The world does not feel right.... YOU HAVE FELT IT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE.

[Tony]

The world does not feel right.




YOU HAVE FELT IT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE
The world does not feel right.
It is your right to wake up and understand why.



The most effective prison is one that does not look like a prison, because you have helped to create it.
Some go along with this very sophisticated dream-prison.
Some rebel, creating just another dream-prison.
Some see the dream-prison and feel the rebellion, pause, and join up the dots, without creating more of the same.

Feeling (and knowing) that the world is not right puts one outside the 'field', and it is quite unnerving. Spiritual traditions create methods and insights for liberating ourselves from this conceptual thinking mind, and the troubles inherent in ordinary life. But they do not recognise or address the political and social engineering that is in operation...too busy praying for self realisation!

Our problem is understanding the manipulation of consciousness by our own mind-clinging to an identification of a mental image of an “I”, together with the manipulating outside forces taking advantage of this ignorance. Ignorance of our true nature.

These forces cannot be dealt with on either a physical level or a psychological/conceptual level, but they can on a pure, spiritual level. By 'spiritual', I mean awareness beyond the thinking mind - although the thinking mind is the tool for understanding pure awareness!

Just doing ritualised spiritual practices is not enough. In knowing about the constant, subtle, insidious programming that we humans are subjected to, we can in fact enhance our experiences and practice. We do this through literally dealing with fear, instead of it just being a theory.

When I go on retreat, I am shocked by the smugness of the attitude of “I'm-alright-so-everything- must-be-alright.” This is very difficult to deal with. The teachings are heavenly, but the attachments are hell, and far from waking up! It is fine to choose to meditate in a cave, but not at the expense of ignoring one's neighbour's suffering - we are house holders living in communities.

So, what do we do?

Apart from educating ourselves with provable facts, such as agenda 21 (now that is a huge program) and not complying, there isn't much we can do, except pass on the information.
“Bring it on!” just isn't going to work.

For most people, life is just business as usual: they do not totally recognise they are being backed into a corner, and they put up with their discomfort. Or perhaps they do know, and choose not to acknowledge it...

The rebellious will cause a stir, but public attention will quickly turn to something trivial, as usual.
So it's up to those whose dots have joined up coming together and acknowledging our common goal, without creating more problems like looking for more 'space invaders'!
“Space invaders” are concepts placed in the mind.

If we keep trying to join up all the dots of the whole phenomenal world, there will be no end to our guess work. But we can break it down into what we can actually deal with in every precise moment.
This is important, as we are part of its creation.

As in any topic, we can wait until we have every scrap of knowledge before proceeding, or we can trust our intuition in the moment for inspiration, knowledge and wisdom: if we are prepared, these are truly amazing, and all we need in the present moment.

This inspiration will not solve everyone's problems, as we all have different perceptions, but you are playing your part of the whole. Just one small, genuine comment (not a cut and paste) can trigger a whole sequence of empathic knowledge unfolding.
It's true!

Honest communication is so important: even revealing depression and sadness can help others empathise, as on a recent thread here. Speculations are just dead space. How you feel now will reveal the next steps.

Honestly working together - even though we see things differently - will make a huge difference.
The formula of “As above, so below” also means “As the world outside, so it is on this forum”.
We can run around like headless chickens screaming, “Look at this!” or “Look at that!”... or we can stop, pause, look, see, drop - and then watch the dots join up by themselves.

We can only deal with what presents itself to us.
If it does or doesn't feel right, that is intuitive wisdom shining...the heart.
If it over reacts, it's the head trying to join up the dots...and failing.

When we find simplicity within, we will understand the complexities without.

[The23rdman]

The spiritual practiced required is really one but looks like two. We recognise our own divinity and recognise the divinity in those we interact with. When we do not acknowledge this because of fear we look at that until we see through it.

[Tony]

The spiritual practiced required is really one but looks like two. We recognise our own divinity and recognise the divinity in those we interact with. When we do not acknowledge this because of fear we look at that until we see through it.



Very true, however there those one can work with and those one cannot.
There so many sects in buddhism that do not 'quite' agree.
Go the 'Dharma Wheel' and watch them argue!



'I" am the target.;)
Tony

[The23rdman]

The spiritual practiced required is really one but looks like two. We recognise our own divinity and recognise the divinity in those we interact with. When we do not acknowledge this because of fear we look at that until we see through it.



Very true, however there those one can work with and those one cannot.
There so many sects in buddhism that do not 'quite' agree.
Go the 'Dharma Wheel' and watch them argue!



'I" am the target.;)
Tony

Oh, I agree wholeheartedly! When we come across an ego that grates us energetically there is no problem with retreating and honouring them from afar instead! As the great sage Snoopy said, there is no problem so big you cannot run away from it. ;)

I think you're the first person to "get" my signature too. :D

[cheez_2806]

Thanks for this post,

Just a couple of days before the intense feeling of emptiness suddenly got to me when hanging out with friends these days after exams. Eating, talking and laughing. It seems we are having a good time but there was this moment where some of the attention was given to looking around the room and observing friends and other people. It's like another pair of eyes growing out of body or something. That's when the feeling of the emptiness filled up. Everything was like slow motion -all sorts of energies and emotions everywhere.... so it answers some questions for me - one important one is self discovery and the development of awareness really is an intimate and personal thing. No matter how much information people give to "awake" people, they have to feel the problem too either seeing it as external or internal, its a start. Or else it's just another interesting topic over the table. No point pushing it. No more thinking like "cheesuz! how can they be so ignorant!" then struggling with that idea on anyone anymore~ it feels so much lighter...probably another backpack dragged behind for so long finally is dropped.

[mahalall]

"The world does not feel right" pie n eal

The right path, sitting in the cave , seeing all things, dissolving, lightening.

Walking out the feeling is not all right.

The left side has had control for to long-the balance is changing. With Bindu, Sahasrara sees all

http://true-color-of-mind.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/tantra-left-hand-path.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindu
http://www.healer.ch/crownchakra.html

[Carmody]

Yes, the turn to people seeing, has been on the increase. From my observation. Their 'vocabulary' seems to have increased, thus their depth and width of view is on the increase. As they slowly absorb it, previously unknown, then unmentionable(with angry retorts) and now..turning into mentionable topics...can be discussed.

That is the place things had to go to, in order for a change, a widespread change.. to take place.... that does not shatter everything that may venture down that road.

Too sharp a change causes too may paths of divergence (akin to diffraction) to occur, and that is not desirable. We all know what that is like, and we, as a group, need no more of it.

It might be difficult to see from this viewpoint, but the net is indeed a big change. There are those of us who have been involved in it for so long, that we do not see the depth of it's influence, and it's capacity to be a new factor in change. On the grand scale of things, it is, historically speaking, difficult to categorize it's depth of influence.

Combining the invention of the printing press with the black plague, and that of the Renaissance and venetian banking, all as a group of things which can 'change' a group or society...that might come close to being as influential as the internet.

But not quite. The internet is far more unbounded, and individual. The internet is bi-directional, and global in it's minutia and effects/connections. It is the shell-echo of what is to come, as grouped consciousness projections can and will go.

For example, we step into the age of Aquarius, which is ruled by the planet Uranus. Uranus rules sudden change, humanitarian thinking and efforts, electricity, and the internet.

Books could be (and have been) written here, on this subject.

But it remains that 'realization that something is wrong' is an early or first kind of step (in an act of approximately 6 steps). It is the act of observation, followed by the rumination on the observation. In science, that is step two. Observation being first (followed by 5 steps) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Z3lmidmrY). 'realization that something is wrong', is combined and or slightly in tow comes an emotional reaction of anger/emotions, which is the bigger problem that is to be faced.

One might say that the republican types, only make it to stage two, and then act on stage two, without ever actually getting into the later steps. That is due to excessive ego running rampant. for the next steps involve the downplay and/or removal of emotional ego response..and theirs is so intense, this ego, that they literally do not make it to the next steps that are required.

so, they never find solutions outside of ego, they never actually complete any process that is capable of moving them forward..that their ego keeps them on the old path.

one might say that the internet has been instrumental in creating the avenue of change that is outside of their control, with regard to the 'sword of Damocles' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damocles) being real and in existence, hanging over them, forcing them to observe and ruminate, to be in a position of being forced to squirm.

Which is critical.

Before the reaction was animal -and immediate. "Go out and kill the strange that makes uncertainty and fear", was the programming of yesteryear.

The internet has changed that underlying mindset, it is forcing it into a new state. As this mindset and way of ego of the old...it is being shown to be ineffective in the face of the internet.

Thus the internet is, in effect, burning the reactive egotistical mind, out of existence. It is grinding it into dust, due to this constant bombardment. It seems to escalate, the internet, but it does not bring the two given aspects of conflict into physical presence with one another. It only makes their cages immediately adjacent. Forced and unresolvable (physically) conflict. Forced into the next stages.

Perfect. It does not get any better than that.

This, due to putting them all together, in each others faces, in intractable and unstoppable ways. It is putting the cages of the given minds, right next to one another. Forced and continual confrontation, without violent physical resolution, the violent physical resolution which was the entire system and act... of the past.

[gooty64]

YOU HAVE FELT IT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE
The world does not feel right.

For me this has always manifested as a dis-satifaction with life, and trust me that is not a delightful way to go through life-as a matter of fact- it sucks!
But, i have felt this way my entire life.
No matter if a period of my life was going great and fun and successful, I still knew it was all built on a false foundation.
Yes, individually one can carve out a niche and have a decent-even great life, and ignore the collective-the failing society-the ravaged earth.
But that never worked for me.
Always un-satisfied.
Still un-satisfied.:mmph:

[Tony]

YOU HAVE FELT IT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE
The world does not feel right.

For me this has always manifested as a dis-satifaction with life, and trust me that is not a delightful way to go through life-as a matter of fact- it sucks!
But, i have felt this way my entire life.
No matter if a period of my life was going great and fun and successful, I still knew it was all built on a false foundation.
Yes, individually one can carve out a niche and have a decent-even great life, and ignore the collective-the failing society-the ravaged earth.
But that never worked for me.
Always un-satisfied.
Still un-satisfied.:mmph:

I agree. It goes with the territory of being human.
However, because of that dissatisfaction, we may find what we are looking for. A bit of depression is healthy. In Boulder, Colorado, I once saw a wonderful Tshirt: "If you are well adjusted to society, you're really phucked up!"

It's good to be in the same boat :cool:

[Carmody]

YOU HAVE FELT IT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE
The world does not feel right.

For me this has always manifested as a dis-satifaction with life, and trust me that is not a delightful way to go through life-as a matter of fact- it sucks!
But, i have felt this way my entire life.
No matter if a period of my life was going great and fun and successful, I still knew it was all built on a false foundation.
Yes, individually one can carve out a niche and have a decent-even great life, and ignore the collective-the failing society-the ravaged earth.
But that never worked for me.
Always un-satisfied.
Still un-satisfied.:mmph:

Gooty, when Rob 'came out', and I heard about it....I nearly fell out of my chair, I was laughing so hard. My face was red, I was tearing up, laughing, thinking of all those hardcore rockers, and their attitudes/mindsets, and their Priest Fandom.

And the correct Rob tune:

Where do we go from here
There must be something near
Changing you, changing me forever

Places changes, faces change
Life is so very strange
Changing time, changing rhyme together

There's no where else to go
This could be our last show
Changing dreams, changing schemes never

We are never satisfied

Love is gone, along with fun
Now we're reaching for the gun
Changing cast, changing fast, no more tether

We are never satisfied

nbHhq01-GM4

[Tony]

The problem we have is feeling something is wrong, knowing what that is, and then finding a way to express it. Doing something about it, is another issue!

Just think how many people are in that very position now! Kathie and I discuss this every day, and see things differently.

It seems it is a matter of getting as much information as one can, or need - seeing as bigger picture as we can of what we are living in, and dealing with it.
As everything thats place in the mind, because it is there that we see and react from, that is the play ground of experience...consciousness.

Our perception can be altered -changed. Our 'pure' perception cannot be changed' it is our true being.
It is a very very subtle business.

[Cidersomerset]

The problem we have is feeling something is wrong, knowing what that is, and then finding a way to express it.


That is why I was instinctively drawn to project Camelot/Avalon and many others reaserchers of alternate knowledge.
I suspected the world was not what it seemed from very young but did not have the life experiance/knowledge to know what/why ?

As we all get older different aspects of our journey affect each of us in individual ways although we are still part of
the greater reality.Depending on where and what society you were born, the 'Earth Experiance' is very different, also the
era you arrive in.I am finding everything seems to be a contradiction from are we all glorified Atoms ? or a manifestation of
our eternal oneness ? Or a million things inbetween ??...LOL...

[Tony]

The problem we have is feeling something is wrong, knowing what that is, and then finding a way to express it.


That is why I was instinctively drawn to project Camelot/Avalon and many others reaserchersvof alternate knowledge.
I suspected the world was not what it seemed from very young but did not have the life experiance/knowledge to know what/why ?

As we all get older different aspects of our journey affect each of us in individual ways although we are still part of
the greater reality.Depending on where and what society you were born, the 'Earth Experiance' is very different, also the
era you arrive in.I am finding everything seems to be a contradiction from are we all glorified Atoms ? or a manifestation of
our eternal oneness ? Or a million things inbetween ??...LOL...



I feel the same way. I just chose the Buddha Dharma path because it is reasonable, logical, and seems complete. Anyway who am I to argue with the Buddha(s)!
Perhaps we all do actually live in different universes on this planet at the same time:juggle:



Tony

[The23rdman]

Ultimately the world will never feel 'right' while we hold on to the illusion that it is outside of us, the same for everyone and, well, real. We experience this world through our ego and it's modus operandi is to protect us from perceived danger that only exists at the base level or reality. You are not the target because 'you' do not exist in any other way than a function of consensual reality.

I am ineffable, eternal, and Love, and I am I am You.

[skippy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbYirSi08m4

[TargeT]

'I" am the target.;)
Tony

Haha.....

So:

This is a long the lines of "we are all one" we are from "source" (popular term, but what else would be used) we are splintered consciousness having 7 billion different experiences of our selfs & our creation(s).

The problem is the ego mechanism that is needed to ensure this type of experience has worked too well, and the trap is exactly what we need to keep us here since we create it ourselves.

Now, fixing this... We just realize it? And get our "other selfs" to realize it too??

And to what outcome?

This is a concept I've heard many times, I think it is correct, it's my current working theory on "reality". But the final outcome I am not so sure of.

And sometimes I question the whole thing... Haha

(Btw, *I* am (the) TargeT).......:P

[Tony]

You raise a very interesting point, TargeT, and it's one about which there will be differences of opinion.

I was once at a talk by a Tibetan teacher, and someone raised the question about whether we are "all one". The answer was that no, we are all unique individuals: a candle can light another candle but each candle flame is unique, even though they all give off light.. Because he said this doesn't mean i automatically agree with it, but I find that, on reflection, I do agree. Because the Buddha, Christ and all the enlightened beings still had their separate unique way of expressing - I don't think they all merge into one. So you don't have to be like me and I don't have to be like you…but we can smile and be happy together.

From a Buddhist point of view, the idea of oneness is the unity between relative truth and ultimate truth. Ultimate truth is our pure awareness, our pure essence that never changes, and relative truth is the temporary state in which we are now. The reason we can experience this illusory, relative truth is because of our ultimate truth - our pure awareness - which means they are thus inseparable. Because pure awareness is pure openness, anything can manifest within it on a relative level.

If we are talking about God, and we find that it's helpful to feel part of God, then that is useful from a personal viewpoint. One could say that the very nature of God is pure awareness and light - and we are no different from that. If that's the case, we are God. As has been said before, there are many ways to climb a mountain…but at the top, the view is the same. And it doesn't really matter what you want to call it. When we both get there, we'll have a chat about it. :cheers:

All the best on your journey
Tony

[The23rdman]

'I" am the target.;)
Tony

Haha.....

So:

This is a long the lines of "we are all one" we are from "source" (popular term, but what else would be used) we are splintered consciousness having 7 billion different experiences of our selfs & our creation(s).

The problem is the ego mechanism that is needed to ensure this type of experience has worked too well, and the trap is exactly what we need to keep us here since we create it ourselves.

Now, fixing this... We just realize it? And get our "other selfs" to realize it too??

And to what outcome?

This is a concept I've heard many times, I think it is correct, it's my current working theory on "reality". But the final outcome I am not so sure of.

And sometimes I question the whole thing... Haha

(Btw, *I* am (the) TargeT).......:P


This little snippet from Tony was in response to my signature. :)

The truth about us is so obvious, but almost impossible to see and experience for the vast majority because the ego-mind seems so loud and all-encompassing. Even spiritual practice, reading and contemplation generally only provides us with reality as a concept. most of the "awakening" that people talk about seems to be "just" the firing of new synapses in the brain as a result of opening up to a little more of the infinite field of information we are accessing through our Self at Always. The quickest and easiest way to experience what true enlightenment is like is to drop 500 micrograms of LSD (that's a hug does in today's terms) or take some very strong Salvia as this will temporarily dissolve the ego completely and remove all your filters to experiencing what Is. It's a very dangerous practice without the safety parameters set out by Leary and Alpert (Ram Dass) of a safe and secure set and setting as our circuitry is open to reimprinting at these vulnerable times. Certain Kundalini practices will take you pretty close too, but that's harder work.

Virtually everyone who truly awakens to our real nature does so spontaneously and by grace because the ego has a vested interest in this not happening. After all, our awakening is its total death. More often we get little glimpses behind the curtain or awaken into more aware human beings.

I use a metaphor of bubble that surrounds us. If we walk down the street feeling full of fear and anxiety or energetic bubble is very close to us and restricts us. We do not lift our head from the floor and take scant notice of our surroundings. We do not interact with others as our energy is not reaching out to them. Our head is full of noise and there is no room in there for all out chaotic thoughts.

On the other hand, if we are feeling joyful and without fear our bubble expands and feels light and playful. We notice others as we feel their bubbles mingling with ours. We are empathetic and open-hearted, interacting without fear. We have SPACE for our thoughts so they do not crowd us or seem to fill out heads - there is room for the silence.

The goal is to expand our bubble as the larger and more all encompassing it becomes the more peace and joy we feel and the more powerful we become. We become less a creature of time and more a creature of Always. First we play (not try) to expand it to the size of a house, then our neighbourhood, town, country, planet...

Sometimes the bubble bursts. THAT is when the Truth that we are the field in which the bubbles appear to exist becomes apparent.

[ThePythonicCow]

It might be difficult to see from this viewpoint, but the net is indeed a big change. There are those of us who have been involved in it for so long, that we do not see the depth of it's influence, and it's capacity to be a new factor in change. On the grand scale of things, it is, historically speaking, difficult to categorize it's depth of influence.

Combining the invention of the printing press with the black plague, and that of the Renaissance and venetian banking, all as a group of things which can 'change' a group or society...that might come close to being as influential as the internet.

But not quite. The internet is far more unbounded, and individual. The internet is bi-directional, and global in it's minutia and effects/connections. It is the shell-echo of what is to come, as grouped consciousness projections can and will go.
I have just begun reading Joseph P. Farrell and Scott D. de Hart's "Transhumanism". They are describing the various "Tower of Babel" stories of ancient lore. Man was speaking with one tongue, and building a tower to the heaven's. The Gods scattered the people and confounded their language into many tongues.

The Internet risks challenging those Gods, for it unites humanity with a common ability to communicate once again, and once again unleashes the potential of humanity, working together.

I doubt the Gods in question are willingly cooperating in this; perhaps they view the Internet as the ultimate suppression, propaganda, control and surveillance mechanism? Failing that, I suppose there's always the option of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) causing an ILE (Internet Level Extinction) :).

Interesting times indeed.

[TargeT]

(Btw, *I* am (the) TargeT).......:P


This little snippet from Tony was in response to my signature. :)

Yes... I was just trying to join in the fun, poorly apparently.



The truth about us is so obvious, but almost impossible to see and experience for the vast majority because the ego-mind seems so loud and all-encompassing. Even spiritual practice, reading and contemplation generally only provides us with reality as a concept. most of the "awakening" that people talk about seems to be "just" the firing of new synapses in the brain as a result of opening up to a little more of the infinite field of information we are accessing through our Self at Always. The quickest and easiest way to experience what true enlightenment is like is to drop 500 micrograms of LSD (that's a hug does in today's terms) or take some very strong Salvia as this will temporarily dissolve the ego completely and remove all your filters to experiencing what Is. It's a very dangerous practice without the safety parameters set out by Leary and Alpert (Ram Dass) of a safe and secure set and setting as our circuitry is open to reimprinting at these vulnerable times. Certain Kundalini practices will take you pretty close too, but that's harder work.

sort of a shamanistic kick start? I recreationally took a large(r than expected... thanks "friends"... ha!) dose of Psilocybin mushrooms some 15 years ago and had an experience that shook my foundations pretty well, this may have been the foundation of my start to questioning reality & the "given truths" that were "known" but I can't be sure, as I did not really start to explore the "alternate" until 8 years later.

I did not see this as related to ego very much, perhaps my ego is not / was not strong enough for the contrast to be apparent, or perhaps a guide would have been beneficial.



Virtually everyone who truly awakens to our real nature does so spontaneously and by grace because the ego has a vested interest in this not happening. After all, our awakening is its total death. More often we get little glimpses behind the curtain or awaken into more aware human beings.

I use a metaphor of bubble that surrounds us. If we walk down the street feeling full of fear and anxiety or energetic bubble is very close to us and restricts us. We do not lift our head from the floor and take scant notice of our surroundings. We do not interact with others as our energy is not reaching out to them. Our head is full of noise and there is no room in there for all out chaotic thoughts.

On the other hand, if we are feeling joyful and without fear our bubble expands and feels light and playful. We notice others as we feel their bubbles mingling with ours. We are empathetic and open-hearted, interacting without fear. We have SPACE for our thoughts so they do not crowd us or seem to fill out heads - there is room for the silence.

The goal is to expand our bubble as the larger and more all encompassing it becomes the more peace and joy we feel and the more powerful we become. We become less a creature of time and more a creature of Always. First we play (not try) to expand it to the size of a house, then our neighbourhood, town, country, planet...

Sometimes the bubble bursts. THAT is when the Truth that we are the field in which the bubbles appear to exist becomes apparent.



I like this idea of bubbles, I sort of see my "awareness" this way, but in more of a cyclical ebb and flow of expansion. Sometimes I catch myself in a contracted position and strive to expand, other times I observe a more expanded thought process and enjoy it while it's there.

I wonder if this is a subtle battle between ego "me" and consciousness trying to shed its control or just "the way things work" (as it is analogous with tidal patterns etc..)




It might be difficult to see from this viewpoint, but the net is indeed a big change. There are those of us who have been involved in it for so long, that we do not see the depth of it's influence, and it's capacity to be a new factor in change. On the grand scale of things, it is, historically speaking, difficult to categorize it's depth of influence.

Combining the invention of the printing press with the black plague, and that of the Renaissance and venetian banking, all as a group of things which can 'change' a group or society...that might come close to being as influential as the internet.

But not quite. The internet is far more unbounded, and individual. The internet is bi-directional, and global in it's minutia and effects/connections. It is the shell-echo of what is to come, as grouped consciousness projections can and will go.
I have just begun reading Joseph P. Farrell and Scott D. de Hart's "Transhumanism". They are describing the various "Tower of Babel" stories of ancient lore. Man was speaking with one tongue, and building a tower to the heaven's. The Gods scattered the people and confounded their language into many tongues.

The Internet risks challenging those Gods, for it unites humanity with a common ability to communicate once again, and once again unleashes the potential of humanity, working together.

I doubt the Gods in question are willingly cooperating in this; perhaps they view the Internet as the ultimate suppression, propaganda, control and surveillance mechanism? Failing that, I suppose there's always the option of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) causing an ILE (Internet Level Extinction) :).

Interesting times indeed.


So the internet is the gift from Prometheus? (would Prometheus then be the United States Department Of Defense (DOD)?) I have often thought of the internet as the Fire of Olympus, a double edged sword that can do damage to the wielder if not treated properly or do damage to the foe in the right hands.

Over all I mostly see people stabbing themselves in the chest, only few of us seem to know which end goes where.

[ThePythonicCow]

I have often thought of the internet as the Fire of Olympus, a double edged sword that can do damage to the wielder if not treated properly or do damage to the foe in the right hands.
Indeed, the Internet is a double edged sword.

It remains to be seen which edge will cut the deepest.

[Carmody]

You raise a very interesting point, TargeT, and it's one about which there will be differences of opinion.

I was once at a talk by a Tibetan teacher, and someone raised the question about whether we are "all one". The answer was that no, we are all unique individuals: a candle can light another candle but each candle flame is unique, even though they all give off light.. Because he said this doesn't mean i automatically agree with it, but I find that, on reflection, I do agree. Because the Buddha, Christ and all the enlightened beings still had their separate unique way of expressing - I don't think they all merge into one. So you don't have to be like me and I don't have to be like you…but we can smile and be happy together.

From a Buddhist point of view, the idea of oneness is the unity between relative truth and ultimate truth. Ultimate truth is our pure awareness, our pure essence that never changes, and relative truth is the temporary state in which we are now. The reason we can experience this illusory, relative truth is because of our ultimate truth - our pure awareness - which means they are thus inseparable. Because pure awareness is pure openness, anything can manifest within it on a relative level.

If we are talking about God, and we find that it's helpful to feel part of God, then that is useful from a personal viewpoint. One could say that the very nature of God is pure awareness and light - and we are no different from that. If that's the case, we are God. As has been said before, there are many ways to climb a mountain…but at the top, the view is the same. And it doesn't really matter what you want to call it. When we both get there, we'll have a chat about it. :cheers:

All the best on your journey
Tony

Projecting from a similar viewpoint, this one says:

Uniformity kills, or has no life.

Differential is required, in order to 'be'.

Black, white, and all shades of grey MUST exist, in all their manifold ways.

Otherwise, uniformity will be an eternal nothingness, both dead and alive, all things and nothing, no change at all, in an instant or in an eternity.

If we were all the same, we'd be nothing.

~~~~
Evolution?

Having the red hot poker of difference planted on my butt is a good way to get me moving. Yow!

A 'sign' is as good as a hot stab, or vice versa.

[ThePythonicCow]

Differential is required, in order to 'be'.
Difference leads to motion.

Motion about a point leads to orbits, and motion about a moving point leads to toroids.

Large quantities of the above, with variations, forms substance on a grander scale, with differences.

But my verbs "lead" ... "form" are misleading in that they presume a sort of Darwinian evolution of structure.

The structure has been evolving for so long, at so many levels, that it seems immaterial whether one considers higher structure to form from lower structure, or vice versa.

[Camilo]

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