Meditation: "On the Impossibility of Separation"

Yesterday, I spent some time thinking about the amazing and reassuring truth that there is no “separation” in the universe. This is always a comforting realization, because the idea of separation has beleaguered me for most of my life. In fact, the belief that I am a separate, vulnerable, material entity in a universe filled with countless other such entities has caused every problem I’ve ever encountered. I guess it's true for everyone: problems always arise from fear, and fear always arises from feelings of separation. So I was not a little comforted yesterday by my meditation on the “non-separateness” of the universe. It came to me, for instance, that I can no more be separate from the rest of life than a breeze in one part of the park can be separate from a breeze in another part, or than a wave in the ocean can be separate from the rest of the ocean. I often feel like a separate entity, but the truth is that I am always an indissoluble part of the infinite flow of life. What happens to me this moment happens because life – or Life – is flowing in a certain way at this moment. This idea became even stronger when I passed a “stranger” in the street and realized that he is actually not a stranger at all. One definition of the word stranger is “outsider”, and I realized yesterday that no one can be an outsider, because there is no “outside” to reality. The man I saw on the street is not on the outside, while I’m on the inside. No, we are both parts of the irresistible flow of universal Life. As I thought more about it, I realized that this river of life is a river of awareness. The man on the street exists in my awareness – or just awareness, because I don’t own it – and so do I. The entire universe, in fact, could be called Awareness, because that’s really all there is. Awareness is just another name for the illimitable and all-powerful force that some people call God – and I realized yesterday, happily, that I am an inseparable part of it.