Recently, there’s been a question in my mind about whether incorporating the concept of infinite oneness into our understanding of the world can have a practical benefit in everyday life and society. Does being open to such a concept have a kind of trickle down effect in our lives. If we take the concepts of infinity vs finity, will the world be better off if our narratives are derived from the concept of infinity instead of the concept of finity.
(Now that I’ve got the Search Engine Optimisation paragraph out the way…) So by finity, I mean the concept that things are limited in nature. For example that things begin and end or that the world is made up of a finite substance that can’t be divided further and is at the base of reality. Of course infinity (in fact finity too) is hard to express but it seems that it has no end or beginning and maybe nothing can really be said about it because that would be to limit it with a finite understanding. Indeed, I’m working from the assumption that my existence as a human and what we experience in the phenomenal world has a finite quality to it but that it’s an illusion born out of a greater infinite reality. Or that the infinite and the finite are bound together somehow or that the experience of the limited phenomenal world is an experience or even a story contained within the infinite. I don’t necessarily have a perfect understanding of these concepts but I want to see how we might benefit from at least being open to the idea of the infinite.
So let’s say that we start with the infinite which more or less nothing can be said about except perhaps that it’s without limit or is unlimited. Then we might say that everything in the phenomenal world is really one and the same or comes from the same source, the same infiniteness. We then might be able to say that although we appear as many different people, we are perhaps actually living in the same infinite consciousness. Perhaps everything we experience is a mental phenomenon that is constructed by the infinite as it limits itself in order to experience the other or in order to experience itself.
We might also be able to say that really we’re the infinite masquerading as individuals. As it’s sometimes spoken about in Eastern Spiritual Traditions, we’re playing the game or the dance of being an individual but our true nature is the infinite. I’m curious to consider how this might impact politics for example and conflicts generally. If when we have a conflict with another nation we knew that we are really all coming from the same being, would this allow us to treat the situation with more lightness and more play. If we were both fighting over fossil fuels for example would we be able to treat the negotiation as a dance and a play knowing that it’s just a game for the infinite, that’s it’s a drama, that it’s an intense expression. It’s an expression for each nation to show that it cares about its people and wants the best for its people but at a deeper level there’s a recognition that we all share the same planet and at a more fundamental level we are perhaps living in infinite consciousness or are an expression of infinite consciousness. So as they negotiate, they recognise that they share the same love and care for their people and want to find a solution that benefits both instead of a conflict which one side has to rise to the top of. Perhaps they share technological research for example to make sure that they both use the fossil fuels in the most efficient way possible which benefits both sides and the planet and thereby the field of consciousness. Another aspect to this is to consider the difference between acting from abundance vs from limitation. If both nations had a concept and a trust that infinite consciousness always provides the requisite resources, then there would be no need for fear that the other side is out to trick us and do whatever it takes to come out on top. This gets into some territory which is harder to examine but I’ll at least mention it for now.
How about in everyday conflicts. If someone lets us down and misses an appointment can we trust that there’ll be another opportunity to meet and perhaps it was actually for the best that it worked out like that. Or if we don’t get a job we want, can we trust that there might be something better or more appropriate for us somewhere else. Or if the housing market becomes very limited and expensive, can we trust that it might be pushing us to live a simpler life, that what we lose in space and comfort we might gain in flexibility (mobile living) or free time (small cheap room with no ownership responsibilities). Or if our parents want us to live in a different way, can we recognise that we share the same being, and that they are expressing what they think’s best for us and we’re expressing what we think’s best for us but both are expressing love and care. Or in a relationship breakup, that both people are wanting to experience lovely things in life and if their wants don’t coincide then the relationship is going to make both people unhappy. That both parties are better off doing the things they want to do than trying to please each other by doing what the other one wants even though they don’t want to.
Does it also help to see that there is bad in every good action and good in every bad action (represented in the Yin Yang symbol.) If you build a wall to protect your nation because you want to protect people out of love for the people, you are making life hard for those who might want to escape another nation for example. If you send your children to private school because you want the best for your children, you’re not giving the same resources or care to those who aren’t your children. When you give a lot of yourself to others you might neglect to care for yourself and vice versa. Perhaps by recognising that abundance is available, we can trust that whatever happens there will be plenty of opportunity to experience good and bad so we don’t have to fight to gather all the goodness for ourselves.
On the other hand, if we start from the premise that the world is made up of finite matter and limited resources then we assume that there’s only so much stuff to go around and so we have to make sure that we don’t end up at the bottom of the pile constantly. This turns life into a constant conflict. We have to make ourselves work hard so as not to fall behind, we have to make sure that we climb up the hierarchy so that we aren’t the ones being exploited or the ones who have to work for others and we have to fight with time to make sure that we use it efficiently because it’s a precious limited resource.
In politics, again it becomes an arena, who can win the rhetoric and the PR. Who can secure the most resources to ensure that they have the most power and again that they don’t fall down the hierarchy and succumb to the domination of others.