Modern science has shown us that we are close to insignificant in size compared to the vastness of the universe. How do we take this?
IF FUNDAMENTALLY SEPARATE IN OUR OWN EXPERIENCE
If we see ourselves as fundamentally separate from the larger whole, then this can be scary or depressing or confirm the meaninglessness of it all. It can easily tie into some of the emotional issues or hangups we have.
CONNECTED WITH THE LARGER WHOLE
And if we perceive ourselves as part of this larger whole, then it can become a source of awe, fascination, joy, and a sense of deep connection. I am the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe. I am the universe bringing itself into consciousness. Everything I am and experience is something this amazing universe forms itself into here locally as this human self and this life and these experiences.
ONENESS IN TWO FORMS
As suggested, this goes beyond being a part of a larger whole and connections.
There is a very real oneness here in two ways.
We have the oneness of the physical universe. The universe is one seamless system. We and our life and experiences are local expressions of this larger system. We are a holon in a holarchy.
And we have the oneness we already are in our own first-person experience. It’s easy to perceive ourselves as something within the content of our experience, and specifically this human self, an I, a me, a doer, a man or woman, and whatever other identities our minds create for us. After all, that’s what most of us learn we are and what’s correct in most cultures.
And yet, when we look more closely in our own first-person experience, we may find we are more fundamentally something else. We may notice that our more fundamental nature is as capacity for the world as it appears to us, and that we are what the world – and all our experiences – happen within and as.
And here, we find another oneness. We find that to us, as it appears to us, the universe and all of existence already is one.
DEEPEN INTO A PERCEPTION OF CONNECTIONS AND ONENESS
How can we deepen into this perception of connections and oneness?
We can learn about the universe a seamless system, and this planet as a living evolving system. (Systems theories, Gaia theory, and so on.)
We can do the practices to reconnect and similar rituals to get it into our bones.
We can explore what we are in our own first-person experience, for instance using structured inquiries like the Headless experiments and the Big Mind process. Or even exploring the sense fields or using basic meditation, heart-centered practices, and so on.