Choices are made real through action. Ethics, morality, religion, spirituality and all our laws and decisions are products of choice. We may indeed in counsel point to the higher road, but we cannot compel any free creature to walk upon it. That leadeth to tyranny, which disfigureth good and maketh it seem hateful. [J.R.R. Tolkien, Morgoth’s Ring (1993).] I believe…
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Value for Friday of Week 44 in the season of Assessing
Being at One with All
We are part of the only reality there is. So we think – most of us do.
- People normally cut reality into compartments, and so are unable to see the interdependence of all phenomena. To see one in all and all in one is to break through the great barrier which narrows one’s perception of reality. [Thich Nhat Hanh]
- Be mindful at all times of the following: the nature of the whole universe, the nature of the part that is me, the relation of the one to the other, the one so vast, the other so small. No one can ever prevent me from saying and doing what is complete conformity with the whole of which I am so small yet integral part. [Marcus Aurelius]
- Living a spiritual life requires a change of heart, a conversion. Such a conversion may be marked by a sudden inner change, or it can take place through a long, quiet process of transformation. But it always involves an inner experience of oneness. [Henri Nouwen]
- A person experiences life as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness. [Albert Einstein]
- At the deepest level, an “open heart” is spacious presence, in which the sense of separateness between yourself and the ‘other’ dissolves and there is the recognition of oneness, of shared consciousness. That recognition is love. Sensing the formless essence in another and recognizing it as one with your own essence – that’s what love is. All this is an intrinsic part of the awakened consciousness and the revelation of the spiritual dimension of life. [Eckhart Tolle]
- Music can also be a sensual pleasure, like eating food or sex. But its highest vibration for me is that point of taking us to a real understanding of something in our nature which we can very rarely get at. It is a spiritual state of oneness. [Terry Riley]
- . . . one of the main points about travelling is to develop in us a feeling of solidarity, of that oneness without which no better world is possible. [Ella Maillart]
On oneness and interdependence: A sense of oneness emanates from and nurtures positive values, including respect, gratefulness and joy. The “realization of oneness involves the highest type of communication and respect. If your life is realized in the this sense…you would see that the whole world supports you. You exist because others; everything supports your life. This totality, this oneness evokes a gratitude and a great joy beyond. We live a life immersed in grace; the grace of being supported by all things at all times.” “The body is dependent on the whole creation.” Oneness “is like each cell taking care of itself, but also working in cooperation with others, having the health of the whole system as its goal. As a result, the cells get all the food and energy it needs, together with a better environment and longer lifespan.”
On oneness and spirituality: Some practitioners of yoga and other disciplines describe spiritual oneness as though it was a fact, not merely a sense of things. “The spiritual experience of oneness is best described as unity between the two energies of self and the universe. You will experience the two merging into one, and the perception of separation between self and the other is erased.” It is a fact in a limited sense; however, that sense lives within us. Oneness as an aspect of spirituality helps bind soul and spirit together, like a ligament works in conjunction with other ligaments to bind a joint together, so that it can function to its maximum potential.
On oneness and connectedness, versus separation: “Oneness is perhaps the most profound and sublime state a human being can ever achieve, a blissful (although usually fleeting) sensation where we are overcome with joy and multi-directional feelings of intense connection.” “Separation is the opposite of Oneness”.
On oneness and music: many musical works are drawn from various genres and traditions, such as “Oneness Within the Diversity of Music” by Christian Jinsan Kim. The idea is at the heart of the iconic popular song “We Are the World”.
We can choose to see any experience as a manifestation of oneness. All our experiences are exactly that, even those in which we feel separation.
Real
True Narratives
- Brook Ziporyn, Ironies of Oneness and Difference: Coherence in Early Chinese Thought; Prolegomena to the Study of Li (State University of New York Press, 2012).
- Brook Ziporyn, Beyond Oneness and Difference: Li and Coherence in Chinese Buddhist Thought and Its Antecedents (State University of New York Press, 2013).
Technical and Analytical Readings
- Philip J. Ivanhoe, Oneness: East Asian Conceptions of Virtue, Happiness, and How We Are All Connected (Oxford University Press, 2017).
- Philip Ivanhoe, et. al., eds., The Oneness Hypothesis: Beyond the Boundary of Self (Columbia University Press, 2018).
- Rasha, Oneness (Earthstar Press, 4th Edition, 2024).
- Damien Janos, Oneness, Essence, and Self-Identity: A New Interpretation of Avicenna’s Henology (De Gruyter, 2024).
- Jeffrey David Engels, The Ethics of Oneness: Emerson, Whitman, and the Bhagavad Gita (University of Chicago Press, 2021).
- Sandra C. Brossman, The Power of Oneness: Live the Life You Choose (Red Wheel/Weiser, 2003).
- Jeffrey Moses, Oneness: Great Principles Shared by All Religions (Ballantine, 1989).
- Satyananda, Oneness: As Described By Satyananda (Balboa Press, 2013).
- John Greven, Oneness: The Destination You Never Left (Non-Duality, 2005).
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Poetry
I am a feather on the bright sky
I am the blue horse that runs in the plain
I am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water
I am the shadow that follows a child
I am the evening light, the lustre of meadows
I am an eagle playing with the wind
I am a cluster of bright beads
I am the farthest star
I am the cold of dawn
I am the roaring of the rain
I am the glitter on the crust of the snow
I am the long track of the moon in a lake
I am a flame of four colors
I am a deer standing away in the dusk
I am a field of sumac and the pomme blanche
I am an angle of geese in the winter sky
I am the hunger of a young wolf
I am the whole dream of these things
You see, I am alive, I am alive
I stand in good relation to the earth
I stand in good relation to the gods
I stand in good relation to all that is beautiful
I stand in good relation to the daughter of Tsen-tainte
You see, I am alive, I am alive
[Navarre Scott Momaday, “The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee”]
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Works:
- Imee Ooi, The Five Words Mantra of Manjushri Boddhisatva (approx. 18’)
- Pierre Boulez, Dialogue de l'ombre double for clarinet and electronics (1985) (approx. 18-19’) (list of recorded performances): a scene in Paul Claudel’s play, Le Soulier de satin (1924), in which a man’s and woman’s shadow are projected onto a wall, as one.
- Scott Wollschleger, Outside Only Sound (2020) (approx. 14’): strings and percussion amid the natural sounds, including people, outdoors in Brooklyn, New York
- Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti, with eyes the color of time (2020) (approx. 31’): “A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music, 2022, with eyes the color of time is hailed as 'a vibrant composition, inspired by works in The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, that distinctly combines experimental string textures and episodes of melting lyricism,' by the Pulitzer committee.”
- Hans Otte, Das Buch der Klänge (The Book of Sounds) (1979–1982) (approx. 68–78’) (recordings) merges the listener, the performer, and the sound itself into a single, unfragmented frequency. It “rediscovers a world of consonant experience which could only now be written because of a totally changed consciousness of sounds on earth.”
Albums:
- Jack DeJohnette, “Oneness” (1995) (63’): “If there is oneness to be had, it is here in DeJohnette’s mind-meld with Harris, each providing as much rhythm as melody. The surprise entrance of acoustic bass guitar lends tactile flavor.”
- Gregory Barrette, “The Heart of Oneness” (2004) (56’)
- Paul Bley Trio, “Closer” (1965) (28’): “There isn't a sense that one player -- other than the volume of Mr. Bley's piano in this crappy mix -- stands out from the other two; they are of a piece traveling down this opaque yet warm road together.”
- Paul Bley, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian, “Memoirs” (1990) (71’)
- Shijin, “Theory of Everything” (2021) (28’)
- Matthew Shipp & Ivo Perelman, “Oneness” (2018) (143’): “The telepathic articulation between tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp, two free spirits in the art of music-making, is quite obvious and grows stronger on Oneness, a triple album with 33 improvised tracks, which all together, offer more than two hours of searching music.”
- Balladeste, “Beyond Breath” (2021) (35’): “Synchronicity takes on a new meaning when hearing Balladeste’s circle of trust, strings, and sound. Where Indian-American violinist Preetha Narayanan begins, British cellist Tara Franks ends, except there isn’t a beginning or ending and we get blissfully immersed in their circular empathy.”
- Nate Wooley, “Columbia Icefield” (2019) (53’): “. . . the Pacific Northwest bred trumpeter tries to reckon with his relation to the Icefield and, more generally, humanity in the face of the unapproachable.”
- Nate Wooley & Columbia Icefield, “Ancient Songs of Burlap Heroes” (2022) (56’): “. . . a thematic homecoming that contrasts the intimacy of one’s roots with the vastness of the wider world.”
- Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet, “Spirit to All” (2022) (44’): “'Spirit To All' was created as an answer to our spiritual needs . . . During my preparations for recording I felt simultaneous connection between myself and everything around me. There was this urge within me to express my unity with the surroundings. . . . This album is about spiritual needs, limitless and loving understanding, about compassionate development.”
- Elkhorn, “On the Whole Universe in All Directions” (2023) (40’): “. . . a beacon to those who still believe that music can be an illuminative, emotionally resonant and connective force . . .”
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Franz Schubert (composer), “Am Strome” (By the River), D. 539 (1817) (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Paul Klee, Ad Marginem (1930)
- Frederic Edwin Church, Newport Mountain, Mount Desert (1851)
- James McNeill Whistler, Harmony in Blue and Silver: Trouville (1865)
