of reincarnation and infinite time. If time is infinite, we must have all been each other’s mothers many times. Since most of us can find compassion in our hearts for our mothers, we could use this as a tool to bring our hearts and minds into balance.
I especially consider this a prayer “for our times” since the current progression of our civilization seems to necessitate a bringing in and balancing of the divine feminine within each of our lives. It’s method of generating a heart and mind of enlightenment out of compassion for our mothers does service to this.
I hope you enjoy.
Since beginningless time, sentient beings have been each other's mothers countless times.
And out of love, and compassion, for all motherly sentient beings, I wish them to be free of suffering, and have happiness;
the ultimate cause of which is spiritual liberation.
Knowing this, I set my intention to live my life for the maximum benefit of all sentient beings.
May we all be liberated in this lifetime.