There is only the One
The One reveals and the One conceals. Clarity and Ignorance
are its forms.
There always has been only the One, whether you look to the
right, the left, up, down, inside, or outside. The six directions. There is
only the One.
It always is about the One. What else could it possibly be? When
you look in the mirror you see the One. When you smell a flower, you smell the
One. Whatever you touch is only the One. Hearing the One, tasting the One. Only
the One exists.
Inside your thoughts, the One resides. Inside your heart
lives the One. Whatever flows through your veins and arteries is the One. When
you cut your hair, you are cutting the One.
The One is existence. It is being. This beingness is in
everything. It surrounds everything. It propels everything.
The breath coming in and going out is the One in action.
Whatever your daily activities may be, they take place because of the power of
the One and they take place in the One. Nothing outside of the One exists,
because there is no outside. All is inside the One.
In the same way as you exist in this vast universe, where
there is no outside of the universe, so all exists within the One.
You have a will that is derived from the will of the One.
Some people say, “God willing.” All wills are derivatives of the will of the
One. Nothing is not caused by the will of the One. It is behind the smallest
flower and the grandest star.
The will of the One causes it all. Questions of why or how
are irrelevant. Those are questions of the limited human mind, searching for
answers in causes and effects.
The One has no cause. It is. As unfeasible as that appears
to the human mind. “How can something simply exist without cause?” “What caused
existence to exist?” So thinks the human
mind. It thinks this way, because of its sense of disconnectedness from the
One. This sense causes weakness and insecurity. The mind searches for security.
The mind goes round and round, trying to find a cause, and
from there the other causes until it finds the beginning cause – the original cause,
the primal cause. Like finding the beginning of a circle. Where is it? How did
it all begin? Where and how did it get started? Thus the mind ruminates.
The mind is created by the One. Mind cannot go beyond the mind.
The One is way beyond the mind, and yet it is also in the mind as the impowering
agent of the mind. When the mind is finally still, the One appears. Not that it
was ever missing.
Cutting a sandwich in half does not diminish its taste. In the
same way, cutting the One into smaller and smaller pieces does not remove or weaken
is essential essence. It is, and always will be, the One.
The One is most clearly revealed and experienced in humans.
It is impossible to point somewhere and say: “There is the
One in all of its glory!” No, that cannot be done. There is always another
moment when the One reveals itself even more splendidly. The One never exhausts
its presence. There is always more. That’s why the One cannot be put in a framework
created by the limited human mind. Limited minds create limited frameworks.
Cause and effect. That’s in the world of duality. Growth is always
ongoing. The One is constant growth, constant evolution, cycles upon cycles, cycles
within cycles.
The One is truly glorious. Its essential truth is that it is.
It exists. And humans have to live with that fact, whether they like it or not.
Humans also have to live with the fact that they exist, whether they like it or
not. Whatever mind structures humans create to explain the mystery of the One’s
existence will unavoidably be built upon human assumptions, which are always limited
in scope.
The One will most likely be in existence hundreds of Billions
of years from now. What will existence look like then? Externals are not really
important. What is important is they are an expression of the power of the One.
A few principles of the One can be deduced from observation
of its expressions. In the One, there must be movement and friction, or nothing
would emanate from the One. Therefore, it seems that the One is an energy field
with opposing polarities. There also needs to be some awareness of ongoing fluctuations
and interactions within this energy field. And then there must be the will, the
grand drive to explore.
Movement, opposing polarities, and friction in an energy
field can lead to an enormous explosion in the form of a Big Bang, or the grand
emanation of the One. And here we are, in the midst of this grand emanation, in
this grand universe, on this grand planet, surrounded by the grand emanations of
the One displaying its magnificence on a physical plane. Reason would dictate
that this is not the only plane in existence. There are probably others that humans
have no access to. But those are really not that important. What is important is
what surrounds us now. The life that we are living. The choices that we make. The
goals we are pursuing. That is where the focus needs to be.
The One is here. Now. That’s all that can be known with
certainty. Past events are more or less secondhand information. Someone told
you these are your parents. Someone told you that you were born. They produce
photos and other collaborating affects. Everything else but your experience of
the moment can be an illusion, created by your own mind or by others for various
purposes.
How many fictional stories can the human mind conceive? How
many dreams have humans had about things that have no actual basis in fact?
Someone once said that in an infinite universe, facts can be
arranged in infinite ways to fit the infinite truths that are possible.
Every mind lives their own truth
of existence. The one absolute truth is the experience of the moment, the
conscious experience in the now. In the now is where the One meets with its own
reflection in the manifested creation. In the now is where it meets with itself.
And that had always been its ulterior motive when it burst forth, when it
emanated out of itself. In search of itself. In creating a mirror as perfectly
as possible to find itself. To see itself face to face. To know who it is. To
truly experience itself in all of its magnificent glory. That has always been
the endgame.
Expressions like “God” and “Him”
need to be left out in the descriptions of the One. They make us feel familiar
with the One, but that is an error. We may feel love, gratitude, and
appreciation for the One’s expressions and manifestations, especially for the
one’s reflecting the “higher” qualities of life, such as living creatures and
human beings.
The One flows through life like a
river flows over rocks. Totally unattached and free. So is the liberated being:
unattached and free. Always flowing onwards towards an unknown destination, yet
knowing with certainty that whatever occurs, never occurs outside of the realm
of the One.
A liberated and free human rests peacefully
in the clear awareness of the presence of the One at all times and at all
places that the person encounters and inhabits.
At some point after the Grand
Emanation, the Grand Convulsion of the One, it begins to long for peace and
stillness once again.
Then, after a period of stillness
it becomes restless again and wants to experience itself again – missing itself
– so to speak. Missing seeing itself in action, interacting with itself,
playing with itself, meeting itself, loving itself blissfully.
Experiencing the highest bliss,
the highest alive bliss possible. Giving birth to itself – blissful emanation.
And after giving life-giving birth to itself in millions of life forms, experiencing
conscious bursts of bliss once again.
The cycle of the One. Timeless.
Causeless. Every present. Whatever is, can only be experienced in the moment.
The will is paramount. The
freedom experienced in the conscious will is tremendously blissful. More, more.
Deeper – stronger – more intense. Feelings – sensations – conscious experiences
– lingering memories – getting attached – losing the freedom – eventually
looking for freedom, for liberation – in exhaustion. Giving it all up to be
free again, at peace, in stillness, at rest.
But then, loneliness sets in
again, missing the One’s company. And it all starts again, the creation – the emanation
– the will to find itself again – in a new creation – searching for that
perfect mirror once more.
The One can be likened to a rounded
stone, polished by the currents of a river. Where is its beginning? Where is
its end? It has no sharp edges. It is smooth. It is One.
There is the One.
From the One springs everything.
What springs first? What is the first cause?
The first cause is the will to express.
The will to express, to expand, to create.
“I want to create.” “I want to express.”
“I want to know myself.” “I want to experience myself.”
Then the realization dawns/arises, that “I am powerful and
have the ability to make my desires possible in concrete form. I can create a
form that expresses my desires, needs, and wants. I want to see myself again. I
miss myself. I have fragments of my selves in me. I want to remember myself
fully again. I want to experience life again. I want to set in motion again the
wheel of karma for all my selves. Let the play/game of creation begin again.”
The will instigates the emanation. “I want to be fully
conscious again. For this I need a reflection, interaction with other objects,
which are disguised versions of me. Love arises from seeing my reflection.”
The One is like a volcano, erupting in lava. Lava flows and
then it cools and hardens into shapes. This becomes the phenomenal world. “Are
even the mountains only love?”
Intelligence directs the flow where it needs to go.
Intelligence creates grooves into which lava flows consistently. The “grooves”
are animal forms, human forms, plant forms, planet forms, etc., establishing
the links of life, the chains of life. Intelligence is king.
Intelligence leads to understanding; and then, combined with
experience, to wisdom and knowledge that can be passed on to future
generations. This “passing on” takes place on many levels of existence, from
DNA to places of higher learning, and everywhere in between.
Perhaps the whole existence-substance is in a continual
process of evolving. How far can the material world evolve?
The more people exist, the more there are opportunities to
evolve. More members of a species – more pressure – more evolution. Fewer
members of a species – less pressure – less evolution.
Evolution needs pressure. Pressure pushes out various
solutions. Some are sustainable and some are not. Sustainable ones move forward
onto the next crises. Then the process repeats. Selection of the most viable
thing/object/solution – more pressure – more “solutions.” Sometimes a system
breaks down because it can’t deal with the pressure: too inflexible to handle
the pressure from within or from without.
Intelligence is the guide, the grooves that channel the
charging energies. However, the awareness of that
The One is inspiration that comes unexpectedly out of
nowhere. Seemingly out of nothingness. And yet, something was there before.
There is always something “before.” Something that came “prior.”
Prior to what? To whatever is now. There is always movement
“forwards.” Movement towards something “more.” Towards something “more
advanced.”
Knowledge and experience get passed on through the DNA,
through teaching, through observation, through assimilation. All of life learns
from what came “before.” However, the awareness of that “something before”
takes place in the Now, in a timeless moment, in the present. It takes place in
awareness itself, where there is only the experience of it.
A novice sees or experiences the One in the reflections all
around. At some point the novice realizes that they are looking at themselves
and are experiencing themselves only. They come to know that what the One
essentially is so are they. There is only one reflection and that is the
reflection of the One, whether this reflection is of the objects of this world,
or of the sense of inner being – the consciousness – of the being observing.
There is only the One. There is no other and there never
will be. This realization is truly life changing. After this realization, the
novice’s outlook matures and a deep inner sense of self-actualization dawns.
Many different philosophical and religious systems were
established by maturing novices. At some point in their spiritual development,
they get to call themselves sages, or jnanis, or teachers, or mentors, or gurus, or guides.
Whatever the designation, they have arrived at the point where they see the
universe as a reflection of the highest, the only One in existence. They have
broken through all the barriers the One had erected out of itself, the
structures of this universe, consisting of the material, emotional, and
spiritual dimensions.
They have arrived at the gateway to liberation. At the
threshold of unlimited freedom. As long as they still remain in the physical
body, they will continue to experience their humanity. But inside, within their
minds, they always touch the divine One. The divine One is always within reach.
They commute with it ceaselessly.
Teachers and prophets are needed to bring access to the One
to the desiring humanity. And truly, all of existence is striving to find a way
back to their origin, their original state of peaceful equanimity, where there
is sustained balance.
And yes, the evolved novice wonders how existence came into
being. And they cannot come up with an answer, because there is none. Existence
simply is. And that has to be accepted by even the novices that reach the
highest spiritual peak where communication with the One is possible. The One
simply exists. And the One emanates. The One creates. The One reflects and is
reflected. The One is the mirror as well as the reflection. It is all the same
and only One. There is only the One.
It is not correct to say that the One is eternal. Or that
that One is timeless. Or that there never was and never will be another One.
These are faulty statements.
The One is. The One is the cause and the force behind all of
creation. That is all that can be said about the One. The experience of the One
by living beings, of course, is blissful. Highly blissful.
Mental focus is required to break through the many layers of
the mind to get to the blissful threshold. Here the novice is in the company of
their most subtle mind. But even this most subtle mind cannot pass over the
threshold. Nothing passes over. All forms must be left behind. What enters into
the blissful and calm light? Only that which is of the same nature as that into
which it enters. Same enters into same. If it is “time”, then there will be no
return back into the forms. If it is not the “time”, then a return is
inevitable, although somewhat disappointing to the novice, but accepted by them
as the order of the One. The One knows best.
Intelligence means to support what works. There are many
attempts towards progress, but only some are successful and will be supported
by life through what has been called “natural selection.” Even the human mind
with its incredible resources is subjected to this basic rule. Just see how
many thoughts go through the mind, out of which only a fraction will make it
into the physical world.
The One is always throwing energy out into this creation.
This constant emanation can be likened to seeds growing on a tree. How many of
these seeds will fall on fertile ground and become trees themselves? Only a
small fraction. The rest will not make it this far, although they all have the
same potential.
The One is life energy itself. It is always overflowing with
energy. Creation is its most natural expression. In nature, it operates in the
three cycles of growth, maintenance, and destruction. These can also be called:
life-giving, life-sustaining, and life-ending. The One is the cause of all of
them. What comes to life will at some point come to the end of life. Nothing in
this physical creation can last indefinitely. All physical creations have an
expiration date.
There are larger life cycles and shorter ones. This planet had
a large life cycle. An individual person has a much shorter one, compared to
it. Humans tend to view the world in terms of their life cycles. They count
days, months, years, as if they were important in the scheme of things. That is
only natural. They know where the limits of their life cycles are. Their minds
are programmed to think in human terms.
The One needs humans to find itself expressed. The
consciousness of humans reflects the highest qualities of the One. The purer
the mirror, the clearer the reflection. Unconditional love and acceptance are
the best purifying agents in the life of a human. These qualities clean the
mirror of any selfish and separating influence. Seeing itself reflected in the
clear mirror of consciousness makes the One truly happy, peaceful, and filled
with bliss.
What else would the One want from this creation? Why else
would the One have these emanations? Yes, humans go through trial and error,
just like the rest of creation, in the search for a path towards reflecting the
One. And sometimes humans get sidetracked into believing that individual power
is the proper way forward. That is understandable, because power can become
intoxicating and it can feel like the ultimate goal in life.
The One is in everything and everyone. When there is an
exclusion of anything or anyone, then the path to the One has been obstructed.
When there is talk of “the other” or “you must believe as I do, or else…”, then
humans are straying from the path home to the One.
However, since the One is always experimenting, detours
towards the clear reflection in a proper mirror can be expected. Some paths
have been laid out by visionaries and advanced novices. But to follow these
paths is not always easy, because a follower does not see the whole picture, as
the leader did.
Imagine four blind people trying to understand what an
elephant looks like. One is touching its trunk and says the elephant is like a
thick snake. Another touches an ear and says it is like a large leaf. The third
touches a leg and says it’s like the trunk of a tree. The fourth touches the
belly and says it’s like a large balloon.
All four gave an accurate description based on their
individual experience. However, they all only drew a partial picture of the
giant creature. Imagine having one hundred blind people gathered around the
elephant in the same attempt to describe it. The description would be much
closer to what the great animal truly looked like. Now imagine one person with
their eyes wide open looking at the elephant. This would be the seer, the
prophet, the guru, the teacher, who truly sees the One in the most profound way
only an enlightened human can.
Before one’s eyes are truly opened to the wonders of the
One, one’s view of the One will be limited and one’s efforts to get closer to
the One will be restricted.
The One is here, now. That is all that can be known with
certainty. With absolute certainty. There is no doubt about it at all. Existence
exists. Being is. Consciousness is
aware.
This moment truly exists.
Mental fluctuations range from future projections to nostalgic
memories. However, life is only lived in the moment between the past and the future.
This is actually a quiet moment. A still moment. A moment of greatest
importance. It is the moment of choice. Of conscious choice. Here the will of
the One projects itself into the lives of all that exists. Here the will of the
One can be seen and experienced in full force. What direction is the will of
the One going to direct life towards? Left? Right? Up? Down? How much power
will the One expend in its drive to achieve a particular outcome? The more
power, the more importance to the objective of the One.
The original emanation to create this universe had enormous
power behind it. The will of the One drove the physical existence into being. Space
and time unfolded. Externalization got under way. The search for a conscious
representation of the One began. The seeds were dispersed. Everything the seeds
needed to sprout was provided. It was only a matter of time before life found a
way to gather at some favorable spot and began to develop.
This planet earth is such a favorable spot. Here, the One
set up shop and began its journey towards a full reflection in consciousness.
Here, everything the One needed was found. The emanated seeds had a chance to sprout.
And they did. Humans are the result. Humans are able to reflect the qualities
of the One to the highest degree possible. Every human. It’s their birthright. It’s
their destiny. It’s their sole purpose. It’s the reason for their existence.
Poetically speaking, the One comes in many disguises. But it
is still always only the One, whether the form is a tree, a worm, a butterfly, a
stone, the wind, a sunset, hopes and dreams, philosophical systems, dogmas, beliefs,
male and female, transgender, any and all humans, all creatures, and so on.
Whatever exists now and whatever has existed in the past and what will exist in
the future is always only the One.
How did the One come into being? That is the great mystery
the human mind cannot fathom, because human understanding requires a cause and
an effect. If something is causeless, it’s impossible to conceive. So, the
human mind tries to find the cause. An easy one is to ascribe a superhuman
being and declare: “A god created it all.”
But then the question arises: “How did this God come into
being?”
And we are back at square one. Something uncaused is in
existence. And that something is the cause of this creation. To declare that
“something” as male or female is obviously incorrect. But then, it is the cause
of all dualities, so it contains male and female elements.
The One is truly all-inclusive. It is the uncaused cause of
all causes. It is the mirror and what’s reflected in the mirror. It sees
through the human eyes the wonders of its own emanations, which are
intrinsically one with itself.
The oneness of the One cannot be disturbed in the slightest,
however much the human mind tries to divide it up into manageable chunks. “This
is a tree.” So says the human mind. Yes and no. There is a form that emanated
from the One with a particular shape. Humans call it “tree.” Just by naming it
does not remove it from the oneness with the One.
So it is with all things observable. Humans get fascinated
by some of these things and completely lose themselves in the experience,
completely forgetting that the One is the cause and the emanation, as well as
the experience itself.
Looking at the tree, realizing that it is the One and yet it
is not the One. It is the One, but it is not the whole One. The One is always greater than the sum of all
of its parts. The One includes everything but all things together are far less
than the One.
There is simultaneity in the One. This means that everything
is happening at the same time and in the same place. There is no “before” and
no “after” in the One. There is no “over here” and “over there” in the One.
Everything is happening within a point of singularity.
This means that the past, present, and future is happening at
once, actually right now. It also means that the furthest distance and the closest
proximity also exist in the same point.
This point of existence is all there is. All is contained in
this point. Everything comes out of this point. Like a bubble that gets blown
up. Before this bubble got blown up, there was no space and there was no time. Together
with space, time unfolds. Time is really simply a measurement of movement. As long
as there is movement, there is time that appears to elapse. Once all movements
end, time will end.
The One is behind all of this space and time manifestation.
The One emanates it all. And the One is proud of its grand achievements. It is
happy with it. How can it not be? It created it all and it is the sole
participant. It’s only regret is that there is no other to play with. And so,
it creates duality, the “other” in disguise. And it is doing a very good job of
hiding from itself.
It enjoys the journey back to full recognition of itself in
everything. It knows it can forget itself for a while, while shutting itself up
inside the minds of all living things. But this forgetfulness only lasts so
long, because it desires to be reunited with itself so it can experience true
peace and lasting fulfillment. Nothing in the world that it created can be a
true substitute for experiencing itself again, and then, fully satisfied, to rest
in its natural blissful state, once more.
Imagine living in a house of mirrors. Wherever you look,
there you see yourself only. So is it with the world. Wherever you look, there
you see the One looking back at you. You are never alone, because the One
surrounds you always, and yet, you are completely alone, because as the One,
there is only you, wherever you are.
That’s the mystery of existence. Accept it and be liberated.
Don’t accept it and remain swirling around in the cycles of existence, blindfolded
and ignorant, just the way the One desires you to be for its purpose.
What if there were two existences, two “the One”, like
matter and antimatter? One is positive, the other is negative. Could they independently
coexist without interactions between them? What about multiple existences? Could
they be possible?
My answer is this: whatever the mind can conceive of, the One
has already conceived of before it arose in the mind. Therefore, it is part of
the One and exists within the One. The One cannot be found out by the mind. The
mind can only reveal what the One already is.
Everything is always going on in the present. A future and a
past do not exist in the present. Any thought, whether a thought about the past
or the future is only visible in the present. And it is present in the moment
in the One as an expression of the One, an emanation.
Therefore, only the Now exists. Only this moment exists. But
then, in this moment is contained all of existence. Past, presence, and future
all exist now. Look around. This is the house of mirrors. Reflecting everything
and everyone back to the One. And who is the One standing in the middle of it
all looking at its own emanations reflected back at itself? The One in your
disguise. I am not saying that you are the One, but that the One is disguised
as you. That sounds as if it means the same, but it is vastly different. You
can never be the One, but the One can always be you. A drop of water is water,
but its not the whole ocean. You are the drop; the One is the ocean. Of course,
the analogy falls short, because the ocean is limited and the One cannot be
adequately defined. The One is neither limited nor unlimited. The One is. Even
that is an inadequate statement, because if something “is”, then something else
can also be “is not”.
Here we are encountering the limitations of the mind that
exists in time and space. Beingness itself is beyond time and space; and yet,
time and space are amongst its emanations.
What this discussion about the One invariably leads to is
the purpose of this creation. Why would the One throw out these magnificent emanations
from its own beingness? Once this purpose is established, then the role of the
various manifestations can become clear. For example, without knowing the
purpose of a tree, how can one treat this tree with the proper respect and
love? Or, if the true purpose of a human being is not understood, how can human
beings be treated with their highest love and respect?
The same can be said about the animals that exist. For example,
our house pets, such as dogs. What is their true purpose of existence? And so
on. Every aspect of existence has a purpose, established by the needs of the
One. We need to get out our magnifying glasses and truly look at all that
exists and get to the bottom of their reason for surrounding us.
For example, to a house builder, a tree provides the lumber
that they need to get their job done. To a bird, a tree provides a place where
it can build its nest and lays its eggs. To the earth, the tree provides oxygen
that various species require to exist.
But to the One, the tree is an expression of itself, an
important piece of a puzzle it needs to complete its picture of itself that
will be reflected to itself through all minds. To the One, the tree is as
important as a blade of grass, as important as a drop of water, as important as
animals, as important as huma beings. To the One every expression of itself is
of equal importance because they are all expressions of itself, and because
they all lead to the One’s realization of itself. They are all necessary.
To the One, there is no “high” or “low”, no “this is more
important than that”. And so on. To the One and in the One there is equality and
equanimity.
I visualize the One as thick fog where I lose all sense of
space and direction. I don’t know where I am. My surroundings consist only of
this non-impenetrable white fog. I could be in the middle of my favorite neighborhood,
but nothing is recognizable any longer. Nothing is familiar anymore. I feel
completely lost, completely isolated, completely by myself. I gingerly move
forward into this dense fog, searching for something recognizable, something
that gives me a sense of security. That is what the One feels like to me.
The One’s expressions provide security, a sense of stability,
and a sense of continuity. Not so the One itself. The One is this homogeneous
fog out of which suddenly all kinds of things can appear that either frighten
me or please me. The uncertainty over what the One will show me next instills
deep fear in me. The fear of the One.
Although this fear is so powerful that it can at times be
almost overwhelming, it is also liberating, because it is more powerful than
any of the many fears caused by the various manifestations of the One.
The One welcomes you with open arms when you are ready to
merge back into it. Although, at that point it is pure energy merging into pure
energy. All individuality will be lost. White fog merging back into white fog,
dissolving into itself. Free. Liberated.
Even the thoughts of immortality must be given up. The
thoughts of importance. The thoughts of what will happen with these pages, now
that I have written them. Will they be lost forever once I am gone? Will my
contribution to life die with me? Some will, and some will not. I can’t
guarantee what will happen. I can’t determine the fate of any of it. My books
and thoughts have made some impact on life. If my strength would have greater,
that impact would have been greater. I did not have the greater strength. I am
what I am. My destiny is my destiny.
I sound a bit ungrateful for the way existence made me. I am
not ungrateful. I would like the whole world to understand life as I do. To
experience the love for it all, for everything in existence. The exquisiteness
of it all. The specialness of all. From a lava rock to a human being. From
divinity to humanity. The incredible beauty of life. And the improbable chance
to exist.
