How do I experience the sense of oneness, right now, in this moment?

[DreamBliss]

I am reading Anita Moorjani's, "Dying To Be Me", which is about the author, in a very late stage of cancer, coming to a point outside the physical body where she can see both her death, with the results of that, and what would happen if she continued to live. The author learns she will be healed if she decides to continue to live, and that is what happens. The cancer reverses itself from the moment she returns to her body.

 

I have decided to believe in what Mrs. Moorjani shares, and I am taking the book to be a factual account. In it she tells of how she has adopted an inside-out view, so when something happens she doesn't look to the outside for answers, but instead takes some time to get centered, and by that she means feeling the center of oneness. She says this is important.

 

I am paraphrasing here, so please do not take what I am saying to be word-for-word what she is saying, and critsize or judge her book on that alone. I am clumsily sharing this as briefly as I can, as I understand it.

 

When she was out of her body she felt this oneness, and brought back that experience and feeling with her. She had what she is referring to as a NDE.

 

As I understand it, this feeling of oneness is experienced in only two ways. Someone "wakes up", becoming enlightened. Or they die and come back.

 

My question is how can I, at this moment, lacking either of these, have that same feeling of oneness? Not some unknown and uncertain time in the future by going to a cave or monastary somewhere and meditating until I loose my legs from lack of circulation. Or slicing my wriists so I can bleed to death and hopefully come back. How can I experience this sense of oneness, right now, in this moment? Is it even possible?

 

I realize that by asking this here I am going from the outside in. I still need to work on that. I know I need to be myself, trust my inner guidance, listen to my heart, etc. I just don't see how I have access to anything relevant to my question. I guess I don't believe that I have the knowledge I seek inside me. I have no confidence it is there. The whole idea of just doing whatever feels right and groping my way through life based on hunches, intuition or my gut seems silly to me. As far as I am concerned I brought myself to this moment in time, and I don't think I have done a very good job. Somehow I will work on trusting myself. I know that is important here.

 

DISCLAIMER: I am a selfish and self-centered bastard with a serious attitude problem. So if you need to be appreciated for taking the time to come in here and post, trying to help me, if you expect thanks or a virtual pat on the back I may disappoint you.

 

Better to serve, without expectation, if you feel compelled to do so. If you are going to serve, by posting, with an expectation of anything, you may be better off not posting. Not trying to be unfriendly here, just attempting to avoid misunderstandings.

 

In general, even though it may not seem like it, even though the words and what you read between the lines seems to say otherwise, I do appreciate your posts, I thank you for taking the time to do so, and I will happily buy you a beer someday if we ever meet in person.

 

Edited March 26, 2015 by DreamBliss

[Nikolai1]

When Moorjani says not to look out side for the answers I think the first thing is to understand that she is not talking about feelings, thoughts or anything else that we imagine to be literally on the inside.

 

The inside is a kind of metaphor for 'that which is always there'. The term inside is a good metaphor because wherever we travel, the things that are on the inside, like our vital organs, travel with us. But like I said, the inside is not actually and literally to be found on the inside.

 

If you understand what I am referring to, then you already know how to stay centred. To stay centred is simply to focus on that which is always the case, no matter what.

 

When you find this, and the sense of it has grown strong within you, you no longer need to look on the outside for solutions. The so called inside provides you with all the love and happiness you need. Once you find this, and you are stable in it, you are literally free to adopt the right course of action. You have the necessary perspective to actually see what is wholesome and healthy.

 

All authentic spiritual practice is geared towards finding that inner self that isn't one inside or the outside. The most important breakthroughwe can make is to experience directly and concretely that we aren't not the body and not the mind. Oneness is the ending of your own individuality and of course that of others.

 

I hope this is of some help to you.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Nikolai1

[4bsolute]

We surrender our personal Self into the universal Self, in meditation.

The purification of the personal mind happens naturally by letting it flow down from waking conscious (behind our eyes) into our subconscious (throat) into the Heart and from there deeper into the Spiritual Heart.

 

This is the center of this experience that you seek.

No information will bring us there. Analyzing and all other thought processes will bring us back into our personal Self.

Meditate on our Spiritual Heart and feel the energy. This is your sense of oneness. But this is not it, yet. The actual experience requires one to surrender completely.

Videos like:

can help. It is all based on the same core teachings of true self inquiry.

I wish you uppermost success in your transformation. Edited March 26, 2015 by 4bsolute

[thelerner]

hmnn, it may not be the dying so much as the pain and reflection that shock and rock the ego's foundation. See, trying to hurt yourself is all about You, and that's moving in the wrong direction.  If you're indeed a selfish and self-centered bastard I'd recommend rocking and shocking the ego through karma yoga, ie long hard charity work. 

 

Smash the constant Me, Me, Me/Want Want Want  against long term hard service, where others come first.  Might be just the thing to crack the ego's egg open and reveal something to you.  Course I'm talking months and 100's of hours, but hard is what creates the surrender.

 

back to OP

short term, hmnn, drinking..? drugs..? 

but for the long term, sustainability..

you need long term practice, 

cause you always pay a price for artificial boosts. 

Edited March 26, 2015 by thelerner

[doc benway]

In answer to the OP's question - I have no idea.

 

These experiences of oneness do occur. The teachings and practices of the mystics of all the wisdom traditions attempt to help us to get there - Jesuit, Sufi, Kabbalist, Bön, Buddhist, Hindu, Daoist... each in their own unique and beautiful way has developed methods for this. While I respect each of these approaches, I am not personally convinced that there is a direct relationship between doing any particular practice for any particular period of time and this awakening that you seek. 

 

Jiddu Krishnamurti saw this and, despite his warts and imperfections, tried to use this lack of certainty and security to help guide people to that very goal that he felt could not be reached with any guidance. His approach appealed to the intellect and use of rational thought to transcend itself. While it may seem paradoxical, this goal we seek is inherently paradoxical as are the methods that point to it. 

 

In my view, this state that you are looking for is already within you, within all of us, it is the foundation of who and what we are. It is obscured by all of our conditioning that has been passed down from generation to generation from time immemorial. This conditioning is very powerful and ingrained. I do believe that the practices and teachings of the mystics can open our eyes to the conditioning, to the ignorance and obscurations. Once we are aware and directing our attention to this, we have already begun the process of dismantling, cutting through, and perhaps one day transcending.

 

I do feel that doing this type of work is worthwhile. Not necessarily because it will be successful - for the right person at the right time, it can occur in an instant or elude us for a lifetime. But at least practices that cultivate awareness and seeing through these obstacles do not continue to reinforce and strengthen the ignorance. There is a saying in taijiquan with respect to how to use the methods to beat an opponent in combat which comes from how one goes about uprooting a tree:

    一搖二晃三擊 : yi yao, er huang, san ji, which means to first shake and loosen the roots, second uproot, and destabilize the foundation, third attack and destroy. 

 

I think we can look at these practices in a similar way. In the beginning we become aware of what is preventing us from connecting with what you seek, our true nature. That serves to shake and loosen the hold our ignorance has over us. Next we begin to dismantle the shell of obscuration that surrounds us and guides our every thought and action. Finally, if we are fortunate enough (some might say blessed, or having suitable karma), the walls may come tumbling down and reveal what lies underneath.

 

As I said earlier, I'm not convinced that there is any completely reliable and reproducible method for this. I do think that the Daoist, Bön, and Buddhist methods have some degree of efficacy. I'm not familiar enough with the others to comment but I suspect that they do as well, otherwise they would have been abandoned long ago. On the other hand, I think a large part of it depends on the individual. Not only what they do but who they are, how they are put together, what produced them over generations of breeding and behavior... in a word - karma.

 

So I don't think I can help you at all and I expect nothing from you in return.

But it makes me feel quite good to know that you are aware enough to recognize that something is there and that you care.

And for that, even though it may cause you enormous pain and frustration, I think you should be extremely grateful because it means that you've taken a step in the right direction and are blessed with the opportunity to try.

 

_/\_

[Jetsun]

By definition your "I" can't experience oneness because your I only exists in the perception of separation. To experience oneness therefore requires seeing though the fundamental misperception that you exist as a separate being.

 

How to see though that misperception? In reality the oneness is what you already are, and because you already are it there is nothing you can do can make you more it, which is why it is said it is only when you stop seeking you find because then you just relax into what already is, you stop moving away from and avoiding the recognition of oneness, which is basically what we are all doing all of the time.

 

We do all we can including spiritual practice to avoid the recognition of oneness because in oneness our separate "I" cannot exist and who wants to be annihilated? Out of survival our ego consciousness will do all it can to deny, repress, confuse and try to control things so we don't see the truth of the situation, which is basically the force of "Mara" or unconsciousness we are all subjected to.

 

So as far as I can see people only usually move beyond that force of unconsciousness under a few circumstances which is usually if they are suffering a lot, if they have a really sincere inner desire for the truth or really sincere faith in the divine, or if they are "randomly" touched by grace 

 

But the basic instruction to experience oneness is just to be still. Or if you want to do something more active then investigate into the fundamental nature of identity. 

 

Anita Moorjani has a very interesting story though, it shows how quickly anything can heal  she did an interview on Batgap which is quite good.

[forestofclarity]

The first question that occurs to me is what is oneness? Is it the presence of a specific feeling, or the absence of the feeling of separation? 

 

The second question is, what does separation feel like? Is it validated by experience? 

 

For me, there is a type of experience of "mystical oneness" that is a positive experience. I do not think that this experience can be maintained, since it is a positive state and would require some type of "freezing" of consciousness. I don't know if there is a reliable way of producing this type of "oneness." 

 

However, if the feeling of oneness is the absence of the feeling of separation, then this is a different story. Spiritual traditions give many ways to free one of the illusion of separation: critical thinking, examining experience, meditating, asking deeply probing questions. As far as I can tell, there is no short cut. Nor would I expect there to be: neurologists tell us that our way of seeing the world--- me as a separate self--- is based on how the brain has become wired over time. To undo this requires some work. 

 

I find that the feeling of separation tends to fall away when I go to sleep and when I have dreams. Exploring the waking, dream, and deep sleep state is a powerful and ancient method of challenging the belief of a limited self. Another method is to closely examine the waking state. I have found that the feeling of separation is just that: a feeling. But the feeling doesn't actually create any separation. In fact, it is imposed on a unitive field of experience. 

[freeform]

As I understand it, this feeling of oneness is experienced in only two ways. Someone "wakes up", becoming enlightened. Or they die and come back.

 

My question is how can I, at this moment, lacking either of these, have that same feeling of oneness? Not some unknown and uncertain time in the future by going to a cave or monastary somewhere and meditating until I loose my legs from lack of circulation. Or slicing my wriists so I can bleed to death and hopefully come back. How can I experience this sense of oneness, right now, in this moment? Is it even possible?

How do you experience oneness right now? Well you do it by doing nothing - absolutely nothing, and it arises by itself. You probably can't do nothing though, and to get to doing nothing requires work on oneself. Or sometimes just serendipity... but most usually work. Almost dying does not necessarily bring it about, but sometimes it does.

 

I understand you're asking for a shortcut, but I don't know of one, and doubt anyone else does. I understand that this sort of work is unpalatable for most people, but equating it to 'meditating until you lose your legs' is selling yourself short, and having you fail before you even begin.

Edited March 26, 2015 by freeform

[noonespecial]

It already seems like your over thinking things. Compartmentlize and practice.

[LazyChuan]

"As I understand it, this feeling of oneness is experienced in only two ways. Someone "wakes up", becoming enlightened. Or they die and come back."

 

You said it!

 

Waking up is actually dying and not coming back, while still in a physical form.

 

In a very real sense, 'no one' wakes up.

 

Our identities are drawn to Oneness, it sounds pretty sexy. Merging with a sense of utter acceptance with all reality, and some bliss/laughter at the feeling that it's all not really real!

 

It's not waking up, but its very nice. Quite hard to maintain for ever, so a bit of suffering building potential also. Genuine Letting go, giving up, forgiveness, acceptance etc are all movements towards this. 

 

It's the sales pitch that can often move a person towards actually waking up, or keep them from ever wanting to go there...

 

Oneness, as everyone has expressed so well above, is actually the natural state already present. Our mind just has a long long habit of creating the experience of separation. 

 

A willingness to be as you are, in this present moment, with nothing added, perhaps something taken away

 

Acceptance

[Aetherous]

Do practices such as meditation. When you start to feel the bliss within, pay attention to that feeling. That's the oneness. All of your doubts and conceptions are not it.

[voidisyinyang]

oneness is outside of time so there is no "moment" for you to experience it.

 

The name "dreambliss" is not clear because some dreams are bad, some good but what is really blissful is the deep dreamless state that everyone has to experience every night - during which you also experience no sense of time.

 

See the hint? So you can logically infer that unless you're a biological robot - who you truly are must still exist even when in dreamless sleep - not in any "Moment" - and so then when you wake up afterwards happy that you had blissful night of sleep - and it is those deep dreamless "moments" that you are not aware that create that bliss - then you can logically infer that the oneness also has this deep bliss.

 

So in actuality it's not a "oneness" but a "three in oneness" which means the waking state is our logical self, left brain dominant with language and our dreaming state is our right-brain dominant self of visions and the subconscious making itself aware and the third state is the dreamless deep sleep that we are not aware of and yet it is the true bliss and the foundation of who we are.

 

So when we become consciously aware of that third state it creates what's called Turiya - the fourth state of awareness which combines the previous three - the deep bliss of the third, the visions of the 2nd and the logical awareness of the first state.

 

So the fourth state is not just a "oneness" but a "three in oneness."

 

So then now that you logically accept that who you really are is actually beyond time - and so then you can also have visions of your future, just like that lady did who left her body to transcend death and get healed. When you have visions of the future the "you" who is having them again is beyond time and so can access your future.

 

So the only way that lady got healed of cancer was by her realizing that who she was actually was in union with a formless awareness that could see the future.

 

If you want to unify with that experience immediately then all you have to do is embrace the "space" between your thoughts. That's all that is needed.

 

Of course most people can not just stop their thoughts.

 

Another natural moment of this experience is the first breath when you awake - just before you have a conscious thought but just after you awake - there is one breath where you are consciously aware of who you are. At that moment you are consciously aware of your dream state - the theta brain waves of the R.E.M. state.

 

A third method is then to entrain your conscious thoughts to align with the R.E.M. dream state so that you are then consciously aware of your dream state - and this is what Tai Chi exercises do or trance dancing or meditation, etc. What it is through science is pushing your sympathetic nervous system to its extreme so it creates a 7 beats per second of your skeletal and nervous system - and this 7 beats a second is your R.E.M. theta dream state - and so in that extreme of your sympathetic nervous system it rebounds to the opposite extreme of your parasympathetic nervous system - and you hit the deep bliss relaxation state of the dreamless state.

 

So normally our deep dreamless state is dark and in ignorance but through meditation and using the resonance of complementary opposites - then we see light and experience the deep bliss - as we connect with our spirit that has access to our future. How is that possible? Because our deep subconscious desires are played out in the future - and the formless awareness oversees the whole "play" of linear spacetime which we discover in the formless awareness - is just a temporary illusion.

 

No "one" experiences the oneness again since it's a "three in oneness" that eternally creates spacetime and energy-matter. So you can listen to it and it is listening to you at the same time - and through complementary opposites renews your energy - but the process itself is impersonal and formless.

 

 

[silent thunder]

no matter what I've read, or studied, or practiced...

the most authentic way I can describe how I find myself in the moment

 

 

"let go"

[Nikolai1]

Dreambliss clearly asked a good question because it has led to a lot of high quality replies!

[Bearded Dragon]

Sense of oneness in the moment? Try the moment as a sense of oneness.

[MooNiNite]

it's not in meditation or any practice. those are powerful, but if the person wants immediate results:

 

The real way to find yourself in the moment is to be experiencing yourself. This is through finding one's work. Finding one's soul-purpose. Purpose connected to the soul. 

 

If you find your work you will be experiencing yourself as you do it. You will be finding yourself in the moment, because you will be realizing yourself at higher levels of awareness. One's purpose in life brings them silence and silence brings oneness. 

 

I could share 

Edited March 28, 2015 by MooNiNite

[DreamBliss]

... and to find my purpose, presumably also what you are referring to as my work, I must be myself, which allows it to unfold.

 

The question, that I have not yet been able to answer, is what is it that I would enjoy dong, love doing, for the rest of my physical life, to constantly seek to perfect it, which I understand is a state of constant improvement?

 

I am paraphrasing from Jonathon Livingston Seagull here, which, to me, contained the clearest teachings on this. For the main character of the story, flying was his work. I also noticed that flying came easily and naturally to him.

 

The problem is that I have no idea what that is for me . I can write, yes. I can teach, yes. But I do not have the kind of love for these things that would cause me to want to spend the rest of my life perfecting them. They come naturally to me, yes. But I don't have that kind of passion for them.

 

Whenever I think about this I have this feeling of hopelessness, of despair. I feel it would be easier to kill myself than to struggle through life with the very serious handicap of not knowing, not having identified, remembered or realized, that thing I enjoy doing, I love doing, I would gladly spend the rest of my life perfecting.

 

Oddly enough, if I could fly, I think I could be very passionate about that. What the heck is that supposed to mean anyway? Humans can't fly! I don't mean via machinery either, to be clear. I mean like this:

 

I have a lot of interest in the fringe science stuff, flying, teleportation, etc. Not very practical. How do you pursue a subject of interest like that? I also have an interest in inventing, mechanical engineering. But once again, not practical. By that I mean not something I can pursue at this time in my life.

 

So maybe I just haven't realized or remembered what it is I love to do, my work?

[freeform]

The real way to find yourself in the moment is to be experiencing yourself. This is through finding one's work. Finding one's soul-purpose. Purpose connected to the soul.

I don't disagree completely, but I believe that this puts an unnecessary hurdle to experiencing oneness.

 

I do agree that finding your purpose can certainly improve your quality of life and have you feeling fulfilled on a deep level... But advising someone to find that is counter productive. It's something that happens - and only then do you say 'I found my calling' - you can only say it after the fact - searching for it just sets up needless anxiety and desperation. (As DB points out!)

 

Further to that, I've experienced oneness doing the dishes... I've experienced it feeling a cool breeze on my skin... I've experienced it during intimate moments with a loved one. What I mean is that there's no necessary pre-requisite of doing something in particular that has oneness show up.

 

The reason I said that the experience of oneness shows up when you're doing absolutely nothing is because that's the most direct answer I can find. If your consciousness is occupied, then there's no space for oneness to show up. And if you're searching for your true calling - you're 1) not actually doing this soul-work and 2) you're too busy searching - doing something.

Edited March 28, 2015 by freeform

[MooNiNite]

I don't disagree completely, but I believe that this puts an unnecessary hurdle to experiencing oneness.

 

I do agree that finding your purpose can certainly improve your quality of life and have you feeling fulfilled on a deep level... But advising someone to find that is counter productive. It's something that happens - and only then do you say 'I found my calling' - you can only say it after the fact - searching for it just sets up needless anxiety and desperation. (As DB points out!)

 

Further to that, I've experienced oneness doing the dishes... I've experienced it feeling a cool breeze on my skin... I've experienced it during intimate moments with a loved one. What I mean is that there's no necessary pre-requisite of doing something in particular that has oneness show up.

 

The reason I said that the experience of oneness shows up when you're doing absolutely nothing is because that's the most direct answer I can find. If your consciousness is occupied, then there's no space for oneness to show up. And if you're searching for your true calling - you're 1) not actually doing this soul-work and 2) you're too busy searching - doing something.

 

 

good point,  the path to finding one's work is through working.

 

So by working and refraining from evil one is moving towards their soul purpose. 

 

It is possible to actually make steps forward

Edited March 28, 2015 by MooNiNite

[MooNiNite]

The path to enlightenment is a natural one, it is not behind lock and key.

 

The Grandmaster said, “The first requirement for learning the Way is hard work; then you need to learn to be a member of society, which means doing good and refraining from evil, building up character. When you have developed virtue and built up character, eventually you enter naturally into the Way.”

 Page. 14

[voidisyinyang]

You can fly - the original qigong master levitated up 9 feet, spiraling while in full lotus.

 

But obviously that type of training is intense. Another description of it is found in the biography of the most famous Thai Buddhist monk - Phra Achra Mun - his colleague began levitating next to him. At first when he became consciously aware he was levitating then he crashed back down.

 

So he had to integrate the three in one unison that I mentioned - he had to be able to be consciously aware he was levitating while at the same time not breaking his resonance with the formless awareness that created that energy.

 

If you want the practical details of how to do that type of training then study the book "Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality."

 

But to feel the oneness very quickly you want to active the three in oneness - a great exercise to do this is called "moving of yin and yang" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_1sPDntOTs

 

The left hand is held over the lower body - the reason being that the left hand is the dragon solar yuan shen light energy - fire energy and so you hold it over the lower body which is water.

 

The right hand is hold over the upper body - the reason being the right hand is the tiger lunar water yuan qi energy and so you hold it over the upper body which is the fire energy.

 

By doing that same technique with the knees bent, tongue against the roof of the mouth, eyes closed, smile on the face, visualizing rainbow light - then you hold your hands like that for maybe a minute - you will begin to feel activation of the "oneness."

 

Then you slowly rotate the hands - and it's just like a battery - you are charging up your energy.

 

If you do that exercise 2 hours a day nonstop then you would open up the qi channels and eventually you could fly if you sit in full lotus meditation for 2 months nonstop. haha.