Oneness with All Life
With both human wisdom and spiritual wisdom,
you may see anything is everything
not just for yourself but also for others as well. In other words, you may
intuit the wisdom of oneness with all life, which is your interconnection with
others, not just with those who are close to you, but also with those who are
distant and unrelated to you. Life is all about anything and everything.
No
man is an island
According to John Donne, the famous English poet, “no man is an island”; that is,
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. Therefore, we
are all interconnected with, as well
as inter-dependent on, one another in many different ways.
Connectedness
Oneness
is the law of nature: what we do to others, we also do to ourselves, either
consciously or unconsciously. It is the unity
of all life—life is what we all have, and what empowers all of us, giving us
the enlightening experiences and the holistic ways of living.
The Bible has repeatedly stated the
significance of oneness of God’s creation and salvation to all.
In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God.
(John 1: 1)
For in
him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have
been created through him and for him. (Colossians
1: 16)
For we were all baptized by one
Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all
given the one Spirit to drink.
(1
Corinthians 12:13)
According
to Lao Tzu, the ancient Chinese
sage, one of the reasons why nature has continued to exist for thousands and
thousands of years is that all forms of life in nature have their presence,
which depends on one another for their co-existence.
Just think about that: everything in nature does not exist
just for itself, and that is why it
can last forever.
Each and every being in the
universe.
is an expression of the Creator.
We are all shaped and perfected by
Him.
(Lao
Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 51)
Blessed
is he who has no ego-self.
He will
be rewarded with humility to connect with the Creator.
(Lao
Tzu, Tao
Te Ching, Chapter 9)
So,
always focus on others, instead of
just on yourself all the time. Focusing on others also initiates your
connection with the Creator, providing you with spiritual wisdom to guide you
along the rest of your life journey.
According to Buddha, “Nothing ever exists entirely alone. Everything is in relation to everything else.” What Buddha means is that it is not uncommon for humans to blame their problems on all the things outside themselves—other people and circumstances that are beyond their control. But the connectedness with all life contradicts that common but erroneous belief; the reality is that what we see in others and in our own circumstances is a reflection of our inner life, of what we believe in—which is the main source of all human miseries and sufferings. The truth is that all humans suffer because they do not see the miseries and sufferings in others, except in themselves.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister, and leader in the civil rights movement, once
said: “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be
what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated
structure of reality.” So, your connectedness to others plays a pivotal role in
helping you become your true self, instead of who you wish you were.
Even John Lennon in his famous hit song
“Imagine” says: “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope
one day you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.” That the world will
live as one may indeed become a reality, and not just a dream.
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