[MightyMasd]

this concept is an excellent topic to contemplate and meditate on, but needs to be taken with a grain of salt in your day-to-day interactions with others.

say for instance i need to haul some stuff, so i go get a pickup truck from another part of the "only one of us here". imagine me having to explain this concept to a different part of the "only one of us here", that is masquerading as the nice police officer who just pulled me over and is taking me to jail for stealing a truck. i mean, come on, officer! there's "only one of us here" so obviously all this is my stuff!

i'm very familiar with the concepts in acim, but the only way i can make sense of it is to understand that it's not speaking in a literal sense. this becomes increasingly clear, the more you get into it, and after studying it for 20 years, this is the only way to make sense of (at least parts of) it. for example acim says many times, that if you do this [action], you get that [result]. so when i do this [action], and i don't get that [result], it's very disheartening and i even considered that this is proof that it's filled with lies! but after i calm down i realize the only way i can make sense of it is to realize it was a metaphorical statement and not a literal one.

[healty-back]

yes i agree with that view point.. and understanding a concept or at least attempting to understand a concept in regards to seeing it through some one else's eyes or perspective
can go a long way in regards to understanding where they are coming from.

taking your own belief system or filter and moving it aside while you attempt to see it through the eyes or belief system of some one else is the biggest challenge .

[excholza]

i'm sorry, but as much as i try to understand the premise that 'there's only one of us here', i really don't get it. it feels like mind games to me.

i'm still learning the finer points of the loo and i'm not sure that understanding the concepts in acim would help me to progress in any way right now.

maybe that's just my attitude because i'm still in the process of waking up. and, if so, maybe i'll get it later on.....

does anyone else feel like this, or is it just me?

sharing the love and the light, but a little bit confused,
nancy

[TaliaJack]

i'm sorry, but as much as i try to understand the premise that 'there's only one of us here', i really don't get it. it feels like mind games to me.

i'm still learning the finer points of the loo and i'm not sure that understanding the concepts in acim would help me to progress in any way right now.

maybe that's just my attitude because i'm still in the process of waking up. and, if so, maybe i'll get it later on.....

does anyone else feel like this, or is it just me?

sharing the love and the light, but a little bit confused,
nancy

take it as this...

we are all consciousness. and out of that one consciousness... we are just only having different experiences. this is how we are no better or worse than the person in front of us having another experience for we are only one. there is only one here. we might be having different experiences but we are stemming from that same consciousness of now.

i hope that made sense... if not... its hard to explain what goes on in my head. lol

[pIp83Uns]

i'm sorry, but as much as i try to understand the premise that 'there's only one of us here', i really don't get it. it feels like mind games to me.

does anyone else feel like this, or is it just me?
nancy

i've been trying to understand why it seemed so important and hilarious to david and larry to keep bringing that up.

i get it on an intellectual level that we are all connected and essentially parts of a whole and only think we're separate but what is the point to even know that 'truth' if there's nothing that can be gained from it except making some of us even more intellectually divided?

what use is there in knowing that we are the same person when we still act like an individual, larry isn't about to donate his unused recording equipment to charity is he?

at what point does knowing that we are all one and yet choosing to live a more luxurious life than others seem hypocritical?

is the point just to figure out the 'truth' like david and larry are doing with their studies and conclusions of "oneness" or is the point to do something with this apparent perception of separateness?

i got the (possibly incorrect) feeling from pt 2 of the audio blog that there is a spiritual hierarchy where 20 or so ascended people are at the top of the pile (according to larry) then you have people like eckhart tolle who can just wander around without the shackles of society then people like david and larry who have both material and spiritual wealth and then people like you and me who at least want to understand and then everyone else.

but is that the point? a spiritual darwinian struggle to get to the top?

why is the material world a lower form of reality than just wandering around 'getting it' like tolle?

is it a 'failure' to not "get it"?

[Qnpqbpac]

i am not a student of acim and although i have heard of it for years everything i have learned about it i learned in the last two weeks through this forum, and david and larry's blog so i by no means know much.

at first when they kept saying over and over, there's only one of us here, it's all an illusion i found myself getting a little irritated. thinking that is of no help to someone who is in pain, or suffering. their suffering is pretty darn real to them and i have no idea how the course reconciles this kind of stuff.

i find the law of one a little more practical in day to day 3d reality.

however, i did have a little bit of an epiphany when contemplating the whole oneness thing, illusion thing, and did get a glimpse of the big picture and it really is that simple. that if we are all one, if we are all god, if there is no separation then this must be an illusion because we can't see that from here.

it is hard to describe but i did feel it. it definitely deserves some more contemplation.

now we still have to deal with this illusion on a moment to moment basis and dealing with it from a space of love and forgiveness makes sense whether you are a student of acim or not.

the night after listening to this blog i had a really cool dream. i only remember part of it, but i was on a slide kind of thing, but instead of sliding down, i shot way up into the air , really high. while i was up in the air i remember feeling extremely blissful and loved. then i had to come back down from there and i was worried it was going to hurt but the landing was soft and gentle.

i interpreted it to mean that i had had a glimpse of maybe a higher dimension and was shown as well that it is possible to bring aspects of that higher dimension into day to day life to make it easier.

just some thoughts.

megan

[Oberjej]

mmm it might be me, but some of you sound slightly bitter or synical about this whole 'there's only one of us here' deal..

this is only a continuation of what the law of one says in its own way, wrapped and presented in a different way. we are all the creator.. the splitting of 'i am' to 'i am me' in order that we can get perspective and get a subjective understanding of the self. as they said, i am can't look back at itself.. its just awareness.


i recently caught a cold. for the first few days, i felt something different than i normally did when i experienced being ill.. it was kind of interesting.. like experiencing the experience of having a cold, thus being part of something bigger and it felt good. part of me was exilarated to be sick, to experience something in a higher mindset, it didn't bother me.. i kind of enjoyed the experience of being sick. after a few days of it though, i got tired of being sick and uncomfortable and sorta came down to earth.

i think this is what they are trying to convey, what every one is trying to convey. pain.. suffering.. are all part of feeling individual and separated. once we get past that, to the understanding of 'i am, regardless of who i am' then everything becomes an experience of the creator and since all is the creator.. nothing is unpleasant.. it is all just a cosmic dance of infinite beauty and understanding. ever since i was a child, regardless of the things i had done, i always had a sense that everything was valuable as an experience. while i wouldn't do some of the things i did again.. i wouldn't give up the experiences either.. good or bad.. they are all good in the end.

but of course, like most things, this concept is incredibly hard to get across in the realm of logicical thinking.. its a very intuitive concept and it begs you to look past your ego to the greater sense of self to realize the creator cannot turn around and slap himself, nomatter how hard he tries.. he is.. and so are we... every experience is just the creator.

part of my past time activity is to do a little role play.. i play a character that interacts with other characters.. we generate plots that we get into and work on.. playing out scenarios and having fun with each other. often times these scenarios are life and death.. massive drama and suffering.. emotional explorations, character development and the like. at one point i realized this was an analogy of our own reality.. while my character was going through massive drama and suffering.. i myself was having fun.. i knew everything that was going on, everything that was hidden from my character, the plots and the bigger picture of where i wanted my character to go. in essence, i was the higher self of my character.. i understood that while the suffering was intense and my character disliked it to a great extent, in the bigger picture it was something that was necessary for my character to understand itself better. for a moment, i felt very fractal, interacting with myself on a level that hinted at the greater picture. down here, it looks like c***, feels like c*** and we look at each other going.. why could we possibly want to continue hurting one another?

from up there however.. we understand that they are just experiences.. transient and ephemeral.. they last but a moment in the bigger picture and what lasts is the growth that results from it. it is necessary, in its way, to help us understand ourselves in a way that nothing else can help us understand. yes, there is only one of us here.. and to that one self.. every experience is a glorious expression of consciousness exploring itself.

[AgowlSown]

i personally feel that "oneness philosophy" in its various forms and flavors from hinduism, buddhism, loo, acim, etc are actually very empowering and liberating for the "individual" who eventually "gets it."

when someone really develops a sense of oneness, then forgiveness, compassion and love become much easier emotional states to broadcast and maintain. it also allows one to take a bigger picture perspective on suffering. looked at from a non-physical perspective, this density and this planet are here for the expression of “creative suffering.”

when we *know* (not just intellectualize) that this entire “reality” is just a figment of our collective imagination, and that we are only “bound” to this plane by learned limiting beliefs and ego, then we can stop judging suffering as “bad” and understand that it is an experience chosen simply because it was a potential to be creatively experienced.

the way i “see it” is that this reality and the higher dimensions of creation as we know it is all a simultaneous thought within the mind of god / the one infinite creator. you and i are simply manifestations of this thought: neural connections in the mind of god. the realization that this illusion is just an illusion, for me, allows me to stop worrying about the future so that i can simply be in the now, amplifying and broadcasting a loving frequency despite the ample opportunity to judge as “bad/wrong/evil” the various modes of creative suffering on this planet. this allows me to help others to transcend and heal their own pain.

we perceive this “long thought” from the inside where it seems like it takes forever for anything to happen, but the thought is already complete from start to finish, and we are simply playing in the playground of suffering. soon we will be playing in the playground of love and wisdom… but it’s all still a game.

love and laughter,
cameron

[pIp83Uns]

i just have this feeling that if we were supposed to realize that we were all the same person that it wouldn't appear to be such a philosophical/spiritual exercise.

isn't there something we are supposed to be doing while we all think we are separate? if the 'answer' to feeling separated is to find ways to accept that we aren't actually separate then why do we think we're separate in the first place? is it a race to see who figures it out first or last? are there style points for figuring out the 'answer' in a creative way perhaps?

surely the there's a reason why we think we are separate?

[healty-back]

i'm sorry, but as much as i try to understand the premise that 'there's only one of us here', i really don't get it. it feels like mind games to me. if some thing confuses you or upsets you in regards to material posted here or else where
its because you have come to a conclusion about your self and your beating your self up over it because you don't understand . dont we are as confused as you are and we don't understand every thing no one does, and the media and politics play on this fact big time.

what i do when i read this stuff is believe it to be science fiction, even dw's readings blogs ect i actually start laughing when i listen to some of them, because dw is actually a human being like me which i can relate to and i just find it amusing when he says i am ra it just gets me chuckling.

its a way to get people thinking or questioning things instead of just believing every thing
they see and here, i am pink elephant do you believe me ? probably not i have no credibility no degree's ect i am just some guy making a statement.

now what if i was a president and i said some thing like that country over there has weapons of destruction and is full of terrorists and they are going to kill us oh no the sky is falling we have to invade and destroy the enemy before they destroy us.
do you believe me now ???

what about this here is a small piece of paper its worth ten apples to get these pieces of paper you will have to come and work for me and do what i tell you to do at the end of the week i will give you a hundred pieces of paper and you can trade them for a whole bunch of apples.
do you believe me ???

how about here is some magic powder if you give me 2 hundred pieces of paper i will give you a tiny little bag of it, the reason its worth so many pieces of paper is once you smoke it you become really cool and every body will like you... you will also so have no fear of any one or any thing and any one that doesn't have any magic powder becomes uncool oh i forgot to mention it allows you to see aliens be care full they are not friendly.
hang on didn't some one say dw looked like a lizard in one of his video's he's an alien run.
do you believe me ???

i could go on and on and on but thats some thing we all need to start doing for ourselves start questioning things or maybe not ignorance is bliss and your getting sleepy.

[Vzkdgdqx]

i just have this feeling that if we were supposed to realize that we were all the same person that it wouldn't appear to be such a philosophical/spiritual exercise.

isn't there something we are supposed to be doing while we all think we are separate? if the 'answer' to feeling separated is to find ways to accept that we aren't actually separate then why do we think we're separate in the first place? is it a race to see who figures it out first or last? are there style points for figuring out the 'answer' in a creative way perhaps?

surely the there's a reason why we think we are separate?

the idea or reason we think we are separate is to experience the illusion of separation there's no race to figuring it out, it already has been figured out. you (as in the individual out) just need to realize it. it kind of is like a mind game... but one that is not impossible to figure out.

one 66

[MightyMasd]

excellent discussion! i think both sides are being well represented; both sides are valid and no side is complete by itself. on the one hand, the idea that we are all one is very idealistic and kinda makes you feel all warm and fuzzy, but it's just not that useful when it comes to paying the bills; buying groceries, etc.

when i first started studying acim, i was actually a bit turned off by this somewhat quixotic idealism, and all the flowery language. what actually kept me interested was that the most spiritual people i knew all seemed to love it.

i still find many valuable lessons in acim, but at the same time i still have trouble believing the ego is so diabolically evil. and another main cim concept is the idea that this is all an illusion. of course this is true on some level, but i sometimes think it's just downright disrespectable to us and all the other entities that invested so much time and energy in creating this space for us to learn the lessons we need to learn. according to acim the goal is to escape this illusion!

i got the (possibly incorrect) feeling from pt 2 of the audio blog that there is a spiritual hierarchy where 20 or so ascended people are at the top of the pile (according to larry) then you have people like eckhart tolle who can just wander around without the shackles of society then people like david and larry who have both material and spiritual wealth and then people like you and me who at least want to understand and then everyone else.

i don't know how larry and david feel about this, but i can tell you that this concept is virtually the antithesis of the course's teaching. it describes this as "special", that one would be in any way superior to another, and it is to be avoided at all cost.

isn't there something we are supposed to be doing while we all think we are separate? if the 'answer' to feeling separated is to find ways to accept that we aren't actually separate then why do we think we're separate in the first place? is it a race to see who figures it out first or last? are there style points for figuring out the 'answer' in a creative way perhaps?

surely the there's a reason why we think we are separate?

the jewel that we are searching for is in the experience itself, and our task is to recognize the love in that experience.

simply put, our capacity to understand a concept can be greatly increased by dividing it up into all its little component parts, so separation can actually be very helpful. then again, ra says that understanding is not of this density, so i believe the real key here is balance. find that point between separation and oneness, that works for you in the moment and recognize that it is always fluctuating. just remember that all your beliefs are a wondrous treasure, and all experience is sacred.

[excholza]

so much food for thought in this thread!

is it a 'failure' to not "get it"?

that is my concern, too. and trying to 'get it' doesn't seem to be working for me at this moment on my pathway.

ra says that understanding is not of this density, so i believe the real key here is balance. find that point between separation and oneness, that works for you in the moment and recognize that it is always fluctuating. just remember that all your beliefs are a wondrous treasure, and all experience is sacred.

those words work for me.

nancy

[healty-back]

the conundrum to waking up is that there are many systems in place that cause pain and suffering to many yet keep a few safe hidden and in power.
does one accept that pain and suffering is just an experience designed for spiritual growth and be grateful for the experience or does one rebel.
either way none of us are getting out of here alive so is it foolish for me to believe that i know a better way of doing things .

survival is an animal instinct that we all possess coming to terms with ones mortality is a hard thing to take lightly but we all know that death is part of this experience, dwelling on that fact can cause needless pain and suffering and is a waste of ones time on earth (my opinion)

maybe its better to be happy and grateful for what we all ready have instead of wanting what some one else has as the grass isn't always greener on the other side , then again
it may be fun and add to the experience of being human.

[Qnpqbpac]

for me i think i intuitively know that we are all one. but i don't feel that we are all one. that feeling is something that i'm working towards.

when i think of the world i think of it like looking at the colour comics up close where its just all a bunch of little dots , with nothing separating all the different people or things. i know that that is the way it is, but i haven't really experienced that feeling of being one with everything.

i can't wait to , but i don't think it will happen in 3d. i think there are probably very few people who can actually say that they physically and emotionally feel one with everyone/everything all the time. (you'd get nothing done, just sit there being blissed out all the time)

i have fleeting moments where i feel like i might glimpse something like that but i don't think it's really part of my 3d experience.

i am in no rush to get there, i don't think it's a race and i think we all just walk our own spiritual paths at a pace that is perfect for us. no one is any better or worse than anyone else. you get what you need, when you need it.

sometimes i wish i had more paranormal/metaphysical experiences like other people, but i am sure my time will come.

when i listened to jill bolte taylor's experience of her stroke of insight

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/j...f_insight.html

i thought she has actually experienced that oneness first hand. i'm not ready to take a fast track to oneness like she did.

love,
megan

[espenijij]

hi everyone. i really don't think there's anything to "get" about "oneness".

it's something you feel, something you experience. there is nothing intellectual about it. there are no words to adequately describe it. it's just like trying to describe love. any description can never really come close to the actual experience.

as megan said, i have have experienced "oneness" but it really was only a fleeting glimpse each time. i don't think this can be sustained indefinitely as it would mean leaving the 3rd density. i don't know if there are things you can do to have this experience because it's always been a spontaneous occurrence for me. it usually happens after i've had some type of realization where i add another piece to puzzle.

sometimes i wonder what would happen if we all experienced this spontaneous oneness simultaneously - even for a few seconds.

would the 3rd density simply cease to exist?

love
ds

[espenijij]

another way it could be seen is non-resistance to the sacrifice [the hanged man] and loss of our ego or idividuality [death] which allows us to be nothing[the universe] and ultimately everything.

love
ds

[Jourgenz]

i've had two experiences ~ only two ~ in many years of meditation practice, but they were both so very profound that i will never doubt the 'we are one' thing again. (i kind of imagine it like being many cells in one body, etc)

one time i was walking in the woods and the other time (few years later) i was standing in the hallway of a house on my way somewhere. in both instances, i had just come out of a very long, very deep and wonderful meditation in which i was focused on the entirety of 'everything' and just chillin' with the bliss, as it were. anyway, the experience that came over me in those two instances is impossible to accurately describe but the best i can say it is that i - my entire being/mind/consciousness, etc - became a window for a moment through which a massive eye was looking through. the overwhelming gigantic-ness of this massive consciousness is just so much more than i can ever express. but it was unmistakable; someone was looking through my identity to observe the physical world, and boy was it weird. in the moment, an incredible thrill went through me ~ i stared up at the trees just so amazed at how small i was in that little human body there on the grass - and later in the hallway it was an even shorter glimpse but the thrill was the same.

i believe that 'window' is what/who we are and that giant eye is always looking through us but we just usually aren't aware of it. if you think of breath as the giant eye (haha, no i have not eaten any mushrooms or smoked anything funny...) you can see how it can breathe its attention into and through any window it chooses at any given moment. and it is doing that at every moment, all the time! so it seems to me that we are perspectives.... each from a unique viewpoint, sending data back to the main brain .

it has been my experience that the more i draw upon the breath of the "giant all being" (whoever that is) the more love/peace/joy etc i can 'breathe into' any situation, bad or good. because even though i've only felt that "giant someone" through my own (unique individual awareness) twice, that was enough for me to believe without a doubt that it is going on all the time. (this watching and experience through us)

now where this leaves the individual, i am not certain.i have lots of ideas, some days i think i 'got it' while other days i am not so sure at all. knowing i am just another 'form' for the 'all-seeing eye' to look through has made me crazy with questions more than anything!

[MyLeva]

i too have been a student of the course over the years prior to finding david and loo and was amazed at the similarity in teachings. i think that trying to understand the fact of "there is only one of us here" is like taking only one of the lessons from the course and then wondering why you don't get it. the course is very practical and continually stesses the simplicity of the lessons. however the lessons do take you progressively through them as a day to day experience. if you really want to get it - be willing to live the lessons. then you will know why you are having an experience of separation - to learn your lessons in forgiveness. i really enjoy the humor that david and larry bring to the discussions reminds me to lighten up about it all. tms

[joOEMcheapSOFTWARE]

i'm sorry, but as much as i try to understand the premise that 'there's only one of us here', i really don't get it. it feels like mind games to me.

well, in my opinion, we create worlds much in the same way that the creator created our world everynight. when you lay your head down, go to sleep and have a dream, there are times when, within the dream, you are not one particular person or confined to one particular space. the people seem to take on a life of their own, doing whatever it is they do for whatever reason, just like the freewill that we all exercise daily. in the dream there might be a killer, there might be a saint, there might be a dog or a demon, there might be a person named kensanwa typing a reply and a person named spiraloflight reading it, but when you wake up, you realize that they were all you. our mind works much the same as the creator's mind...the difference is only one of degree.

be well,
kensanwa