Thoughts of Oneness, Part 2

 Here I continue my examination of some quotes and thoughts on oneness.

We try so hard to overcome separateness with others in the moment.

More intimacy. More rubbing of bodies, exchanging of ideas. But it’s always as if you are yelling out of your room and I am yelling out of mine. Even trying to get out of the room invests the room with a reality. Who am I? The room that the mind has built.

We spend so much effort to get out of something that didn’t exist until we created it. Something that is gone in a moment. We’ve all had moments when the room disappeared and we freaked out, or explained it away, or ignored it, or let it pass by. - Ram Dass

It seems that the idea of oneself, the ego, creates separation from the rest of the universe. Many people often misunderstand when teachers talk about "letting go of the ego," as if we seek to completely obliterate it. But that is not the concept. It is simply to understand that the ego, the construct we have created to represent ourselves in our mind, is not the true self. The true self is much bigger and connected to all things, which are a manifestation of the divine. In our current forms and in this world, we cannot fully let go of the ego -- in fact, it is necessary at times to have it. Instead mystics seek a balance where we can let it go and also recognize it as not the true self. The ego isn't necessarily even a bad thing, it is just not THE thing. 

When I speak about the universe, I am speaking of God. Though God is more than the universe. God is the universe and also everything that is NOT the universe. (See my first entry for more on this, and also for further study look into some apophatic teaching.)

O, guiding night;

O, night more lovely than the dawn;

O, night that hast united

The lover with His beloved,

And changed her into her love.

- St. John of the Cross

(More about St. John of the Cross.)

I would recommend reading this entire poem, the Dark Night of the Soul. It is very powerful and moving. Loreena McKennit's version says it this way "transforming each of them into the other." 

I built my house by the sea.

Not on the sands, mind you;

not on the shifting sand.

And I built it of rock.

A strong house

by a strong sea.

And we got well acquainted, the sea and I.

Good neighbours.

Not that we spoke much. 

We met in silences.

Respectful, keeping our distance,

but looking our thoughts across the fence of sand.

Always, the fence of sand our barrier,

always, the sand between.

And then one day,

-and I still don’t know how it happened -

the sea came.

Without warning.

Without welcome, even

Not sudden and swift, but a shifting across the sand like wine,

less like the flow of water than the flow of blood.

Slow, but coming.

Slow, but flowing like an open wound.

And I thought of flight and I thought of drowning and I thought of death.

And while I thought the sea crept higher, till it reached my door.

And I knew, then, there was neither flight, nor death, nor drowning.

That when the sea comes calling, you stop being neighbours,

Well acquainted, friendly-at-a-distance neighbours,

And you give your house for a coral castle,

And you learn to breathe underwater.

- Carol Bialock

We all will die. There is no disputing that. But we do have a choice -- we can learn to accept our death while we still live and be free of that fear for the rest of our days here, or we can experience all of that fear at the last moment. But it will be a trade, not an end. Our consciousness will continue. If you look into the hundreds of accounts of near death experiences, they are nearly universal in this aspect -- the person feels perfectly at peace. Their consciousness continues outside of the body as if that was the natural thing, and I believe that it is. Just as in following Jesus we die to our old life (perhaps even the ego!) and are raised to a new one, we can live free of the limitations of death. Baptism is a clear metaphor for being buried and raised again. (Romans 6:4-5) Why do we not see this more clearly? What we give up in this death is an illusion anyway, not something to cling to. Just concepts, ideas, labels. The real life starts once we let it go. (Matt 16:25.) Come my friends, breathe underwater with me. It is safe and wonderful. 

There is only the Source, and the source is all: Father, Mother, Brother, Sister, Daughter, Son. 

(Matt 12:48)

 

Thoughts of Oneness

Truly I live in an illusion where I am separate from God by labels, and boundaries -- but most of all, guilt. The Christ has fully resolved any grievances between all of us and the divine Source, and in fact we are to be intimate with our "Abba", the great Daddy. Someday it will not feel strange to call the incredible life source "Daddy." Only my guilt and ignorance keeps me from fully embracing this concept -- yet I wish to very strongly! However, as I said in the last entry, I know all is well. There is no "goal" to set for myself, instead to just be a divine Child. So, here are some poems and thoughts on the beautiful oneness I seek. (This may be a bit long but I hope they speak to you.)

The more we talk, the more we think, the more we ideate, the more we separate ourselves from each other. Identify you, as you, as you, as you. And you’re a republican, and you’re a democrat, you’re a beatnik, you’re a hippie, you’re a… this, that, and the other thing; you’re a square or whatever. The more I identify you, you see, in these terms, the more I don’t feel that you are me. You really, physically, are me. All of you; each one, to everybody else, is like a dewdrop on a spider’s web in the early morning which contains in itself all the reflections of all the other dewdrops. And we really relate to each other like that. But in language, in communication, we all put ourselves apart as separate entities, see? And believe that. So the more we go on with this, the more we are divided up, the more we quarrel, the more we don’t understand how to cooperate. -Alan Watts

Separating the world into ideas, concepts, things, boxes -- is useful for certain activities we do. But I believe that we must never forget that the reality is oneness, all things are tied together into the One. 

God created us for love, for union, for forgiveness and compassion and, yet, that has not been our storyline. That has not been our history. - Richard Rohr

I cannot express my sadness at the current state of the American church. We have been taught to spit out bible verses and make every part of life as some kind of rule. I see that many of these people never truly live, never really trust the Spirit, never learn that people and life and living are infinitely more valuable than rules, as Jesus himself says more than once. (Mark 2:27, Mark 3:4)

Only the oneness of love

and the lover is eternal.

Surrender your heart into this union,

for all else in this world is momentary.

-Rumi

We can spend our lives playing "spiritual whack-a-mole" (as I call it) where we just keep running around tackling problems and trying to "fix" the world, or we can understand that our highest and best purpose is to surrender.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life

I was a bride married to amazement.

I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don't want to wonder

if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,

or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

― Mary Oliver

 

We are not a visitor in this world, we are part of it. The world, the trees, the wonderful fruit, the flowers... it was made for us, and us for it. All of the amazing things that there are, without us to observe it, what is it? We give things life as we observe them and appreciate them. How sad would it be if all of this beauty, the stars, the grass, was never observed? How sad would it be for a person to live a life and never truly see these things? Even a traditional Christian can remember God didn't just make us from nothing, we were made from the very soil. We are born from the earth and spirit. Not just material, not just spiritual, both, just as Jesus walked the earth. (In fact, material and spirit are simply concepts and part of the same One!)

I'm going to make this into two parts, now, since it is a bit long.