All is One - what does it mean to you?

[strawdog65]

I think space is empty - yet full of potentiality.

 

Even particles and energy move within space.

Without space nothing can connect - no thing will birth.

 

I also think not all is one.

 

Only space is one.

Space is that which permits the cause to rise.

Cause and effect in turn allows the manifestation of diversity.

Its hard to imagine the diverse forms as all one.

That is confusing the matter.

 

Diversity is many.

Space is one.

 

From one the many arise in relative forms,

again, thru cause and effect.

When the energy of effects run their course,

the relative many again return to one.

 

Everything is not connected to everything else

while existing in diversity, experienced by the senses.

If indeed all is one, how can experience arise?

 

 

 

Ho CowTao!

 

Good points...

 

 

It is because consciousness tells us we are separate, and we

believe it, that we are able to experience anything as new and different.

It is our limited existence in this physical form that allows us to

believe that our consciousness encased in this flesh is apart from

the universe we are part of. The illusion is that we are separate.

 

Space is in fact occupied, even in a vacumm there is something

at the quantum level existing as the fabric of space.

 

Spooky Action at a distance, in regards to entangled, particles, atoms, energy.

There is instantaneous change when they are separated by large distances.

By changing one, you effect change in the entangled partner without

ever physically touching it. This quantum entanglement to me is an

indicator of this interconnectedness that we are unaware of.

 

There is quite a lot of information

pointing to the interconnectedness of everything.

Photons being both a particle and a wave.

Deterministic only when there is an observer.

 

Much more can be delved into in this regard...

 

Peace!

[C T]

 

Peace!

I am so happy you have decided to re-visit the forum, Strawdog.

 

You bring with you a sense of peaceful presence. Its an admirable quality.

[manitou]

It's funny how we wax and wane on this forum. I just hate it when Straw Dog wanes (which is actually what I seem to be doing at this time, as he waxes).

 

All is One, in my understanding, is the self-realization attained after doing years and years of self-examination. It's not an intellectual question. It is a Knowing down in your belly who you actually Are. We are all the same Being with many different arms.

[steve]

Ho CowTao!

 

Good points...

 

 

It is because consciousness tells us we are separate, and we

believe it, that we are able to experience anything as new and different.

It is our limited existence in this physical form that allows us to

believe that our consciousness encased in this flesh is apart from

the universe we are part of. The illusion is that we are separate.

 

Space is in fact occupied, even in a vacumm there is something

at the quantum level existing as the fabric of space.

 

Spooky Action at a distance, in regards to entangled, particles, atoms, energy.

There is instantaneous change when they are separated by large distances.

By changing one, you effect change in the entangled partner without

ever physically touching it. This quantum entanglement to me is an

indicator of this interconnectedness that we are unaware of.

 

There is quite a lot of information

pointing to the interconnectedness of everything.

Photons being both a particle and a wave.

Deterministic only when there is an observer.

 

Much more can be delved into in this regard...

 

Peace!

_/\_

 

 

It's funny how we wax and wane on this forum. I just hate it when Straw Dog wanes (which is actually what I seem to be doing at this time, as he waxes).

 

All is One, in my understanding, is the self-realization attained after doing years and years of self-examination. It's not an intellectual question. It is a Knowing down in your belly who you actually Are. We are all the same Being with many different arms.

_/\_

 

Purdy eloquent fir a coupla of Bums.

[zerostao]

erwin schrodinger. (1964) My View of the World. Cambridge University Press

"It is not possible that this unity of knowledge, feeling, and choice which you call your own should have sprung into being from nothingness at a given moment not so long ago; rather this knowledge, feeling and choice are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically one in all men, nay in all sensitive beings. But not in this sense - that you are a part, a piece, of an eternal, infinite being, an aspect or modification of it,

as in Spinoza's pantheism. For we should have the same baffling question: which part, which aspect are you? What, objectively, differentiates it from the others? No, but inconceivable as it seems to ordinary reason, you - and all other concious beings as such - are all in all. Hence this life of yours which you are living is not merely a piece of the entire existence, but is in a certain sense the whole; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance."

and

"Thus you can throw yourself flat on the ground, stretched out upon Mother Earth, with the certain conviction that you are one with her and she with you. You are as firmly established, as invulnerable as she, indeed a thousand times firmer and more invulnerable. As surely as she will engulf you tomorrow, so surely will she bring you forth anew to new striving and suffering. And not merely 'some day'; now, today, every day she is bringing you forth, not once but thousands upon thousands of times, just as every day she engulfs you a thousand times over. For eternally and always there is only now, one and the same now; the present is the only thing that has no end."

Edited May 30, 2012 by zerostao

[manitou]

erwin schrodinger. (1964) My View of the World. Cambridge University Press

"It is not possible that this unity of knowledge, feeling, and choice which you call your own should have sprung into being from nothingness at a given moment not so long ago; rather this knowledge, feeling and choice are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically one in all men, nay in all sensitive beings. But not in this sense - that you are a part, a piece, of an eternal, infinite being, an aspect or modification of it,

as in Spinoza's pantheism. For we should have the same baffling question: which part, which aspect are you? What, objectively, differentiates it from the others? No, but inconceivable as it seems to ordinary reason, you - and all other concious beings as such - are all in all. Hence this life of yours which you are living is not merely a piece of the entire existence, but is in a certain sense the whole; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance."

and

"Thus you can throw yourself flat on the ground, stretched out upon Mother Earth, with the certain conviction that you are one with her and she with you. You are as firmly established, as invulnerable as she, indeed a thousand times firmer and more invulnerable. As surely as she will engulf you tomorrow, so surely will she bring you forth anew to new striving and suffering. And not merely 'some day'; now, today, every day she is bringing you forth, not once but thousands upon thousands of times, just as every day she engulfs you a thousand times over. For eternally and always there is only now, one and the same now; the present is the only thing that has no end."

 

 

That's quite a brain stretcher - so eloquently put. As I was reading this, the quantum physics phenomenon came to mind - where matter in its most minute form is both a particle and a wave at the same time. It seems to me that a particle takes up space, while a wave includes time to get from point a to point b. This seems to be a similar dichotemy to the point you just raised, Zero - that we are indeed individual lenses of experience; at the same time, we are part of the All. The first paragraph reminded me of our collective consciousness as it has grown upon the shoulders of our ancestors (and yes, we must include the collective consciousness of the plant, animal, and mineral world and their ancestors as well, I think!)

 

We seem to be one huge growing collective consciousness; sometimes I think it's like a giant turtleneck sweater where the neck never ends; it just keeps knitting itself with the yarn of knowledge. (Perhaps the knowledge of 'good' and evil' before this duality is transcended?) I don't know - what a fertile area for food for thought.

 

Certainly there is a cosmic glue that keeps collective consciousness on the upswing as a general trend, so that communal knowledge doesn't have to be reinvented with each new birth.

[Simple_Jack]

I think space is empty - yet full of potentiality.

 

Even particles and energy move within space.

Without space nothing can connect - no thing will birth.

 

I also think not all is one.

 

Only space is one.

Space is that which permits the cause to rise.

Cause and effect in turn allows the manifestation of diversity.

Its hard to imagine the diverse forms as all one.

That is confusing the matter.

 

Diversity is many.

Space is one.

 

From one the many arise in relative forms,

again, thru cause and effect.

When the energy of effects run their course,

the relative many again return to one.

 

Everything is not connected to everything else

while existing in diversity, experienced by the senses.

If indeed all is one, how can experience arise?

Neither "oneness" nor "multiplicity"; choosing one or the other is abiding in extremes: Not abiding in either is the Middle Way. With no sense of "self, " what need is there to talk of "others?" With no sense of division, what need to talk degrees of intimacy? Aren't appearances inseparable from the basis? None other than reflections?

[Everything]

My turn! =D

To me, All is One means One is All

 

I'm so glad I learned all these usefull studf in math class <3

[Birch]

It presently means that when I hear the dog upstairs scuffling about (his nails are too long) I don't get annoyed (although I do wonder if he doesn't maybe need some longer walks).

 

Otherwise, I have a 'thing' about it I would like to explain but I can't get the words out.

[skydog]

"All is one" meanings nothing to me.

 

It is a concept, a belief, spiritual bullshit.

 

It has some truth. Like everything. But the truth has nothing to do with the "belief" that all is one.

[Jetsun]

Babies think all is one and are merged with the world with no identity, then the process of maturity involves you first discovering that you and your mother aren't the same person and then the process of individuation proceeds which teaches you more and more that you are an individual seperate from others, you are meant to grow and seperate away from your mother, your family, your social group from others. Many of those who go around saying all is one haven't gone through the indivuation process properly and have poor boundaries with others, they take on others emotions and problems and give theirs to others which just confuses everything, because they believe all is one they feel responsible for things they aren't responsible for and pass on to others their own responsibilities. But yet we are all connected and have the same desires and have the same universal laws acting within us so in that sense we are all the same but we are still individuals.

[gatito]

"All is one" meanings nothing to me.

 

It is a concept, a belief, spiritual bullshit.

 

It has some truth. Like everything. But the truth has nothing to do with the "belief" that all is one.

 

And yet if you examine your own present experience, you will find that there is no evidence for your own belief.

[manitou]

And yet if you examine your own present experience, you will find that there is no evidence for your own belief.

 

 

I align with this thought too.

 

All Is One, to me, involves the removal of time from the equation. If all of time is relative to something else (as is space) that means that time in essence is an illusion, and for us to see the All-is-Oneness of the matter we must remove time. Everyone who has been born and died already, is here with us Now. Everyone who is here now, is Here Now. Everyone who is Yet To Be Born is Here Now, although this one is truly a mind boggler. But it's all relative, not fixed.

 

As it says in the TTC, all things manifest from the One, then from the Two, then from the Three. It is only Time that makes the difference as to which phase of manifestation It is in. It's as though we can cover one palm with the other palm and see four fingers that appear separate. When we move our other hand away, we see that's not the case at all, we're all attached. We were attached at the point of the One, our spirit divided into 10,000 things, and here we are. But to remove Time and trace it back, we're back at the One again...and to trace back within our own character is to find the One within. It's from this One mindset that energy can be moved, healing can transpire, clarity can be had.

 

IMO.

Edited June 1, 2012 by manitou

[manitou]

Many of those who go around saying all is one haven't gone through the indivuation process properly and have poor boundaries with others, they take on others emotions and problems and give theirs to others which just confuses everything, because they believe all is one they feel responsible for things they aren't responsible for and pass on to others their own responsibilities. But yet we are all connected and have the same desires and have the same universal laws acting within us so in that sense we are all the same but we are still individuals.

 

 

I think we're individuals because we all have a separate set of lenses (of experience) through which to perceive the world. Like maybe we're all part of a huge wheel with spokes, each spoke being a different path of an indivual. And the Truth lies in the hub in the middle. We hang out on the rim until we take one of the spokes in. As to those who take on everyone else's problems, this can be eliminated by doing the inner work to remove the outsized ego - after all, it's the ego who is telling us that the person we're 'helping' can't possibly be okay without our input and our ego keeps us thrashing around there in the middle of the problem.

 

It takes an extremely wise person to see what it is that another person needs, I've heard it said....

[Birch]

I don't think it has to be an "either/or" kind of thing.

 

IMO it's a "both" kind of a thing. Agree with Jetsun too.

 

Someone else mentioned inwardly passive and outwardly active with respect to this (or maybe it was the reverse, but I can feel the difference)

[Marblehead]

One plus One equals Two. (Learned that in Math class.)

 

Let us not forget the Ten Thousand Things.

Edited June 1, 2012 by Marblehead

[Aaron]

All is one isn't a hard concept to understand, in fact it's actually addressed in an anime, Full Metal Alchemist, whereby the main characters, two brothers, are left on an island to survive on their own, with the strict order that when their teacher comes back they need to understand what all is one means. They have no food and must find something to eat. Being children, at first they have a hard time killing animals for food, in particular a cute little rabbit, but over time they realize if they don't kill the animals, then they wont be able to survive. What they realize in the end is that everything is dependent on everything else. The rabbit eats the carrots, the wolf eats the rabbit, and so on. Everything, even the rocks and trees have a purpose within the grand scheme of things. We are all one, in the sense that we are all the universe. (Hence, all is one and one is all.)

 

On a deeper level you can examine your own place within this scheme by examining Vedanta and it's view of the universe, in that you are the universe, not just a piece of it, but the totality of it, just as your heart is you and your fingers are you. To limit your view of the universe by examining yourself as an isolated creature, limits your understanding of what you are.

 

Vedanta says you are God, you just haven't awakened to that knowledge yet. I believe that in some sense this is very true.

 

Aaron

Edited June 2, 2012 by Twinner

[idiot_stimpy]

Is 'all is one' a belief?

 

All is me. As if everything experienced was a projection from me, then all is me.

[manitou]

Is 'all is one' a belief?

 

All is me. As if everything experienced was a projection from me, then all is me.

 

 

 

I think it's less a belief and more a discovery.

[gatito]

I think it's less a belief and more a discovery.

 

Yes. I'd agree with that wholeheartedly.

 

It's an examination of your own present experience. It's absolutely not a belief, although some people adopt it as a belief which causes more of a "problem" because they then need to address that belief-layer in order to address the other underlying beliefs that lie at the root of the apparent separation.

 

We are very attached to our beliefs.

[Apech]

One plus One equals Two. (Learned that in Math class.)

 

Let us not forget the Ten Thousand Things.

 

1+1=10 (binary)

 

10000 things = 16 things

 

[Marblehead]

1+1=10 (binary)

 

10000 things = 16 things

 

Strange perspective. Hehehe.

[Stosh]

Strange perspective. Hehehe.

 

That means his cat has 10 eyes!

[Marblehead]

That means his cat has 10 eyes!

I have never known of a cat with 10 eyes although I have known of spiders with 8 eyes.

 

What does this have to do with "All is One"? I have no idea.

[manitou]

We are very attached to our beliefs.

 

wow. Isn't that the case? I get so angry watching the news on TV, on the rare incidents when I do any more, that I've actually found a way to turn TV into a great spiritual practice.

 

Try to LOVE the right-wingers. The bible-thumpers. The whole lot. They are Us. All One, just a different ray of the same sun. Damn.

 

I have beliefs when it comes to politics; but politics is All One too....it's just part of our collective consciousness, acting out its maturity level at any given moment.

 

Going back to the original question on the post: All is One - what does it mean to you? My Final Answer on this - the Very Final One - is that I need to put my money where my mouth is on this All is One stuff. If I'm going to proclaim that, I must act that. I must try and love John Boehner, Carl Rove, George Bush. I must find Compassion for each and every human being on the face of the earth, because they too are Me.

 

I used to square dance, some years ago. I danced regularly with a Jewish dentist who was apparently one awakened dude; he said something that I didn't really understand until about a year ago. At that time, I was an in-your-face born again bible thumper. Needless to say, I tried to thump him (not in the biblical sense), and in repeated conversations I'm sure I mentioned the virtues of being a christian. One day, he sat me down and said,

 

"Barbara, I want you to tell me everything you know about Jesus Christ. I don't want to have any resentment toward him left at all."

 

At the time, I didn't realize what he really said. I went off at the mouth about Jesus, I'm sure - missing the essence of what he had just done. He had made the decision to override his 'belief' in his traditional Judaism, to become Whole in every sense of the word. To try and find Love for the one historical figure that he must have felt most conflicted about....to heal himself from the dualism and to feel the Oneness of impersonal Love.

 

What a guy. Can't believe I let that one sail on by....

Edited June 3, 2012 by manitou