The concept of ‘oneness’, used so glibly in various so-called spiritual teachings, is another ontological malapropism. Oneness means identity, an abstract function of Aristotelian logic that is often misapplied.
Tabby is a cat, and Fluffy is also a cat. Does that make them identical? Of course not: so just because one entity and another share a particular quality, does that mean they are one? Only in some misguided people’s imaginations.Identity is only possible between abstractions such as classes. It is a bit of mathematical or logical sleight-of-hand. The ‘identity’ of Tabby and Fluffy is only on the level of category: they are both cats. As individuals they are not, and can never become, one.
Just because you are conscious and I am conscious, do we lose our individualities and merge into one person? No, and just because I am a spiritual being and God is a spiritual being, that does not mean that He and I will ever merge into one.
The misconception that God is an ocean of consciousness, and the individual living entity is a drop that can merge back into that ocean, is a cruel myth. It gives us a false conception of God as impersonal, a false image of spiritual existence, and a false goal that keep us from striving for the real goals of wisdom, spiritual advancement and love of Godhead.
God cannot be impersonal because we are created by God, and we are individual persons. To think otherwise is an indication that we are ignorant of the true nature of consciousness. Consciousness is eternally personal, subjective and individual. So even accepting that God is the reservoir of all consciousness, that is all the more reason we can never become one with Him.
Oneness or identity can only be qualitative, never quantitative or substantive. Every entity is distinct and individual from all others; even mass-produced items like machine parts are subtly different. This is very easy to prove, but there is no evidence that proves the oneness of any two entities. The world simply does not work that way.
Even on the spiritual level, duality, not oneness, is fundamental. As we discussed before in the essay on content and context, consciousness requires the foreground-background, content-context distinction. Actually, even dualism is not enough to support consciousness: it needs a trinity.
The subject is the conscious subjective self, the object is the contents of consciousness, and the relationship between them provides the meaning of the experience. You cannot reduce reality any further than this trinity of subject-object-relationship; remove any one of them, and there cannot be consciousness.
Take away the subject, the conscious entity, and there is no one to be conscious. Take away the object, and there is nothing to be conscious of. Take away the relationship between the subject and object, and again there is no consciousness.
In the absence of consciousness, as we have pointed out before, there is nothing else. All three—subject, object and relationship—are required for consciousness. So not only oneness is nothingness, so is duality!
This trinity of subject, object and relationship is the fundamental minimum requirement for existence, consciousness, and everything else. At the very highest level, the Esoteric Teaching tells us there are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, His innumerable potencies or energies, and their relationship: He is the predominator, and they are the predominated. This triple ontological aspect permeates all of existence. Therefore He is known in the Esoteric Teaching as Trinath, or the Lord of Threes.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead, His potencies and their relationship are all spiritual, but they are one only qualitatively. If they ever became one in all respects, the entire creation would collapse.
We know consciousness and individuality are eternal from Bhagavad-gita 2.12:
“Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.”
So both Kṛṣṇa and ourselves have been existing eternally, and we will continue to exist eternally. The fact that we are conscious means that we are spiritual and eternal. Eternal life is already ours. It is ours by our very nature.
If there were any possibility that we could merge with God at any time in the future, Kṛṣṇa would not state that both He and we are eternal; eternal means without beginning or end. Therefore duality, or actually trinity, is fundamental to existence. We have existed as individuals in the past, we continue to exist as individuals in the present, and we shall continue to exist as individuals in the future; we shall never merge with any other being, because the very nature of consciousness is triune.
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