Oneness and Politics

         Sometimes clients or readers express that they feel that one side of the political spectrum is more in line with Truth, with God, than the other. And this would be the left side, which they see as more compassionate, recognizes our commonality, has a we’re-all-in-this-together attitude, encourages a more humane work/life balance, is more about people than money or religious righteousness, etc. They feel that the political left comes closer to expressing oneness than the political right and are confused when I say neither has anything to do with God.

If consciousness were real, were God (the Absolute), they could have a point. If you shift consciousness, you do become aware that there is one consciousness behind all seeming consciousnesses. If ego falls away, the one consciousness expands and moves forward in your conscious awareness, and you are aware that all that appears is occurring in this one consciousness. For many, both in Eastern and Western religions and spiritualities, this one consciousness that is the source (creator, maker) of all that appears in consciousness is Truth, God—the Absolute. They may express this differently, but they are saying the same thing. For example, in the East, they acknowledge that consciousness is the source of all that appears, and to them this is the Absolute—God. And in the West, they say God is that which created the world, people, etc. Therefore, their God is also consciousness, although they do not call their God this, and consciousness does not seem to be discussed in Western religion. Generally, the Western God is an anthropomorphized and fatherly concept laid over the source-of-all-that-appears aspect of consciousness.

For those for whom consciousness is the Absolute, the term nonduality means all that appears in consciousness is God. It is a powerful experience to be aware of the oneness of consciousness, but it is not God. As A Course in Miracles points out, consciousness was the first split. It is the idea of not-God; the idea of a reality apart from God. As there can be nothing apart from the Absolute, consciousness and all that appears in it, is an illusion. Where consciousness is a unity, the Oneness of God—Reality, the Absolute—is the Onlyness of God. In God there is only God and God extends only God. As God is Formless, God does not take form. As God is Timeless, God does not enter time. As God is Limitless, God does contract to limitation. So, for those of us who have become aware of the Absolute beyond consciousness, nonduality refers to the Onlyness of God. The resulting awareness is that there is no absolute right or wrong or good or bad appearing in consciousness. All that appears in consciousness has a relative relationship to everything else that appears in consciousness, so there is a continuum of right and wrong or good and bad that depends on one’s relative point of view. This has nothing to do with God.

So, you may feel that people coming together has more value than competition, but that is not an expression of the Absolute, it is a personal value. It is an expression of consciousness, but no less so than someone who takes the opposite position because consciousness (manifestly) expresses all values. Justifying a political or moral position because you feel it expresses the oneness of consciousness denies that everything appearing expresses—over time—the oneness of consciousness, or the ultimate Atonement being depicted. And if you want to involve God in your position, then you would recognize all positions are equal because all are false.

Your person takes positions on issues (or not), depending on how it is moved. You may hold a story for this, for why your person takes a particular position. But in the end, this is simply consciousness (the Atonement) unfolding through your person, as it does through everyone, running the gamut of ideas between not-God and not-God’s version of God. So, what political position should your person take? Whatever position your person is moved to take.

It is helpful to remember that none of this is of God or affects God. Consciousness depicts a meaningless story, a silly idea, both the “error” and its “correction.” What your consciousness registers is a character—your person—playing its part in that meaningless story. All you see as others are characters playing their part in that meaningless story. Oneness is not in the story, but in the single consciousness behind it, just as characters in a novel come from one mind. But keep in mind that that, too is an illusion. The true Oneness is the Onlyness of God.

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