Meditation 7. Oneness

Imperturbable, solid as a rock. 
Awareness has space within it for bliss, compassion, tranquility, sadness, grief, guilt, anger and hatred.

Like the Great Mother, hips as broad and solid as Africa.

Immovable, unflappable, spacious coming Home.

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The underlying experience of Oneness is hidden from us by our mind’s continuous wandering in search of resonances with its wounded self, so that it may heal them. We continuously recreate harsh experiences in order to recreate our original wounds, in the hope that we might finally fully address them this time around. Our wounds arise out of our sense of separation; separation from all that is, from the womb, from our mothers, from painful experiences that contract us. We cannot truly know Oneness as an experience until we know its opposite of separation. As an analogy, we cannot see ourselves, except as a reflection, because we are ourselves. Just the same, Oneness cannot experience itself, except if it separates out into individuation.     

We chose to be here on earth so that we could fully appreciate ourselves and integrate back into Oneness. There is no judgement about the separation, with its associated anxiety and scrabbling and searching; it is in itself the path back home. We can only hold it with deep awareness and allowing.

The integration of Oneness seems like it ought to be about merging rather than separation, however the Oneness is always there, it cannot not be a part of our lives. We integrate all of who we are by accepting our separation and our suffering and by acknowledging its value to us as Divine Creators. Separation is a part of our whole experience of life and not something to be avoided. In the merging of the fullness of this experience, the separation becomes imbued with Oneness and we at last become whole again. Embracing it all, we return to the completeness of our Original Nature. Then there is only the underlying joy and spaciousness and freedom of our inner truth, unclouded by our clinging, judging, controlling selves. The fact that we return over and over to clinging or aversion must seem weird indeed. From the place of spaciousness it seems weird. Who in their right mind would choose restriction and judgement at the expense of spaciousness and pure joy? But we are not in our right minds, we are mostly in our left minds, and they are restrictive and carry our conditioning and our fear. To let them go takes faith and courage and trust. 

Meditation 7.   

There is only one thing to learn on earth, and that is how to simultaneously be present in this world, and also merge back into the wholeness out of which we arose, and about which we have become unconscious. In our unconsciousness, not only have we forgotten that we are One, Complete, All That Is, but we have forgotten that we have forgotten. All that we need to do to remember is to turn back towards that love and spaciousness within us. Turning to God, God comes directly to us, our only task is to request the reconnection, to long for Wholeness, to remember again and again and again, and to return to our true home within. 

Initially we can connect most easily to this aspect of ourselves by recognizing it as something separate from ourselves, as the Beloved. Then once we truly feel and embody the Beloved within, we recognize that it was none other than ourselves all along. 

Breathing deeply, notice what is here. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations, feelings, emotions and thoughts. Allow them all to be exactly as they are. Open up to this very moment without judgment or resistance. Then take your attention into the centre of your chest and draw into it the image of a perfect Being of light and love. Choose an image that resonates with you. Don't choose someone you know personally, you are looking rather for an archetype of light and love. Imagine how this Being feels, looks, smells, imagine the quality of their energy. Connect with the feeling of this Being. Draw the sense of him or her or it deeply into the cells of your body. Allow it to merge with the sense of who you are. Allow it to become One with you. 

Bring to mind any situation you would like to resolve. Allow the insights and felt sense of this divine Being to show you how to deal with this problem. You do this by feeling how it is to be One with its light and love, and then from the perspective of this sensation of calmness, notice how you would respond to the situation you wish to gain insight about. Notice how it allows everything without judgment, but that this doesn't stop you from responding with thoughtful and perceptive action to resolve difficulties.

Breathe into this sense of being One with a magnificent and divine archetype, that is in fact none other than you at the deepest level of your being, thank it for its wisdom and insight, and retaining its quality of energy, return to the room.