Self-Absorption

There is a difference between unity and uniformity.  The degree of self-absorption makes a lot of difference.  In a monastery the monks or nuns can be doing certain things together such as eating and prayer time.  That would be uniformity.  But if they then go about the rest of their day and life  self-absorbed in their own projects and programs for happiness, then they will not live in unity with one another.  Unity is when you have a sense of oneness.  Often, what you have in a community is a sense of how to make sure someone else’s agenda does not interfere with yours.  There can be a lot of avoidance which has little to do with solitude and silence when it is about me and mine.  A family can ask the same question.  Are we living in uniformity or in unity?  If you do almost nothing together than it will hardly even be uniformity, except to say that you all sleep under the same roof and coordinate calendars in your busy life of happiness programs.