Wisdom & Mindfulness

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Oneness ~ All in One

“Oneness is the source of love.” Ram Dass

Oneness is a fundamental concept in mind training, one that rests on principles of natural law.

It claims that the state of ‘being joined as one’ is found in the very nature of existence.

We depend on each other just as much as we depend on nature and nature on us.

Only in the social jungle is “Every man for himself”.

In a world where individual happiness and security occupy a central place, the law doesn’t seem to apply to us humans.

We take care of our home and its residents, we sometimes forget that our existence rests on those “outside” as well.

Watching the latest series of natural disasters, witnessing suffering alongside acts of heroism, we get a sense of oneness.

We cannot but feel overwhelmed by the extent of the destruction and the toll of the disasters.

Nature’s call reminds us we are All part of it.

Why do we need extreme circumstances to find ourselves in oneness?

Because our mind has a function, to look after our survival and to ensure our continuity.

Our mind is set to focus on the “I” and aims at securing what’s “mine”.

In a more or less constant state of self-concern our thoughts revolve around our small private world.

Self-concern

“No Self, no problem!” Old saying

In our day-to-day, we’re busy at work, building, achieving and maintaining assets, mainly concerned with meeting desires, needs, rights and attitudes.

Listening-in the thoughts that assail our mind, we find these concentrate mostly on what will add happiness and put off suffering.

Unfortunately, the same mechanism that directs us to focus our efforts, to ensure we keep working at improving our lives, leads to isolation.

Self-concern not only hurts our relationships with others, kept unchecked it can erode our sense of belonging and lead to loneliness.

When all that matters is ‘Me’, the world seems farther away, there’s very little room to include others.

Me against the world…

The more we perceive our ‘survival’ is at stake, the more we’ll experience difficulty, pain and suffering.

Without oneness’s backing, we’re left feeling alone, with little support.

In mindfulness training, we work to remind ourselves that everything including the cells in our body is part of a network.

We learn to stretch the imaginary walls of our private domain and reach beyond.

Thus, we train our mind to adopt to a new habit, to see itself connected to everything.

We bring ourselves to act in awareness of our interconnectedness.

Your actions matter

“When one person gains, the whole world gains. And if one person falls, the whole world falls to that extent.” Gandhi

We don’t exist in the vacuum, as we strive to improve our quality of life, others are busy doing the same.

Most obstacles we encounter, difficulties we experience, and life-altering changes are just meetings between conditions, people and situations.

When we’re focused on securing personal comfort, we’re not attentive to the close relationship that exists between ourselves and others.

In this state there is very little room for cooperation.

Thus, Oneness is an understanding that we embrace for ourselves in mind training.

One we also invite and seek to remember in our encounter with life.

It serves as a reminder of our shared responsibilities and limitations, for in this picture we call Life, we’re but moving parts.

Everything around us including ourselves is in an ever-changing and constant interplay, where every movement carries endless consequences.

Without awareness oneness is difficult to perceive, but to ensure both our happiness and security, its complexity must be taken into account.

Practicing mindfulness alongside analytic meditations helps us recognize our interconnectedness.

The practice allows us to dissolve the imaginary walls that separate us from other and thus emerge from our isolation.

This is where true collaboration is born, when we see ourselves sharing both joys and sadness, where we listen to one another.

Oneness ∼ One with the fabric of life

“When you’re deeply attentive, if you look carefully you can see through the veil of separateness.” Jack Kornfield.

The world is alive and beating, everything in the web of life plays a role, all it asks is that we pay attention.

It requires effort at first, a clear intention, a desire to discover how things interact, how they come together in the big picture.

Meditation demands that we widen our perspective so that it includes what’s missing.

We meet one and through one, we touch the whole world.

After all, everything we put our hands on is marked by thousands of people, in whom, like in ourselves, exist past and future generations.

This is where the true value of oneness is revealed, we’re never alone; the whole world accompanies us wherever we go.

Our sphere grows significantly the more we invite the relationship, it also helps maintain a level of optimism in troubling times.

On days we feel lonely, we remember that there is no such thing as ‘separate’ and invite in the warmth of oneness.

It knows how to bring to mind the truth and put everything back in the right perspective.

Look around you, this is your world, it knows no center, nor borders, and everything belongs here.

Oneness ~ One with nature

”We have made a mess of this world, each one of us, because we don’t know what living is.” Jiddu Krishnamurti

In mind training one sees through the panoramic lens of oneness, so that we are one with nature.

We’re All but elements of a whole in which nature determines both movement and tone.

Together as one, just passing manifestations of perfection in its constant becoming.

We, human beings are only under the illusion that our species is the Supreme Sovereign.

In this masterpiece everything contributes and affects everything, birth leads to death and death to birth.

The weak help the strong and vice versa, there’s no difference.

Nature’s oneness extends in space and time, today pays the price of yesterday’s choices, who knows what tomorrow will look like¿

When we’re busy with construction, we’re not free to think about the consequences of our actions on nature.

Thus, the pursuit of personal happiness leads to a kind of blindness.

We tend to forget that everything is interconnected and in a state of delicate balance.

The practice of oneness is here to remind us that in the short time we have to spend here, we’re responsible.

Likewise, our mindfulness of the link that connects everything in nature leads to a deep understanding.

We are the ecology and the footsteps each of us leaves behind will continue to resonate in the future.

To think ‘one with nature’ does not require we join Greenpeace, it merely presses that we consider our actions’ end-results.

Oneness ~ an alliance with life

“We have to train ourselves to look in a way that we know that when we touch one thing, we touch everything.” Thich Nhat Hanh

To experience oneness and maintain the experience, necessitates that we remain vigilant.

We have to stay attuned to the natural tendency of our mind to go back to business as usual.

If we catch ourselves in a loop of thoughts surrounding the “I”, we’ll look for alternatives around us and endeavor to connect with their presence.

We’ll shift our focus for a moment and gaze at the sky, the birds, the flowers, or an unfamiliar face.

These are all elements of our ecology, parts of ourselves.

In doing so, we allow our troubles to shrink-down and give ourselves some rest.

We let go of constricting and permanent labels by bringing a thought to mind, “we’re all in the same boat”.

Close attention is here to prompt us to come back to the ‘here and now’, to stay connected.

Only then can we really take full responsibility for the choices and attitudes we opt to adopt.

Oneness is a binding contract between ourselves and nature, it instructs us to pay attention to the nature of our actions.

It presses us to regularly pause and look at out attitude towards our immediate and distant environment.

How do we know if we’re in the right direction? We listen to our hearts, we take our time to check-in with ourselves.

How does it feel?

The heart can tell, if a pleasant feeling came-up we chose from a right state of mind.

On the other hand, if we experienced discomfort, we should consider recalculating our route.

Remember, See as Big as You Can, around your small private circle stands a huge sphere.

Everything in it is important, special, and works hand-in-handॐ

Nathalie Bizawi, founder of Wisdom & Mindfulness meditation center. Senior Meditation, Mindfulness and philosophy instructor, From Wingate Academic College. M.A in Education from TAU University, Tel Aviv.

Wisdom & Mindfulness your meditation center in Tel Aviv