click HERE for some context on this figure
For my young friend off to combat human trafficking (last post), seeing through the lens of oneness or twoness makes a big difference in how he will marshal his efforts; experience his world.
When we frame reality in the traditional “twoness” way, we join the majority through history and relate to our enemies as separate. We see ourselves distinct from them, not surprisingly better or right-er than them, and instinctively set about conquering them.
But if you, me, God, and everything, are part of a connected oneness, we approach the problem of evil very differently. If ours is a oneness reality, it changes how we navigate the world. God is one with me and I am one with God; God is one with the world and visa versa ; you are one with me and I am one with you.
With this as our starting point, we bring very different instincts to combating human trafficking. If I am intimately connected to both victim and perpetrator of evil, a “conquering” approach just will not do. On the other hand, if I am connected to both the enslaved and the enslaver, I take up a very different fight. If I derive my being from the same Divine presence that the slave trader does, and if he or she carries the same intrinsic preciousness that the victim and I do, “combating trafficking” becomes a very different affair.
In a oneness world, I am not free until both slave and trafficker are free. I do not thrive until both slave and trader thrive. And none of us thrive as long as this horribly debasing practice continues.
I found this on a blog by some “Anabaptist anarchists.” It made me smile.
A oneness reality changes everything. Sure it does.
To combat trafficking, we have to decide how to spend our time, energy, and funding. In a twoness world, our instinct is to conquer the trader. In a oneness world, it is to raise the consciousness of the whole system. In the latter, we marshal our efforts to help people see differently. Once traders, victims, and community see themselves as part of a connected whole, it changes everything. How many traffickers would enslave their own family members?
In a twoness reality, we spend our budgets fighting our enemy. In a oneness reality, we spend them raising the “connectedness” consciousness of the whole system – slave, trader, and community.
Pie-in-the-sky? Maybe. But you have to admit… it’s different.
Thank you, Doug! Beautifully written! How my heart longs for this! The hard part is to see is that if we were in the shoes of the oppressor, we would probably act the same way…once we see that then we can move away from a punishment mentality to see that they need healing, too.
The amazing thing is that this idea is found throughout Scripture, yet we have not seen it! Eph. 3: 3-9 speaks of the great mystery which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, and which Paul is charged to preach, that the Gentiles are OF THE SAME BODY…I think this mystery that we have such a hard time seeing IS that God is One, but the passage does go on to speak of this great Oneness: there is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all, and through all and in you all. Wow – how amazing is that??
One of my favorite quotes is by Sharif Abdullah. In his book, Creating A World That Works for All, he said: “We live in a world that works for only a few. The problem is exclusivity: the fundamental belief that we are separate from one another. All beings, all things, are One. Our lives are inextricably linked one to another. Because of this, we cannot wage war against anything or anyone without waging war against ourselves. Therefore, we are obliged to treat all beings the way we want to be treated. There are no ‘enemies’ – all beings are expressions of the Sacred and must be treated as such. Some beings cause pain to others; this does not mean that they are enemies. Some beings are food for others; this is all the more reason to treat them as sacred. Once we understand that we are interconnected, we have the responsibility to create a world that works for all.”
I think you’re so very right, education is key to creating such a world…
mae…
that is a great quote.
but now i have another book to read (will my list ever shrink?)
thank you.
d.
The IDEA of oneness is not too difficult to understand – at an intellectual level. But to get it at a gut/soul level will take time because to find really-God in everyone turns my traditional, familiar concepts into delusions; when I begin to resent, denigrate, discount, ignore, judge another, I am doing this to myself. But not only that, I must then be doing it to everyone. That kind of condemnation just doesn’t make sense when I begin to see things through a oneness lens.
me too!
sure, concepts are all well and good… but when you have to start living them… and when they challenge all the habits we built on top of the previous way of experiencing reality… well, that’s just tough!
i’m with you, sister!
d.