Episode 5: Oneness and what it means for you in these challenging times

Oneness is a spiritual principle.  If we base our lives in the principle of oneness, we will be much more successful at weathering challenging times.  Oneness means that if we are hurting, others are too, and if others are hurting, so are we.

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Transcript

Fearlessly feral episode 5 

Welcome to Fearlessly Feral Living!  Broadcasting to you from the Woogie Ranch, out here in the back 40 of northwestern Nevada, where I’m a half hour away from the nearest gas station and grocery store! This is a podcast devoted to using New Thought principles to ensure successful creative living.  Successful living begins from within us and moves outward.  Change your thinking and change your life.  Today we are going to talk about oneness...and a little bit of politics.  HA!  Just thought I’d throw that in there just to make sure you were listening.  Yes, while this is a podcast about successful living through applying the principles of Science of mind to our lives, but sometimes, we have to apply those principles to the world around us too.

So, here we go.

There’s this catch all phrase going around right now.  Almost every conversation I encounter begins with something like this:  in this challenging time...  Yes, we are living in challenging times.

And in the midst of all of this, we must return to principle.  So today I’m going talk about the principle of oneness.  Oneness is that principle that says not only is there one god, but also that we are a part of that god, and it is a part of us, and thus, we are all connected.  This has great ramifications for us as spiritual beings having a human experience.  Because we are connected via this thing called group consciousness, or group mind. 

If you are a scientific sort, check out quantum physics and the principle of non locality.   This principle says that physical location means nothing in our relationship, that relationships transcend time and space, and that we are all connected.

If you are a nature sort, consider that fact that that group of aspen trees is not just a bunch of trees growing separate from one another in a field.  Look under the surface and you will see one giant root system from which all those individual trees grew.

We are like that.  All part of one giant system, created as god, by god, because we are needed to express the physical in this world.  All a bunch of individual people, growing from one individual force that we call god.  All godlings.

So, if we are all connected, then all of us matter.  And if one person or one group of people is hurting, then all of us are hurting.  Any sense of separation from anyone else is false.  We are not separate.  At all, ever.  This is one aspect of oneness. The other aspect is the oneness of god, but I’m going to stick with our own oneness as humans right now, and as spiritual beings having a human experience.

The benefit of oneness is that we are always connected.  Never alone.   One with our fellow humans. The shadow side of oneness is that we are always connected, and thus subject to the feelings and thoughts of the human race as a whole.

Why is this a shadow?  Let me tell you a story that I think illustrates this quite well.  When I was in ministerial school, I embraced the concept of oneness as I had never before done.  Life went along for a while, and ministerial school was doing what it does best, which is facilitate the going away of anything in life which would get in the way of becoming the most effective minister I could be.  Which basically meant everything in my life.  So I was living in a studio apartment on an 80 acre horse ranch, grieving my losses, studying, shoveling horse manure and riding horses.  Starving student.  And I would wake up in the mornings and sometimes, in addition to all the other stuff I was feeling, I would feel this sense of dis-ease, this sense of not-rightness.  At first I chalked it up to what was going on with my personal life.  More feelings to process, I thought.  And I would go out before humanity woke up and begin cleaning horse stalls, and commune with those horses.  In the afternoon, I’d return to my little abode and have lunch and see what was going on in the outside world.  And I began to realize that those mornings when I would wake up feeling not-right were the same days that some catastrophe had occurred somewhere in the world.  What I was feeling were the feelings of all those folks affected by weather, fire, war, in other areas of the world.  This is the shadow side of oneness.  Now, bring that back to our own country, and our own home turf, and just take in for a moment the systemic persecution of people of color.  Take in the reality of folks killed simply because of the color of their skin.  Take in the reality of people not being able to go places because of the color of their skin.  Take in the ugliness of people not being able to have the same advantages that me, a white woman, has had, because of the color of their skin.  Take in the grimness of having to have a conversation with your kids about how to behave if you get stopped by the police because you are black.  Because that is real.  I get stopped and I get a ticket.  Unless I flirt or bat my eyelashes and use my femininity to manipulate the guy.  A black person gets stopped and they get asked to step out of the vehicle, and if they protest, they get abused, beaten, killed.  I never had to have that talk.  Every black person I know has had to have that talk.  Imagine not being able to date or marry the person you love because of the color of their skin, or yours.  Did you know that mixed races were not able to legally marry until this date in 1967?  That’s in our lifetimes folks.  Think about it.  Think about the distress occurring because of the inequalities perpetuated for generations, and then you no longer have to wonder why you feel so ill at ease.  Because of oneness, if one segment of the population is hurting we are all hurting.

This is why I believe in the black lives matter movement.  Well, it is one reason why, but it is foundational reason, the reason from which all other reasons stem.  Because, and it has become a cliche, but cliches become so for a reason, and that reason is because they are so true that such a truth simply exists, it is.  Based on the principle of oneness, all lives cannot matter unless black lives matter.  We are not separate human beings walking around this earth.  We are all connected.  What I do and think affects you, and what you do and think affects me.  

In our sense of divisiveness, we have this false feeling of separation, us and them, this thing that says if we make them matter we will cease to matter.

That is not true.  It isn't true spiritually and it isn’t true physically. I hope I’ve adequately explained the principle of oneness to demonstrate this.

Here’s another way to look at it:  you have multiple pets.  One of those pets is in trouble.  Injured or sick.  At that moment that pet matters just a bit more than the others.  The others are fine, they are doing their things.  You need to take care of the injured pet.   It matters.  Black folks are injured.  They’ve been injured for a long time.  And they haven’t mattered for a long time.  They’ve done a pretty good job of caring for themselves through all those injuries.  Those judgements, those persecutions, those carefully hidden white supremacist rules that make it difficult for them to succeed in life in the ways you and I succeed.  But it is time for us, and by us I mean you and me, us white folk, to stop this.  It is time for us to make black lives matter.  Because if they don't matter, it is a spiritual reality that we don't matter either.  Because there is a tiny little spiritual truth called oneness.  

Now here’s another thing we are going to need if we are to move through this challenging time and emerge from it successfully:  courage.  It has taken me a while to muster up the courage to speak out.  For a couple of reasons:  I want people to like me, and I feel inadequate to properly debate and express the truth of what is going on.

It is important for us to know this about ourselves.  Because we cannot successfully address and change it unless we do so.  And we cannot speak out in such a way as to create unity instead of divisiveness unless we do so.  Because really, this is heart of spirituality.  Spirituality is not about candles and crystals.  It isn't about how much we meditate and pray.  It isn’t about how much we go to church.  It isn’t about what religion we are.  It isn’t about how positive we are or how enlightened we are.  It is about how much we embrace oneness, how much we feel oneness, and how much we realize that in our oneness what we do and think affects others, and that we need to take responsibility for that.  And we need to realize that in our despair, the worse thing we can do is point our fingers of blame out at others who think differently than we do and verbally or physically abuse them.

We can’t just resort to calling someone names, as much as we might want to.  We must instead do our own work so that we know our truth, and we can confidently stand in that truth without making the other person wrong.

Acknowledging our oneness with each other is one way to do that.  Remember that when we are blaming someone else for the problems of today.  If you have blame for them, you have blame for yourself.  Remember that in our oneness we must take responsibility for our own stuff and do our own work.  Remember that in our oneness we must see ourselves as we wish to be seen, and see others as we wish to be seen.  Yes, that golden rule is really about oneness.  That commandment about not bearing false witness against our neighbor is really about oneness.  That Buddhist tradition of doing no harm is about oneness.  Oneness is mentioned in one way or another in all religious traditions, so embrace it, know it, feel it, and then move out into the world and BE it and act it.  Both you and the world will be better for it.

I thank you for listening, and I know that it is no accident that you are here.  I affirm your greatest good!  I affirm your inherent divinity, and that that divinity shows up in your life as wisdom, prosperity, peace and unconditional love.  I know that you are the place where God shows up in this world.  I love you, and I support you.

Fearlessly Feral Living is sponsored by Center for Spiritual Living Carson City Nevada, a teaching chapter.  If you wish to contribute financially to support this project, you can go to www.cslcc.org and click on the donate button.  

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Your gifts contribute to the ongoing production of this podcast, as well as to supporting Wednesday Night Wisdom and other ongoing activities sponsored by CSL Carson City.

We also have a private Facebook group called Fearlessly Feral Living where we discuss podcast topics and other things too!  You can join by going here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/255310015873757/?ref=share

I’m currently serving as Interim Minister for Mountainside Center for Spiritual Living in Placerville.  I speak there every other Sunday, and currently all Sunday services are online via Zoom.  Future speaking dates are June 14 and 28, July 12 and 26, and August 16 and 30th.  

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Until next time, I am knowing fearlessly feral living for you and for me.