You Are Your Highest Authority

What does it mean, in practice, to be One with all that is?

We have this idea in spiritual communities of “Oneness”. I think it’s impossible to encompass what that means for everyone, but I’m going to try to give a definition here for the purposes of this article.

To Be the “One”

I think when people talk about this “Oneness” it’s an expression of all that is. It’s the elementary material of all living things, and in some cosmologies, all things period. It could be the idea that I am made of the same stuff as the stars and the laptop that I’m typing on right now. Molecules. Atoms. Quarks. We’re all the same material in infinite configurations.

This “Oneness” could also be called “consciousness”. There are varying schools of thought on what constitutes a conscious being. Jains, for example, believe plants and natural elements — air, water, etc. — also have consciousness. So, anything with consciousness would be encompassed in this “One”.

“Oneness” implies we’re all connected by the same essence, so every human being (or conscious being) comes from the same source. It’s the idea that this essence beyond the mind and body is what’s real and it contains a wholeness and completeness, which we can only access when we exist beyond the mind-body structure.

It follows, then, that to some “Oneness” is a phenomenon. It’s an experience of bliss and connectedness, of transcendence. They might encounter it when they meditate or pray or take psychedelics.

Nonduality

“Oneness” can mean that “God”, as a representation of some higher intelligence, is connected to us through this universal essence or in some cosmologies (some Hindu, Buddhist, and Taoist schools of thought) simply is that essence that we all share. The latter would be the concept of nonduality.

Nonduality says that “God” or Brahman or Source (whatever works for you), isn’t some separate entity that created consciousness. It is that. Oneness = Consciousness = God. So, let’s use the transitive property, here (math, what up!) and we get Oneness = God.

But we’re One. Right? We’re all connected, yadda yadda. That’s what we just said for, like, a whole page. So if Oneness is God then…we’re God.

H’oh buddy. If this is blasphemous to you, please press the back button because the rest of this article stands on the foundation of this. It is something I’ve come to feel is true, not because I studied beneath any Buddhist teacher or nondual master.

I had an experience that dissolved my understanding of the nature of reality. This understanding is what came in to take its place.

What Does it Mean to be “One” or “God”?

So, if you’re still with me, then we’re God. We are that higher intelligence. We’re Spirit. So, all of the properties that humanity has given to this conception of “God” or divinity exist within us. Goodness. Compassion. Love. Power. Creativity. Sovereignty.

It’s a nice thought. And if we can manage to believe it, it’s a potent one. But it’s one thing to know that we are that. It’s one thing to know mentally that “the Kingdom of God is within you”. It’s entirely another to live in that.

Think about it. Think about if you lived your life as if you were God. There’d be no fear. What would you have to fear? Yourself?

You’d expect life to unfold the red carpet for you. You’d live as if in abundance in every moment. You’d trust yourself as an authority for truth in your life. You’d have faith in yourself beyond anything or anyone else.

Giving Our Power Away

Of all of the lessons I’ve been learning on this journey called life, the hardest has been to be my own highest authority. But if I’m to live my life in the truth that I am One, I can’t also live it as if I’m limited, beholden to some greater power, be that a religion, a guru, a hierarchy, or an ideology.

I’m going to give a note of caution, here. I’m not telling you to go jump in front of a car, because you’re God, and God is unlimited. It is, but yes, if you jump in front of a car, your body will still be hurt. We live in a physical world. This is about the mind, about how our minds limit us.

To be fair, it’s comfortable to live limited lives. Limitations give life rules our minds can understand, clearly set goals to achieve, and easy paths to “success”. When we perceive ourselves as limited, we also release responsibility for creating our lives. If anything goes in a direction we don’t want it to, we can blame it on something else.

We are so used to giving our power away to an external conception of divinity, that we forget that we are sovereign.

Becoming My Own Highest Authority

It wasn't enough for me to know it, I had to learn it. There is something I’ve felt to be true about my path that no one else has experienced, that I know of. No one I speak to can validate my feelings. No one I know has gone through it and made it to the other side. Everywhere I turn, I meet doubt and skepticism. It makes no logical sense, what I feel.

And yet resistance to my intuition has only proven to bring me pain. When I try to go along with what logic tells me, what everyone I know tells me life should look like, reality should be, I’m left feeling cut off from myself, disoriented, ill, and depressed.

I keep looking for someone else to tell me I’m right. I keep looking for external validation that I’m in alignment, looking for someone to tell me I’m okay. But I know when I’m in alignment. When I’m still and quiet, my soul speaks to me.

When I let myself be my own authority, clarity is sweet and peace descends like a wave. And so, in the face of all reason and every voice of doubt, I’ve had to choose my conviction, my intuition. Not out of ego or personal will, but with a fundamental understanding that I can trust myself because “I am that I am”.

That is “Oneness” in practice. It’s not bliss. It’s not leaving the body. It’s not an idea, a conception, a striving. It’s just being sovereign.

I honor the divinity within myself when I live my life in accordance with my truth as the highest authority there is.

Will you?

❤

If you’d like to talk more about spirituality, feel free to drop a comment! I love chatting down there. And if you’re interested in catching other things I write, you can become a Medium member here. XO