07.08.08
Are We Really All One? by blog author, Margaret Johnston
Are We Really All One?
More and more these days we hear instances of people saying they have come to realize that We All Are One. Some of these people have just latched onto the concept in an artificial sense after hearing about it elsewhere. Others reportedly have actually experienced an episode of unitive consciousness. Another term for this is the experience of Absolute Unitary Being. This is where, through meditation, some other contemplative practice or the use of certain psychoactive drugs, a person has a mystical experience in which they actually perceive all of creation as one entity. As a result these people say they have come to “know” that “We All Are One.” Newberg and D’Aquili, two brain researchers who studied this type of mystical experience, showed that episodes of unitive consciousness can be triggered when intensely focused spiritual contemplation alters activity in the brain. The result is a solid and tangible, though temporary perception of unity with all of creation. The fact that the experience can be located and explained by brain processes does not necessarily diminish its validity. It does tells us those who claim these experiences are not delusional and are not making them up but rather are accurately reporting a genuine episode in their experience. Newberg has chosen to explain this phenomenon with the words “God seems to be hard-wired into the human brain.”Meanwhile, others who have researched the development of religion and spirituality have found that people who are less evolved spiritually tend to translate religious concepts literally. They believe that God is an actual discreet being who is external to ourselves and heaven and hell are real places with an actual physical location. More evolved believers, it seems, understand these concepts metaphorically. God may be a conceptual entity such as Goodness or Love as opposed to a discreet entity somewhere in the sky. He may be more a part of us than something separate. Heaven and hell to the more evolved believer would be states of being with no physical location. They may even be states we can experience here on earth during this life. Taking the two ideas together – 1) that some have experienced a mystical state where they knew “We All Are One,” and 2) that more evolved believers tend to accept religious concepts metaphorically – would it not be appropriate to apply the second concept in our interpretation of the first? I have not had the experience of Absolute Unitary Being. I don’t really meditate or have any other contemplative practice. And I certainly do not intend to begin using psychoactive drugs to find out what unitive consciousness feels like. So I figure I am unlikely to ever literally experience the Oneness of All Being. But it would seem to me that for myself and the overwhelming majority of us who have not been so privileged, we could all benefit from interpreting the Oneness concept metaphorically. If in a metaphorical sense we believed We All Are One, we would know that any good deed we extend to those in need will also enhance our own experience in life. What is done for the benefit of our community, our nation or our world, benefits us as the doer because of course we are also part of that community, nation or world. Though we may not literally be one with – or part of - our invalid neighbor who needs help mowing her lawn, completing that task for her benefits us in a more general way. The most obvious way we benefit is the good feeling we get from helping someone else. There is also the powerful feeling, I am sorry to admit, of being able to do something the recipient of our generosity cannot do. Sharing our talents and abilities though, even when it results in our feeling stronger than the one we are helping, is a way to be more fulfilled. The better use we make of our respective abilities in life, the more personal satisfaction we experience. The more joy and satisfaction we experience, the more we are able to accomplish and the more actual beneficial deeds we are able to accomplish, the more joy we spread. It is a “beneficious” circle! Moreover, when using our abilities to do good deeds, we inspire others to use their abilities to do the same. This in the long run may benefit us. If the others then get more satisfaction by using their talents to good purpose, they will feel more fulfilled and be able to do more good deeds. This then spreads good in the world and helps the original doer. If the concept of Karma has any validity, doing good in this life, gives us a better chance for an improved situation in the next life as well. Of course if spreading goodness in the world helps the spreader, the opposite would also be true. We all are one when doing evil as well. Doing bad deeds against others reflects back on us because it diminishes our soul, makes us smaller, less able to give. Just as good deeds inspire the same in others, our bad deeds can set a bad example for them. Our bad deeds make the world darker and more harsh and then we experience more darkness and more harshness ourselves. Bad deeds set up bad karma for the next life, it there is one. Certainly whatever we do, good or bad, sets in motion a ripple effect that can impact our own lives in the same direction. What we do that is good for another helps us all, including ourselves. What we do against anyone else harms us all – including ourselves. Most of us will never have the literal transcendent experience of Oneness. But certainly we can enhance our own lives and that of everyone else by accepting - in a metaphorical sense – that we truly are All One!
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Joyce Wells said,
July 11, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Hi Margaret. A friend gave me your name and website. I discovered the Unity of all of us some time ago and since then it has taken over my behavior and thinking. I cannot harm someone without myself and harming everyone else. If I do good for myself or anyone, I am doing good for myself. Some people don’t want to reach this level. I first heard of it and believed it in A Course in Miracles class. Since then everything I read or write makes it more real. Now when I sing “We are One In the Spirit, in my Presbyterian church on Sundays, I understand what the song means
This concept brings me great joy. We are all one. If I see, or judge to see, wrong in someone else, I am actually seeing it in myself. That is how I am able to recognize it. This makes easy work of the adage: It takes one to know one. Therefore, I cannot judge someone else without judging myself.
I miss those Course in Miracles classes, but I thank the universe for providing them for me.
Regards, Joyce