Zen And More

Tom Stine has an interesting blog called Living from Consciousness which “has as its primary focus the never ending journey of awakening to our true nature as pure consciousness”. There are interesting posts and great discussions in the comment sections.

Tom wrote Past Lives Ain’t What They Used To Be, about past lives or reincarnation. I joined the discussion and wrote:

The concept of One does not exclude the concept of unique souls with their own memories of past lives. It is similar to fingers on a hand, each have their own story yet they are part of the whole.

Tom answered and wrote:

You are quite correct: the concept of One does not exclude a concept called unique souls. However, in my experience, that is just a concept that doesn’t match experience. When you know yourself as the One, then you realize that there are no unique souls.

Which made me write that:

Using the word concept made my comment too soft..

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

I am not an expert. My own experiences of oneness, to know yourself as (part of) the One, are different from yours. It allows for souls and past lives.

To which Davidya added his thoughts:

The key thing to realize about Oneness – it is inclusive. It includes everything – all perspectives, all time, all space, all expressions, all beings. Indeed, the entire universe is but a pearl on the necklace of Brahm.

I would suggest that both Tom and Bengt are correct. If we can experience it, it is an aspect of the One. We can look upon ourselves and see one consciousness flowing through all beings. We can look again and see all beings, each with a past, present and future and unique experience, all within the one. We could say they are just different resolutions or levels of detail.

In the One, you are an individual expression, you are an expression of the whole, and you are the whole expressing through all individuals. You are the doer, the vessel, and the creator. You are the seer and the seen. The free will and the determinism.

You are the silence and light, you are the evil and darkness. You are life itself, moving in all things.

There is no paradox. It is inclusiveness alone.

Davidya commented in Tom’s blog but also wrote Inclusive at his own blog In 2 Deep. I like his comment about the blog name: To, Too, and Two are 3 words that sound the same but have different meanings (homophones). The name of this blog is a play on this with 2 implying “into the deep” and “in too deep”.