ONENESS

The Oneness of Being: Understanding the Divine Self

The concept of the oneness of being, or "Wahdat al-Wujud" in Sufi thought, is a profound spiritual truth that transcends ordinary understanding. It suggests that the ultimate reality is the singular existence of God, in which everything, including ourselves, is a manifestation of this oneness. To truly know oneself is to know God, and this realization is the essence of spiritual enlightenment.

"Whoever knows their self, knows their Lord. I knew my Lord through my Lord. You are not you but you are Him, and there is no you." This statement is a cornerstone of the oneness of being, emphasizing that self knowledge leads to divine knowledge. It is through the inner self that one encounters the divine, realizing that the self and God are not separate. This understanding dismantles the illusion of individual existence, revealing that the self is but a reflection of the divine essence.

Many who seek to understand God make the mistake of believing that such knowledge requires the annihilation of the self, or the complete dissolution of one's own existence. They see the journey to God as a process of "passing away" from worldly existence, followed by the "passing away" of this very act of passing away. However, this perception is fundamentally flawed.

The error lies in the assumption that existence is something that must be transcended to know God. This misconception is based on the belief that existence is real and separate from God. However, true spiritual insight reveals that things do not possess independent existence. If something does not truly exist, it cannot pass away. Thus, the idea that one must pass away to know God is rooted in the illusion of duality.

To truly know God is to recognize that existence, as we perceive it, is an illusion. The knowledge of God does not require the cessation of existence, because existence, in the truest sense, does not exist. God is the only reality; everything else is a manifestation of that reality. When one understands this, the distinction between existence and non existence disappears. What remains is the realization that the self, in its deepest essence, is not other than God.

When this secret is revealed, one understands that the self is the object of the quest for God. There is no need to eradicate the self, because the self, in its truest form, is a reflection of the divine. This realization leads to the understanding that God's attributes are the self's attributes, that one's exterior is God's exterior, and that one's interior is God's interior.

In this state of enlightenment, the boundaries between self and God dissolve. One sees that their beginning is God's beginning, and their end is God's end. Yet, this realization does not imply a merging of identities; rather, it is the recognition that one's essence is already divine.

This understanding aligns with the timeless nature of God. From the perspective of divine oneness, there has never been anything other than God. In eternity without beginning, there was only God, manifesting in different configurations. The existence and non existence of creatures are ultimately the same because they do not possess true, independent existence.

The oneness of being reveals that there is no "other" in relation to God. The apparent multiplicity of the world is a reflection of divine unity, not a reality in itself. To understand this is to grasp the profound truth that nothing exists outside of God, and what appears as existence is merely the play of divine light.

In conclusion, the oneness of being is a journey into the heart of reality, where the seeker discovers that the self and God are one. This realization is not about the annihilation of the self but about the recognition of the self as a manifestation of divine unity. The knowledge of God is the knowledge of oneself, and in this knowledge, all illusions of separation dissolve, leaving only the pure, undivided essence of the divine.