See Unity: RH"L7

Quest → Injunction

The Spirituality Quest is a search for cosmic consciousness and the experience of oneness. It is unreasonable and would be impractical to demand that everyone must follow the spiritual path. However, while «nonduality» is esoteric as a Quest, the notion of «unity» that derives from this search for divine oneness is highly relevant in many life situations.

At a practical level, everyone needs to recognize that everything connects and that there are unknowable implications and ramifications of whatever we do. So the Primal Injunction is «see unity». When you see unity, you can focus on what unites, which assists greatly in managing what divides. However, we are never above the fray: we are in the midst of it. So seeing unity means seeing ourselves in the other party or position or perspective—however different or alien that entity may seem to be on the surface.

Although each of us is constituted, enmeshed and surrounded by boundaries and divisions, that does not mean «I» or any part of me or my world is totally separate and disconnected and "you must see that!" asserts this Injunction.

Potential Misconceptions

Seeing unity is not itself a demand to unify, even if that would be of great assistance in the reconciliation and harmonization of differences.

A common misconception is that unity becomes visible by suppression of dissent, avoidance of conflict, glossing over of differences, or refusing to discriminate. However, if your side of a conflict exists, then seeing unity absolutely demands recognition and valuation of the other side.

Without two sides, there could be no conflict; if there was no conflict, there would be no differences; if there were no differences, then everything would be a single homogeneous entity and the need to see unity would disappear. In any case, we never experience homogeneity. So unity implies unequivocal differences and natural conflict.

Why Is It So Hard

Because my body, my activities, my group and even my life seem to have boundaries, I am inclined to think of myself as separate and see division as natural. So this can be a difficult Injunction to grasp, much less obey, on first encountering it.

We all continually create boundaries: we must. If anything is to be created and given an identity: a family, a project, an adventure—any "thing" at all—it must be bounded. That means carving out an identity and forcibly separating something from its context. These activities are essentially assertive and may look aggressive, or even slip over into being unnecessarily aggressive.

But connection and a degree of harmony across these boundaries remains a necessity for humanity, and this is only possible if in some way you can see unity.

A further difficulty flows from the dualities that are everywhere in our mind. The explicit goal in the Taxonomy is to show how any duality can be sensibly handled, given that it may not be fully resolvable in principle. This depends again on seeing the unity of the framework.
Philosophical note on duality►

Kant indicated that the empirical Universe was undifferentiated, with all differences being a function of our perceptions and conceptions. Schopenhauer disagreed and explained that our experiences of ourselves generated a definite differentiation. Put another way, human experience disrupts the oneness of the Universe and, because experience is part of the Universe, permits the Universe to know itself. This is the basic duality that we have to handle.

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The 7 Primal Injunctions have now been identified:

• Review them briefly in relation to adversity.

• Consider how relating to the world oscillates as the hierarchy is descended or ascended.

  OR

• Review their rationale: to restrain evil.

Originally posted: 16-Nov-2012.