Unity and Separation

As it is a universal experience that unity is bliss and separation is suf­fering, the attainment of oneness has always been the ultimate goal of all real spiritual paths and traditions of enlightenment. Although their means and teachings differ, they unanimously agree that sepa­ration is ignorance and unity is self-realization.

Unity is indeed the antidote to separation, but only from the standpoint of lower truth. The one reality transcends this division inherent to the realm of ignorance. It is within the undivided whole that we experience our dream of separation as well as our awaken­ing to unity. In our evolution we journey between these existential extremes, shifting through a rainbow of diverse realizations as we draw ever closer to the realm beyond opposites.

The state of totality is not subject to divisions, for it is the abso­lute container of all possible and actual realities. To enter this great unknown, we must return to the natural state of selfless being and merge with the root of all things, the non-abiding realm of universal I am. Only after merging with existence do we finally rise above the dichotomy of unity and separation and realize the exalted state of oneness.

the state of oneness

In its most direct definition, oneness is the absence of separation. And while it is true that separation obscures the state of oneness, it is at the same time the very energy that makes the realization of oneness possible. Without separation, there is no oneness — without oneness, no separation. It is their complex interaction that constitutes the multilayered nature of both our awakening and the reality of oneness itself.

Just as the poles of ignorance and enlightenment are often mis­construed as having no intermediate reality, separation and oneness are commonly regarded as being fixed opposites. However, sensitive examination of the evolutionary process reveals that prior to our arrival at the ultimate state of oneness, various levels of separation still coexist with our growing experience of unity. Unification with the universal self is not simply the removal of separation, but the positive result of a process of evolution and expansion into the one reality. In the state of oneness, separation is not nullified, but trans­formed into the unity of individual intelligence within the ocean of universal I am.

the two dimensions of separation

Although existence is one, due to the human inability to experience it as a whole it is mistakenly viewed as being comprised of two distinct realms — inner and outer. This division is real, but only from the standpoint of an unevolved consciousness. As long as we operate in the plane of forgetfulness, the poles of inner and outer remain our primal reference points. Until unity with both inner and outer is real­ized, apperception of totality is impossible.

In actuality, the human being is painfully split from both the outer and inner realms — the planes of objectified reality and pure subjectivity — as if living neither inside nor outside of existence. He is locked in a netherworld, suspended between the reality of appear­ances and the reality of universal I am, experientially and existen­tially disconnected from both. From this rootless, painfully unstable place, our spiritual evolution begins.

The cardinal cause of our separation from both inner and outer is the exteriorization of our human consciousness from the dimension of pure subjectivity. The human sense of me is entirely uprooted from the internal space of the universal now, the ground of reality as it is. In fact, our sense of me is estranged from both the subjectivity of the soul and the subjectivity of the universal self. It has neither a stable sense of self, nor any abiding place in the inner realm — it is alienated from its own essence as well as from the fundamental reality.

The realization of oneness with phenomenal existence can only be achieved from a place of unity within the inner plane. The outer world is not outside of universal I am, but contained within its boundless space of pure being. Since creation dwells within the uni­versal subjectivity of the self, there is no way to experience oneness with the external reality unless one becomes unified with the inner realm and the soul. When inner and outer are united and integrated in the consciousness of an individual, their duality is dissolved and the experiencer reaches the state of universal non-abidance and impersonality. Thus reality as a whole is divulged.

self and other than self

The essence of separation is friction between the experience of self and the reality external to self. Since the reality external to self is both objective and subjective, our experience of existence is determined by the quality of our simultaneous abidance in the world and in being. As long as we are lost in ignorance, our sense of identity is experienced only in contrast to the phenomenal world.

To possess a sense of self is perfectly natural and fundamental to all living things and does not in itself create a sense of separation. A bird feeling its sense of me is not extracted from its natural unity with existence; its sense of me is more or less dissolved in its environ­ment. Since creation contains diversity-in-unity composed of infinite angles of perception, subject is by nature distinct from object, and can therefore clearly distinguish itself in thought and feeling. There is a natural equilibrium between individual consciousness and the reality that contains it. In the universal experience, subject and object are both embedded in consciousness, balanced in perfect harmony.

If we look deeper into the nature of reality, we can see that the balance between subject and object is actually intrinsic to pure con­sciousness. The very fact that consciousness is self-perceiving reveals that its absolute subjectivity includes a translucent objectivity that mirrors that same subjectivity back to itself. It is not the sense of me as such that creates the friction of separation, but the crystallization of identity that results from the soul losing its original transparency.

In the natural state of being, the cognition of oneself and the outer reality is unobstructed, freely interpenetrating, mutually inclu­sive and translucent. But in the human realm, consciousness has become unnaturally self-centered and alienated from the external world. This primal conflict between knowing oneself and knowing the world is the essence of duality and the source of our isolation from reality as a whole.

We arrive at the state of oneness not by eliminating the faculty to experience ourselves, but through the realization of the ultimate trans­parency between self and other-than-self. The ego alone can never reach transparency, because its very presence creates an existential knot in the openness of being. It is by nature in a state of perpetual contraction and self-centered attention. This crystallization of identity involuntarily translates as excessive self-awareness, and is responsible for the acute sense of separation between me and the world. In order for there to be transparency between self and other, we must first awaken the soul to regain the transparency inherent to our true being. When the soul awakens, she supplants the petrified ego and experi­ences herself in an expansive and pure way that mirrors the complete translucency of her abidance in the realm of pure subjectivity. From this place, her perception of the outer world is open, unhindered, all-pervasive, and free of any center. After she attains oneness, the soul continues to live in the world, but her identity is no longer constrained by a sense of separate self. She has no fixed boundaries and the world ceases to be external to her being and consciousness.

the root of separation

The root cause of our separation is our self-consciousness. The human mind perceives reality based on a split between subject and object, experiencer and experienced, observer and observed, knower and known. The perceived is external to the perceiver, who has no stable identity.

Lesser-evolved creatures have a sense of me just as we do, but one that is too weak to crystallize into a sense of separation. As humans, our sense of me has solidified in the mind, creating the illu­sion that our personality is an actual entity. This ego-entity is both excessively self-conscious in how it relates to the world and how it relates to the virtual reality of its own mind. By over-exercising its ability to think about itself, the ego has deformed our natural sense of me into a wound of separation.

Although self-consciousness is essential and fundamentally positive, the warped self-consciousness of the mind is responsible for our sense of isolation from both the natural state of being and the whole of creation. It has become a wall separating us from the total­ity of existence. Everything we experience is processed in the obsti­nately self-centered mind-construct of pseudo-me; we are conscious of ourselves only in contrast to everything that appears to be outside of our singular sense of I.

The human stream of consciousness constantly oscillates between subject and object, object and subject. Locked in a claustrophobic reality of mind, lonely and disconnected from the rest of creation, human self-consciousness has overridden the consciousness of the undivided whole. It is too conscious to feel unity with existence, and too unconscious to transcend the illusion of separation.

separation and unity

Most creatures below humans in the hierarchy of existence recognize neither unity nor separation — they are in an unconscious state of oneness. Above them on the evolutionary ladder, however, many possibilities exist for how beings can relate to unity, separation and their interplay.

There are those who recognize the presence of separation, but not the absence of unity — they are too asleep to question their existence, but conscious enough to suffer due to their separation. There are those who recognize both the presence of separation and the absence of unity — they have begun their evolution towards the realization of oneness. There are those who experience both separation and unity simultaneously — they have reached a relative realization of one­ness, but have not yet transcended separation. There are those who are in a state of complete unity and have no concept of the presence or absence of separation — they live in a conscious state of oneness that bears no relation to the plane of illusion. Finally, there are those who are conscious of both their complete unity with existence and the absence of separation. These awakened souls have realized oneness while continuing to exist in the plane of ignorance.

the portal of perfect soleness

Before we can experience the world and self as one consciousness, we must first attain ‘perfect soleness’, complete separation from objectified reality. Upon entering the inner path, our identification with the world of perception is the fundamental distraction from realizing our essential self. For this reason, to awaken our true subjectivity, we must first disconnect our essence from the sensory, emotional and mental impressions that constantly invade our psyche and create the construct of the personal self. This need for internal focus may initially make us feel even more isolated from the world than in our previous, ordinary state of unconscious separation; but unless we regain solidity and stability within our true self, the illu­sory forces of the external reality and our own mind will continue to antagonize our integrity. By actualizing the soleness of I am, we lay the ground of being from which we can move beyond the polarities of inner and outer, self and other, I and you, here and now ­— and embrace the whole of existence as the undivided one.

misconceptions about oneness

We cannot transcend separation by negating our individuality, or through simplistic identification with the objective reality. These, the two most common misconceptions about oneness, actually lead us away from the reality of unity, for they presume that we must some­how disappear in order to merge.

Losing one’s sense of self is not an experience of oneness, but the imbalanced condition of a split mind that is not grounded in the reality of I am. Although our individual consciousness is indeed responsible for our separation, it also serves as a base for the actu­alization of our union with the totality of existence. We do not need to eradicate our individuality, but to awaken its true subjectivity and surrender it to the whole. Only when our individual essence is awakened and then merged with the universal self can subject and object be embraced in one homogeneous field of reality.

To experience oneness with the external reality we do not aban­don our individuality. We do not become an object that appears in our field of perception — a chair, for instance. The perceiver does not become the perceived. Oneness does not stand in opposition to the natural presence of diversity and differentiation. The very existence of unity depends upon the polar dissimilarity of the subjective and objective modes of experiencing reality, without which there would be no way for consciousness to identify the manifested universe as an actual experience. To assume that one must actually become a chair in order to experience unity with it would degrade the con­cept of oneness to the level of ‘mystical’ insanity. The chair is just the chair, and the subject perceiving it remains just the subject. In the consciousness of unity, an object continues to be what it is, but ceases to be existentially external to the experiencer. The experiencer of oneness is absorbed in the inner realm, from which both subject and object spring forth in each instant of creation.

‘negative’ oneness

Oneness cannot be achieved by expanding or modifying the false self through altered states, emotional exhilaration or the suspension of consciousness. Though they sometimes create the illusion of oneness, such experiences are not grounded in pure subjectivity, and thus can be considered examples of ‘negative’ oneness. To experience oneness is to dissolve the boundaries of self, inwardly and outwardly, into the limitless translucency of the total reality.

In the realm of the mundane, the most common expressions of negative oneness are ecstatic states and human love, for both allevi­ate the pain of separation by transporting one beyond the boundaries of the individual self. The original meaning of ecstasy was ‘standing outside of oneself’. This type of euphoric feeling can be induced by certain music, dance, and drug experiences, or by identification with a powerful idea or emotion. Here however, the very one who would constitute the foundation of unity is absent; hence, no positive experience of oneness can be attained. We may also sometimes tem­porarily lose our sense of separation when overwhelmed by intense beauty or compassion. But if we look beyond appearances, we can see that the experience actually points to our deepest longing for one­ness with existence, not oneness itself.

For the average human, love as expressed in its many forms is the most accessible means of coming closer to a sense of unity with ‘other’. However, though love is an attractive way to lose oneself, true oneness cannot be accessed by merging with an external being or object. Again, to lose or forget oneself is not a positive expansion, but an unproductive absence of conscious separation. Real oneness is actualized by first becoming one with oneself, next merging with the source of creation, and finally, embracing reality as a whole. Love is an imperfect oneness, while oneness is the perfect love. True love melts the duality between lover and beloved.

There are also more ‘mystical’ varieties of negative oneness, for example, to forget oneself by becoming spaced-out. Pure absent-mindedness goes beyond getting lost in daydreams or becoming dis­tracted — it has no object. In fact, being spaced-out involves neither object nor subject; one does not know who, what or where one is. It is not a state signifying true freedom from separation, but a regres­sion to a pre-conscious state wherein the conscious mind loses grip of both its internal and external reality.

It is possible that a spaced-out state mixed with certain ener­getic expansions can actually transport an adept into a mystical plane. There are in fact many spiritual paths that do not point to the grounded realization of pure subjectivity, but to various mystical states. Through mystical states the soul can connect to other dimen­sions and mental realms that present an alternate way of existing within totality, but she cannot realize herself and reach wholeness, for she remains alienated from her original nature and the vertical purity of being. Mystical states exist in-between the dimension of pure subjectivity and objectified reality, and as such, abide outside of the soul’s essence. As altered states of consciousness they can be seductive for the mind, for they provide relief from ordinary waking consciousness and may even give us a sense of oneness. But as they are not founded upon the inner realm and the soul, they are unable to deliver us to the freedom and transcendence that is anchored in the self. Shifts to mystical states may give one an energetic experi­ence, but they offer no real refuge from mental chaos, for they are merely relative dimensions of expansion peripheral to the source itself. They do not serve the realization of true oneness.

Negative oneness can be a dangerous pitfall on the path. We can lose our way by getting distracted by or even addicted to nega­tive experiences of oneness. We must strive to move beyond illusive experiences of freedom and bliss in order to attain a true awakening that is rooted in the light of I am.

the essence of oneness

Is oneness an experience? While in any ordinary experience self is external to the object of experience, true oneness occurs in the non-experiential dimension, beyond the division of knower and known. It is experienced through one’s own dissolution. The experiencer merges with the experienced — he is one with it. To experience one­ness is to disappear into the beyond.

In essence, oneness is an expansion beyond oneself that is realized through one’s positive absence in the presence of the total existence. In the space of pure subjectivity, the truth of oneness is divulged, absorbing our sense of me, but not annihilating it. Through the real­ization of oneness, the core of our individuality — the light of the soul — is integrated into a complete experience of reality as a whole.

The complete state of oneness requires the motionlessness of being as its foundation. Although oneness encompasses both the inner and outer realms, it is primarily rooted in the vertical dimen­sion of the now. In pure being, all-that-is reveals itself to the absorbed consciousness as the non-conceptual apperception of everything­ness. To be one with reality is to dwell in the state of non-activity, the unconditional repose of existence. From the vertical profundity of being, the stillness of our essence, we expand horizontally into universal consciousness. Thus manifests the bliss of oneness.

levels in the realization of oneness

Are there stages leading to the state of oneness, or is the realization of oneness a singular event? Following an impersonal philosophy, we could deny the possibility of gradual evolution into oneness on the grounds that oneness signifies the sudden and absolute transcen­dence of individuality. But the logic behind this reasoning is overly simplistic. The realization of oneness is not the annihilation of indi­viduality, but its transmutation.

Oneness itself has no grades, but the process of the unification of the individual with the universal is gradual. The journey begins with our evolution into the inner state and progressively deepens through the awakening of our true identity, our surrender into the beyond, and our expansion into the one reality. The more oneness increases, the more separation decreases, until by the cumulative power of our awakening, separation is no more.

The first level of oneness is accessed through the awakening of awareness, which opens the space of pure subjectivity. However, pure awareness represents a stage in the realization of oneness only if it is linked with the energy of being. If the state of presence is too crystallized and lacks surrender, it may temporarily intensify our self-consciousness and sense of separation. The natural state of pres­ence is restful and transparent; it absorbs the sense of me in choice­less awareness.

The next level of oneness involves our expansion beyond aware­ness into being, which opens our connection to the universal source. By merging into being, the soul can dwell in the ground of existence, anchored in the unconditional state of repose. Through this absorption, she expands beyond herself and grows roots into the beyond. Only from the depth of being can the soul experience reality unmodified, as it is.

Absorption in being links the soul with the uncreated, but our further expansion into oneness takes place through the portal of the heart. In being, the soul is one with the source, but remains alienated from the external world. It is through the awakening of the heart that she reaches horizontal unity with creation, for the heart energetically and existentially bridges the inner and outer spheres of the one exis­tence. The unity of vertical and horizontal expansion gives rise to a whole new experience of reality: when being and heart merge into one, they create a holistic field of energy that expands the soul into unity with both the source and creation.

After the awakening of the heart, the evolution into oneness progresses through the absorption of intelligence in I am, and the attainment of transparent me, in which the integration and unifica­tion of the soul and the inner state are completed. Beyond the state of transparent me, still deeper states of oneness manifest through exis­tential shifts into the state beyond polarities and the transcendental state. The final and complete state of oneness is based on the samadhi of me, the transcendence of ego, the merging of the mind and the complete actualization of our eternal soul-identity.

the soul and the self

We must deeply contemplate the difference between the soul and the self in order to grasp the delicate balance between our presence and absence within the realization of unity. In our complete absence, one­ness cannot be experienced, for we are unconscious. In our ordinary presence, oneness cannot be experienced either, for our crystallized self-consciousness separates us from the whole. To realize oneness we need to transform our sense of me so that it can merge with absence while remaining present. As long as there is an experience, there must be an experiencer; but who we are as the experiencer is fluid, and changes according to the level of our awakening. Only our deeper self, not our human personality, can access the state of oneness. The dimension of me that experiences and recognizes one­ness is not a product of the mind, but an intelligent expression of the deepest consciousness of I am. It is the soul uniting her eternal pres­ence with totality. The light of recognition is inherent to the soul’s intelligence and being. Her knowledge of being herself is uncondi­tionally merged with the consciousness of all-that-is.

The integral consciousness of our true self is steeped in the pure knowing of its own light, yet free of any self-reference. Such is the consciousness natural to all realized human souls. There are also var­ious beings of light that inhabit the space of universal consciousness, but possess no self-consciousness. They eternally dwell in a state of uninterrupted union with the beloved, but like humans, experience the light of creation in a way that is unique to their particular con­sciousness and level of evolution.

One must go deep into meditation to understand what it means to simultaneously experience one’s complete presence and absence within the beyond. It is only by becoming our true self that we can merge with the ocean of universal presence and still remain con­scious. In this, the ultimate coalescence, that which merges is our illusory consciousness based on false individuality, and that which re-emerges is the pure consciousness of the soul based on the immor­tal light of I am.

The soul is an individualized angle of perception. She is an aspect of totality through which universal I am views its entire cre­ation, an infinitesimal sphere of I am that has a function and purpose within the totality of existence. The soul is not separate from the self, but exists within the space of universal consciousness, like a wave in the ocean. By becoming one with the self, the soul transcends her sense of separation, but not her existence and function. She continues her everlasting evolution within universal I am. Prior to her awaken­ing, the soul evolved towards the state of unity, but now, from the point of her complete realization, she begins to evolve within the state of oneness, beyond oneness.

Oneness is not the final goal, but the true beginning of our expansion into the mystery of the beyond. Who is evolving? Who is expanding into the bliss of reality? Who is growing into deeper reve­lations of truth? There can be no final answer to this question because that one is eternally evolving and changing within his unchanging essence. There is no end to the awakening beyond awakening.