Brotherhood is a common term, but, what is the meaning of this term? For me, brotherhood is a collective word for the essential values which every person should possess in order to transcend the sovereignty of nations.
What are these essential values? Sense of self, unity, understanding, respect, dignity, honesty, peace, hope, trust, faith and nationalism are the so-called values embedded in brotherhood.
Sense of self is the foundation of all these essential values because a person without a sense of self will never attain anything. There are four components/stages of sense of self: Self-knowledge, Self-acceptance, Self-love, and Self-transformation.
Self-knowledge is being aware of one’s weaknesses and strengths. What are you going to do with your weaknesses and strengths? You have to give solution to your weaknesses in order for it to become your strengths. Then, develop your strengths and make it better because you are living in a competitive world. Try to perfect your craft so that no one can take it away from you. Therefore, everything becomes your strengths. You become a fully competitive, secured and positive person in the process of self-knowledge which you only owe to yourself.
Self-acceptance is the acknowledgement of both weaknesses and strengths in the positive change process. It is easy to love one’s self once you accepted yourself. Self-love is helping one’s self grow and develop to the fullest good by nurturing the positive potentials within and eradicating the negatives in the process of perfection.
When self-love has been attained, the challenge is to reach the apex of self-foundation which is self-transformation. It is almost automatic to achieve self-transformation when somebody has reached the level of self-love because changing one’s self to be the best that you can become is geared towards self-transformation.
Self-transformation is the product of the first three stages of sense of self. It is the time when you feel that you have to offer something for the betterment of the society.
In analysis of the sense of self, you cannot know others if you don’t know yourself. You cannot accept others if you cannot accept yourself. You cannot love others if you don’t love yourself. And, you cannot transform society if you cannot transform yourself first.
Everything is within one’s self. That’s why, whatever positive in us within the sense of self emanates the transcendence process of sovereignty of nations. It is because each nation is composed of people who are in journey with their sense of self and at the same time experiencing the shared process of brotherhood among them.
The transcending process out of brotherhood of man based on the sense of self liberates every man of each nation to achieve its common goal of goodness to make this world a better world to live in as we co-exist in building this world with harmony and interdependence considering our unique cultural heritage and history.
This sense of self brings about unity and understanding among individuals of all nations. In unity there is strength in fulfilling a common purpose of brotherhood of man. In understanding each individual concerns, respect to one’s dignity exists. Respect to the cultural independence of all nations creates a unity in diversity.
In connection with this, trust, faith and honesty are necessary to transcend the sovereignty of nations out of the brotherhood of man. Trust builds a deep interpersonal relationship which solidifies the quality of brotherhood. Faith makes the light burning from within in order to move on in life. Honesty gives character to a person.
Thus, in spite of cultural differences, every person of each race embracing its own nationalism is continuing to hope for meaning in life. This hope for meaning in life propels the brotherhood of man. Therefore, this brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations based from the sense of self of men of diversified cultures.
Once the brotherhood of man was put into practice, there is no question why sovereignty of nations will not be attained. But, the question is, do we have the capacity to focus on our own sense of self in order for brotherhood of man be realized?
We have to start from the basic premise, "Know Thyself", which is our selfhood. The future of brotherhood of man in relation to its transcending process of sovereignty of nations will only depend on the quality of the sense of self of all of us living in this planet.
If we want to achieve our common goal of brotherhood in order for sovereignty to exist, we have to start to process the sense of self among us now or never! This is the challenge to all of us in order to have a world of tomorrow anchored on peace, unity, understanding, justice, hope, respect, dignity, love, honesty, trust, faith and nationalism.("Unity in Diversity").
Let us make freedom and independence be a reality out of our respect to cultural diversity of nations! Let us make this brotherhood and sovereignty our legacy to humanity! Let us make all of these ideals happen NOW!!!