Wholeness

Posted on October 2, 2005
Filed Under Journal, Society, Spirituality |

The principle of Oneness or “Unity” is touched upon by many articles on this site – which hopefully bring a more comprehensive, or at least an awareness of just what Oneness is. But what can we do with this information? How is it important, and how can it have any bearing upon our lives? We can indeed use this information once we begin to hold a basic understanding of the process with which we fragment reality.

Our world and lives, and indeed the entire Universe are constructed from all manner of “things”, each of these aspects exist one separate from the other. Or so we like to believe. We as humans have an innate tendency to fragment everything we see…we feel that in order to understand our environment we need to break it down into ever smaller chunks and categories.

There are a number of problems with this – not least that if you continue to break things into smaller and smaller pieces…eventually separateness becomes something entirely indefinable. And try as people might, this is something essentially impossible to resolve, as in essence it creates a paradox. If something appears not to possess traits of separateness then how do you begin to understand it by using methods that are designed to fragment?

What leaves so many still scratching their heads is the concept of Oneness. From the human perspective indeed everything appears to have separate traits. This text is separate from the reader, who is in turn separate from the chair they are sitting on…which is separate from the floor upon which it stands. We perceive in this manner simply because we are an observer – seemingly independent of our surrounding environment. If we reach out and touch a wall our senses report that the wall is solid and “out there”.

When we dream – especially if that dream is lucid – we may also reach out and touch a wall, and indeed it too will feel solid and “out there”. Yet the dream wall is entirely a part of us.

As individuals we tend to believe that we are taking a journey through life – metaphorically we see it almost like a train ride; outside the windows we can see everything passing by. Inside the carriage are the things and people we take with us on the journey. We can perhaps have some direction over the train – but essentially it runs its own course. The train exists as a separate entity to the environment it is traveling through. Thus we believe that we exist as separate entities from the life through which we are journeying.

However, this perception is one that has been created through our universal tendency to fragment. In reality we are not at all separate from the journey of life; we merely appear to be.

When you look at the ocean – you can see millions of little ripples working their way across its surface. Indeed if you stand on the beach you can follow the course of a ripple for a long way out, as it makes its way toward the coast, to eventually crest upon a wave which then breaks on the beach. These ripples could almost be perceived as being separate from the ocean. They have their own traits, they move seemingly of their own volition, and there are many of them giving the impression of individuality. However upon closer inspection, one will see that the ripple is not at all separate from the ocean, but is rather a _part_ of it. The ripple is a set of varying interactions playing out across the surface of the sea.

As we move through life we see everything we have a part of as being separate from our selves. We interact with other “things” and other people; we act as a ripple upon that sea of Oneness – creating a further multitude of interactions upon life’s surface.

These interactions play out in all sorts of ways, they are the affect we have on life, and they are the affect life has upon us. Through mediation and introspection we can begin to see these eddies and currents. If we look close enough we can see with our own discernment the areas of ourselves which we cause to possess traits of separateness. It is in identifying these traits that we will be able to integrate the concept of Oneness into our lives.

Aspects of separateness manifest themselves into our lives in many ways. Most often they appear in a manner that is “negative”. For example bad relationships with specific people, or perhaps the same problems arising in different relationships again and again. Emotional issues that cause us to react rather than act. Finding ourselves tied into jobs we hate, or alternatively becoming workaholics. There are many other issues. When we can face these aspects with an open mind, and use discernment and self introspection we will find that that they have arisen through our selves imposing separation upon a particular thought, belief, person or situation.

For a long time I felt nothing but contempt for the idea for “work”. This was because I was associating the idea of “work” with a job I had been in for eight years which I had grown to hate. It wasn’t until I understood that I had been applying the concept of “work” as a separateness that my attitude changed. Once I integrated the idea that work was a part of me – a part of Oneness – I began to find all sorts of ideas popping into my mind out specific work I could do myself, ideas which led me to begin working on my own business. When I still perceived work as a separate entity – i.e. an office job, I would never have been able to believe I could work for myself.

In summary we can see the following:

• Separateness is just a concept. It is a tool like any other, which can be used to aid us in our understanding of the world. However separateness is not the basis of our reality.

• Our mind almost instinctively seeks to fragment our reality and lives by using the above conditioned perspective of reality. Be aware of this and watch and learn to understand how your own mind perceives.

• Know that we are a part of everything that is going on around us.

• Using meditation, self-introspection and discernment, with an awareness gained from the above understandings, identify any issues you wish to resolve that may have arisen from separateness.

• Integrate what you may find into your daily life. As this process continues to unfold – you will find that you become increasingly attuned to a well balanced reality.

We can apply this knowledge to every aspect of our lives, once we move away from the fear of being honest with ourselves – an entirely new path opens up for us. Our reality is one of interconnectedness and wholeness. In separateness we give up our inner power to external factors, whereas integration of Oneness enables us to begin to reclaim ourselves.

Marcus - 2005