How to Awake to Oneness
Part Five: Waking Up to Oneness
"God is called the One because God is all things universally. For there is nothing in existence that does not participate in the One."
- Dionysius the Areopagite, first-century saint.
"Praying without ceasing is not ritualized, nor are there even words. It is a constant state of awareness of Oneness with God."
- Peace Pilgrim, 20th-century American spiritual teacher, mystic, and peace activist.
"The God who existed before any religion counts on you to make the Oneness of the human family known and celebrated."
- Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican bishop and theologian.
Giving Ourselves to the Work that Needs to Be Done
You may notice that I quote extensively from others in this series. I do so for two reasons. The first is to show how widespread the idea of Oneness is. The second reason is that some say it so well.
In his book, Working with Oneness, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee Ph.D. and Sufi mystic, writes, "Oneness is very simple: everything is included and allowed to live according to its true nature. This is the secret that is being revealed, the opportunity that is offered. How we make use of this opportunity depends upon the degree of our participation, how much we are prepared to give ourselves to the work that needs to be done, to the freedom that needs to be lived."
This is our call at ICN – "to give ourselves to the work that needs to be done."
Henri Nouwen (1932-1996), Dutch Catholic priest, professor, author, and theologian, says, "Living a spiritual life requires a change of heart, a conversion. Such a conversion may be marked by a sudden inner change, or it can take place through a long, quiet process of transformation. But it always involves an inner experience of Oneness."
At ICN, we advocate for this "inner experience of Oneness." What follows is my understanding of some of the ways we can practice letting it emerge deeply and profoundly within us as experienced in our four centers of spiritual knowing.
SENSING, FEELING, INTUITING, AND EMBRACING ONENESS.
There are two kinds of knowing. One is conceptual knowing. The other is sensing-feeling-intuitive knowing that is embodied. Whole-Body-Mystical Awakening, ICN's form of mystical prayer, is all about feeling-sensing-intuitive embodied knowing, not conceptual knowing. This is the magnificent doorway to Oneness and is crucial to waking up.
Oneness is not only experienced in a variety of ways in different people, but it is also experienced differently in each of our four centers of spiritual knowing. The more centers we awaken to Oneness, the more we enter it. We can learn:
To SENSE
Oneness in several forms with our head center
To FEEL
Oneness in humankind in love flowing from our heart center
To INTUIT
our Oneness with God in our spiritual womb center
To EMBRACE
the Oneness of embodied nature and cosmic material reality in our grounded feet center
This practice enacts Ramon Panikkar's key cosmotheandric principle, central to his philosophy. Cosmotheandrism is the term coined by Panikkar to express the inter-relational connectedness of these three dimensions of reality: the material universe (Greek, kosmos), humankind (Greek, anthropos/aner) and God (Greek, theos). Reality has three irreducible, interrelated, and interpenetrating dimensions, united in relationship: the divine, the human and the material.
Let's explore this sensing-feeling-intuiting-embracing kind of spiritual knowledge in each of our four centers of spiritual knowing – head, heart, womb, and feet.
SENSING Oneness in our head center
There are four quite different dimensions of mindfulness in our head center of spiritual knowing:
1. Conceptual thinking
2. Awakened consciousness
3. Stillness
4. Transcendence
We gain conceptual thinking through reading, talks, reflection, educational courses, and conversations. While conceptual thinking usually happens in a state of ordinary consciousness, it can be a pathway into deeper spiritual experience. Recently, months of researching and reading for this series have opened new ways for me to experience Oneness. I hope that reading these essays and other explorations will do the same for you.
In Awakened consciousness, we leave the realm of concepts about spirituality in our mind to sense them in our awakened spiritual awareness. We do this in our head center by moving into a deeper mental state that allows images, impressions, and words to arise that we don't arrive at by thinking but emerge from deep within us. This may also include, for some, visions, bodily sensations, hearing words, sensing smells, and other visionary phenomena. We sometimes call this “spiritual knowing.”
Stillness is sensing deep quiet that we enter where there are no thoughts, only silence. This is the aim of Centering Prayer and other practices that help to quiet our busy minds. This is a mind state of “unknowing.”
Transcendence occurs when we drop into a profound, nonordinary realm of consciousness that moves beyond our physical needs and realities into sensing "the peace that passes understanding" (Phil 4:6). This can happen spontaneously at any moment in our lives and can leave a lasting impression. More commonly, it comes from dedicated practices such as Whole-Body Mystical Awakening that gently lead to becoming consnioius of the transcendent Oneness that already exists deep within us.
There is a style of Buddhist practice in which, instead of imagining that there is some future time — lifetimes from now — in which you will become fully awakened, you practice as if you already were. It's called "Taking the result as the path." This is the method of the inner tantras of Vajrayana Buddhism. I practice not to find something I do not have but to let that transcendence already present deep within me emerge.
∞ is the symbol for infinity. Infinite or transcendent consciousness may exist in all sentient beings (and perhaps in many other physical forms). Our image shows it living at some level in animals and expanding in early humans. It has become more conscious in today's human form. Some spiritually enlighted people wake up enough to be in transforming touch with embodied transcendence. And, in the far right image above, when we leave the physical realm at death, we begin an even more profound journey of transcendence as our unique selves in a spiritual body. I understand that we will exist on the other side in Oneness in such a way that we maintain our uniqueness as individuals, as demonstrated by Jesus' appearance in his "spiritual" body after his death.
Jesus said in his Abba's realm after death, there were many rooms, and he went to prepare a place for us in that dimension. I envision these rooms as made for wherever we are on our journey. Those at the beginning of their spiritual journey can lovingly be able to be where they are and open up more fully. Those further along will find similar companions and the best environment to evolve ever more in the wonders of eternal life with loved ones and companions on the journey.
FEELING love for all humankind in our heart center of spiritual knowing
The writer of 1 John 4 says, "Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. In this way, love is made complete . . . because in this world, we are like God. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear."
Ramana Maharshi (1879 - 1950) was an influential Indian Hindu sage. He was once asked, "How should we treat others?" He replied, "There are no others." Understood at a conceptual level, this doesn't make sense. At a spiritual level, it is a beautiful truth.
In Be Love Now, Ram Dass (1931 –2019), American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga, psychologist, and author, says:
"If I go into the place in myself that is love and you go into the place in yourself that is love, we are together in love. Then you and I are truly in love, the state of being love. That's the entrance to Oneness. This love is like sunshine, a natural force, a completion of what is, a bliss that permeates every particle of existence. In Sanskrit, it's called sat-cit-ananda, "truth-consciousness-bliss," the bliss of consciousness of existence."
This bliss-filled love is more than our overused word “love” can describe. It is an almost indescribable flow of joy, peace, love, ecstasy, awe, and astonishment, all at the same time! I call the love released in transcendent Oneness consciousness "peace-love-bliss."
For years, I read about what the Eastern mystics called "bliss." It sounded good, but it was not a part of my life. Through therapy, prayer, meditation, research, and spiritual practice, it is now not only part of my life but is accessible whenever I turn my attention inward. This started by deepening into my heart center. Practicing Whole-Body Mystical Awakening, especially with others, has opened new dimensions of bliss in me that have been truly transforming. My days are more and more punctuated with flowing streams of peace-love-bliss. At 85, I feel the best I’ve felt in my whole life!
I resonate with Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart's words: "It is bliss that draws us toward and joins us to the being of all things because that bliss is already one with being and consciousness, in the infinite simplicity of God. . . . This is because, in God, the fullness of being is also a perfect act of infinite consciousness that, wholly possessing the truth of being in itself, forever finds its consummation in boundless delight."
The deeper we sink in the love flowing in our heart center for others, the closer we move to the truth-consciousness-bliss of Oneness.
Click here to read a beautiful story that led me to experience that there is no other — and one that you can practice.
Gazing to Merge in Transcendent Love and Bliss
Some forms of Buddhism recommend gazing at the Buddha. Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar and meditator who, for over 30 years, has overseen the spiritual activities of the extensive worldwide network. He says, "Visualizing the holy body of the Buddha with the single mind that has perfected the unification of method and wisdom is an incredible technique that becomes unbelievable purification and accumulates inconceivable merit. This meditation itself becomes a path to quickly achieve the completely pure holy body of the deity, which can guide sentient beings who have different levels of mind perfectly, without mistakes." (Italics mine)
Alex Grey is American visual artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner known for creating spiritual and psychedelic paintings. I have twelve Alex Grey images in my Faces of Jesus Collection of 240 pictures, now installed in a permanent gallery on the campus of Missouri Valley College.
Grey says, "When we gaze into the eyes of our beloved, we're staring into the eyes of a sacred mirror, and we recognize ourselves."
Eckhart Tolle says to “Look into the eyes of your beloved dog and sense that innermost core. When you are present, you can sense the spirit, the one consiouness, in every creature and love it as yourself.”
GAZING AT JESUS
Mystical Christian meditators down through the centuries have gazed at icons of Jesus as the God-human deity who radically showed us what God-Being-Us looks like in fully manifested form.
Use your favorite image of Jesus or the one below. If you find it difficult to relate to Jesus because of spiritual abuse done in his name, you can connect with any spiritual master you feel drawn to or who reveals themself to you.
When I first did this with Jesus, I said, "But Jesus, this isn't the real you." He said, "It is if you let it be."
I sometimes focus on the eyes of Jesus. Jesus said "The eye is the lamp of the body (Matt. 6:22). Gaze into the smiling eyes of Jesus and let your souls become one.
When the mirror of your heart becomes clear and pure,
you'll behold images which are outside this world.
You will see the image and the image-Maker,
both the carpet of the spiritual expanse
and the One who spreads it.
— Rumi
The experience of devotion to Jesus in the mystical visionary realm is a primary doorway to coonecting with him and his Oneness, as well as accessing your other spiritual messengers.
Set your intention to connect with love, devotion, and thankfulness for Jesus if you have not already. The devotional visionary pathway to Jesus has been deeply carved into the cosmos, with millions of people accessing Jesus trillions of times down through history. He is the primary channel of divine guidance and spiritual companionship for Christians.
Once again, if you are still healing from the rampant spiritual abuse in a traditional, rigid, patriarchal, or homophobic Christian setting, you may find Mary or other advanced guides more accessible. You may want to ask God to help you be open to whomever you are ready for.
If you begin with Jesus, you will find this opens the pathway to access other guides. After you engage your heart space, let the deep devotion to and love for God and Jesus or your primary guide flow. Notice what is happening in you.
As you gaze at Jesus, you might sense him as an energetic field. l See him in a favorite physical artist's image, sculpture, or icon — or feel his presence with a knowing or bodily sensation. Notice how his energetic presence is affecting your awareness.
You may experience bliss, exhilaration, and euphoria, a happiness that is often unbearable and certainly indescribable.
Or you may not sense anything at all. Entering the visionary realm takes practice and attunement. Don't give up if it doesn't all come right away. Keep trying to move down into your heart, and its effects within you will emerge in time.
In Oneness we shall spread peace.
In Oneness we shall transmit a new world.
In Oneness we shall lead the world into a new consciousness.
We’ll continue next week with looking at oneness in our womb and feet centers.