AN EXERCISE IN REALIZING ONENESS

It's not easy to understand what we mean when we say, "All is One."  If we look around us it just doesn't make any sense.  

Intellectually of course, we get that when we group everything together it automatically becomes one: one group with a lot of different things in it.  That's clear enough.  But open your eyes, look around and try to see it.  Everything looks separate.  It's a conundrum.

OK, so let's give something a go and see if it can help us understand how this works.  We'll employ a little mental exercise using an analogy to try and get a better idea of why our world appears to be made up of different things and parts, but is really all one behind the illusion.

BEING CONSCIOUS: Part 1 — Ah, It's Nothing

[2 of 5—to begin click here:  BEING CONSCIOUS: A Brief Introduction]

How on Earth can we think about consciousness?

How do we know what we know?

Where does awareness come from anyway?

And who decides what’s real?

Such questions have been asked since time immemorial and all we’ve really got to show for it is a bunch of stories about singularities and big bangs, and then more stories about God or the Gods, some rather impenetrable religious ideas we can’t throw a stick at, a few strange psychological ideas, and a great deal of argument about its physicality.  In the end we’re stuck with pretty much a big fat nothing.  So what’s up with that?

Well, what if consciousness comes from nothing—and nothing decides?  How’s that for a strange idea?

NOTHING?

Yep, that certainly is a strange idea.  How can awareness possibly come from nothing?  That’s just plain nuts.  Well now, maybe it is—and maybe it isn’t.  Something from nothing, eh?

Perhaps we should begin with another story.