What Does It Really Mean To Be One?

What Does It Really Mean To Be One?

The episode explores the spiritual phrase “We Are One” as more than a comforting idea, contrasting everyday perceptions of separateness with the claim that our eternal essence is consciousness—the primary awareness within us—while bodies and personal identities are temporary. Using an ocean-and-cup metaphor, it describes human life as a chosen experience for expansion, likened to traveling, and suggests that we both agreed to our human life while also agreeing to the “amnesia” that makes us forget our oneness, creating fear and conflict. Jenni proposes that the remembering itself is the goal, urging observation without merging, loosening attachment, raising vibration through forgiveness, and taking life less seriously. All of these practices are a means of living by (vs. paying lip service to) this foundational truth of universal connectedness.

00:00 Truth Versus Illusion

01:10 The We Are One Idea

03:23 What Oneness Means

04:12 Consciousness Within

06:05 Ocean Metaphor

09:04 Why We Forget

10:39 Remembering And Love

12:13 Hold On Loosely

13:46 Forgiveness And Vibration

14:59 Stop Taking Everything So Seriously

16:02 Closing We Are One

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Transcript

0:09

It's been said that the greatest challenge of our time is discerning fact from fiction, reality from fantasy, truth from illusion. I couldn't agree more. Times are changing, the world is changing, and I know that you have felt it too. Now more than ever, we need a new way of seeing ourselves and each other. This can absolutely happen when we understand the truth of who we are. When truth is recognized, questions get answered, direction gets clarified, and all of that negative emotion evaporates into peace. Welcome to Truth and Beauty. Because where truth is understood, beauty is revealed. Hello, and welcome to Truth in Beauty. "We are one." That was written on a Spiritual Gangster sweatshirt that I wanted about a decade ago, which I still kind of regret not getting, by the way. The thing about that phrase, "we are one," is that most of us rarely go beyond the niceness of the idea. It's a really great idea. We are joined. We are a community. We are in this together. Repeating it feels good, supportive, spiritual. But the reality is it's an idea that we like more in theory than in practice. It's sort of the spiritual equivalent to asking, "How are you?" to someone you don't know that well. It's nice, it's friendly, but you really don't wanna put too much time or energy into it The thing is, though, it's true. I mean, it is the foundational truth of who we are at our most stripped-down, raw state, our essence. There is a part of our brain that's like, "Ah, yes, we are all part of each other. So great." And then we start going about our day, and the jerk who stole our parking space, or the woman at the gym who is trying to use three machines at once, or the deluded political extremist you see on TikTok or Facebook, and you're like, "Hmm, I think I'll just stick with myself over here. Thanks anyway." In order to really live by this truth, we first have to understand what it even means, what it really means beyond the sweet kumbaya moment at first glance. And once we can start to appreciate what the words are really saying, then we need to commit to doing something about it because, really, we don't have to. I mean, let's be honest, most of us don't, at least not all the time. Living this truth is a major pivot. It changes everything about your life: how you see others, how you see yourself, how you approach your day, how you react to what happens, especially the irritations, the problems, and everything that seems to be unfair. So what does it mean to be one? In order to make sense of it, we have to choose to set aside what seems to be real. If you happen to live in or even have ever visited a major city, taking a five-minute walk down the street, it is possible to see hundreds, maybe even thousands of people headed in various directions, all with their own unique destination, their own private thoughts, their own personal agenda. From this standpoint, all evidence points to separateness. And from an earthly perspective, there absolutely is an aspect of individuality of being on our own unique path, separate and distinct from everyone else. But that is only one angle of the larger view. Beyond our bodies is another part of us, a part that is the most real, the most true, the part that doesn't change, get old, or die, the part that is eternal. That part is consciousness. What is consciousness? Consciousness is awareness, what I term primary awareness. It is an observational state of continuous knowingness merged with life force, energy, presence. Consciousness is the eternal part of us that exists beyond all else. Consciousness is not out there somewhere. It is within. What is out there somewhere is the body and what we think of as our mind, our brain-produced thoughts, feelings, and decisions. It is very natural to think of what is greater than ourselves as outside of us, somewhere in the universe. We are used to looking for God in the sky. But the reality is that everything that is real exists inside of us, and what we are experiencing as the world, Earth, the people and animals, vegetation, countryside, or cityscape that surrounds us, that is what is on the outside. In other words, as real as the body seems to be, and as much as we are invested in our own unique selves, our personality, our body isn't all of who we are. In fact, it is only a temporary incarnation created for a temporary purpose. The experience of separateness comes from this fleeting illusion. The reality instead is that we are all part of consciousness, the consciousness that created the illusion in the first place. A wonderful illustration of this truth, and maybe you've heard this before, is to think of the ocean. Consciousness is the ocean. We are the ocean. When we are born into a human body, just as a child playing on the beach draws from the water that edges the sand, our soul becomes separated, theoretically, temporarily. But the reality is our soul never left its source, and when the time comes to release that cup of water back from where it came, it simultaneously becomes one with the ocean. Instantly, it is no longer possible to discern that soul, that cup of water, from the greater consciousness, from the greater reality of the sea Bodies allow us to have a specific kind of experience, one that is immaterial to consciousness other than an opportunity to expand. Experience offers expansion, and from what I understand, at this point at least, expansion is our primary motivation for choosing to have a human life, to broaden understanding through challenge with unique experience. Living in a human body for our consciousness is like taking a trip to a foreign country, traveling to a new part of the world to see and experience a new culture, new foods, new landscapes, new customs, a different way of life. Travel expands our understanding of the world, and in the best-case scenario, also expands our understanding of ourselves. Yet for all it offers, it is not essential. While it heightens our awareness and appreciation of unfamiliar aspects of planet Earth and the people who inhabit it, travel doesn't change the essence of who we are. Our personality and our physical body remain the same. We are foundationally the same person on the flight home as who we were when we left. Although hopefully our perspective has shifted, increased, amplified. When we travel back from our human experience, leaving our body and identity behind, our consciousness remains as whole as before we were born. But it is added another view, another facet of comprehension under its belt. When we approach life from the perspective of bodies, we see and experience separation. As a result, we naturally judge and divide each other into categories. Right, wrong, good, bad. Bodies allow us to default to separation and then dramatically react to all the negative things that seem to surround us. Learning to live the truth of oneness requires us to start doing it differently Here is perhaps the most important part of this truth. Everything we experience is part of us. Consciousness creates. We create. Our world is created by us as much as it is created for us. And everyone and everything we experience has a role. From people to animals, trees, flowers, grass, to rodents and insects, we are all playing our role, and we agreed to this role, by the way. However, the crazy part of being human is also agreeing to forget. Before our birth, we made the decision to become completely immersed in the human experience. In order to do this fully, we sign a contract of amnesia. We agree to forget who we are and from where we came. We forget that we are one, and there is nothing to fight for. There is nothing to need. There is nothing to fear. And as a result, we start to do all of those things. Why the forgetting then? Because the amnesia is necessary. The truth, the remembering, is so incredibly powerful. Our earthly existence loses its punch when we are able to see it for what it is. The goal, the whole point of the experience, is to find our way out from the inside. Remembering is the goal. It is the key we are searching for to escape the escape room We have been conditioned to see ourselves as defenseless before a crazy and cruel world. The cruelty of the world is symbolized by the people we perceive outside of us who are doing all of the bad things. But all bad behavior comes from fear, fear that exists because we have forgotten the truth of who we are. The antidote to fear is love. The relationship between remembering and love is reciprocal. The more we remember, the more we access love. The more we choose to see through the badness with love and forgiveness, the more we remember. I will never mislead you to think that this is easy. In fact, it is definitely not easy. It requires us to do a personal overhaul, to completely reevaluate our perspective and the way we have seen ourselves and other people for the entirety of our lives, or at least for as long as we can remember. But I promise you that if you really want it, it is in your power to rewrite that old narrative and shift your perception towards a bright and powerful light. So even though these ideas may feel overwhelming, know that it is a step-by-step process, and by far what is most important is only the willingness to try. Let's move on to something more concrete. In the timeless lyrics of 38 Special, "Hold on loosely." In other words, don't attach yourself to what you seem to be experiencing. Instead, step back, loosen your grip, observe, but don't merge. Remind yourself that the world is not all of what it seems. This doesn't mean that you should stop trying to live within it. By all means, live fully, but with awareness. Be mindful that none of this is as real, as defining, or as final as you once thought. Try seeing what is happening in your life as a movie and yourself as the screen on which it is playing. There is a reason why you are here. There is a reason why you are participating in the Earth school in the human form. It is not an accident, and it is definitely not for nothing. And let me tell you, when things get tedious or frustrating or especially dramatic and crazy, it really helps to remember that. When you bring awareness and truth and purpose to your everyday life, then everything you experience and everything you do feels different. You begin to hold two things in the same moment, the form of what you experience in one hand and its translucency in the other. And then forgive, forgive, forgive. There doesn't exist a more powerful way to respond to your environment than with forgiveness. Why should we forgive? Because we are more than what we appear to be, and everyone around us is more than what they appear to be. Sin is only error, misguided behavior, mistakes. Up in it. How we respond to the world in front of us is everything. Spread light where there is darkness, and crazily enough, what you will begin to experience is more light. The goal is to raise your vibration. The principle or truth behind this goal is that love is. When we move through the world with love for others, for ourselves, our vibration, our energy, our consciousness becomes more aligned with truth. The more aligned we become with truth, the more our experience changes in beautiful and profound ways. I will leave you with this final thought, and I mean this sincerely in the most loving way possible. Stop taking everything so seriously. I know that you do. I do it too. This might feel like a cop-out or perhaps instruction to become a bad citizen or have a lack of integrity, but really it is the opposite. Letting go of the drama frees up room to see what actually matters. There is no doubt that the human existence is a combat zone of many iterations, but try watching the battlefield from above. See it there first. Observe. Don't merge. Then move forward with awareness and intention. This creates the opportunity to stay in alignment with who you really are at your core once all of the reactionary feelings and impulsive thoughts begin to fade away. When we can remember who we actually are and not be thrown off by what appears to be, and then use that knowledge to act in a way that is authentic and aligned to who we are, then we have gotten somewhere, fulfilled our purpose, won the game, or at least the round Thank you so much for listening today. I sincerely appreciate your presence here. You are light, you are love, you are holy. And us? We are one