Oneness
Feeling and thinking that we are really separate from God is the illusion.
There is a Sanskrit term maya which is usually translated as ‘illusion,’ and is used to describe our world and everything in it. As with so many Sanskrit terms, this one is often misunderstood.
What it means is there is no separation. I am at-one-with God. I am at-one-with all things. I am at-one-with you.
It is our senses that tell us “We are separate”.
The happiness in life is about seeing to what degree I can know myself as aligned to God, aligned to oneness even when I am having the experience of separation. When I remind myself that I am at-one-with wife who seems rude to me, it might allow me to let go of my resentment for a moment. It might allow me to see her as behaving from her discomfort rather than to me.
Maybe I’ll be able to find compassion for the family member who always seems too pre-occupied to pay attention to me.
I might find it easier to ask a friend how they’re doing, even though they rarely ask the same of me.
Remembering that I am oneness might help to remind me that, even though I may feel disconnected from God and unworthy of God’s love, neither of these ideas are even possible in a universe of oneness with the Almighty. Maybe I’ll be able to stop identifying with the thoughts and feelings that tell me these things and begin to settle into the flow of life through me that is the truth of me. That is this oneness loving itself.
For if there is only one thing, then this one thing must be God. If there is only one thing, and it is God, then I, too, must be of God. And this other person I have to interact with must also be of God. If I can even imagine for a moment that this is true, the flow of love from one of us to the other becomes more possible. And where there is love, there is improvement. There is hope. There is healing.
