Oneness of Life

Everyone is seeking happiness. Of all the needs of the human race, nothing seems to be stronger than the pursuit of happiness. All man sought happiness as a constant and ultimate goal so that the unpleasant and painful experience could possibly be avoided.

Life is insecure and threatened at all times. Meeting of hated ones and separation from loved ones, loneliness and emptiness, guilty consciousness and inferiority complex, and finally the thrust into the jaws of death – all these make us feel that this life is full of misery and suffering, and we want to possibly avoid or forget such facts of life.

Life itself is contentment. We say it is full of misery and suffering, only because man is not satisfied with his life. If man is able to remake himself, eliminate the cause of misery and suffering and realize contentment, life becomes meaningful. We colour the universe and the world according to what we think about them. When we look at them with the Buddha’s eyes, we can see the universe and the world as they really are and acknowledge that they are nothing but the manifestation of one Oneness of life where all things, animate and inanimate, exists interdependently.

If we understand the importance of the Oneness of life, we can partake other’s joy, being happy with and for other’s happiness since we are one and the mistreatment of another is none other than the mistreatment of self. On the other hand, if we fail to understand it, we lead an antagonistic life in ‘many-ness’. Here we do not partake of other’s joy, but rather show envy and jealousy at the success of even our best friend. Man lives in an unnatural state of many-ness which because it is unnatural, creates tension in his living.

Oneness is, therefore, the highest truth.