One of the statements I get a lot when I talk about oneness is that it seems to people that we have to sacrifice our individuality to become one with each other. In a sense that is true but only in so far as our individuality creates a sense, a feeling of separateness. That sense of separateness is the origin of all suffering and it is manifested in us in the form of tensions that stem from all kinds of sources. Some of them are easy to let go of… like the tensions from an intense day of work (even that is not so easy for many of us) but others are persistent and deep. Much of those underlying, deep-seated tensions are below the surface. Which is to say that we don’t even notice them. Once we start any kind of work that dissolves those tensions we realize that there is a lot of them accumulated in us. Layers after layers… So our sense of separateness, the actual feeling of it is with us all the time… and from that sense, oneness looks just like another thought of many. An abstract idea that sounds like self-sacrifice.

But you can think of it also in a different way: how far is your head away from your feet? If you measure it from the outside you can easily determine it. But how does that look like from the inside? How far away are from you to you? You see, actually, there is no distance between this part of you to that part of you. Inside you are everywhere. The reason you may not be able to feel that are those tensions that we have a hard time letting go of. But the more you do you will start to feel that oneness and the more you do you will come to your uniqueness. Once you feel your unique self you also will feel the oneness. The oneness that includes everything – yes, the entire universe and with that, of course, all human beings.

That is the part – other human beings – that we seem to have a problem with. It’s easier to forget about the tensions that separate us when we are in nature when we ponder the vastness of the universe when we listen to an amazing piece of music or whatever it is that gets you in that space of letting go and simply being with. Please share what it is that allows you to feel that sense of simple happiness…

But when we think of the people that we think are causing the problems in our lives we often loose any sense of connectedness and feel stress, tension, anger, hate… a whole set of emotions that essentially enhance our sense of separateness. Often we feel to point out what the problem is in the hope that pointing to the pain will cause a change and will get others involved in our cause. Don’t get me wrong, that strategy has worked in the sense that it got us to where we are today and many people have lost their lives to help create the freedom and luxuries we enjoy today. But is this the way out of our current situation? Today our problems are increasingly worldwide and transcend all lines that separate us. It seems to me that we have to realize the power of coming together and to create an alternate culture that doesn’t just stand against others but that is ultimately 100% inclusive. An alternate culture that is born out of the current based on the oneness we can see and feel when we integrate the past.

And the exciting realization is that when one of us does that the whole universe, all of nature and human beings too respond. It comes to them from the inside, the collective inside that we all share. Whenever that happens it becomes a bit easier for the next person to make that journey. And when many of us care to work through our pain and fall into oneness it will accelerate that change in ways we cannot predict but we will know that we are foster the awakening of us all.

So dive in and face your darkness, your tensions, your trauma… the reward for it is immeasurable. I will continue to share resources that help us understand and practice what I call “living oneness”. Here is a video by Adyashanti that I highly recommend listening to… it is simply wonderful and spot-on: