Transcript for Consciousness & Global Change-TALK with Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

So this film was about oneness, it is about oneness and waking up.

And what I want to say from the very beginning

is oneness is a natural state, it is our natural state.

It is the most basic awareness that we have within us.

And part of course of the tragedy of our contemporary culture

is that we are cut off from it, as was expressed in the film.

We are... we live in this image of separation.

And as Bob Randall, one of the Aboriginal elders,

he said in his culture they are never separate from oneness.

It is the oneness in which you belong to life, you belong to the world,

and you are present in it with an awareness of this belonging.

With an awareness: "Of course it is one world, of course it is one life, of course we are one people."

How could it be otherwise?

It is this basic, deep understanding, this primal consciousness that we carry within us,

and that sadly we have lost contact with. It's still there

and you can see it in the most basic way it is in the animal kingdom.

An animal is instinctively one with his environment, one with the life in which he is present.

And so it is present within us on that level, in our most natural state, in our instinctual depths we live oneness.

We are part of it. That we have forgotten, or it has been forgotten

And of course many indigenous people carry that primal knowing

Whether they call it in relation to Pacha Mama or in relation to the environment

to understanding, it is present within them.

It is one of the great secrets they carry for humanity.

Those of us who have lost contact with it, they know it, they live it.

It is present within their daily lives, within their everyday consciousness, that they are one with everything.

And in fact some of the deep spiritual teachings, the wisdom, that belong to the indigenous peoples come from that knowledge.

In which, for example, in order to understand the healing properties of a particular plant

you didn't take it to a laboratory, you didn't experiment with it, you were one with the plant,

and so the plant in that oneness told you its properties in this deep meeting that takes place in oneness.

And a lot of the wisdom of the indigenous people, their knowledge of the environment, of plants and animals, comes from this direct communication

communion, really, that belongs to this consciousness.

when you are not separate from anything

when you live knowing that you are a part of everything and everything is a part of you.

It is something so simple, so primary, and so completely overlooked.

And part of what we want to explore today is how to return to that knowing that we all have within us

It is actually in the cells of the body -- the body couldn't exist if it didn't have this deep understanding of how all the cells relate together.

You couldn't breathe without knowing that you are part of what is around you,

that you carry it within you, and yet we have been sold an image of life that says we are separate,

and that I think is the most primal reason for the ecological devastation in which we live,

and many of the predicaments that are now beginning to stare us in the face.

So it is in a way to reclaim that oneness.

Now, you can't go back to being an indigenous person

It doesn't work.

You can't go back to living on the land in that indigenous way.

If you are blessed enough to have been given that as your birthright then you can carry it,

but for most of us that is not an option.

And what I want to suggest is that there is another approach.

First of all I should actually say that women by their nature have a more direct connection to this instinctual oneness than men.

Just by the fact that the cycles of their body are in tune with the moon,

they live a connection to a cosmic oneness that men don't.

And I think it's very important that women reclaim that for themselves,

because they are part of the cycle of creation and the cycles of their body mirror that.

In a way just the honouring of that, the knowing of that, the awareness of that is like reclaiming something that belongs to life.

To say, I know in my body I know that I am part of the cycles of life,

part of the way the moon moves, part of the tides,

and that is a knowing that men cannot have so directly.

So I would just say, at the beginning, for women to honour that, to know that.

And it will also teach them the ways of oneness within themselves.

It will teach them to re-connect with that basic way of being that honoured everything,

in which everything is sacred, just like the birth of every child is the most sacred thing that can happen.

So, to hold that, to breathe with that, and to know that is an important contribution to collective consciousness.

If you hold something in the collective consciousness, then it is easier for others to access it.

I don't know if you're aware of that. If it's buried, if it's deep, deep, forgotten, deep in the unconscious,

then those who want to find that knowing for themselves have to go deep into the unconscious to recover it.

But if people individually or as groups hold that knowing in their consciousness, in their breath, in their body,

then somebody who wants to look for it, who wants to reclaim it, who wants to access that way of being,

it is more accessible, they don't have to go deep into the unconscious, they don't have to have depth therapy to find it.

It is there, present, in the air.

So that is one aspect of this consciousness of oneness that is incredibly important,

it has to do with the earth, with the rhythms of the body, the rhythms of nature,

being one with life

in the most basic sense.

So when you eat the bread on the table you know instinctively where it has come from

You don't have to know it with your mind

That primal, instinctual knowing is, in a way, known in the belly.

It's known in this basic relationship to life, that you feel part of what you are around.

It doesn't mean you have to talk to the trees, but you feel the presence of the trees.

It is like one might say being present with one's ancestors.

And so many of us today feel cut off from our ancestors, from that heritage of which we are a part.

And again, if you reclaim it for yourself you reclaim it for the whole.

One of the secrets of oneness is that we are the whole.

Each person here is the whole.

There is no separation, that is a myth.

And if you reclaim it for yourself you reclaim it for the whole.

That consciousness of oneness, that beautiful energy

is then more present within the whole.

The more and more I look at it, individual consciousness is incredibly powerful.

And I think one of the great, if you like, censorships

is that we have been denied that power. We give it to governments, we give it to organizations,

and many of the spiritual teachings, you know,

"be the change you want to happen"

If you live that, you live it not just for yourself, because the individual as a separate entity does not exist.

This is again one of the great myths we have been sold.

the separate individual...how can different cells of life be separate?

They may be a different expression of the One, but they are the One.

And again, this really has to do with a primal empowerment,

to empower the real potential of the individual which in a way organizations, governments, do not like.

Because part of the attraction is, they think they have the power!

And that is, again an illusion,

because the real power belongs to, if you like, the divine centre of the individual.

That is so powerful,

If you knew how powerful that was

your own divine essence, that core in your own being,

you would be amazed.

But again, part of the teachings that came from the West,

that came from Europe, was to get rid of that knowledge,

that knowledge that was actually held by the Gnostics,

held by the Cathars, was got rid of

very, very systematically, and I think part of our...

what we need to do is to reclaim the power of the individual

and to realize the consciousness of the individual can effect real change.

So there is this instinctual knowing.

There is this primal knowing

which is in our bodies, which is in our cells, which we couldn't live without

It is in the way we breathe.

And then what most spiritual disciplines have discovered, is there is another knowing of oneness,

and this is what is traditionally found through spiritual practice.

It is what the Buddhists call "bodhi"

pure consciousness.

You can call it the consciousness of the self,

You can call it the consciousness of the Atma,

You can realize it most easily in meditation, through spiritual practice

It is incredibly beautiful.

It is like pure golden light.

It is very, very simple,

because our spiritual essence is very, very simple.

It is the most simple thing within us,

because God is a simple essence.

But it is a direct knowing of oneness.

In the consciousness of the self is an conscious knowing of oneness,

of that primal unity.

It is in a way the secret of all mystical powers,

to claim that conscious oneness.

I'll just give you a simple quotation:

In the beginning was only being

one without a second. Out of Himself He brought forth the Cosmos

and entered into everything in it.

There is nothing that does not come from Him,

of everything He is the innermost self

He is the truth, He is the self supreme

You are That, you are That

As the rivers flowing East and West merge in the sea and become one with it,

forgetting they were ever separate streams

so do all creatures lose their separateness when they merge at last into pure being.

There is nothing that does not come from Him

of everything He is the innermost self

He is the truth, He is the self supreme, you are That, you are That.

And this is what every spiritual path, every mystical teaching takes you to.

You can call it "unio mystica", you can call it direct knowledge.

It is oneneness.

You can go in meditation and see it,

there is no knower and known, you are that.

It is really the greatest empowerment of a human being that can exist.

You are the oneness of life, you are the oneness of God.

There is nothing other than that.

And as I say, all spiritual paths take you to that consciousness of the self.

That knowing in which there is neither knower nor known, it is pure knowing.

And in that knowing everything is seen according to its true nature.

Every person you see, you see the true nature in that person.

You see the divine being in that person.

Every flower you see, you see its divine purpose.

You see the name written on it that has its divine purpose,

and you see how it all fits together and how it is all perfect at each moment in time,

and how it evolves, and how it changes.

I spent many, many years in meditation and then, 18 years ago I came to California for the first time to stay, and...

through a very quiet time, I'd come from a busy life in London, we just had a small house,

and I used to spend a lot of time walking in the hills of Marin

in nature, and I had always expected to experience this divine oneness in meditation, cause I spent so many hours in meditation,

and I suddenly saw it, around me in Nature.

I saw that it was all one.

I saw that...it was just one being.

And you could see how each leaf, each branch, each flower, was separate,

but there was a conscious knowing, a conscious awareness of seeing that it is all one.

And it really took me by surprise.

It came out into full consciousness.

This knowing that it is all one, you could see, a visual awareness that everything is one,

and it became, as time went on it became deeper and deeper. It wasn't just in nature, then I can see it anywhere.

It was a particular state of consciousness: you know everything is one.

It doesn't deny the individuality of everything,

in fact the true individuality of everything, your true uniqueness

is realized in the One.

in the awareness of One.

Now, what is very, very interesting is that traditionally, this is a traditional goal of the mystic

to come to this state of pure consciousness.

pure light,

in that state of consciousness you see the oneness of life

you see the universe in a grain of sand

you see it, it is all there.

Everything you pick, touch, is the divine oneness.

Everything is alive with it.

It is the most obvious thing in the world that everything is the divine oneness,

that nothing is separate from it.

Now, as I say, this is the traditional goal of the mystic:

to experience that in full consciousness

and it takes many, many, many years of meditation, of purification, of practice

but then I began to notice something quite remarkable,

which was that this oneness, this consciousness of oneness was being given to humanity, that it was suddenly present here in this world,

that you didn't have to go into deep meditation to find it

If you like, the world called out because it was dying of separation

because this image that we are separate from the world, we can do what we want with it, is killing the world.

And from that call there was an answer

and the answer is this consciousness of oneness and that is really what I want to share with you today and then to see, through the

films of the Global Oneness Project how that oneness is lived.

So you can feel it in yourself

so that it's not just something that you hear or read in a book,

but it's a living presence, a dynamic centre of energy that you can access.

Yes, you return inwardly to that instinctual knowing that we are one.

You honour it, but as I say, you cannot go back to being an indigenous person.

There isn't enough land in the world.

You can't do it.

But you can connect with this consciousness of oneness.

with this energy that actually has always been here, but it's been veiled.

it's been hidden, it's been a secret you have to go in deep meditation to discover.

And I began to see that it's been given to people who are open to it, who are receptive to it,

this beautiful awareness of the oneness of everything, and in that oneness, it is not a static oneness, there are all the relationships,

how it all relates together.

Oneness relates together so beautifully...

It is actually much more efficient than duality.

In oneness, everything works through harmony

I'll give you a simple example, which is:

In our culture we identify ourselves through being different from somebody else.

When you grow up, you identify yourself by being different from your parents.

or you wear different clothes

You identify yourself through being different.

which means everything becomes pushed apart, everything becomes separate.

which is not the way life works organically

Life actually works organically through harmony

through the way things relate together

through the way things are similar.

Things on all levels come together through their similarities

Even in this room, if you think of this room not as full of individuals, but as full of parts of life that are drawn towards an awakening consciousness

There is similarity that has brought you here together

not differences, similarity

It is differences that cause wars, it is differences that cause division,

it is differences that cause isolation

And life's real nature is not about differences

it's about how things work together

and if you bring that awareness, then you begin to see the patterns in life, the patterns in people

the patterns in cultures that are so beautiful, because that is how life is designed, if you think that life is designed

It is a beautiful meeting

and you can then work with it

It is why we called this website that I first did when this work started "Working with Oneness",

how can you work with this energy of oneness, how can you work with this consciousness of oneness

Both in your inner life, 'cause if you bring it into your inner life you see how all the parts of your inner life fit together

you see the harmony within yourself

You see how it is all part of this oneness that is your divine nature.

It is really the best therapy

You see how it all fits together, that is of course in Tibetan mandala paintings that is what they are doing

they are seeing how all the different parts fit one mandala

Now traditionally the mystic goes inward and realizes that oneness and stays in that oneness

abides in that oneness, and things come and go

outer situations come and go, and they are seen as just waves in the sea of oneness

And they are really not so important in themselves, the outer events, you rest deeply in the ocean of oneness

in this... the only being which is that ocean of light, which is that ocean of oneness.

And what happens in the outer world was disregarded

They were just waves on the sea.

And that is the traditional spiritual approach

But I have sensed that there is a need, that something in life is calling for us to recognize the oneness in life

and how to work with it, how to be with it

how to live this oneness in our life

that it isn't enough just to see it as waves on the shore but how do those waves fit together?

How do they work in relationship to this ground,

this primal being of which they are a part

How do you live in relation to the oneness of which you are an expression?

How do you live in community?

And the films that are going to be shown this afternoon they show a few examples of how people in different parts of the world are living that

To value it, to say "we can live from this place of oneness".

We can bring this oneness into our life". And my sense is that this will have a catalytic effect.

My sense is that this oneness is incredibly powerful.

It is alive.

It is not a mystical idea

Again, part of what happened in Europe and the culture many of us come from is that that idea was got rid of.

We were disempowered.

The Inquisition got rid of the Gnostics, got rid of the Cathars

and both of those and other traditions

celebrated the power of the Divine within each individual.

And my sense is, we need to give it back to life

We need to...

If you see it, I wish I could just show it to you, it is so beautiful...

it is so powerful, it is..

if you rest on that you don't want anything else

It is a complete recognition of who you really are and what the world really is

and it is very, very dynamic, it is spinning, it is moving, it is changing, it is not a static concept that we are all one.

It is a living expression of this one being, of this divine substance.

talking to us, interrelating with us, meeting us

And then, you bring it into life, how is that oneness going to be brought into life?

Not just kept as an inner secret

How does that oneness want to manifest?

How does that oneness want to bring things together?

What is this oneness really about?

My sense is the next civilization, the next era will be about oneness.

We will have to learn how to work with oneness,

how to be present in oneness,

how we all fit together.

They say that every person, everything that exists has a place

but we often don't live from there.

We live trying to live somebody else's life, somebody else's place.

And if we can honour that knowing within us,

if we can bring that consciousness into our life

then that consciousness will speak to us.

Again, it is alive!

It wants to live...

It wants to be brought into the world

in all aspects of life.

And it can work incredibly quickly, incredibly beautifully - I always give the example of the internet.

Because when I first saw the internet

in the early 90s

I saw it as an expression of oneness,

of how everything is interconnected, everything inter-relates and there is no hierarchy.

It is completely organic

and it is very, very efficient.

If you think of what things were like before

the arrival of the internet, communication is instantaneous to anywhere in the world.

There is a coming together in incredible ways.

And it has changed, it metamorphosizes, it changes very, very quickly.

And it belongs to oneness,

'cause it is all about inter-relationships, how do we relate together.

In the time of the war there was somebody in Baghdad called Baghdad Girl who had a website

all about cats, and everybody all over the world could post their pictures of cats on her website

while the bombs were flying around.

I found that deeply meaningful how something could come together, something so simple

as people posting pictures of their cats

meeting in this one place.

That is life, that is life functioning as an organic whole.

That is life speaking to itself.

That is life being empowered.

That is our life being empowered.

Now in a way, in the West we have this incredible luxury that most of us don't have to work 16 hours a day just to put bread on the table.

I was actually very saddened the other day when somebody came to fix the satellite on my roof

and he was a young man

and he saw something on one of the tables about this event

and he started to talk about Buddhism

and he said he'd studied Buddhism for 10 years

but he said: "You know, in the Bay Area Buddhism is only really for rich people 'cause you have to pay for all these retreats."

And it kind of put a knife in me

because I thought: "It belongs to everybody"...

But at the same time those of us who have the privilege

that we don't have to spend all our energy just to put bread on the table,

we have a responsibility

to awaken to this consciousness.

There was something in this film that mentioned what would happen if we awoke?

I don't know if you are aware, but you are living in this dream

or I call it the nightmare of separation.

It's not real

Nothing is separate

Everything is one, everything relates together, everything feeds and nourishes itself.

Nobody is separate.

Physically, emotionally, on all levels

spiritually we are all one.

And those of us who have the ability to work with that consciousness

I think we have a responsibility to live it.

To say life is not all about "What can I get?"

"What feeds my ego?"

because that is

that is kind of sad.

When the world is dying

the world needs us to bring this consciousness into ourselves, into our life.

It needs us to empower life.

We are the catalyst in life.

We are really the agent of transformation if we can life it.

And again I go back to this truth:

A human being, an individual human being is incredibly powerful.

We have been stripped of that power.

It has been taken away from us

for a long, long time.

It is a simple awareness that we are all one.

On all levels - we are all part of this living whole.

You can call it the organic structure of life;

You can call it Divine Oneness, you can call it the sacred relationship to life, it doesn't matter what you call it: it's how you live it,

how you embody it.

That is why so many spiritual practices have to do with the breath,

because the breath is something very foundational to life,

and if you breathe consciously you bring that consciousness into your life.

And I'm just saying to bring that consciousness of oneness

where it is needed, where it belongs.

And I'm wondering how it will meet

or evolve together with this instinctual knowing of oneness,

with this cellular knowing of oneness.

Carl Jung had a very interesting thing when he talked about two lights.

He talked about the "lumen dei" which is the light of God

and that is if you like the Bodhi, the light of pure consciousness

which is -- it exists...it is alive.

And he also talked about the "lumen naturae" which is the light of nature

the wisdom of nature

which is completely embodied

It exists in nature, in our nature.

It is a light in our bodies, it is a light in our instinctual self, it is this deep knowing which we carry within us.

And how those come together

How that instinctual awareness comes together with this bright light of consciousness.

I think it is for each of us to feel in ourselves

to make a connection with that within ourselves.

And then to find out how it wants to live us...

how it wants to live us...

how it wants to take us into the arena of oneness, how it wants to express its oneness in our lives, and it can!

Most of you know those little synchronicities when a book falls off the shelf, when you meet the person you need to meet --

that is life living through you in its real nature.

not through effort but through magic

through synchronicity, through the unexpected happening, at least unexpected to our consciousness.

And that belongs to life. You know, we have censored life.

We have stopped life from living.

We have told it how to behave and then we get upset when it doesn't behave.

But if we can learn to be friends with life as it really is

allow it to happen to us,

that is a very dangerous statement for most people

Allow life to happen to you.

We live by mystery, not by explanation.

And life is incredibly mysterious, and life is waiting to wake up, to come alive within us in a new way.

That's why I love these films, because they show people

who are part of this life waking up

who are part of this spark of life that is happening

that is coming alive in a new way

bringing things together.

We don't have to do it, we have to be part of it.

We have to allow life to draw us together, to draw us where it needs us to be.