What does it mean to be One?

We are halfway through our Practitioner training. As a part of this journey we were asked to consider what means to be One. Here's one perspective.

To be one is a continuum. At one end is ignorance through self and at the other wholeness through consciousness. But what is consciousness, and why does it make such a difference?

As a creation of God we, humankind, have been given the capacity to choose to view ourselves as something larger than the physical extent of ourselves. In coming to realize that there is something more than just our physical self, more than just the grey matter of our brains, or a memory hidden mysteriously within the constructs of DNA we have the opportunity to live in faith. In discovering faith we can come to exist in a place of grace.

One form of faith is a knowing that we are created within the idea known as God. This Universal presence has a nature. As an Infinite, or omnipresent, being, its nature must therefore extend into us. Thus, it is in our nature to evolve and create, just as the Universe does. In a word it is our nature to be exactly as the Universe is.

God is certainly in us, but as individual expressions of God we could hardly ‘be’ God. That would run against the indivisible completeness of Infinity. Rather, in our world of individualized expression our nature is identical to God. We are less than the totality that is God, but we are no less for this as God is being through us.

We are like a grain of sand on the beach. All of us are sand, and God is the beach. All together God is both each grain of sand and the beach. Another way to appreciate how God works is to consider how a light works. We either perceive light or its absence. If we are turned toward the light our shadow will be behind us and if we are turned away from the light we will be looking at our own shadow. We have the opportunity to turn toward the light within, but for reasons unknown we sometimes choose to turn away from God and live in the shadows of our own subjective mind. God may be within us but we have been given freedom of will to choose or not choose to be one with this light; our choice cannot invalidate the existence of something that is omnipresent. And if we have turned from God, God is still within us waiting for us to choose consciousness over ignorance.

Just as we can begin to have a faith in the nature and power of God we can also come to understand the mechanical aspects of how things are. We can begin to see conditions for what they are and understand their relation to cause. With an appreciation for cause and effect we can begin to unfold an understanding of how creation works.

Once we understand the Universe is imbued with goodness we also can truly appreciate what it means for the Universe to expand good and to create. God is looking for the feeling to be shared, but knows that it must be truly experienced to be consciously embraced. The vision of God is for man and woman to be a perfect expression of life. Being consciously one with the Universe is to know that the I AM wishes no one to suffer in any way; it is to consciously shift on the continuum from ignorance to consciousness. No matter where we are on that continuum we are still one, the question is to what extent we are ‘being’ one.

As one we can choose to know that our nature can be the same as God’s nature. The evolution of consciousness starts with a discovery that things happen to me. We then realize that things or events are done by me. Consciousness realized begins to unfold an understanding of through me. And ultimately, we will seek for expression to occur with me as me. This is the journey that unfolds to be One.