My Thoughts

Oneness: at once it's important to be at the core of our Self which is where we don't exist separately from others and therefore there is no conflict; here there is just ONE all-encompassing Reality...caste, creed, nationality, religion, etc are definitions that don't have meaning; so they naturally cannot separate us from others... Separateness: (and) at the same time it's important to evolve and become cognitively aware of things that we encounter and become so extremely articulate - that the tiniest thing offers it's unique individual identity, its meaning to us! and so I think Oneness & Separateness have a yin/yang relationship!

Every book we read or movie we watch; each event we visit and relationship we have; has a tangibility to it and it is this very tangibility through which we know that it even Exists (in the outside world). But behind all these tangible Forms that we come across each carries a unique Meaning within. Then meeting a person is different from meeting another; the experience alternates between the meaning we give to the first person to the meaning we give to the second (person). In fact each book and movie holds an alternate meaning. Each visit, each relationship carries its unique specific meaning. That is why our experience when engaging the world isn't flat...different Forms deliver different experiences because of the Meaning they carry. To become aware of these Meanings would help us understand our different experiences in our engagement with the world.

"When we want to understand something, we cannot just stand outside and observe it. We have to enter deeply into it and be one with it in order to really understand it.... In Buddhism, we call this kind of understanding non-duality - not two." - Thich Nhat Hanh Bonsai tree art seems to be like that; it must take a life time of meticulous work to prune a growing tree and turn it into perfection. Somebody said "...a bonsai truly represents the fusion of nature and human wisdom; it is an art that at once pursues the spirits of both nature and beauty." We ought to find such an occupation that we dissolve in it; all our worries and all our woes. So when we emerge from it we have garnered enough strength to recognize many of our woes to be the illusion that they are. "If seeing things as they are is not enough for you, then you are not seeing things as they are!" - Etsko Schuitema

"There is a community of the spirit. Join it, and feel the delight of walking in the noisy street and being the noise. Drink all your passion and be a disgrace. Close both eyes to see with the other eye. Open your hands, if you want to be held. Sit down in this circle. Quit acting like a wolf, and feel the shepherd's love filling you. At night, your beloved wanders. Don't accept consolations. Close your mouth against food. Taste love's mouth in yours. Be empty of worrying. Think who created thought! Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence. Flow down and down in always widening rings of being." Rumi

"Those who are “here to get”, seek fulfillment, but experience exactly the opposite. They want power, but are always weak, because it depends on what “Other” is giving to them, and that is never in their control. They crave security but are driven by fear of loss of what they have. They need significance , but need to subdue and suppress, wrest it out of those not wanting to give it. They seek harmony, but if they are out to get everyone else, beat everyone else, they are always in the midst of stress, disharmony, competition. If we think about it, the ones we love are the ones, who care for and love us, who give to us. So, the inevitable outcome of this state is the exact opposite of what is sought, an alienation." -ZM