From the moment we are born, we are conditioned to see a world of separation.

We are taught that we are individuals - "I am this, and you are that" - cut off from everything else. We are given names, identities, histories, beliefs. We develop attachments to things, to ideas, to our sense of self. We learn to categorise, to compare, to define ourselves in relation to others. Our minds thrive on differentiation - it is always measuring, always dividing, always analysing. It’s useful. It helps us function in the world. But at some point, we forget that it’s just a story - a surface-level identity floating on top of something much deeper. We become so entangled in the many that we forget the One. Our minds are wired to divide and categorise. They see differences, contrasts, and distinctions. But the heart? The heart doesn’t divide. The heart sees through things, straight to their essence. This is why the great teachers, from Rumi to Meister Eckhart, from Laozi to Christ, all tell us to think with the heart, not with the mind:

• Advaita Vedanta teachers say: Tat Tvam Asi - "You are That."
• The Sufis say: Ana’l-Haqq - "I am the Truth."
• The Buddhists teach that all things are empty of inherent separation, mere reflections of a single vast reality.
• The Taoists tell us that the One gives birth to the many, and the many return to the One like rivers flowing into the sea.

Yet, we remain caught in illusion, believing that the wave is separate from the ocean, that the sunbeam is different from the sun, that the individual is different from the whole. But can a wave exist apart from the ocean? Can a spark exist apart from the fire? Or is it all just one continuous dance, shifting forms playing upon the surface of something vast, eternal, and whole? We hear words like "the One," "God," "the Divine," and sometimes they feel distant, like something out there beyond the stars. But what if it’s not far at all? What if it’s not something external, but the very thing beating your heart right now?

The 13th-century mystic Meister Eckhart put it beautifully: "God is the deepest innermost of each individual thing."

Not somewhere else. Not in a temple, not in a philosophy, not in a future enlightenment you have to work toward. Right here. Right now. Beneath everything.

The mind will fight this. It will say, "But I don’t feel it. If it’s here, why don’t I experience it?" Because the mind is always looking for something other than this. The One is not some grand mystical experience. It’s not a moment of fireworks or divine visions. It’s the silence between your thoughts. It’s the stillness you feel when you stop trying to be anything at all.

Who are you, really?

Have you ever really looked at that question? If you say, "I am my body," well, your body is always changing. Every cell in you is replaced over time.

If you say, "I am my thoughts," those change too, from one moment to the next.

If you say, "I am my memories," even those shift and fade.

So then, who is behind it all? Who is watching? If everything we identify with is impermanent, how can any of it be who we truly are? The deeper you go with this question, the more you realise that the "I" you have identified with is just a passing wave on the surface of something infinite. And when you stop clinging to it - when you relax into the mystery - you begin to feel that vast presence that was always there. It’s like the ocean realising it was never just the wave. And indeed, the great masters tell us that the "I" we cling to is just a mask, a flickering shadow. Beneath it, there is only pure awareness, boundless and eternal. When the false self falls away, what remains is not emptiness, but fullness - the fullness of the One, the vast and formless source of all existence. This is why the journey is not about becoming something new, but remembering what we have always been.

A lot of people who hear about this idea of Oneness and non-duality think it means something akin to rejecting the world. But that’s not it at all. The One doesn’t erase the many - it includes it. Just like sunlight contains every colour of the rainbow, the One expresses itself through infinite forms. That means everything is part of it - the beauty, the suffering, the chaos, the joy. The people you love, and the ones you struggle with. The tree, the river, the stars, the laughter of a child, the silence of the desert, the chaos of a city - all of it is the One wearing different faces. Everything is a reflection of the source. And yet, the reflection is not separate from what it reflects. The wind moving through the trees, the sound of laughter, and the silence of an empty street at dawn - it’s all the One, wearing different masks.

And you? You’re not separate from it either. You never were. There is no life and death as you know it, there truly is just life flowing through the different forms and formulations. And such is, that everything is alive. By definition. Even though humans behave as if they were the only form of consciousness in a cosmos that is so vast that it would be rather blasphemous to believe it was devoid of life other than us.

If the One is already here, already who we are, then why don’t we experience it all the time? Because we’re too busy looking somewhere else. The mind is always searching, always moving. But the One? The One is stillness. The good news? You don’t have to travel anywhere or become anything new. It is not something we must attain. It is not locked away in mystical experiences or esoteric teachings. It is here, now. It has always been here. You just have to stop doing, and start listening.

Here are a few ways to quiet the noise and let the truth reveal itself:

• Silence & Stillness The One speaks in silence. The world is loud. When we stop running, stop seeking, stop filling every moment with distractions, we begin to hear it. Take time to just be. No agenda, no seeking, no expectation. Just presence.
• Self-Inquiry Ask yourself: Who am I, really? Not as an intellectual question, but as a deep and direct exploration. Keep looking. Let go of every answer that comes up, because the real answer isn’t an idea - it’s an experience. When we look for the self, we find that it is nowhere - and in that absence, only presence remains.
• Love & Surrender The Sufis say, "The way is not to seek God but to remove the veils between you and Him." The greatest veil is the belief in separation. The fastest way to dissolve the illusion of separation? Love. Not as an emotion, but as a way of being. Love dissolves the self, revealing the unity that has always been. When you love deeply, you stop being a separate "you" and become something much bigger.
• See the One in Everything Every moment, every encounter, is an opportunity to recognise the Divine. Right now, look around you. Can you sense it? The stillness behind the movement? The presence behind the form? The One is not "somewhere else" - it is in the breath you are breathing, the eyes reading these words, the vast silence behind every sound.

To experience the One is not merely a mystical vision - it transforms how we live. When we recognise that all beings share the same essence, we move beyond fear, hatred, and division.

Compassion arises naturally, as we see others as reflections of the same Divine spark.

Trust deepens as we realise that life unfolds according to a greater harmony.

Suffering diminishes as we stop resisting the impermanent nature of the world.

Living from the One means embracing each moment as sacred, knowing that the same Presence that moves the galaxies moves within us.

The journey to the One is not a journey at all. It is a return to what we have always been. All of this talk of seeking and remembering makes it sound like there is something you need to do. Some path you have to walk. Some state you have to reach. But the real secret? You’re already there. The only thing between you and the One is the belief that there’s any distance at all. You were never separate. You only dreamed you were. What we seek is already here - hidden in plain sight, waiting to be seen.

Now, in this moment, you can choose to wake up.
Breathe.
Feel the presence behind everything.
It’s here. It always has been. And it always will be.

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