There is but one presence and one power in the universe, God the good, omnipotent.
This statement is, of course, a simplified version of the foundational statement we use to open every Sunday service. This is the version I was first presented with in my early days of attending a Unity church. We call it a foundational statement because it is the starting point of our thinking. We are each an expression of this one presence and power which means our spiritual empowerment comes, not from without, but from within.
Our focus on the importance of meditation is based on the understanding that every individual can have a direct experience with God. This experience reveals the true nature, the sanctity of Self. Think of God as the endless sea of universal life in which we live and move and have our being. This life energy bubbles forth like a fountain through the countless life forms that we see. The human being is the outlet most capable of expressing the widest range of life, love, power and intelligence that is God. It is to our great advantage to come to know our spiritual Source.
There are current ideologies that seek to marginalize the concept of individuality and focus instead on identifying people by group. It is the group, rather than the individual, that becomes the focus of attention. This view does not align with the notion that the presence of God expresses as each individual, that this expression occurs from center to circumference.
When I read the maxim, Know Thyself, I see it as a call to undertake the work of consciously returning to our spiritual center. Affirming the sanctity of Self is not an egotistical approach intended to build up the body-based self-image. It is the acknowledgement that our spiritual source is limitless, that our very essence is divine, that the one presence and one power underlying all we see is the source of our individual power. As we come to know our indwelling Lord, we also come to know the sanctity of Self.