All is One - what does it mean to you?

[devoid]

Hi Friends,

 

As the topic suggests: What does the term "All is One" mean to you?

 

"All is One" is a term which I often come across both on TTB and in literature I read. At the same time, it is a term which I often struggle to understand the true meaning of. Therefore I thought I would ask for your opinions. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas to help me understand. Thank you for your attention to this question

[zerostao]

Hi Friends,

 

As the topic suggests: What does the term "All is One" mean to you?

 

"All is One" is a term which I often come across both on TTB and in literature I read. At the same time, it is a term which I often struggle to understand the true meaning of. Therefore I thought I would ask for your opinions. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas to help me understand. Thank you for your attention to this question

to see things relatively is to recognize them in their diversities but in an absolute sense, diversities are reconciled into unity.the former represents the all, the latter represents the one.

[Non]

Everyone (including myself) and nothing contributes to and causes my problems. We are all contributing to this f*cked up state of the non-universe.

Edited June 16, 2011 by Non

[suninmyeyes]

Hi Friends,

 

As the topic suggests: What does the term "All is One" mean to you?

 

"All is One" is a term which I often come across both on TTB and in literature I read. At the same time, it is a term which I often struggle to understand the true meaning of.

IMO it is about the intuitivly feeling rather than understanding,and there is a big difference.

(edit on a second look I feel the need to explain:)Light moves faster than the mind.Undrestanding is TWO already as it involves the one who understands and the object of understanding.

Edited June 16, 2011 by suninmyeyes

[suninmyeyes]

Everyone (including myself) and nothing contributes to and causes my problems. We are all contributing to this f*cked up state of the non-universe.

?

Drama King?

[Medhavi]

An advanced perception of reality that may exist.

Similar to the concept of God, it is an illusion until you are it(self-evident knowing)

 

As a conceptual framework, it may be useful but leads, all too easily, down the road of the complacent New-Age tendency that you see among people who are only informed by popular literature and hear-say(what I like to call the Kumbaya mentality)

Edited June 16, 2011 by Medhavi

[Enishi]

It means that individual people and things are a reflection of the Infinite on a fractal level, and the Infinite itself is also a reflection of all individual people and things.

[Otis]

What does the term "All is One" mean to you?

I've been meaning to ask this very question for awhile; thanks for bringing it up.

 

I have (at least) three completely distinct answers to this:

 

#1 is my reductionist, scientific response: we do not experience the outside world, only the interior model (simulacrum) of the world that our senses report, and which our brains put together into coherent form. In that sense, everything I experience is only part of me. Outside stimuli only re-shapes this model inside of me, but the actual world is not knowable, nor ever even directly experienced. In this sense, "all is one", because "all" refers to everything I experience, and "one" is where it all takes place, in my consciousness.

 

#2 is my tantric response: The neurosis that I'm trying to wake up from is that I am a distinct being, and that my life happens to me. But of course, there is no part of me, which is distinct from my life, and vice-versa. They cover the exact same territory. Therefore, everything that I experience is part of me. Events, experiences, objects, other people, are just ways of viewing different aspects of "my life", therefore they are likewise all a part of "me".

 

#3 is my philosophical response: if I see separation, it is because "I" am my ego, which is trying to control the world through distinction and hierarchy, both of which are man-made concepts. If I surrender seeing separation, then I also surrender the power of my ego, and thus achieve liberation. In this sense, "all is one" is recommendation, not necessarily truth.

 

I also think that Dependent Origination points at a form of "all is one", in which causes and effects are inseparable.

 

Likewise, quantum entanglement suggests that space and matter are, in some ways, illusions created by consciousness, and that the actual material of the universe is far more intimate and connected, than our perceptions would suggest.

[Marblehead]

"All is One" should not be taken too seriously, I think.

 

I have experienced this concept in a pure form once in my life. But then, after a short time I returned to reality and realized that there is still 'this' and 'that'.

 

Yes, we are all of the same base source, whatever one wishes to call it. But we all are still individual manifestations of the All.

 

I am not Hitler but we both were brought into the world in the same way.

 

And just like a picture puzzle, all the pieces need be present for the picture to be complete.

[Em.]

Hi!

 

I personally think this is not something to be conceptualised, rather it refers to a state of being or direct experience/knowing. The experience of "all is one" has been the most beautiful experience and truth for me, but I think to contemplate the concept mentally can make one gloomy, confused or in some cases, spaced out with major tendencies towards being a doormat (or this is what I observed from people speaking a lot about these concepts in raw food circles...).

 

I experienced this as a sustained state for around a week a few years ago and intermittently for shorter periods after that. For me it means that at the deepest level of my being I am at one with all life, but almost like a Russian doll, there are various layers to my perception and the further out the more dualistic. The experience was not remotely intellectual, just a recognition like looking at ones arm and realising it to be your own, only it happens with everything from toilet roll, to a tramp to the space in a room. It also allowed me to realise that before this I had forgotten what love really is.

 

I think it is best not to be struggled with, after a certain amount of training the mind and energy these realisations arise naturally, and you can "see" the truth for yourself as opposed to try to understand it. I recommend it!

 

Those are my two pennies

[Aaron]

It's funny that this topic came up. Last night I was reading "The World of Zen" and this was the last passage I read before sleep...

 

 

From: The Chun Chou Record of the Zen Master Huang Po (Tuan Chi)

Translated by John Blofeld

 

The Master said to me: All the Buddhas and all sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists. This Mind, which is without beginning, is unborn(1) and indestructible. It is not the green nor yellow, and has neither form nor appearance. It does not belong to the categories of things which exist or do not exist, nor can it be thought of in terms of new or old. It is neither long nor short, big nor small, for it transcends all limits, measures, names, traces and comparisons. It is that which you see before you- begin to reason about it and you at once fall into error. It is like the boundless void which cannot be fathomed and measured. The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no distinction between the Buddha and sentient things, but that sentient beings are attached to forms and so seek externally for Buddhahood. By their very seeking they lose it, for that is using the Buddha to seek for the Buddha and using mind to grasp Mind. Even though they do their utmost for a full aeon, they will not be able to attain it. They do not know that, if they put a stop to conceptual though and forget their anxiety, the Buddha will appear before them, for this Mind is the Buddha, and the Buddha is all living beings. It is not the less for being manifested in ordinary being, nor is it greater for being manifested in the Buddhas.

 

(2) Unborn not in the sense of eternity, for this allows contrast with its opposite; but unborn in the sense that it belongs to no categories admitting of alteration or antithesis.

 

 

Anyways, I think I've said as much as I can about my own opinion of All is One in other threads, so I thought I might add some words I thought profound and wise.

 

Aaron

Edited June 17, 2011 by Twinner

[doc benway]

Hi Friends,

 

As the topic suggests: What does the term "All is One" mean to you?

 

"All is One" is a term which I often come across both on TTB and in literature I read. At the same time, it is a term which I often struggle to understand the true meaning of. Therefore I thought I would ask for your opinions. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas to help me understand. Thank you for your attention to this question

To me it is the recognition that all boundaries and divisions (between people, places, things) are artificial and a reflection of the way our particular thought process and sensory apparatus works, rather than the nature of things. It is very meaningful and profound when felt, difficult to express verbally, and interesting at best when simply understood.

[Everything]

All is one means to me: one is all. I think it is important to turn the words around too just for the sake of it.

 

We usually do not realize it but we can draw infinitely new realities from similar experiences. For example, are you now looking at words, letters, Pixels? The entire universe can be found in a single grain of sand. Everything is relative and connected in some way. Even poop has a connection to flowers. Instead of tracing the connection just accept that poop can be a flower aswell. You make it a flower whenever it suits you best. That is enlightenment.

 

For example, on valentinesday you should not enjoy the smell when take a dump in the toilet, but during the date you can denie that you even use toilets or have an anus. You can say that angels pickup all the excess in your belly and transform it into abundant love. Only with wisdom like that can you effectively use this knowledge of allis one and one is all.

 

Enjoy.

[Birch]

It's meant a bunch of things to me so far:

 

- oooh, every time I see someone else it's really me (hint, it's not)

- condensed-milk analogy (everything is 'consciousness' but in various forms that get to do stuff and know it (which is weird IMO)

- some strange manifesto that denies individuality and is using us all (as itself) in some weird way

- we're all bits of life looking at each other with varying degrees of knowing of that fact (this one may make you looks at animals differently)

- I'm all there is but I've splintered myself into myriad. Why? Only I know but I'm not telling myself because...

- invented human thing, no other life-form thinks this way

[zerostao]

"All is One" should not be taken too seriously, I think.

 

I have experienced this concept in a pure form once in my life. But then, after a short time I returned to reality and realized that there is still 'this' and 'that'.

 

yes , these transitory moments of enlightenment are often fleeting and quickly fade away

 

actually i liked your entire post and am in agreement.

[Marblehead]

 

yes , these transitory moments of enlightenment are often fleeting and quickly fade away

 

actually i liked your entire post and am in agreement.

 

Thanks. Yes, too bad these moments can't abide a bit longer. I guess we are just too busy living life for them to find the empty space within us to reach us more frequently.

[C T]

Contemplate the voidness quality of space, and form appears.

 

Contemplate the all-permeating fullness of space, and form dissolves.

 

Merge Mind with space and appearance together, for that is essentially all we are.

 

 

 

See this word... S P A C E

 

In the front, behind, between, around, above and below each letter is absolute potential... your world arises here, just like SPACE appears and made to manifest from the blankness of the screen.

 

If the word All implies the diversity of phenomena, then the word One signifies the void that makes the All appear.

 

One holds everything. Though she contains everything, yet, she cannot be contained by any thing.

 

Hence, it appears to be more appropriate to say One is all, rather than All is one.

Edited June 17, 2011 by CowTao

[Marblehead]

 

Hence, it appears to be more appropriate to say One is all, rather than All is one.

 

Okay. Valid point.

 

Therefore, Tao being equal to One, the statement: Tao is all.

[ChiDragon]

Hence, it appears to be more appropriate to say One is all, rather than All is one.

Okay. Valid point.

 

Therefore, Tao being equal to One, the statement: Tao is all.

 

Then, one of all is part of Tao.

[mYTHmAKER]

[suninmyeyes]

Very nice mythmaker!I like it

[Vajrahridaya]

Just as food for thought, the Buddha taught: Lokayatika Sutta: The Cosmologist

translated from the Pali by

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

 

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.048.than.html

 

Staying at Savatthi. Then a brahman cosmologist went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, exchanged courteous greetings with him. After an exchange of friendly greetings & courtesies, he sat to one side. As he was sitting there, he said to the Blessed One, "Now, then, Master Gotama, does everything exist?"

 

"'Everything exists' is the senior form of cosmology, brahman."

 

"Then, Master Gotama, does everything not exist?"

 

"'Everything does not exist' is the second form of cosmology, brahman."

 

"Then is everything a Oneness?"

 

"'Everything is a Oneness' is the third form of cosmology, brahman."

 

"Then is everything a Manyness?"

 

"'Everything is a Manyness' is the fourth form of cosmology, brahman. Avoiding these two extremes, the Tathagata teaches the Dhamma via the middle: From ignorance as a requisite condition come fabrications. From fabrications as a requisite condition comes consciousness. From consciousness as a requisite condition comes name-&-form. From name-&-form as a requisite condition come the six sense media. From the six sense media as a requisite condition comes contact. From contact as a requisite condition comes feeling. From feeling as a requisite condition comes craving. From craving as a requisite condition comes clinging/sustenance. From clinging/sustenance as a requisite condition comes becoming. From becoming as a requisite condition comes birth. From birth as a requisite condition, then aging & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair come into play. Such is the origination of this entire mass of stress & suffering.

[Mattimo]

In accordance with a previous post: The concept of all-is-one is senseless intellectual babble. My mind tells me, the concept may be an ultimate truth that is impossibly represented through words and impossibly understood or grasped by the analytical mind BUT how can I be certain?

 

I can't, intellectually.

[Marblehead]

Then, one of all is part of Tao.

 

Yep. We gotta recognize each of the "ones" in order to have the "All".

 

(We don't necessarily need accept all of it into our life but we should at least recognize it.)

[Marblehead]

To me One is all, is the same as, All is one. Works both ways.

You can substitute Tao for God below.

 

Yes, that worked well for me using the word Tao. Thanks.