If we are already One, what is there to do?

What is there to do if we are already inseparable from the One? If we are already That, what could we do?

There are some nonduality spiritual teachers who teach that since we are already One, there is nothing wrong, nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to change, nothing to be improved on, no “problem” in the world, that everything is just fine, complete, and perfect as it is. I disagree. If that were the case, then there would be no need for teachers like themselves.

The “problem” is that this Truth of the One is often veiled, obscured, hidden, by the ego-mind, by our finite dualistic subjective point of view. The One has forgotten itself, has hid itself, has become unconscious of itself. That is a real problem that often leads to harmful things happening in the world, destruction, abuse, division, hatred, violence, genocide, racism, brutality, etc., none of which is “good” or in harmony with the One’s nature as One or Love.

I suggest that there is something we can do. We can transcend this ego-mind state to realize the One, to wake up, to stop hiding from our Self, to become conscious of our Self. We can shed the ego identity to realize our true Identity. We can see through the illusion of the separate self. We can turn from the shadows on the cave wall to see the Real.

I agree that reuniting with the One is impossible because we are already the One, but the problem is that we don’t know it. As Richard Rohr has said,

We cannot attain the presence of God because we’re already in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness.

-Richard Rohr

Becoming conscious of the One that we are seems to be the essence of the spiritual journey, and that does seem like something we can consciously participate in and surrender the ego to. And once we are conscious of it, we can embody that Oneness consciousness in the world.


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2 thoughts on “If we are already One, what is there to do?

  1. Bryce, I would go one step further than Richard Rohr.
    .
    Awareness of our oneness is the first step. Living in oneness, actuating that realization in our lives, is the goal.

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