The Truth of Oneness
The biggest spiritual truth is the truth of oneness. Everything that exists is part of a wholeness, a unified field that underlies reality. This is a radical concept because it seems to contradict our direct experience, where it appears that there are many different and separate things. Your body seems separate from my body, from the chair, and from everything else. And yet, two things can be very different without being separate. Your thumb is clearly different from your little finger, but are they separate? Or are they both also part of something bigger: your hand? Can’t the same be said about any two parts of your body? They are different but not separate.
Right now, every object near you is affecting you. There are several different forms of energy flowing between you and every other nearby object, including light, heat, gravity, sound, and electricity. In addition, molecules are escaping from your body and the nearby objects, even solid inanimate objects. These molecules circulate in the space between you and every object and also land on and even enter your body. With every breath, you are breathing in some of the furniture and walls and other people in the room right now. In fact, in every breath is at least one atom that was also at one time inhaled by any other person you can name in history. There is even evidence that every single atom affects every other atom no matter how far apart they are. If that is the case, where does your body actually stop and the apparent other objects or bodies begin?
What about the space itself that you and other objects appear in? Where does space stop and your body begin? Is there still space where your body is located? As subatomic physics has shown, even physical objects are 99.9999% space, and the subatomic particles themselves are actually just clouds of probabilities. Are there really any boundaries in this infinite sea of space that we and everything else exist in?
Without having to experience oneness with everything in this moment, can you at least experience a sense of connectedness or intimacy with something else or someone else? If you can taste the oneness you have with a lover or beloved pet or something that you find beautiful or inspiring, can you also sense a more subtle sense of connection with other objects or people? An even more profound way we are all connected is in our consciousness itself. There is really only one Being here, and we are all it!
Sairam,
Thank you for the thought provoking article.
I have been thinking about what Swami has said: “You perceive unity as diversity instead of visualizing unity in diversity.” Beautifully nuanced and so rich in meaning.
As such, both the subject and the object are, in reality, a single, infinite and indivisible whole.
Knowing this, we make no judgements, and neither prejudice nor opinion obscures our vision.