One of the pitfalls with “oneness” or that “we are all one” is that we forget about and ignore our differences and boundaries.
This black or white perspective is an unskillful way to love.
For maximal oneness and wellness, I propose we both accept our unity and interdependence, as well as our differences—even be critical of them when we believe they are harmful, while not engaging violence.
Others don’t think just the way we do, believe the same things we do, or act the way we do. And perhaps most importantly, they don’t always have the same values we do, or the same capacity to translate values into action.
Caught in our own world view, we forget that the specifics of other minds are quite different! That we all have brains, bodies, and hearts doesn’t mean we are all the same when the rubber meets the road. And in ways, it does!
Some people even believe that there is no difference among us at all and that we are just one differentiated organism. 😳
Importantly, just because we share a degree of oneness, doesn’t mean that we should accept other ideas, because some ideas (many these days) are plain bad and dangerous.
We can accept that others have different ideas and beliefs, but not necessarily the ideas and beliefs themselves. Again, this is fine-tuning our discernment, not just lazily and uncompassionately lumping one another into yes or no categories.
This way we maintain the benefits of oneness while minimizing the harm of differences, and still get to celebrate diversity. We celebrate diversity because we see its benefits (introducing variations we can’t see because of our own bias and limitations of knowledge and experience), while not letting certain variations (totalitarianism, avarice, pathological lying, climate denial, eugenics, beliefs that we are all one in every way) undermine the greater good.
