Other Traditions and Oneness
Part Two: Waking Up to Oneness
For those who are awake, the cosmos is one.
– Heraclitus
All differences in this world are of degree and not of kind
because Oneness is the secret of everything.
– Swami Vivekananda
Peace will come to the hearts of humanity when they realize
their Oneness with the universe. It is everywhere.
– Black Elk
The above quotes, respectively, are from a 5th century BCE Greek philosopher; a 19th century Hindu monk, author, religious teacher, and mystic; and a widely known and quoted holy medicine man (1863 – 1950 of) the Oglala Lakota people. This reveals a wide valuing of Oneness across centuries and traditions.
William James (1985 - 1910), founder of American psychology, in his classic text, The Varieties of Religious Experience, described Oneness and its relationship to mystical experiences in the following way:
This overcoming of all the usual barriers between the individual and the Absolute is the great mystic achievement. In mystic states, we both become one with the Absolute, and we become aware of our oneness. This is the everlasting and triumphant mystical tradition, hardly altered by differences of clime or creed. In Hinduism, in Neoplatonism, in Sufism, in Christian mysticism, we find the same recurring note.
The idea of Oneness, that the self is inextricably intertwined with the rest of the universe, can be found in many of the world's philosophical and religious traditions. Oneness provides ways to inwardly sense the self as fundamentally connected with other people, creatures, things, and spiritual realities. This is a challenge to Western hyper-individualism and its tendency toward self-centered behavior.
Here is a summary of some of the world's spiritual traditions and their languages for Oneness.
Buddhism, the world's fourth-largest religion with over 520 million followers, comprises seven percent of the global population. Buddhism speaks of the interdependence of all things. Rev. Gregory Gibbs of Nishi Honganji Buddhist Temple summarizes Buddhist teaching by saying, "Buddhism is really whatever sensitizes us to the oneness of all life. Real life, then, is not a struggle, not a challenge, not a problem to be solved, but rather an interconnected wonder to behold and enjoy. One finds meaning in life by connecting to it, or more accurately, seeing that one is connected. Buddhist Oneness is a fact, not an accomplishment. Relating is real, the thing relating is only provisionally real. Cooperation is a natural outcome of experiencing Oneness."
Hinduism is the world's oldest religion and currently the third-largest. It holds the fundamental principle of the unity of all created things. Behind diversity, there is unity. Behind individual souls, there is the Self, one with the Divine. Not only human life but all created life, including animal life, is a unity. We spring from one source.
The belief that we originate from one common source has ethical implications: it leads to a kinder and a gentler world. By its very nature, Hinduism is not a religion of a chosen people or an appointed community. It rejects the approach which divides humanity into believers and non-believers, kafirs and heathens. It regards such divisions as spiritually untenable.
Nonduality comes from the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism. Nonduality is the "absolute truth" that we are all one.
Zen philosophy states that one should move away from individualism and detach from their own body and mind so that one can see and live the one big mind.
Islam is the world's second-largest religion after Christianity. It's concern with Oneness is the absolute Oneness of God.
Taoism is a school of philosophical thought and also a religion, both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin. It emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao or source of everything and the ultimate principle underlying reality. We should move beyond the attachment we have to ourselves and live in harmony with the Tao.
Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices which originated in ancient India and aim to control and still the mind. Nonviolence and respect towards fellow human beings are at the core of the yogic way of living.
Bahai is a relatively new religion, teaching the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Emerging in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the Middle East, where it has faced ongoing persecution since its inception. Oneness is key to the Bahai faith. It teaches that the foundation of all the religions of God are one, that oneness is truth, and truth is oneness that does not admit plurality. This teaching is considered new and specialized to this time.
Without suggesting that all mysticism is the same, the Christian mystics agree with the mystics of other traditions are pointing to "the Beyond that is within."
According to research published by the American Psychological Association, people who believe in oneness -- the idea that everything in the world is connected and interdependent -- appear to have greater life satisfaction than those who don't, regardless of whether they belong to a religion or don't.
The Shadow Side of Oneness
However, there is a shadow side to mystical Oneness. The Victorian poet G.K. Chesterton implicitly questions the notion of oneness in his poem "Mirror of Madmen." The poem's narrator dreams that he has ascended to heaven, where he finds to his horror, that other ascended souls, saints, and angels have the same face — his face.
I do not believe we lose our individuality in Oneness, neither here or when we transition at death to the spiritual realm.
The mystical doctrine of Oneness can be metaphysically disorienting to some. It can also foster authoritarian behavior. Some who advocate Oneness see themselves as superior to others and can act in authoritarian ways.
The conviction that this diverse world is illusory can also encourage an unhealthy detachment called spiritual bypassing. Here practitioners avoid pain and the reality of suffering by dismissing it and retreating into transcendence which undermines efforts to solve problems like war, injustice, and climate change.
If you find yourself resisting any other meditative prayer practice besides Centering Prayer or Contemplative Prayer, you may find it valuable to explore if you are avoiding unresolved issues either on a personal, interpersonal or systemic level. Combining Centering Prayer with Whole-Body Mystical Awakening meditative prayer is an excellent way to stay embodied and avoid spiritual bypassing.
The Overview Effect
Now known as "the overview effect," multiple astronauts and cosmonauts have reported this surprising, sudden shift of their spiritual awareness during their time in space. During Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell's return from the moon in 1971, he had a profound spiritual realization while looking out the window of his spacecraft. It changed his entire life. He said:
"Instead of an intellectual search, there was suddenly an intense gut feeling that something was different. It occurred when looking at Earth and seeing this blue-and-white planet floating there. Knowing it was orbiting the Sun, seeing that Sun, seeing it set in the background of the very deep black and velvety cosmos. Seeing — rather, knowing for sure — that there was a purposefulness of flow, of energy, of time, of space in the cosmos. That it was beyond humankind's rational ability to understand, that suddenly there was a nonrational way of understanding that had been beyond my previous experience.
There seems to be more to the universe than a random, chaotic, purposeless movement of a collection of molecular particles. On the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space toward the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, and harmonious."
A Difference in East and West in Oneness
Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in Metamodernism and Integral. He reflects on Ken Wilber’s approach to nonduality and distinctions in traditional East/West movements toward oneness.
In Emergentism: A Religion of Complexity for the Metamodern World he says, "We should note that Wilber's evolutionary spirituality is of a very specific type: namely, a Buddhist one. His vision differs from thinkers like de Chardin. Other traditions can be accommodated, but always with some violence done to their metaphysics or fundamental claims.
“For my part, I see a need for an expression of evolutionary spirituality that fits more within the theological lineages of the West. Specifically, Emergentism emphasizes the teleological [relating to the design and purpose of the material world] emergence of consciousness out of matter. This is the very aim of existence, and the Omega point toward which it is moving is understood as the divine attractor whose continual realization culminates infinitely towards the emergence of God consciousness. God emerges from chaos as an immanent deity. The Universe is the development of God.”
Not so for Wilber. For him, the Formless ground outside of evolutionary time is the true goal of spiritual aspiration. Ultimately, for Wilber, it is the formless non-dual realm that is the true ground and aim of all things, not some historical Omega singularity of maximal complexity toward which we are marching. Wilber's vision thus leads to a rather different conclusion than the other Emergentist theological traditions—to a "telos" [ultimate aim] in formless Emptiness, and not the rich Fullness of God more at home in the Western tradition."
Dempsey says that the goal of evolution or Omega is absolute God consciousness, whose nature is a dynamic, infinite increase in depth and beauty.
God Consciousness
I generally advocate Ken Wilber's magnificent view of Integral Theory, having written my last two books interpreting parts of Integral Theory in a Christian framework. However, I agree with Dempsey — the Omega point of Oneness is not Nothingness, but God Consciousness.
What does this mean in terms of understanding and practice? First of all, God consciousness in the integral framework is quite different from the common understanding of God and also that held by many theologians. It is each of the three faces of God held in their fullness both in understanding and experience. This provides us with a rich diversity of seeing and experiencing the divine. In this "practical mysticism," we encounter the reality of the Oneness of God consciousness in three dimensions.
God Beyond Us as transcendence in our four centers of spiritual knowing.
God Beside Us focused in our heart center as diverse personal spiritual presences, from ascended masters like Jesus to Jesus' Abba and other guides and beings in the spiritual realm.
God Being Us as experienced in each of our four centers of spiritual knowing.
This diversity of this vibrant abiding awareness allows us to manifest God on earth.
Indra's Net: All is One, One is All
Vedic religion developed in India and gradually evolved into Hinduism between the 6th and 2nd centuries BCE. Kenneth Leong, author, Zen teacher, scientific mystic, and professor in Indra's Net and the Cosmic Christ, says, "The legend is that Indra's net is an infinitely large net owned by the Vedic god-like deity, Indra. This net is suspended above his palace. A brilliant jewel is attached to each of the knots of the net. Each jewel contains and reflects the image of all the other jewels in the net, which sparkles in the magnificence of its Oneness. It represents the cosmic axis of Buddhist and Hindu cosmology. It provides a beautiful visual metaphor for the interdependence and interpenetrating Oneness of all phenomena."
A good explanation of the Hindu/Buddhist myth of Indra's net is found in The Tao of Physics, by Fritjof Capra, physicist and systems theorist: "Particles are dynamically composed of one another in a self-consistent way, and in that sense can be said to 'contain' one another. In Mahayana Buddhism, a very similar notion is applied to the whole universe. This cosmic network of interpenetrating things is illustrated in the Avatamsaka Sutra by the metaphor of Indra's net, a vast network of precious gems hanging over the palace of the god Indra.
I was unfamiliar with Indra's Net until several years ago when I began seeing, in eyes open third-eye visions, a magnificent, brilliant, golden pattern of webbing that contained jewels. When I researched the image I was seeing, I found Indra's Net and these explanations. I continue to occasionally see this vision and am always enchanted with its beauty and meaning.
To me, it means the interconnectedness or oneness of all the diverse phenomena in the universe. The universe is like an infinite array of jewels, each one of which contains a reflection of all other jewels in its surface.
Oneness in the Jesus path may be called Cosmic Consciousness, Christ in us, the Cosmic Christ, the Realm (Kingdom) of God, God consciousness and the All in All. Travelers on this path also have a diverse array of experiences of divine, human, and cosmic unity.
While recognizing the different understandings and avenues to Oneness, at ICN, we join with the mystics of all traditions in embracing Oneness for the further loving evolution of the world
