Helen Keller on Universal Brother/Sisterhood

Helen Keller's spiritual perspective was influenced by the writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg, she was also influenced by the social and religious movements of her time:

In drawing inspiration for her politics from elements of Christianity, Keller was far from alone within the socialist movement of that time. Eugene Debs, for instance, also often interspersed religious allusions in his writings and campaign speeches. He equated the “great moral worth” of socialist ideals to the “early days of Christianity,” and argued that under the classless society that socialism would introduce, “Human Brotherhood, as taught by Christ nineteen centuries ago, will for the first time begin to be realized.”  

Keith Rosenthal, The politics of Helen Keller

Socialism and disability, ISR, Issue #96

https://isreview.org/issue/96/politics-helen-keller/index.html 

 

See also After the Miracle, the Political Crusades of Helen Keller (2023) by Max Wallace, draws on groundbreaking research to reframe Helen Keller's journey after the miracle at the water pump, vividly bringing to light her rarely discussed, lifelong fight for social justice across gender, class, race, and ability.

The sun and the air are God’s free gifts to all, we say; but are they so? In yonder city’s dingy alleys the sun shines not, and the air is foul. Oh, man, how dost thou forget and obstruct thy brother man, and say, “Give us this day our daily bread,” when he has none! Oh, would that men would leave the city, its splendor and its tumult and its gold, and return to wood and field and simple, honest living! Then would their children grow stately as these noble trees, and their thoughts sweet and pure as these wayside flowers.

Bishop Brooks taught me no special creed or dogma; but he impressed upon my mind two great ideas — the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and made me feel that these truths underlie all creeds and forms of worship. God is love, God is our father, we are His children; therefore the darkest clouds will break, and though right be worsted, wrong shall not triumph. I am too happy in this world to think much about the future except to remember that I have cherished friends awaiting me there in God’s beautiful Somewhere. In spite of the lapse of years, they seem so close to me that I should not think it strange if at any moment they should clasp my hand and speak words of endearment as they used to before they went away. Since Bishop Brooks died I have read the Bible through; also some philosophical works on religion, among them Swedenborg’s “Heaven and Hell” and Drummond’s “Ascent of Man,” and I have found no creed or system more soul-satisfying than Bishop Brooks’s creed of love. I knew Mr. Henry Drummond, too, and the memory of his strong, warm hand-clasp is like a benediction. He was the most charming and delightful of companions. He knew so much, he had conquered so much, he had seen life from so many sides that it was impossible to feel dull or despairing in his presence.

 

 “In the story of my life here presented to the readers of The Ladies’ Home Journal, I have tried to show that afflictions may be looked at in such a way that they become privileges.” Cambridge, 1902

https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/issues/keller-helen-story-life-part-6/

 

The idea of brotherhood redawns upon the world with a broader significance than the narrow association of members in a sect or creed, and thinkers of great soul like Lessing challenge the world to say which is more godlike, the hatred and tooth-and-nail grapple of conflicting religions, or sweet accord and mutual helpfulness. Ancient prejudice of man against his brother-man wavers and retreats before the radiance of a more generous sentiment, which will not sacrifice men to forms, or rob them of the comfort and strength they find in their own beliefs. The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next. Mere tolerance has given place to a sentiment of brotherhood between sincere men of all denominations. The optimist rejoices in the affectionate sympathy between Catholic heart and Protestant heart which finds a gratifying expression in the universal respect and warm admiration for Leo XIII on the part of good men the world over. The centenary celebrations of the births of Emerson and Charming are beautiful examples of the tribute which men of all creeds pay to the memory of a pure soul.  

Optimism: An Essay 1903

https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=2382&page=all

 

Surely the things that the workers demand are not unreasonable. It cannot be unreasonable to ask of society a fair chance for all. It cannot be unreasonable to demand the protection of women and little children and an honest wage for all who give their time and energy to industrial occupations. When indeed shall we learn that we are all related one to the other, that we are all members of one body? Until the spirit of love for our fellowmen, regardless of race, colour or creed, shall fill the world, making real in our lives and our deeds the actuality of human brotherhood -- until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained. 

The Worker's Right Out Of The Dark, 1920 *A letter written to the strikers at Little Falls, N. Y., November, 1912.

https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=2496&print=1

 

We shall not see the end of capitalism and the triumph of democracy until men and women work together in the solving of their political, social, and economic problems. I realize that the vote is only one of many weapons in our fight for the freedom of all. But every means is precious and, equipped with the vote, men and women together will hasten the day when the age-long dream of liberty, equality, and brotherhood shall be realized upon earth.

“Why Men Need Woman Suffrage,” which was originally published in the Socialist Party newspaper, New York Call, on October 17, 1913. The version of the text that appears here is from the 1967 International Publishers book,

Helen Keller: Her Socialist Years.

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/the-woman-peril-is-at-the-door/

 

When we inquire why things are as they are, the answer is: The foundation of society is laid upon a basis of individualism, conquest, and exploitation, with a total disregard of the good of the whole.

The structure of a society built upon such wrong basic principles is bound to retard the development of all men, even the most successful ones, because it tends to divert man’s energies into useless channels and to degrade his character. . . . 

This unmoral state of society will continue as long as we live under a system of universal competition for the means of existence. . . .  It must, therefore, be changed, it must be destroyed, and a better, saner, kinder social order established. Competition must give place to co-operation, and class antagonism to brotherhood.

Helen Keller, “Blind Leaders,” Outlook for the Blind 105 (September 27, 1913) in Nielsen, Helen Keller: Selected Writings, 63–64.

 

I look upon the world as my Fatherland, and every war has for me the horror of a family feud. I hold true patriotism to be the brotherhood and mutual service of all men. The preparedness I believe in is right thinking, efficiency, knowledge, and courage to follow the highest ideals. When true history replaces the lies and false teachings of the schools, the true call to patriotism will be a call to brotherhood, and not a call to arms.

Helen Keller Finds Defense Plans Bad December 20, 1915 The New York Times

https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=2626

 

I think that every honest belief should be treated with fairness, yet I cry out against people who uphold the empire of gold. I am aware of moods when the prefect state of peace, brotherhood and universal love seems so far off that I turn to division, pugnacity and the pageant of war. I am just like St. Paul when he says, "I delight in the Law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind." I am perfectly sure that love will bring everything right in the end, but I cannot help sympathizing with the oppressed who feel driven to use force to gain the rights that belong to them.

The Spirit of Lenin Midstream: My Later Life, 1929

Helen Keller: Her Socialist Years (International Publishers, 1967)

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/keller-helen/works/1920s/29_x01.htm

 

More on universal brother/sisterhood 

Selected Writings

Rumi on the Secret Doctrine of Spiritual Evolution: Stone, Plant, Animal, Human

In describing the process of spiritual evolution, Blavatsky evokes a Kabalist aphorism, axiom, saying, related to mineral, vegetable and animal life:

 

The well-known Kabalistic aphorism runs: -- "A stone becomes a plant; a plant, a beast; the beast, a man; a man a spirit; and the spirit a god." The "spark" animates all the kingdoms in turn before it enters into and informs divine man, between whom and his predecessor, animal man, there is all the difference in the world Secret Doctrine I, I, 7b, p. 246

 

This explains also the hidden Kabalistic meaning of the saying: “The Breath becomes a stone; the stone, a plant; the plant, an animal; the animal, a man; the man, a spirit; and the spirit, a god.” The Mind-born Sons, the Rishis, the Builders, etc., were all men – of whatever forms and shapes – in other worlds and the preceding Manvantaras. Secret Doctrine I, I, 5.1, p. 107

 

That man originates like other animals in a cell and develops "through stages undistinguishable from those of fish, reptile, and mammal until the cell attains the highly specialized development of the quadrumanous and at last the human type," is an Occult axiom thousands of years old. The Kabalistic axiom: "A stone becomes a plant; a plant a beast; a beast a man; a man a God," holds good throughout the ages.  Secret Doctrine 2 I, 10, 258

 

It's difficult to find a specific reference for this. There is a Hasidic text:

 

The Holy Sparks that fell when G-d built and destroyed the world should be purified and lifted up by man: from stone to plant, from plant to animal, from animal to the speaking being, he should cleanse the Holy Spark, which is surrounded by power of the shell. This is the essential meaning of everyone’s service in Israel.  (Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer so called Baal Shem Tov, or Master of the Good Name, instruction on G-d / compiled by Martin Buber, transl. Jan Doktór, Warsaw 1993, p. 13)

 

It can also be found in poetry of Rumi:

 

I died to the inorganic state and became endowed with growth, and [then] I died to [vegetable] growth and attained to the animal.

I died from animality and became Adam: why, then, should I fear? When have I become less by dying?

At the next remove I shall die to man, that I may soar and lift up my head amongst the angels;

And I must escape even from the angel: everything is perishing except His Face.

[Q 55, 26–27]

Rūmī, Ğalāl al-Dīn. 1973. Divani Shamsi Tabrizi. Translated by Reynold Alleyne Nicholson. San Francisco: Rainbow Bridge.

The passage below, although included in Nicholson's edition, is not present in the earliest Persian manuscripts, and so is generally considered apocryphal. Whoever the composer may have been, it is quite esoteric and theosophical.

A Garden Beyond Paradise

 Everything you see has its roots

 in the unseen world.

 The forms may change,

 yet the essence remains the same.

 Every wondrous sight will vanish,

 every sweet word will fade.

 But do not be disheartened,

 The Source they come from is eternal--

 growing, branching out,

 giving new life and new joy.

 Why do you weep?--

 That Source is within you,

 and this whole world

 is springing up from it.

 The Source is full,

 its waters are ever-flowing;

 Do not grieve,

 drink your fill!

 Don't think it will ever run dry--

 This is the endless Ocean!

 From the moment you came into this world,

 a ladder was placed in front of you

 that you might transcend it.

 From earth, you became plant,

 from plant you became animal.

 Afterwards you became a human being,

 endowed with knowledge, intellect and faith.

 Behold the body, born of dust--

 how perfect it has become!

 Why should you fear its end?

 When were you ever made less by dying?

 When you pass beyond this human form,

 no doubt you will become an angel

 and soar through the heavens!

 But don't stop there.

 Even heavenly bodies grow old.

 Pass again from the heavenly realm

 and plunge into the ocean of Consciousness.

 Let the drop of water that is you

 become a hundred mighty seas.

 But do not think that the drop alone

 becomes the Ocean--

the Ocean, too, becomes the drop!

Divani Shamsi Tabrizi, #12, (Nicholson,1898, pp. 46-49) not in critical editions

Rumi on Religious Tolerance

Religious tolerance is a significant issue among western thinkers, due to the widespread immigration and subsequently the subject of multicultural societies formation. They pay attention to the political, epistemological, moral and legal foundations of religious tolerance, especially the approval of equality of religions principle and the need to observe human ethics and protect the civil rights of all existing religions’ followers. Raising this issue in the Middle-East -whose people are currently suffering from terrorism, violence and bloody wars under the pretext of religious differences- is more necessary than in any other part of the world. There are valuable experiences in Islamic mysticism for the realization of multicultural societies free from violence and a peaceful life for people with different beliefs together, which can be considered as an effective pattern. Among Muslim mystics, Rumi has exhibited the highest level of religious tolerance in both theoretical and practical terms.

 

In order to reduce the scope of religious conflict and sectarian strife of his time such as the Crusades and the sectarian wars of the five Islamic religions that pervaded their world at the time, Rumi as a great thinker introduced the idea of tolerance, forbearance and patience. (ghodratallah taheri Rumi's principles of Religious Tolerance, Mysticism in Persian Literature, Volume 1, Issue 1, June 2022, abstract)

 

Muslim, Christian, Jew, Zoroastrian:
All are welcome here

(Everyone is welcome to This school, Divan Shams-Tabrizi, 23, The Forbidden Rumi, Will Johnson & Nevit Ergin, p. 157)

 

Islam and other faiths
have all come around so recently
yet Love has no beginning or end.
You can't call the unbeliever an infidel
if he's been the latest victim of love

(A stranger to myself, Divan Shams-Tabrizi, 23, The Forbidden Rumi, Will Johnson & Nevit Ergin, p. 159)

The man of God is not learned from book.
The man of God is beyond infidelity and religion,
The man of God right and wrong are alike.

The man of God has ridden away from Not-being,
The man of God is gloriously attended.

The man of God is concealed, Shamsi Din;

(RA Nicholson “Selected poems from “Divan e Shams e Tabrizi”, poem 8, pp. 29-31)

In regard to another he may be wrath and a foe; in regard to another he may be graciousness and a friend. (He has) hundreds of thousands of names, (but) he is one man: the owner of every quality belonging to him is blind to (incapable of) giving any (true) description (of him). 

Whoever seeks the (mere) name, if he is entrusted (with a confidential mission) he is hopeless and in distraction, even as you art. Why do you stick to the name ‘tree,’ so that you art left bitterly disappointed and ill-fortuned? Pass on from the name and look at the attributes, in order that the attributes may show you the way to the essence.

The disagreement of mankind is caused by names: peace ensues when they advance to the reality (denoted by the name).

(The search for the Tree of Life, Masnavi, Book 2, 62, 3675-3680, RA Nicholson)

 

I speak of plural souls in name alone –
One soul becomes one hundred in their frames;
Just as God's single sun in heaven
Shines on earth and lights a hundred walls
But all these beams of light return to one
If you remove the walls that block the sun
The walls of houses do not stand forever
And believers then will be as but one soul
(Masnavi 4: 415-18, Franklin Lewis, transl.)

 

The journey of the soul involves not time and place.

And my body learnt from the soul its mode of journeying,
Now my body has renounced the bodily mode of journeying;
It journeys secretly and without form, though under a form."
He added, "One day I was thus filled with longing
To behold in human form the splendours of 'The Friend,'
To witness the Ocean gathered up into a drop,
The Sun compressed into a single atom;
And when I drew near to the shore of the sea
The day was drawing to a close."

All religions are in substance one and the same.
In the adorations and benedictions of righteous men
The praises of all the prophets are kneaded together.
All their praises are mingled into one stream,
All the vessels are emptied into one ewer.
Because He that is praised is, in fact, only One,
In this respect all religions are only one religion.
Because all praises are directed towards God's light,
Their various forms and figures are borrowed from it.
Men never address praises but to One deemed worthy,
They err only through mistaken opinions of Him. 

So, when a light falls upon a wall,
That wall is a connecting-link between all its beams;
Yet when it casts that reflection back to its source,
It wrongly shows great as small, and halts in its praises.
Or if the moon be reflected in a well,
And one looks down the well, and mistakenly praises it,
In reality he is intending to praise the moon,
Although, through ignorance, he is looking down the well.
The object of his praises is the moon, not its reflection;
His infidelity arises from mistake of the circumstances.
That well-meaning man goes wrong through his mistake;
The moon is in heaven, and he fancies it in the well.
By these false idols mankind are perplexed,
And driven by vain lusts to their sorrow.
The Man in the time of the Prophet David who prayed
to be fed without having to work for his food.
(The Masnavi, tr. by E.H. Whinfield, 1898, 3, Story XII)

Moses Cordovero on the oneness of God, humanity and nature

In the following passages from the works of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, one can see strong sense of Advaita Vedanta monism and an eastern sense of non-duality, and this outlook is applied to his ethical view of interpendence of humanity. According to Matthew Gindin: 

' (The Ramak, 1522-1570) was a Sefardic Kabbalist from Spain who led a group of mekubalim (students of Kabbalah) in Tsfat. He is known for organizing Zoharic and Medieval Kabbalah into an encyclopaedic system, teaching many famous students, and being a saint (tzaddik) and mystic himself. He was also known for his stress on the teaching of panentheism- that all is God, and God is the only reality. His writings on how God could be found everywhere and in everything would later influence the Hasidic masters.

Tomer Devorah ("The Palm Tree of Deborah") is a guide to the practice- common to several faith traditions- of imitatio dei, or "the imitation of the behaviour of the divine." It is a wise, humble, and often very challenging and countercultural text (probably then as well as now). The Ramak is unique in the strength of his emphasis on radical forgiveness, universal love and compassion, and reverence for all the creatures of nature, even those people often treat with contempt.

The Tomer Devorah is also marked by its emphasis on the Kabbalistic teaching that humans partner with God in the bringing of blessing and healing into the world. When humans practice the virtues and intentions outlined in the Tomer Devorah, their behaviour is mirrored above in the Sefirot (divine energies) and they provoke tikkunim (repairs) which bring shefa (bounty, blessing) into the world. The study of the Tomer Devorah became very important in the Mussar (ethical self-discipline) movement and among Hasidim, and is believed to bring teshuvah (return to the divine) and protection. It is a custom among some to study the entire text in the month of Elul leading up to Rosh Hashanah.'

And so it is fitting that a person desire the good of their fellow and their eye be good towards the good of their fellow, and that their honour should be as beloved as their own - as they are literally oneself!

And from this reason were we commanded (Leviticus 19:18), "you shall love your neighbor as yourself." And it is fitting that they desire what is good for each other and not speak about each other's disgrace at all. And they should not wish ill on each other, in the way that the Holy One of Being does not want our disgrace nor our pain in relation. So too they should not want the disgrace of their fellow nor their pain, nor their corruption. And one should know that we are interdependent with each other and share each other's good and bad fortunes. (Tomer Devorah 1:5 2, Matthew Gindin, transl.)

“God is all reality, but not all reality is God . . . He is found in all things, and all things are found in Him, and there is nothing devoid of God’s divinity, God forbid. Everything is in God, and God is in everything and beyond everything, and there is nothing else beside God.” (Elimah Rabbati 24d-25a, Matthew Gindin, transl.)

The essence of divinity is found in every single thing — nothing but it exists. Since it causes every thing to be, no thing can live by anything else. It enlivens them; its existence exists in each existent. (Pardes Rimmonim,4:4, I7d-i8a (Jerusalem: Mordekhai Etyah, 1962) )

"And the Holy One—blessed be He!—shines in the ten sefirot of the world of emanation, in the ten sefirot of the world of creation, and in the ten heavenly spheres. In investigating this subject the reader will find: that we all proceed from Him, and are comprised in Him; that our life is interwoven with His; that He is the existence of all beings; that the inferior beings, such as vegetables and animals, which serve us as nourishment, are not outside of Him; in short, he will discover that all is one revolving wheel, which ascends and descends—all is one, and nothing is separated from Him." (Shi'ur Ḳomah, chapter xxii)

Before anything emanated, there was only Ein Sof. Ein Sof was all that existed. Similarly, after it brought into being that which exists, there is nothing but it. You cannot find anything that exists apart from it. There is nothing that is not pervaded by the power of divinity. If there were, Ein Sof would be limited, subject to duality, God forbid! Rather, God is everything that exists, though everything that exists is not God. It is present in everything, and everything comes into being from it. Nothing is devoid of its divinity. Everything is within it; it is within everything and outside of everything. There is nothing but it. (Elimah Rabbati, 24d-25a. (Jerusalem: Ahuzat Yisra'el, 1966))

There must be a contraction of God's presence. For if we believe that Ein Sof emanated the emanation and does not clothe itself within, then everything that emanated is outside of it, and it is outside of everything. Then there are two, God forbid. So we must conclude that nothing is outside of God. This applies not only to the sefirot but to everything that exists, large and small — they exist solely through the divine energy that flows to them and clothes itself in them. If God's gaze were withdrawn for even a moment, all existence would be nullified. This is the secret meaning of the verse: "You enliven everything." So divinity flows and inheres in each thing that exists. This is the secret meaning of the verse: "God's presence fills the entire world." Contemplating this, you are humbled, your thoughts purified. (Or Yaqar, 15:203a (Jerusalem: Ahuzat Yisra'el, 1987)

“The essence of God is in every thing, and nothing exists outside of God. Because God causes everything to be, it is impossible that any created thing exists except through Him. God is the existence, the life, and the reality of every existing thing. The central point is that you should never make a division within God . . . If you say to yourself, “The Ein Sof expands until a certain point, and from there on is outside of It,” God forbid, you are making a division. Rather you must say that God is found in every existing thing. One cannot say, “This is a rock and not God,” God forbid. Rather, all existence is God, and the rock is a thing filled with God . . . God is found in everything, and there is nothing besides God.” (Perek Helek, Modena ms. 206b, Matthew Gindin, transl.)

Do not attribute duality to God. Let God be solely God. If you suppose that Ein Sof emanates until a certain point, and that from that point on is outside of it, you have dualized. God forbid! Realize, rather, that Ein Sof exists in each exis- tent. Do not say, "This is a stone and not God." God forbid! Rather, all existence is God, and the stone is a thing pervaded by divinity. (Shi'ur Qomah, i6d-i7a. (Warsaw, 1883))

The Ramak's grave in Safed

‘God's knowledge is different from that of the creature, since in the case of the latter knowledge and the thing known are distinct, thus leading to subjects which are again separate from him. This is described by the three expressions—cogitation, the cogitator, and the subject of cogitation. Now, the Creator is Himself Knowledge, the Knower, and the object known. His knowledge does not consist in the fact that He directs His thoughts to things without Him, since in comprehending and knowing Himself He comprehends and knows everything that exists. There is nothing which is not united to Him, and which He does not find in His own Substance. He is the archetype of all existing things, and all things are in Him in their purest and most perfect form; so that the perfection of the creatures consists in the support whereby they are united to the primary source of His existence, and they sink down and fall from that perfect and lofty position in proportion to their separation from Him. (Pardes Rimmonim, 55a)