The purpose of this essay is to both connect and clarify the concept of Oneness present in most every spiritual tradition's mystical realm. Certainly such traditions as Buddhism and Taoism tell, in detail, of a transcendental reality that permeates throughout "all the myriad things." Even Hinduism celebrates a universal unity in its cacophony of godheads rooted in the one Brahman. Beliefs of Oneness are also held within the three Abrahamic traditions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Practitioners within each of these speak of the One God who created the world and all things present in it, and thus the mystics therein conclude that this God must also be present in all things. Hence, these monotheistic religions present a variety of notions regarding some Oneness inherent in the universe.
[...] Left is equidistant with right around the axis of direction, much the way that positive one is equidistant with negative one around the axis of numeric value. Continuing along this mathematic allusion, two ideas are considered complimentary, or supplementary, when their absolute values from a common perspective are equal. Thus, all emanations from the origin Mu are potential axes of a duality. In seeking enlightenment within Oneness, the mystic first recognizes the existence of these dualities and subsequently rejects them. [...]
[...] Thus, since the mystical experience grounds itself in detachment from sensation and assessment, explains itself not in theoretical propositions but in acts emerging out of a certain quality of consciousness and awareness.”7 This is why Lao Tzu wrote, who knows does not speak; He who speaks does not know.”8 He who has experienced a mystical state cannot directly describe it so he relies on allusion and paradoxical language to convey the transcendental feeling. The koans of Zen Buddhism exemplify this principle the best. [...]
[...] Or conversely, because the details of a mystical experience are inexplicable, it must be an otherworldly occurrence, for only what can be cognized can be spoken. Yet, either way, that which is seen and felt in the mystical state supersedes conventional subjective thought, thought rooted in relative dualities. William James speaks of his quasi-mystical, though substanceinduced, experiences, is as if the opposites of the world, whose contradictoriness and conflict make all our difficulties and troubles, were melted away into unity.”15 The second verse of the Tao Teh Ching outlines some of these dualities of earthly perception: Indeed, the hidden and manifest give birth to each other, Difficult and easy compliment each other, Long and short exhibit each other, High and low set measure to each other James, William. [...]
[...] It follows that the act of succeeding in identification, to any degree, with this higher consciousness is called a mystical experience. A mystical experience itself falls into some category depending on the extent by which it transcends previously perceived reality. William James likened this spectrum to a ladder in his Varieties of Religious Experience. Since my focus is the upper range (top rungs) of his analogy, which he further categorizes as the more religious experiences, I refer to it as the stratification of God-thought. [...]
[...] For, if he allows the petty complications of the tangible world to cloud his mind he will not escape the cycle of attachment. Hence, he stills his mind by walking the Middle Path of dualistic axes, halts all grasping thought processes by renouncing all things as Nothingness, and finds himself awakened to the full, ineffable noetic quality of Oneness. Yet, once Oneness is attained, it must be kept. However, striving to keep it causes it to escape. As for holding to fullness, Far better were it to stop in time! [...]
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