What comes to mind when you hear the word “oneness”? That it always refer to the same? That what it refers to is something mysterious? Something that belongs to certain religions or New Age thought? Something not grounded in reality? Something real you cannot check out for yourself?
The word oneness can refer to several different things and it’s helpful to differentiate.
THE ONENESS WE ARE TO OURSELVES
We may take ourselves to be this human being in the world, and that’s not wrong and it’s an assumption that works reasonably well.
And yet, if we look more closely in our own first-person experience, we may find something else. We may find that we more fundamentally are capacity for the world – for any content of experience – as it appears to us. And we may find that the world, to us, happens within and as what we are.
Said another way, we may find that we inevitably are consciousness and that the world, to us, happens within and as this consciousness.
We can also say that we are oneness, and the world happens within and as this oneness.
This is the oneness we are and we can explore in our own experience, especially if we are guided by a structured inquiry and someone familiar with the terrain.
ONE IN A MORE CONVENTIONAL SENSE
In mainstream culture, we sometimes say we are one – whether that comes from poetry, politics, science, religion, or something else.
We are one in an ethnic or political sense.
We are one in terms of our shared history, either as a group or as humanity.
We are one in terms of our evolution and shared ancestry, either as humanity or all Earth beings.
We are one in that the essence of what we want is the same and shared by all beings. We all wish for comfort and happiness and to avoid suffering.
In some cases, it can be a dangerous rhetoric if it sets “us” up against “them”. And it can be beautiful and healing to the extent it is inclusive.
ONE IN A SYSTEMS SENSE
We can take this one step further and find oneness in a systems sense.
We are all parts of a seamless system. All of humanity, all of this living planet, all of this evolving universe, all of existence. All of existence is part of a seamless system.
As Carl Sagan said: We are the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe. We are the universe bringing itself into consciousness.
ONE IN A SPIRITUAL SENSE
It’s also possible that all of existence is God or the divine or Spirit. Spirit takes the form of all there is and all we know, including everything connected with this human self.
It’s all the play of the divine. It’s the divine expressing, exploring, and experiencing itself in always new ways, as all there is.
All of existence is divine and one.
SEVERAL DIFFERENT ONENESSES
We can find several different onenesses.
To ourselves, we are the oneness the world happens within and as.
We are one in several different social, historical, biological, and evolutionary ways.
We are parts of a seamless system.
And all can be seen as expressions and explorations of Spirit.
THE VALIDITY OF EACH
Each of these ways of talking about oneness has validity, and the validity is slightly different in each case.
I can check the first one for myself. I can find myself as that oneness.
The two next ones make sense within the realm of stories, and I include science here since science produces stories that help us function and navigate in the world.
And the last one is what mystics from all traditions describe. We can say that they found the first kind of oneness and then over-generalized and assumed that their nature is the nature of all of existence. And there are also hints beyond that suggesting that the “all as Spirit” view is valid in itself. (See articles on the small and big interpretations of awakening for more on this.)
Image: Enso / Zen circle by Sengai
INITIAL DRAFT
Forms of oneness
What comes to mind when we hear the word “oneness”? We may think there is just one form of oneness and that it’s something mysterious.
The word oneness can refer to several different things.
ONE IN OUR OWN EXPERIENCE
We may take ourselves to be this human being in the world, and that’s not wrong and it’s an assumption that works reasonably well.
And yet, if we look more closely in our own first-person experience, we may find something else. We may find that we more fundamentally are capacity for the world – for any content of experience – as it appears to us. And we may find that the world, to us, happens within and as what we are.
Said another way, we may find that we inevitably are consciousness and that the world, to us, happens within and as this consciousness.
We can also say that we are oneness, and the world happens within and as this oneness.
This is the oneness we are and we can explore in our own experience, especially if we are guided by a structured inquiry and someone familiar with the terrain.
ONE IN AN EVOLUTIONARY AND BIOLOGICAL SENSE
We can say we are one in several different social, historical, biological, or evolutionary ways.
We are one as a nation. Or as a group of countries. Or an ethnicity.
We are one in terms of evolution and biology. All of humans are related and intimately connected through our shared ancestors. All Earth life is intimately connected through our evolution and shared ancestry.
ONE IN A SYSTEMS SENSE
We can take this one step further and look at how we are one in a systems sense. We are all parts of a seamless system. All of humanity, all of this living planet, all of this evolving universe, all of existence. All of existence is part of a seamless system.
As Carl Sagan said: We are the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe. We are the universe bringing itself into consciousness.
ONE IN A SPIRITUAL SENSE
It’s also possible that all of existence is God or the divine or Spirit. Spirit takes the form of all there is and all we know, including everything connected with this human self.
It’s all the play of the divine. It’s the divine expressing, exploring, and experiencing itself in always new ways, as all there is.
All of existence is divine and one.
SEVERAL DIFFERENT ONENESSES
We can find several different onenesses.
To ourselves, we are the oneness the world happens within and as.
We are one in several different social, historical, biological, and evolutionary ways.
We are parts of a seamless system.
And all can be seen as expressions and explorations of Spirit.
THE VALIDITY OF EACH
To me, these all have validity in their own way.
I can check the first one for myself.
The two next ones make sense from a combination of my daily life experiences and the stories of science.
And the last one is what mystics from all traditions describe. We can say that maybe they just found the first kind of oneness and over-generalize and assume that their nature is the nature of all of existence. And at the same time, there are several hints suggesting that the “all as Spirit” view is valid. (See articles on the small and big interpretations of awakening for more on this.)