Advaita Vedanta, the philosophy of oneness, states that all is Brahman– the Divine. However, if oneness is the truth, how can we explain the incredible diversity of life?
The universe is multi-layered. On the fundamental level oneness is indeed the truth, and this can be understood and experienced if our intuitive perceptions are awakened. However, on the relative level there is duality, which in many ways enhances our experiential reality.
It is the duality that we crave when we embark upon the adventure of being human. Without duality we could not experience self and other, and thereby learn to manage our emotions and enhance our ability to express love.
In duality the Divine is hidden, but immanent. Gerald Manley Hopkins, a poet as well as a Jesuit priest, captured this idea in his poem entitled “God’s Grandeur”:
“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
…nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
…
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”
In this multi-layered world there is incredible variety. Though each of us is at our core the one pure consciousness, we come into our human lives to be a unique expression. At this level we are all different, and no two are alike. So oneness lives alongside diversity–a beautiful combination.
