This is http://www.essayz.com/a9804151.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %DIVERSE PEOPLE EXPERIENCE SACRED HOLY SPIRIT GOD+980415 %SHARE OPEN HONEST DIALOGUE COMMUNION VISION EVIL 980415 Diverse people have experienced that which is sacred, holy and transcendent in diverse ways --- which have contributed to the building up of both personal and communal integrity. If all people were alike and all their experiences were alike --- integrity would not be manifested in their being alike. Integrity has to do with unity which transcends diversity --- in ways which bring together diverse elements into a coherent whole. In the absence of diversity --- integrity cannot be manifested. Diversity in the absence of integrative relationships between/among the elements of diversity --- does not manifest integrity. No single element of a coherent whole is the essence of the coherence of the whole. In the absence of the other diverse elements of the coherent whole --- there is no coherent whole. In the absence of the fabric of integrative relationships of the coherent whole --- there is no coherent whole. No part of the whole is the essence of the whole. No human experience of that which is sacred, holy or transcendent --- is the essence of the whole. If any human experience of that which is sacred, holy or transcendent --- is excluded from the whole ---the integrity of the whole is diminished through that exclusion. Humans are not empowered to determine in what ways that which is holy, sacred and transcendent may break through and become manifested within and through human experiences and relationships. Humans are empowered to witness to and share their experiences of that which is holy, sacred and transcendent --- breaking through all that would contain, control or inhibit such manifestations in alienative ways. The manifestations of that which is transcendent in holy and sacred ways --- are often associated with, but not identical with: EXPERIENCES REVELATIONS PERSONS COMMUNITIES SCRIPTURES VISIONS HOPES EXPECTATIONS CREATIVITY SERVICE SACRIFICES LETTING-GO OFFERINGS RITUALS SONGS DANCE IMAGES MEALS EXAMPLES COMMANDMENTS LAWS MEETINGS TOUCHING AFFECTION MENTORS LEADERSHIP DISCIPLES The above list is not complete. Some people fall into the trap/prison of feeling and/or thinking that their most moving experience of that which is sacred, holy and transcendent --- is in some sense absolute; i.e., transcendent over all other people's experiences. They become imprisoned in the worship of whatever they in particular have experienced as most sacred, holy and transcendent. Through their idolatry they become alienated from other people and their diverse experiences of that which is sacred, holy and transcendent --- and so the coherence of the whole is diminished. God who is Love seeks out and offers reconciliation to all who have wandered off and fallen into traps/prisons wherein they fixate upon some isolated part of the whole, as if it were the whole with full coherence. Conformity to some part of the whole --- is not God's Plan. Inclusion in integrative ways within the coherent pattern of the whole --- is God's Plan. Such inclusion does not entail the denial of the elements of diversity; although it does entail the transcendence of alienative responses to diversity. Diverse people have experienced that which is sacred, holy and transcendent --- in diverse ways which have contributed to the building up of both personal and communal integrity. If all people were alike and all their experiences were alike --- integrity would not be manifested in their being alike. Integrity has to do with unity which transcends diversity --- in ways which bring together diverse elements into a coherent whole. In the absence of diversity integrity cannot be manifested. Some people are so over-whelmed by their experience of that which is sacred, holy and/or transcendent --- that they regard all else as unworthy of respect; to be sacrificed in honor of their primary transcendent experience. They are exclusive in their affirmations of what they in particular have experienced; and become alienated from all that is truly whole, coherent and well integrated. They fall into the destructive traps of self-righteousness, arrogance, coercion and violence. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================