[roy.roebuck]

(My World View, further elaborated at http://www.one-world-is.org/rer/one-world/default.htm)

"One World" is a phrase that captures my personal and professional view of life and our place, characteristics, relationships, and behaviors within it. The focus is on the "one", emphasizing that:

• Every thing is directly inter-connected and an integral component of something bigger, on multiple levels extending to infinity (and beyond)
• Every thing is a unique manifestation of the culmination of the entire history of the universal creative process.
• Everything is the seed of its own, and everything else's, future.

These statements are representative of "Oneness".The first statement means that "everything is the same". The second statement means that "everything is different". The third statement means that "everything is interdependent". In all things there are boundaries that distinguish one thing from another, although these boundaries between things do not mean there is separation between things. For example, the statements "there is no separate death", "death is a unique experience", "there is no separate life", and "life is a unique expression" all illustrate Oneness. How many of our species deeply understand and operate from these statements?

I submit that there is only one thing in the world, as the mystics have known and the physicists are proving and beginning to apply. Separation between things in the world is illusion. This illusion of separation has existed from the time our species gained "knowledge of good and evil", the time in our evolutionary progression when we began to distinguish, symbolize, name, characterize, and categorize ("kind-of" and "part-of" relations) things in the world.

The illusion of separation has utility for our species in allowing us to deal with the complexities our experience brings us. It is the foundation of our intellectual progress. But this same illusion of separation, when expressed as a self-deluded belief in "separation as real", is the cause of our fear (fear of what's different, fear of being excluded). Accepting and expressing Oneness reduces fear because it reduces the false belief in separation between people, and between people and their environment. We can believe in Oneness, and still utilize separation.

It seems there is a normal progression and evolution in intellect from understanding oneness spiritually, then scientifically, and then societally. Through day to day practical experience our sciences and our society are coming to understand and practice that which has been known to many spiritual explorers and to many intuitive, imaginative, and creative persons like artists and children, from the beginning of our intellectual existence. As illustrated above, the Zen Buddhist expression "Everything is different, everything is same" conveys a spiritual understanding of "oneness" that has existed from before our species' first word, and this expression is intended to reduce fear and confusion in those pondering it. Or consider the science of Bohm's "Implicate Order" for the same effect.

Practical societal situations where "oneness" is applied are seen in "organizations" in general, from small groups up to the United Nations, and in upcoming Year 2000 computer date error events that will disrupt our control systems and our society to a probably small, but potentially large, degree. Even some of our religious institutions teach Oneness, and some actually practice it .

[roy.roebuck]

"Oneness of Everything" is simple to see!

Question: How many things are there? Answer: either "one", "an infinite number", or "both one and an infinite number".

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If you answer "one" or "both one and an infinite number" , then you've got the concept of oneness. The first view focuses on one entity containing all, and the latter focuses on all contained within one, which are mirror images of the same view. I personally believe that the former "one" view is most efficient and effective in mastering life. What is unitary (not separated) does not need to be integrated. Integration is difficult unless the components were formed with integration in mind.

To express a unitary view, all you need is to express your understanding of oneness, and all that it contains, in thought, word, and deed. With diligence, you can achieve full expression of oneness in you life.

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If you answered "an infinite number" to the original question, then you're taking the majority view of our species.

The common sense-based belief in separation is present despite the evidence to the contrary from the physical sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, evolution etc.), social sciences (organization, economics, government, politics, etc.), and ancient beliefs.

It is easy for us to be misled by our body-senses, and to be confused about the terms "separate" and "different". These sense-messages easily give rise to incomplete beliefs that things are unconnected, with accompanying thoughts, words, deeds.

When you say an infinite number of things exist in the universe, you're recognizing that there are differences between things. Differentiation is a fundamental characteristic of the universe. But individual or type difference does not indicate separation from a common root. Nothing is truly alien to us, when seen from the perspective of one universe, contained within something even larger (which we are just beginning to see). For practical purposes, we can believe that all of the different things in the universe are interconnected within a single thing, the one universe. If you use the analogy of a family tree, everything sprang from one creative activity.

Distinctive difference is as important in the universe as it is in our bodies. As an illustration, what would be the effect on your body if there were no differences between cells? Answer: your body would be composed of undifferentiated cells, resulting in no heart, no lungs, no brain, no eyes, etc., putting our bodies on the same level as the simplest multicellular organisms. If you can carry this awareness of the importance of differentiation and the resultant diversity to other life forms, other physical forms, or other social, ethnic, national, political, and economic forms, then you're on your way to understanding oneness.

Thus there is no actual separation between things, only branches of variations on a theme rooted in the universe. There are principals and forces binding together the different components of the universe in ways that we are just beginning to grasp with our sciences and our minds. Research the physics of Bohm's "Implicate Order", Bell's "non-locality", or the Zero Point Force (ZPF) to see where our sciences are pointing us.

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I hope we all come to learn why either answer that contains "one" is true, while the answer "an infinite number" is false.

From this understanding of one and infinite, I also hope we can all learn the practical, day-to-day skills of choosing good (belief in oneness) over evil (belief in separation) and acting on that choice.

[mkirkpatrick]

Thanks for the most interesting thread starter Roy,all is indeed interconnected,we are as
one within the whole!



regards michael.

[Profpat]

Hi Roy;

I firmly believe there is only One Thing ( Singular ), and that of course is GOD, of which all things ( Plural ) are part of. The seperation you refer to isn't evil, just a feeling of being hopelessly lost in the illusion of an indifferent universe.

Best to you and Michael,

Pat