ARE WE REALLY ONE?

Monism, the belief that we all are one and part of a god-consciousness, has become increasingly popular on college campuses. Why? Isn’t it apparent that we are all distinct individuals who fall far short of godhood? Well, these students are convinced that the dualists – and those to see distinctions are dualists – are deceived.

This belief is expressed in many ways. In the Bhagavad-Gita, the Lord Krishna consoled the grieving Arjuna, who had been born into the warrior caste. His duty, therefore, was to fight, but he couldn’t accept the idea of fighting against the opposition, many of whom were family. Therefore, the esteemed Lord Krishna explained:

• “You have grieved for those who deserve no grief… Neither for the living nor the dead do the wise grieve.” (2:11)

Why do not the wise grieve? Because the “wise” understand that they are just grieving over a passing illusion, and enlightenment has no place for grieving. This was also the understanding of the Self-Realization Fellowship started in the USA by Paramahansa Yogananda in1920:

·       “Man is thus saved when he sheds his ignorance of his divine identity and attains Christ consciousness. Salvation equals self-realization.” http://www.yogananda-srf.org/

Since our senses deceive us, we fail to recognize our “divine identity.” Consequently, we remain ignorant and equate truth (enlightenment) with what we see. Instead, we are to understand that what we see is no more than a movie:

·       “Then this cosmic movie, with its horrors of disease and poverty and atomic bombs will appear to us only as real as the anomalies we experience at a movie house. When we have finished seeing the motion picture, we will know that nobody was killed; nobody was suffering.”

Both Hindu and Buddhist monism (oneness) preach renunciation of the deceptive influences of this world – work, commitments, enjoyments, and even family and friends – the things that blind us to our shared god-nature or “Christ-consciousness.” Instead, many others have concluded that the deception reigns within this “enlightened” consciousness.

In “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” Robert M. Pirsig’s main character, Phaedrus, studying at Benares Hindu University, asks a question that changes his life:

• But one day in the classroom the professor of philosophy was blithely expounding on the illusory nature of the world for what seemed the fiftieth time and Phaedrus raised his hand and asked coldly if it was believed that the atomic bomb that had dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were illusory. The professor smiled and said yes. That ended the exchange… He left the classroom, left India and gave up.

Phaedrus could not deny the great tragedy. In contrast to this understanding of life as illusion, “Jesus wept” in the midst of human suffering:

• When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him [their dead brother Lazarus]?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. (John 11:33-35; ESV)

Jesus had compassion, even though this tragedy was soon reversed when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. But isn’t compassion a part of Hinduism and Buddhism? Perhaps superficially, but monism represents a denial of our individuality and suffering. These too are part of the illusion.

In “The King of Knowledge,” a very literalistic commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, Prabhupada, the late head of the Hare Krishna Vishnavite sect of Hinduism characteristically wrote:

• The hospital making business is being conducted by the government; it is the duty of a disciple to make hospitals whereby people can actually get rid of their material bodies, not patch them up. But for want of knowing what real spiritual activity is, we take up material activities.

Although our students believe that monistic “enlightenment” promotes compassion, it is this very thinking that argues against compassion. To show compassion to an illusory other person is to reinforce the dualistic illusion. Besides, their suffering is no more real than a movie, right?

However, if the self is part of the illusion, what then becomes subject to the wheel of reincarnation? The “logic” of monism denies the existence of a self, which undergoes reincarnation. Besides, there does not exist a monistic mechanism to weigh our karma to determine our appropriate next reincarnation. Such would involve a dualistic distinction. However, these contradictions are of little concern to our future leaders.