Thoughts on Oneness

Oneness.

Unity.

           These two words were put forth to me by my dear new friend, and spiritual companion, Tracey Schmidt, after an experience with a letter I sent her where I signed of, "In Oneness..."  I promised to write my feelings and thoughts on Oneness to her, and have been contemplating this ever since. Today, coincidentally on the anniversary of the chaos and destruction which was September 11 in New York and elsewhere, I finally have something to share.

          To me unity means individuals, or individual entities coming together for a singular purpose, for which they become a united whole. They remain individuals, but from the outside, the unification becomes so strong that the individuals are seen as one solid whole entity. Examples of this are the "united states," where individual states bond and form a country called America. Or a couple that becomes united in marriage, becomes in many ways "one" while retaining healthy individuality. The problem I have with unity, if this can be a problem, is that it is not synonymous with Oneness. Unity implies separateness, as the unified whole is put into relation with other beings, or other entities. In the civil war in America the "South" was united against the "North."  So, unity has something to offer the unified individuals, but it has duality as the backdrop against which it is invariably cast.

          Oneness, however, is to me the spiritual aspect of unity, in that the experience of Oneness promises to the individual that duality is overcome totally and completely and the resulting experience is that duality is in fact an illusion of separateness which when realized bespeaks of only One Divine Being experiencing through those caught in the illusion of separateness. Oneness, to me, is the goal of mature human consciousness, which when awakened by the Spiritual Master, realizes that unity and duality, I and Thou, "manyness" and Oneness are words used by those caught in the grip of ignorance about the Truth. Truth is experienced as Oneness, apparently, by those who transcend all limitation to know by direct experience "I alone am the Reality. I am God. All that appears otherwise is an illusion created by false thinking."

    This is what I have gathered from my years with my Beloved Master, Avatar Meher Baba. I long to experience that Oneness which brings me into divine unification of my consciousness with His. May all beings know the Peace of Oneness soon.

In Oneness,

Laurent