Oneness in a Divided World
Perhaps the boundary between “me” and “the world” is not as solid as we imagine.
I’ve noticed that when some people talk about “Oneness”, they seem to mean letting go of the material world and entering a special state of pure consciousness. A few even move toward something closer to God.
But in Eastern philosophy, Oneness can be a much more down-to-earth idea. In the Qi Wu Lun (The Equality of Things) from the Zhuangzi, Zhuangzi wrote a line that has been quoted for centuries:
“Heaven and earth came into being with me, and all things are one with me.”
In simple terms, perhaps it means that human beings and nature are not separate lives standing beside each other. We are part of the same living world.
Another practical insight in his philosophy is that things are always relative to perspective.
Imagine that you are middle-aged and have been diagnosed with cancer. You are told that you may not have much time left. You grieve over the thought that perhaps half of your life has already disappeared. But there are countless forms of life whose existence lasts far less than yours. Compared with them, you have already lived a very long life. This doesn’t make your suffering less real. It simply changes the perspective from which you see it.
We often imagine ourselves as something separate from the rest of nature: “me” and “the world”, “me” and “nature”, “me” and “everything else”.
But our bodies tell a different story. Our bodies come from the earth. Air enters our lungs. Water moves through our blood. We eat what grows from the soil. And eventually, our bodies return to the earth.
Even after we die, the materials that once made up our bodies do not simply disappear. They become part of other processes, other organisms, other forms of life.
Perhaps the boundary between “me” and “the world” is not as solid as we imagine.
Pain is part of life, pleasure is part of life, death is part of life.
Someone who believes in Oneness might therefore try to look at this chaotic world with a little more calmness, openness, and spaciousness.
But then another question appears.
Oneness in a Dualistic World
If Oneness is an understanding of interconnectedness, how should it exist in a world filled with division, competition, conflict, and hatred? Should we simply step away from it? Should we live parallel to the world without getting involved?
Perhaps we could put on yoga clothes, sit beside a quiet lake, watch the sun rise, and observe the stars moving across the sky. Or should we do something more difficult? Stay in the world and learn to embrace it.
Today, in this real world, we quickly encounter one form of duality after another. One country against another, one region against another, one race against another, one political group against another.
We divide the world into “us and them”, “right and wrong”, “winners and losers”, “good people and bad people.” Sometimes, anger gets a stronger response than understanding. Attack someone, give them a label, reduce them to a single identity, tell everyone how terrible they are. Then watch your own side applaud.
There is an immediate emotional reward in that. Perhaps this is one reason dualistic thinking is so powerful. It is simple, direct, emotional. It tells us very quickly where we stand. And, perhaps even more importantly, it tells us who our enemies are.
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Oneness asks for something much quieter. It asks us to stop, to observe, to understand, to admit that reality may be more complicated than simply “right”and “wrong”.
Perhaps that is why, even though many people embrace the idea of oneness and sincerely try to reduce hatred and conflict, their voices can sometimes seem surprisingly quiet. Calmness is rarely as contagious as anger. Understanding is rarely as exciting as attack. And acceptance does not usually give us the same emotional rush as hatred.
The Attachment to Identity
If we believe in Oneness, should we therefore distance ourselves from a world so dominated by dualistic thinking? Perhaps we should give up our jobs, our ambitions, our competition, and our social identities, leave the city and move into the mountains.
But if we need to escape the world in order to remain peaceful, what kind of peace is that?
Perhaps what we need is not peace that separates us from life, but peace that allows us to live more fully within it.
We still need to live. We may still be fathers, mothers, firefighters, salespeople, programmers, teachers, or something else entirely.
We still need to work. We need to earn money, buy furniture, drive cars, travel, deal with family relationships, workplace pressure, social expectations, and all the ordinary complications of being human.
We don’t have to abandon these identities because we believe in Oneness. What we may need to abandon is our “attachment”to them.
We can have our own opinions without turning those opinions into our entire identity. We can belong to a group without seeing another group as a completely separate kind of human being.
Identity can exist, but identity does not have to become a prison.
Embracing the Dualistic World
If Oneness truly means that everything is interconnected, can it also embrace a world full of dualistic conflict? If we say,
“This is the dualistic world, so I must separate myself from it,” haven’t we created another duality?
The awakened and the unawakened. Oneness and duality. Those who understand and those who don’t.
If so, have we really moved beyond dualistic thinking? Or have we simply found a more beautiful way to keep creating divisions?
Perhaps Oneness does not stand on the opposite side of the dualistic world. It contains it.
We can live in a dualistic world without allowing dualistic thinking to completely occupy our consciousness. Perhaps we can be like the ocean. There are high waves and low waves, calm days and violent storms. But no matter what happens on the surface, none of them has ever left the ocean.
We are still ordinary human beings made of flesh and blood. We become afraid, selfish, and lazy. We lose our patience, make mistakes, judge others, and sometimes even enjoy being angry.
So perhaps believing in Oneness is not enough. We have to practice it, again and again. Perhaps this is where the dualistic world becomes useful. It gives us a place to test what we believe.
Maybe that is precisely why we need a divided world, not because division is something we should worship, but because it gives us countless opportunities to discover whether our understanding of Oneness is truly real.
