About unity, separation and individuality
The topic of unity with the connected topics of separation, individuality, etc. provides many misunderstandings and bad forms of misuse. Further on it is a favorite slogan of spiritual people “Yeah, we are all one! Separation is an illusion! And so on.”
As it is such a big topic which is repeated as a slogan endlessly, I want to put some light on it, – against the misuse and the misunderstandings.
Imagine you take clay and you form countless creatures in a diversity of appearances from it. So they look all different but all are made of clay. Here we have individuality, separation and the underlying unity based on the same substance. According to this principle the whole creation is based on one substance – spirit. Everything is “made” from spirit. Creation and creatures and all planes of creation are just different states of this original spirit, – different states of energy, of the one primary energy. We are all made of the four elements and the four elements are originating from the fifth element, Akasha, the spirit itself.
In conclusion there is the underlying unity in creation based on the spirit as the origin of everything. Akasha is all underlying, all-permeating, beyond time and space. It is the original unity beyond creation. But Akasha has all the quality of connecting all separated, individual creatures and created things. It is a medium to connect consciously with other beings or things beyond the limits of time and space.
Then we have also the phenomenon that we experience us as individuals in separated bodies but on the other hand we are all connected on an energetic level. Everything we think, feel or do has consequences, effects on ourselves, others and our surroundings. So indeed we are in a permanent interaction with creation.
Interaction means also interdependence. There is simply not a single being which is absolutely independent from creation. Indeed every creature is a small part of a great organism called nature or creation. Every being has its sense, its function to make the greater whole work. Just think here about the plants and animals in nature. They all have their specific job. Or think about society. Here it is the same. Society works like a big organism with single organs and structures to keep things alive and working.
Now drifting away from the original topic – guess what happens when parts of this greater organism get selfish or ill or evil? This is quite unhealthy and the evil has to be stopped or healed or cleared early enough before the whole organism gets damaged. Think about this, regarding human society and humans in creation.
Back to the topic and now to mankind. Here we can see that human beings look quite different regarding the regions of the world and also as individuals. But basically we can say that beyond these differences in appearance we all are human beings. This is the basic unity of mankind. And this basis is also quite important for the spiritual path. Independent from the cultural or religious background we all have to make similar or equal steps on the spiritual path. So we have to say that there is an universal system or path of spiritual development underlying all the different spiritual traditions and religions. And this basic system of development is shown clearly by Bardon and can be found reflected in all traditions.
But it is also important to see what is separating us as human beings. The separating factor is the different degrees of spiritual maturity, the maturity of mind and soul. In fact we have a few old souls which have unfold their divine higher nature to highest degrees. Then we have many souls who are quite old, seeking for ways of growing and flourishing. And the majority of souls are what we call “normal” human beings who experience all the facets of the human life. At last we some evil ones and further on also strangers who incarnate as human beings on earth for special experiences.
Here we have the case that humans from a lower maturity are not really able to understand those from a higher maturity. This is just because the necessary experiences are missing. Imagine you are in the state of being a grain in the earth. You simply cannot know about the blue sky, the sun, etc. which you get to know as a growing plant. And a growing plant does not know how it feels to flourish. It is all about the consecutive steps of development and the connected experiences and states of being.
At last we come to the spiritual experiences. When you undergo a spiritual training and with this a spiritual development, then you integrate the qualities of Akasha into your nature and with this new abilities and new experiences. You step beyond the limitations of time and space. You can connect to all kinds of creatures, to take part in their experiences, in their thoughts and feelings, in their individual way of perceiving the world. You take part in the higher unity and so you experience and understand that we all origin from one source, the divine spirit. And due to this, spiritual masters of all times have proclaimed that we are all one, from one source, all connected, all interdependent. These experiences of a higher unity beyond all limitations, separation and individuality come along with true love, compassion and care. So the initiates serve mankind and creation consciously as they know that we all are parts of a greater organism, a higher unity.
When we take a look at history but also at present movements, we can detect the evil misuse of the idea of unity. Communism is the best example for this. It is a general principle that the dark side grabs the original positive idea and perverts it into a dark instrument for evil purposes. In communism the leaders proclaim unity, – everyone is equal, there is no individuality, no differentiation which is certainly nonsense and especially the leaders do not believe in their ideology as they treat themselves absolutely differently to normal people. But also today there are ideologists who try to convince us that all people are equal, without any differences. It is a very bad mistake to think that all people from all cultures and all religions think, feel and behave in the same way. We simply follow not all the same ideals, the same ideas in life. For the benefit of everyone it is necessary to understand these differences and to see at the same time the connecting basis, the commonalities. Diversity is a quality of creation and it makes life fascinating, interesting. In the diversity we find completeness like all colors together result in the full color spectrum.
There are often people who try to make everything equal but this is in most cases not good as it pays no respect to the differences. So man and woman are not equal. A child is not equal to a grown-up. Good and evil are not equal. Virtues are not equal to bad habits. Wrong is not equal to right. And so on. The dark side loves to try to entrap us. Many normal unconscious people love to proclaim untrue things because they believe that it is healthy and positive. In consequence the evil happens by the unholy try to make it look positive.
All spiritual seekers are asked to develop Viveka, the power and ability to differentiate light from darkness, truth from lies. Viveka belongs to wisdom. We all need wisdom.
Very well put….your examples are excellent for the understanding of this complex matter.