Questioning Oneness

Hello, and may Peace be upon you.

Oneness... one in spirit... one in consciousness... one in energy... one on a subatomic level...
In any way that you may understand the concept of Oneness, all are one and one are all.

Now here's a problem that arose to me. I was at work handling a synthetic oil based coolant without wearing gloves. I got a lot on my hands, but I always do when handling the stuff. When I was washing my hands of the oil, I was thinking of skin absorption. How our skin absorbs fluids, energy, chemicals, etc. Upon this thought I imagined, on a cellular level, how the oil had entered my body... poisoning me even in the smallest of ways. "I should wear gloves from now on," I thought to myself.

If Oneness is a Truth, why must I be mindful of the toxic dangers associated with skin absorption at my place of employment?

Fire, become one with me because we are the same...
No! I will die!




Cyanide, I embrace you as my brother, fill me with your love.
I think not! I remember Jonestown.




Nuclear Radiation, I am one with you. Mingle with my atoms.
Screw that!





If All are One, how can anything harm? How can anything kill? How can anything be a danger to another thing?

Thoughts?

i think its the separation of the ONE at its best, enabling widest variety of experience for each part of the ONE, even lethal one..

and if u take the people who walk on the "fire pits" , they definetly have different relation to the fire than regular people, they must cos fire doesnt damage them, so its spirit over matter thing probably..

all is one and one is all, what one does will eventually affect any number of other things, you are broken down to nitrogen and geed plants or scavengers or you burn to carbon, but you become what everyone refers to as all. you are made from what other people made you were given yourself (one) by your parents (all)
it happens everywhere in life, and we still know little about science, but that still seems to be the theme of everything we do know

one can affect the movements of all, sometimes in ways unseen, yet at the same time all controls said unseen one
tsun tsu knew this, and its why i believe he was so successful.
he knew that even a small amount of people could stand up to overwhelming force when closing in by strategizing (ty GWBush). tsun tsu would be like one, and his forces would be all at the same time, his forces were one, and the overwhelming opposition was all. if you start paying attention to small connections like these, you begin to see chains that connect and form a dependance. one is all, all is one
many times his forces were dependant on provoking a battle, simply to seize valuable food sources, when his began to dwindle. it was rumored in one battle he did this by marching his men right up to the encampment the enemy miliatary had occupied, and recently set up after marching to his position. the soldiers charged, as the had just marched all this way and were fired up to finally see their quarry. tsun tsu then had his men retreat, making it look like they didnt realize the miliatary would be so anxious to fight after the march, and that they were just hoping for an easy victory. they will think they have already won. by the time they realize that they havn't caught a single soldier, they return to find they have no supplies

the problem is that when it can help, it can hurt.
the wants of one can affect all and vice versa. we are all human, we will all make mistakes, and will eventually become all. be the one that affects the all in the most positive way you can, and you will succeed. all of this is the rule of karma i think.

maybe that is the rule of karma

all is one, one is all

-william

Very interesting question...

Maybe there are different levels of oneness? For example, there may be the oneness in relation to the conscious universe so everything living is connected. That might possibly cause a separation between the animate and the inanimate universes, and when some animate and inanimate entities come together there are bad consequences like things burn or die...

But if there were different levels of oneness, i guess it would be call twoness or threenus

Mysteries of life, eh?

I kind of look at it from the perspective that in science, the laws of Newtonian physics (all well, good, and true) break down at the level of quantum physics (also true.) The other part of the answer I think is the level at which we are vibrating. We see this in the immune system. If you are stressed and run down, your body is more likely to catch an infection. I believe there is a point that we can vibrate past the point of those kinds of things having an effect, but many people (myself included) still are very human and physical and able to be affected by things of that vibration. I don't think it negates oneness. I'm not going to go kiss a scorpion or hug a coyote, but those are life forms that I feel an affinity for, a oneness with.

reply to post by Sahabi

Because we are in corporeal form we need to maintain balance. Anything in excess can be harmful. A string that is too loose will not play, too tight and it will break. Somewhere in between, at the correct tautness, the string is able to vibrate and make music.

There are many things in the Universe that can destroy our body, mind and even our soul. Everything is connected but this does not mean that we should jump into a volcano just to say "hi" to the molten Earth. There is a purpose for why we are here and I am sure that it is not simply to kill and/or die. But if you should happen to kill something or when you eventually die, remember that this too is a part of the balance of life.

The point of life, in my opinion, is to experience. The best way to experience is to be consciously aware of things going on around you. A truly conscious person is aware of as many things going on around them in their environment as is possible. Not only should you protect your hands from the material you are using with gloves but you should also be aware of what the chemicals are that you are being exposed to and how they can effect your body. Read the MSDS, understand your protective equipment, that is the way to being aware that is on the path of oneness.

Buddha stepped up to a hot dog vendor and said, "I'll have one with everything".

i am developing a violent reaction toward this whole "we are one" business.

it is every bit as true and useful (as you have pointed out) that seperateness is essential to reality as we know it. but when things are seperate, then there must necessarily be a hierarchy. and hierarchy has gotten a really bad wrap over the past several thousand years.

hierarchy has given us such gems as slavery, genocide, and the roman catholic church.

so, it has become the beckon call of the "free-thinker" to reject hierarchy and embrace holarchy.

but the most sound philosophical argument i have ever known is that reality from the top to the bottom is wholes and parts and wholes and parts and wholes and parts.....etc....neither one taking precedence over the other.


but look at what this fellow said:

coyotepoet said:...the laws of Newtonian physics (all well, good, and true) break down at the level of quantum physics (also true.)...

even the hard sciences, or what are supposed to be the hard sciences, people are getting all fluffy. i have news for you, coyotepoet and anyone else that will hear me: if it werent for the BOTH of these, NONE of it would exist.


did you hear me?....NONE OF IT!

reply to post by Sahabi


Oh there you go..... Being all hateful and anti-oneness.... Shame on you! You are just projecting your hatefulness by not accepting your assimiliation by questioning it!

Tongue in cheek comments aside. :p

Perhaps, that in it's self is the nature of reality. Of coming from a source and becoming something else, seperation. Rather like a baby in utero. Sorry rather nebulous thoughts right now.........

Water is a good analogy, there are all kinds of puddles and water droplets, they all become one in the ocean, however at an atomic level they are all the same kind of particle, although there are many separate particles, each particle is the same as the next.

reply to post by SystemResistor


Not really. Each particle has a different history. And I'm sorry but that is a really bad analogy. Not that there are very many very good ones.

reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows


or is it just a shortage of people with the thought capacity able to prceive all of them. like hiding in plain sight. everything is connected in this way, similar to the previously posted parts and wholes and parts and wholes. you can be both at the same time, u know. you may thing that being "seperate" takes you out of the equation, or is an exception to the rule, but it is just changing how you are categorized

you (alone)=one
all=existence
you (still alone)=all
one=cells, atoms, thoughts, traits

its everywhere, the law of this universe

reply to post by Sahabi


Thank you Oneness, for being two in one. I love you too.

reply to post by SystemResistor


I think that humanity is meant to be aiming for one-ness.

Which is an own goal, given that since man walked this earth, he has hated and killed other man - anyone different.

Which we still do. And even when we do not actually kill someone different, we still hate or despise them.

I don't mean personally - just that humankind is like that.

So, as I said, not a fair test to start with.

But we all know nothing is fair.

reply to post by catwhoknowsplusone


No use asking for oneness and then condemning humanity in the same breath. You know, it has to come to an end somewhere down the line, so maybe we ought to stop projecting a negative duality onto the world of man, and at some level, since we are all one after all, ourselves. It must begin and end with you and me, here and now, regardless or in spite of whatever "they" are doing "out there".

reply to post by GenerationXisMarching


Ah, so you are saying I am stupid, lack the "thought capacity" or "missing something" because I do not agree with your acessment? Which I happen to view as gross over simplification to the point of absurdity, just as a by the by. I do find it funny how often hubris crops up, particularly in those who insist such a thing can never drive them. Doesn't help matters that those who often do it does so while haughtily denigrating anyone who does not agree with their particular point of view.

Just because things are interconnected or share a source doesn't make them one. Case in point, I am a human being. An individual part of a larger whole or as you'd oversimplify it "one". In a sense we are "one", but also in a sense we are not. You ignore the parts that point to the latter sense because it does not fit with your ideology but it none the less exists.

I salute you for trying to look at the "bigger picture" but ignoring the fine details is not doing yourself any favors.

reply to post by NewAgeMan


I did not ask for one-ness.

And I did not condemn humanity.

I was replying to op and saying one-ness seems to be impossible for humanity.

Then I said that one-ness is not in the nature of humans.

Your reply to me makes no sense.

reply to post by catwhoknowsplusone


Sorry I didn't mean to put words in your mouth, but you know what I mean, how at some level it becomes unhelpful to always be pointing at the human condition and saying that it's "human nature" to either kill or despise, while at the same time suggesting that oneness, if you're not requesting it or wishing for it (I don't know why we would not be asking for or praying for it), is something that we ought to be striving for, but alas "they" are all killers and haters...do you know what I mean here, about the duplicity of that, the duality inherent in it, even when we are innocent and it's all "their" fault, the killers and haters, who we hate of course.

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Here is my position. And I would like not to be misinterpreted.

Some-one posted about one-ness.

I said I think that it is something we are meant to attain. And I said it is not fair to ask it of humans, because they cannot do that. So therefore if some creator is doing that, it is not fair.

"Let them be so one, that they will know it was you who sent me."

reply to post by catwhoknowsplusone

The One then is to blame for making it such that we are meant for oneness, but cannot achieve it, being fundamentally haters and killers, that's pretty funny!

The only question then is who to hate and be mad at?

I say it is we, you and I, who must take on the responsibility, to do our part, however big or small, that the individual is at cause, and that it's useless and a complete waste of time to project blame or to say that human nature precludes it, being driven only to hatred or murder, which is never any fun for anyone.

I just don't think that's the human condition in all truth, we are indeed meant for oneness, and it's our destiny, not that we'll lose our individuality or something.

And btw, no use getting mad at me either I'm just working here for mutual understanding, for oneness too!