OUR SEPARATE ONENESS
by Catherine Dale

Once upon a time, 7 years ago or so, I had an awakening. For a brief and shining moment, I did not feel separate from anything or anyone. Some may call it Oneness. Others might call it being at Peace with Oneself. It was sweet. It was so freeing. But, then, I had to turn in my "angel’s wings," because I hadn’t earned them yet – I’d only rented them, I guess. And, slowly but surely, “the high” of being at Peace was replaced by hyper-sensitivity. At first I thought it was just a manifestation of some anxiety disorder or mania. There had to be an explanation. How could I go from loving everyone and everything to feeling anger and annoyance, irritability and fear?

Lately, I have been asking myself why, when I am out driving around or in a crowded place or around people who are angry and judgmental, I feel spiritually and emotionally pummelled. I am spending more and more time in the sanctuary of my home and in my garden. But, then it dawned on me. Oneness means you feel everyone’s stuff. All of it. I thought Oneness was just an endless feeling of Love, Love, Love . . . and it is, perhaps, if you’ve learned all the lessons you’ve come here to learn. But, I haven’t. (Have ego, will travel . . . usually in circles with other people who have egos ) Think of it this way – we are all in One Big Pool – and whatever gets put into the pool affects the water for everyone. Hope floats just as well as some other organic products which shall remain nameless.

We are in a chaotic, miraculous time in the history of the world. We are learning, in many cases through immensely painful circumstances, that what you put out comes back to you. When we see the war and the rudeness, the inhumanity and the shallowness, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking – that’s not me! What “self-respecting” ego wouldn’t want to be separate from a murderer or a rapist or a suicide-bomber? It’s natural. It’s normal. Even closer to home - that jerk who cuts you off in traffic - or that person who chooses to loudly break up with their boyfriend in the middle of a crowded bookstore - or those people who swear and spit at the bus-stop cannot be “at One” with me! Nah! No way! Uh-uh! . . . But they are!

The greatest tool we possess to experience Oneness is Our Separateness. They are One in the Same. The greatest avatars – like the Buddha and Jesus – felt all. They felt everything. The water of Our Collective Consciousness flowed through them, and yet, they were able to reach out to every other human being without judgment and with complete empathy. Why? Because they were Us and We were them. Empathy means “the ability to experience the feelings and thoughts of another.”

Right now every human being is on a crash course to this kind of empathy. We’re in the midst of a really big “ Karmic Kleanse.” That’s why so many of us feel like open wounds. In childbirth, “transition” is the most difficult and painful time. It’s a time of effacement, of opening, of making way for new life. Even people who have had profound spiritual transformations will be experiencing intense emotions at this time. It’s bewildering for our egos to comprehend, but before we can practice “detachment” we need to know what we are “detaching” from.

Do I know for a fact that all I have just written is true? No. I do not. But, it sounds more reasonable to me than, “The world is going to Hell,” or “People are out-of control.” Who knows, maybe they are? Maybe I am . . . . ?

© Catherine Dale July 9th, 2008