Some Metaphors for Oneness and the Experience of the Non-Dual State

This is something I wrote up after I wrote about some of the deeper aspects of Yoga practice and how you cannot really put an experience into words. I hope you enjoy it.

upsidedowncarl@yogascope.com

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Some Metaphors for Oneness and the Experience of the Non-Dual State

Metaphors for the non-dual state which could simply be referred to as oneness abound in literature: the drop of water and the ocean, the wave and the ocean, blades of grass and the field, in the Baghavat Gita Krisha reveals his true form to Arjuna as everything living in the universe perceived as one being; the image was supposedly too powerful for humans to gaze at with full understanding.

We tend to experience our separateness more palpably than our connectedness. I feel it is worth going inside a few metaphorical images of our connectedness that seem to make the concept of how we are not separate more possible for me to experience. I hope some of these resonate with you and give you a sense of your connection to everything else as well.

Since an explanation of the non-dual is not really fully possible these are to hopefully give you more of an understanding of something that is not fully understandable.

A person is an individual. That is one; there is a separateness. But when two individuals join together as in a marriage, also called a union, then two in some sense become one as the two partners are thought of as one unit. If those two had a child or children all of a sudden you have three or four or even five separate individuals that exist as parts of a family unit. So how ever many it is, lets say four for convenience those four are in some sense one as they each exist as separate parts of something greater; in this case the family unit. This does not contradict the separateness and the uniqueness of each individual in this unit, it just is an acknowledgement that each individual exists as part of something else as well. You could widen this field to the town or city these individuals live in and then you have something else to observe yourself as being a part of as well. I live in New York. I am currently part of New York. I am a New Yorker. New York is in the United States of America, I am seemingly part of that tribe as well so we could say I am an American. I am a human being. I exist as part of something greater in that sense as well. I am connected with, I am part of, humanity. I live on the planet earth. I am part of life on earth. I exist as part of something greater than me. I am part of this planet. And this planet, Earth, is part of a solar system, a galaxy and a greater universe. I am part of all this. And it feels good to know that I am connected and to know that how I live and act and am, in this world, effects everything else in some small way.

A forest is a large body of land that contains a large number of trees in it. The soil is part of the forest but if you took some of the soil out of the forest there would still be a forest, which contains all that is within the forest. The leaves on the trees exist as part of the forest and if you took some of the leaves out it would still be the same forest. It would just be lacking some of the leaves that had previously been part of some of the trees. In fact, in many forests, during the winter months a large percentage of the leaves, if not all, fall from the trees and whither, but the forest still remains. Individual trees can be taken out, others added and it will change some of the makeup of the forest but not the totality that we refer to as the forest. The forest is one thing made up of many contributing elements that individually can be viewed as separate or, together, can be viewed as making up one whole.

Each of the cells in a human body are living, self contained organisms. A large percentage of the cells of a human body die each year and are replaced by other cells that perform the same basic functions. Each cell can be viewed separately and if certain cells in a human body die or are removed, you still may not have substantially changed that individual person. And while each cell can be seen as separate, they still exist as separate parts of something greater than themselves. They are not the person but they are functioning parts of that human being for the time they are cells in that human beings body. They exist as part of something greater than themselves.

A human being could be thought of as existing as part of humanity, city, nation, planet or universe. From this perspective you could think of yourself as connected to everything else which is a nice way to think of things. With this outlook causing harm to another or to the planet could be viewed as causing harm to a part of yourself and doing something that is beneficial to another or to the planet can be seen as doing something that is beneficial to some part of yourself as well. It is nice to be able to see the ways in which you are connected to everything else. Who knows, this kind of thinking could even bring out the best in people.

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