Tuesday, December 23, 2014

One Without a Second

The phrase, “One without a second” (Ekam Advitiyam) is a refrain used in the Chandogya Upanishad’s lesson of a father to his son Svetaketu. In one characteristic verse, the father says,
Just as from a single lump of clay, dear boy, one would know about everything made from clay, the difference being a mere verbal distinction, a name, the reality is only `clay.'
But the form side of creation nevertheless has tremendous variety even if the root substance is one. That is the Yin principle. The Yang is the austere seed, but Yin is the flower which loves endless variety and coloration. No two snowflakes are exactly alike, no two faces, no two signatures, no two fingerprints, or no two trees. Ann Ree seemed to look at this side of the picture when she invoked the phrase, “One without a second,” as if to render it as, “There is no one like you in expression anywhere in the world.” She talked about the paradox in one of her talks,
So you have to realize that we are all very special and unique persons for we are all the same. That is why God is such an enigma to all of us.
That's why it makes us love Him so much, because He has so many changing faces. And they are right here imprinted and indented on our faces.
One reason it is important to ponder deeply this fundamental truth … is that each person has a very special part in God’s Eternal Plan. This means each person is precious to Him. I have had to bear that fact in mind as I contemplate the cruelties perpetrated by man against man. My lower mind entertains the idea of retribution for a cruel man, but I end up conceding that God allowed that person to learn from trial and error and that the victim is also part of his own karma, learning from previous errors. In apparent tragedy, God maintains perfect justice by joining the lessons of the evolved and the un-evolved when they meet in homogenizing times like the reincarnation tidal wave we are in.
There are no superior or inferior persons in the world, just differences in the timing of their unfoldment. We would not think an aged giant Sequoia was essentially different than a new Sequoia sapling. Both attain majestic height in their own timing and both with their unique place.
Ann Ree went so far as to say that God cannot unfold His plan without any of us. We are each as important to His plan as the mightiest star.

Another reason it is important to ponder the phrase “One without a second” is that we each have to realize our own unique destiny in God’s overall plan. When we make choices based on the wishes of our parents, or the collective expectations of society, or conforming with any temporary circumstance, we may be fighting against our very destiny and the unique role God is preparing us for.

When we make a mistake, we cannot think that we are no longer precious to God and no longer have His best wishes for us. Ann Ree wrote in Dedication #1
Each man has a hidden best - a best which he must call forth through dedication.
Carl Jung used the term Individuation to refer to the process of our becoming what we truly are. Rational thinking based on useful generalizations can fail when it comes to our unique destiny. For generalizations are based on averages which wash out uniqueness. He made the point that we may search a bed of stones for one with its average size of 2 inches and never find one that is exactly 2 inches. He said that he by necessity would reach a point where he had to make his treatment of his patients as varied as his patients. Scientific laws based on statistical truths may get us close to destiny, but they can never account for what an individual destiny truly is. Ann Ree continued Dedication #1 by adding,

When dedication begins its yeastlike action, no one can tell the results, not even that one who dedicates, nor can he know where his dedication will place him.

In a paradoxical way this uncertainty in certainty is comforting. It means that we can achieve a God-like Will that makes us more than mechanical creations. Jesus quoted the Hebrew scriptures when He said,
Is it not written in your law, “I said ye are Gods?”
So how can we reconcile our uniqueness with the essential unity of souls? Such, we are told, is the task of Soul Realization. I found the passage in Ann Ree’s biography, Prophet for the Archangels, intriguing which described the phase of her evolvement where she underwent a synthesis of what she called Light Streams. It recorded telepathic words that the Masters spoke to Ann Ree as one voice. That remarkable kind of telepathy must imply a unity of thought and intention quite unknown to most of humanity. Saint Paul described something similar when he referred to the Body of Christ, comparing the unanimity of the members of the physical body to the one body in Christ:
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:12)
I remember being inspired by Ann Ree at an early age when I saw how she treated people who I thought were un-evolved with kindness. I felt ashamed of my feeling of aversion when I saw her loving face. Yogananda described a similar impartiality with Yukteswar:
Everyone found in Master an equal courtesy and kindness. To a man who has realized himself as a soul, not the body or the ego, the rest of humanity assumes a striking similarity of aspect. The impartiality of saints is rooted in wisdom.
As this is Christmas, I would like to relate our unique soul destiny to the image of a direct star. When she was at Wooded Place, Ann Ree had a vision of Jesus and a mighty star slightly above her. The star moved towards her with a singing, humming tone. She remarked that she had never before experienced such an intensity of light. Jesus said to her, “This is your own direct star. You have come under your own direct star.” Ann Ree commented,
When one makes alignment with his direct star, he no longer thinks of himself and the preservation of his body, or the preservation of human objects and possessions. From the time he unites with his direct star he is caught into God’s mighty momentum.
When Jesus came into the world a great star appeared to the Wise Men. Ann Ree said it was the star from the eternity system Jesus came from as a Messiah in that world. I’m sure this was a momentous event for our world wherein it became aligned with our destiny as an eternity system.
May each of you unite with the star of Bethlehem this Christmas and with your own direct star as ones without a second.