You Are Your Highest Authority
What does it mean, in practice, to be One with all that is?
We have this idea in spiritual communities of “Oneness”. I think it’s impossible to encompass what that means for everyone, but I’m going to try to give a definition here for the purposes of this article.
To Be the “One”
I think when people talk about this “Oneness” it’s an expression of all that is. It’s the elementary material of all living things, and in some cosmologies, all things period. It could be the idea that I am made of the same stuff as the stars and the laptop that I’m typing on right now. Molecules. Atoms. Quarks. We’re all the same material in infinite configurations.
This “Oneness” could also be called “consciousness”. There are varying schools of thought on what constitutes a conscious being. Jains, for example, believe plants and natural elements — air, water, etc. — also have consciousness. So, anything with consciousness would be encompassed in this “One”.
“Oneness” implies we’re all connected by the same essence, so every human being (or conscious being) comes from the same source. It’s the idea that this essence beyond the mind and body is what’s real and it contains a wholeness and completeness, which we can only access when we exist beyond the mind-body…
