by Don MacGregor
What we know from the teaching of Jesus is that we become infinitely filled with life when we are at one with the source of our being and enter fully into union with our Creator, the One who is, a God who describes himself as ‘I Am’.
John Main, The Inner Christ, p.107
Oneness is a concept we hear much quoted these days, but what does it really mean? It is more than just interconnectedness, it is awakening to the reality that we are one with the whole material and spiritual reality in which we exist and which is held in being by the One who we call God.
I was a science teacher for 13 years before becoming an Anglican priest, and I longed to see the day when there would be scientific theories that actually tied together science and spirituality – but I doubted it would ever happen and be accepted. But we are now at the beginning of that process and a new story is emerging – a story of the acceptance that science and spirituality are not opposing world views, but are the two sides of the same coin. To me, that is very exciting!
The recently emerging scientific viewpoint is that the universe is in fact a cosmic hologram, intricately interconnected in a series of nested hierarchies of energy, repeating patterns, with the same essence of information running through it all. Gradually there is a new way of seeing this physical plane on which we dwell. This is moving us on from the scientific materialism viewpoint which says that matter is all there is and consciousness pops out of the brain when the brain is developed enough. The new science story says that consciousness, or mind, has to exist before matter, and that everything emanates from this basic, informational domain of consciousness. People like Physics Professor Amit Goswami have been saying for years that consciousness is the ground of being, from which everything materialises at the quantum level, and that there is only one universal consciousness. Many famous names have said similar things earlier.
IN 1931, Max Planck, a great pioneer of quantum theory, said:
I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness.[1]
The Nobel-prize winning quantum physicist, Erwin Schroedinger said:
Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.[2]
Sir Arthur Eddington, one of the founding fathers of the new physics, said:
The universe is of the nature of a thought or sensation in a universal Mind... To put the conclusion crudely — the stuff of the world is mind-stuff.[3]
Or, as astrophysicist Erich Jantsch said:
God is not the creator, but the Mind of the universe.[4]
Physicist Sir Roger Penrose states:
My position [on consciousness] demands a major revolution in physics… I’ve come to believe that there is something very fundamental missing from current science… Our understanding at this time is not adequate and we’re going to have to move to new regions of science.[5]
Basically, scientists can’t get a hold on consciousness, it’s as if it exists outside of the known laws of the universe and reality as we know it – and maybe it will be the next scientific breakthrough that starts to join up the dots.
When I was at school in the 1960s, there were only three known sub-atomic particles – electrons, protons and neutrons. They were pictured like billiard balls and marbles, hard and solid. There are now at least 61 known particles, and still they look for more – or, and here’s a provocative question, do they bring more into being by looking for them? Therein lies a conundrum! But at the sub-sub-atomic level, it becomes difficult to refer to our bodies as made of “matter" at all. The subatomic portions of the protons and neutrons of the nucleus, the quarks, gluons, bosons etc are not so much “particles”, as intelligent, vibratory patterns of interacting, communicating energies. Some of these so-called elementary “particles” can even go backwards in time, or flick in and out of existence.
This is what we are made of; this is the nature of the reality of our bodies: we are essentially vibratory patterns, interacting, communicating informational energies, at a more subtle level than was ever imagined only 50 years ago, and even time and space are not fixed. At this level, we begin to see connections between matter and mind, or consciousness. You and I are not separate, we are all interconnected. Our energy fields interact with each other and with everything in our environment. Some free-thinking scientists are now saying that this energetic reality stems from a deeper level, an all-encompassing informational domain from which everything emanates. Is this the Divine Matrix, the Consciousness of God?
Physicists like John Bell and Alain Aspect have established that the universe at its most basic level is non-local – that information doesn't travel from A to B, because it does not need to travel anywhere at all – it exists everywhere. This presents us with the vision of a participatory universe in which everything is interconnected and interdependent, a seamless whole of mind-stuff, i.e. consciousness.
As Dr Jude Currivan puts it in her book, The Cosmic Hologram,
We are each individuated microcosms of the holographic intelligence of our Universe and ultimately of the infinite and eternal mind of the Cosmos.[6]
Buddhism uses a similar image to describe the interconnectedness of all phenomena. It is called Indra's Net. When Indra fashioned the world, he made it as a web, and at every knot in the web a pearl is tied. Everything that exists, or has ever existed, every idea that can be thought about, every piece of true information is a pearl in Indra's net. Every pearl is tied to every other pearl by virtue of the web on which they hang, and on the surface of every pearl is the reflection of every other jewel on the net. Everything that exists in Indra's web implies all else that exists.
So the new science story is that we are all part of the One Consciousness which holds everything in being, permeates everything and is the Oneness “in which we live and move and have our being” – to quote St Pau! “We are all one”, not just with the rest of humanity, but with the whole of the biosphere. To quote Dr Jude Currivan again:
Consciousness isn’t just something we have, it’s what we and the whole world are.[7]
This is what the mystics and religious have been saying for millennia, in their own language and understanding! Their understanding is based on human experience, something possible for all humanity. Not everyone has had that human experience, but for those who have, it is life-changing. What is it? It is when we are taken up in a feeling and knowing of such awe and wonder that we know we are one with everything, and are held in love. It is the mystical experience of being at one with the Divine, unity awareness, oneness. It is a normal human experience, something possible for anyone to have, given the right conditions. But it is then interpreted in the understanding of the time, culture and context of that person. So the articulation of these experiences takes on the clothing of the religious and moral system of the time. The problem is, we can mistake the clothing for the inner human experience, which leads us to imagine differences where actually none exist.
So I’m going to take you through a few quotes from sacred, mystical and inspired writings that show how this interconnected oneness has been said for thousands of years. It has been said by many, but not heard by most, or if heard, not really believed. Yet now, science is beginning to saying the same, albeit in its own language. What it is saying is that there is an inherent oneness to the whole of the universe.
Going back to some of the earliest religious writers, we have the Indian Upanishads, dating from various stages of the first millennia BCE:
The Self is all-knowing, it is all-understanding, and to it belongs all glory. It is Pure Consciousness, dwelling in the hearts of all. — Mindiha Upanishad
In the beginning was only Being; One without a second. Out of himself he brought forth the cosmos and entered into everything in it. There is nothing that does not come from him. Of everything he is the inmost Self. — Chandogya Upanishad, 6.2:2-3
When a man realises that all beings are his own Self, there is no further grief and delusion for him, because he is established in the unity of the individual and the cosmic soul. — Isha Upanishad, 7.
God is one, hidden in all beings, all-pervading, the Self within all selves, watching over all doing, dwelling in all being, the witness, the perceiver, the single one, free from all qualities.
— Svetasvatara Upanishad 6:11
And the Buddha had his experience:
He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings... – Buddha, d.544BCE
Moving from India to China, around the same time as the Buddha, we find the teaching of Tao, from Lao Tzu:
Can you dissolve your ego? Can you abandon the idea of self and other? Can you relinquish the notions of male and female, short and long, life and death? Can you let go of all these dualities and embrace the Tao without scepticism or panic? If so, you can reach the heart of the Integral Oneness. — Lao Tzu, 6th Century BCE[8]
Slightly later in India, in one of the most popular of the Hindu scriptures, Krishna speaks to Arjuna, saying:
The whole world is pervaded by Me, yet my form is not seen. All things have their being in Me, yet I am not limited by them. – Bhagavad Gita 9:17-19 (400-200 BCE)
Jumping forward about a thousand years, Jianzhi Sengcan (d.606CE) was a Chinese Zen Buddhist known as the Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen:
When the ten thousand things are viewed in their oneness, we return to the origin and remain where we have always been ... One in all, all in One – if only this is realised, no more worry about not being perfect![9]
So the Eastern religious teachings are full of the concept that the Divine Source is all-pervasive, all-encompassing and ever present.
In the Mediterranean world, the Greeks had a special word henosis, the word for mystical "oneness," "union," or "unity". In Platonism, and especially Neoplatonism, the goal of henosis is union with what is fundamental in reality: the One, the Source. Heraclitus (535– 475 BCE) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, from the city of Ephesus:
From out of the many particulars comes oneness and out of oneness comes all the many particulars.[10]
Later, Plotinus expanded on this in what is an apt description of meditation and the process of letting go of thoughts:
Our thought cannot grasp the One as long as any other image remains active in the soul. To this end, you must set free your soul from all outward things and turn wholly within yourself, with no more leaning to what lies outside, and lay your mind bare of ideal forms, as before of the objects of sense, and forget even yourself, and so come within sight of that One. [11]
The Hebrew Scriptures contain this wonderful statement in the story of Moses at the burning bush:
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'” (Exodus 3:14)
As Rabbi Rami Shapiro explains, the Hasidic Hebrew understanding of this text is that God is all that is. God is all that is happening at every moment. God is I AM — not a being or even a supreme being, but Being itself. [12]
I am the I AM, there is nothing else. – Isaiah 45:5 [13]
When we come to the Christian Era, the obvious person to quote is Jesus:
May they be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one.
– Jesus the Christ (John 17:22-23)
The Gospel of Thomas, from the Nag Hammadi texts – now thought to contain some of the earliest sayings, predating Paul’s letter, also quotes Jesus as saying:
Lift the stone and you will find me, cleave the wood and I am there. — Gospel of Thomas Saying 77
And as St Paul said to the men of Athens:
In God we live and move and have our being. — Acts 17:28
The Roman world was often openly hostile towards Christianity until the fourth century, but even then there were those who held enlightened views. In the second century: Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor from 161 to 180. He was the last of the rulers traditionally known as the Five Good Emperors, and has been called "The Philosopher".
All things are linked with one another, and this oneness is sacred; there is nothing that is not interconnected with everything else. For things are interdependent, and they combine to form this universal order. — Marcus Aurelius 121 –180 AD
And then we reach the Christian mystics. Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179 CE, was a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, artist and polymath. Quite a woman! She said much about everything being in God:
I (God) am life itself. For I am the whole of life – life was not torn from stones; it did not bud from branches; nor is it rooted in the generative power of the male. Rather, every living thing is rooted in me... I am the life that remains the same through eternity.[14]
Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.[15]
I am the supreme and fiery force who has kindled all sparks of life. I, the fiery life, blaze in the beauty of the fields, shine on the waters, and burn in the sun, moon and stars. I bring all things to life; I breathe in them all, because I am life.[16]
A little later, Eckhart von Hochheim (c. 1260 – c. 1328), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic. In later life, he was accused of heresy and brought before the local Dominican-led Inquisition, and tried as a heretic by Pope John XXII. Fortunately for him, he seems to have died before his verdict was received.
I will give you still another thought, which is yet purer and more spiritual: In the kingdom of heaven all is in all, all is one, and all is ours.[17]
Around the same time, John van Ruysbroeck (1293-1381 CE ), a Flemish mystic, is virtually saying the universe is holographic:
The image of God is found essentially and personally in all. Each of us possesses it whole, entire and undivided, and all of us together do not possess it more than one person does alone. In this way we are all one, intimately united in our eternal image, which is the image of God.[18]
— John van Ruysbroeck.
A little later, in Ukraine, from the Jewish mystical tradition, Rabbi Meshullam Feibush Heller of Zbarazh (ca. 1742–1794) said:
There is nothing in the world other than God and God’s emanated powers which are a unity. Other than that, nothing exists. Although it seems that there are other things, everything is really God and the divine emanations.[19]
Then we reach more contemporary writers. William James (1842-1910) is well-known for his writing on religious experiences.
This overcoming of all the usual barriers between the individual and the Absolute is the great mystic achievement. In mystic states we both become one with the Absolute and we become aware of our oneness. This is the everlasting and triumphant mystical tradition, hardly altered by differences of clime or creed.
All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.[20] — Swami Vivekananda, 1863-1902
I believe in the absolute oneness of God and therefore also of humanity. What though we have many bodies? We have but one soul.[21] — Mohandas Gandhi, 1869-1948
In 1950, Albert Einstein, in a private letter to a grieving friend, said:
A human being is a part of a whole, called by us "universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. [22]
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee (b.1953) is a teacher from the Sufi tradition, the mystical arm of Islam:
This Oneness is life, no longer experienced solely through the fragmented vision of the ego but known within the heart, felt in the soul. This Oneness is the heartbeat of life.[23]
This one heartbeat of life is also recognised within the ecological movement. Oneness is not just about humanity, it is about everything on this planet. The ‘self’ is no longer an isolated separate individual, we exist in a living biosphere which we share with all other species. The ecological self is, in Joanna Macy’s words, co-extensive with other beings and with the life of our planet. It is what I will call “the greening of the self.”
We are evolving into an awareness of oneness and compassion as the way ahead. The mystics and seers and pioneers have always been dancers on the edge with this idea, dancing on the edge of orthodoxy, trying to stay within its bounds – otherwise in the past they could be condemned as heretics and outcast – at worst burnt at the stake, decapitated or hung, drawn and quartered. They are on the edge because they have seen something which is hard to put into words, but which they know, it is seared into their hearts and minds – that we are one with the Divine essence which permeates and holds everything! They couch their writings in acceptable terms for the times they live in. We might call this divine essence by different terms – God, Spirit, Consciousness, Soul, All-being, the Source.
What we are talking about is the ageless perennial wisdom, a universal spirituality taught down through the ages. It isn’t unique to any specific system of thought or belief, but rather an underlying ethos, a universal spirituality common to all of them. Every expression of this wisdom takes on the clothing of the system in which it rests.
In essence, it says this:
There is a Divine Reality underneath and inherent in the world of things, from which everything emanates, in which everything exists, a Divine matrix, the Ground of Being;
There is in the human soul a natural capacity, similarity, and yearning to know this Divine Reality;
The final goal of all existence is eventual realisation of union, of Oneness, with this Divine Reality.
To summarise, science is gradually pushing the bounds of its knowledge. More free-thinking scientists are exploring the concept of consciousness as an informational domain from which all material reality emanates and has now actually reached the state where it is knocking on the door of spirituality.
Alice Bailey is a writer of esoteric philosophy from the middle of the last century. She foresaw something 80 years ago:
We stand expectantly awaiting the dawn of that day when religion will stand upon a scientific basis and the truths to which the ages bear witness will be substantiated and proven... Then there will emerge a new race, with new capacities, new ideals, new concepts about God and matter, about life and spirit... Through the humanity of the future there will be seen... a soul, an entity, who... will manifest its own nature, which is love, wisdom and intelligence. — Alice A. Bailey, 1880-1949.[24]
Coming right up to date, Neil Douglas Walsh has been having his Conversations With God for many years. In Book 2, he wrote this:
You must stop seeing God as separate from you, and you as separate from each other. The only solution is the Ultimate Truth: nothing exists in the universe that is separate from anything else. Everything is intrinsically connected, irrevocably interdependent, interactive, interwoven into the fabric of all life. All government, all politics, must be based on this truth. All laws must be rooted in it. This is the future hope of your race; the only hope for your planet.[25]
John Main, whose life and teaching led to the founding of the World Community for Christian Meditation, was truly a man ahead of his time and spoke in words that are as relevant today as when he wrote them nearly fifty years ago:
The truly spiritual man or woman is one who is in harmony, one who has discovered that harmony within themselves and lives this harmony with creation and with God. What we learn in meditation is that to be in our own centre is to be with God... The Christian experience is to learn to live at this level of reality. – John Main[26]
To use an old English word, this is true ‘Oneing’, and it is what we are to awaken to. I believe human consciousness is evolving, maturing, becoming more sensitive to finer levels of vibration. We are moving from tribal consciousness to global consciousness, at the beginning of a great awakening. We can see the seeds of this finer level of global consciousness in our world today. Globalisation has brought an awareness of the problems faced in all areas of human endeavour. Ecological issues facing the whole world have come to the forefront of the political, economic and educational agendas. No longer are we simply caught up in the problems of our own nation. But many people are still stuck in the tribal mentality that says ‘These are my people, this is my club, this is my country, we are in and you are out’. Tribal mentality defines borders and barriers to create outsiders and enemies. It is the root from which all war comes from.
The evolution of consciousness to a global level is beginning to plant seeds of hope for a new way. The key is in the growing awareness of our oneness in consciousness - that is our hope for the future. If human awareness can come from a compassionate centre of love that sees all humanity and all life as one, then the human race can move from tribal competitiveness to global cooperation and begin to live in harmony and peace with all beings. We are of the same Divine essence, we are part of the same One physical and spiritual reality. From a Christian perspective, we are talking about the One Divine Consciousness that we call God. In meditation, we open to this presence, to the fullness of union with God. It may be a long-held dream that there can be a better humanity, a ‘kingdom of God’, but some dreams become reality. This shift in conscious awareness can be brought about by meditation as we allow the Spirit to work in us. As John Main puts it, ‘Meditation is about our spirit coming totally into harmony with the Spirit of God.’[27]. Jesus the Christ prayed to the Divine Source that he called ‘Father’ asking ‘that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity’ (John 17:23). This is true Oneness.
The Revd Don MacGregor is a retired Anglican priest living in St Davids, Wales. He was a science teacher for 13 years before ordination, and his Christian journey has moved from evangelical and charismatic to mystical and esoteric with aspects of contemporary holistic spirituality, and an emphasis on meditation and contemplative prayer. His passion is to find a new way forward for Christianity which incorporates twenty-first century science and worldviews. He is also an active member of WCCM, CANA (Christians Awakening to New Awareness) and PCN (Progressive Christian Network).
References:
[1] Interview in 'The Observer' (25 January 1931), p.17, column 3
[2] Schroedinger, Erwin. 1984. “General Scientific and Popular Papers,” in Collected Papers, Vol. 4. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences. Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig/Wiesbaden. p. 334.
[3] Sir Arthur Eddington, 1928. ‘The Nature of the Physical World’. Published versions of his Gifford Lectures delivered in the University of Edinburgh (January - March 1927)
[4] Erich Jantsch, 1980. The Self-Organizing Universe: Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution. Pergamon Press, Oxford, p.308.
[5] Lazslo, Erwin, & Dennis, Kingsley (Eds.), 2012. The New Science and Spirituality Reader. Rochester VT: Inner Traditions
[6] Currivan, Jude, 2017. The Cosmic Hologram: In-formation at the Center of Creation. Rochester VT: Inner Traditions, p.215
[7] Ibid., p.233
[8] Brian Walker, trans. 1992. Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu. New York: Harper Collins
[9] Quoted in Aldous Huxley, 1945. The Perennial Philosophy.New York: Harper Collins p.75
[10] Heraclitus, Source: Clement, Stromates,
[11] Plotinus, Henology, 6.9.7
[12] Rabbi Rami Shapiro, 2004. Hasidic Tales: Annotated and Explained. Jewish Lights Publishing, p.4.
[13] My translation
[14] Wanda Nash, 1997. Gifts from Hildegard. London: Darton, Longman & Todd, p.19
[15] Gabriele Uhlein (ed.), 1982. Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 41.
[16] Wanda Nash, 1997. Gifts from Hildegard. London: Darton, Longman & Todd, p.124
[17] Meister Eckhart, quoted in Aldous Huxley, 1945. The Perennial Philosophy.New York: Harper Collins p.76
[18] Ruysbroeck, Quoted in Friends' Intelligencer, Vol. 107 (1950), ed. 26-52, p. 657
[19] Rabbi Meshullam Feibush Heller of Zbarazh, quoted in Rami Shapiro, 2013. Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent. Woodstock VT, Skylight Paths Publishing, p.113
[20] Ramikrisha Vivekananda. Practical Vedanta. Part 1
[21] Mahatma Gandhi, Young India, September 25, 1924
[22] Albert Einstein, in a letter from 1950, which was quoted in The New York Times (29 March 1972)
[23] Referenced19.11.2019 at http://www.dailygood.org/story/2133/unity-and-the-power-of-love-llewellyn-vaughan-lee/
[24] Alice A. Bailey, 1930. The Soul and its Mechanism. London: Lucis Press, p.151
[25] Neale Donald Walsch, 1997. Conversations with God: an Uncommon Dialogue, Book 2. Charlottesville VA: Hampton Roads Publishing Co.
[26] John Main, 1987. The Inner Christ. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, p.106
[27] John Main, ibid. p.197