Wouldn't being one with the universe be awful?

Question

People talk about reaching a state of oneness with the universe through meditation as being a state of bliss, but would it be?

I don't know about the universe but if you look around our world there are a lot of things you wouldn't want a psychic empathetic link with.

I won't bother to mention the poverty and oppression that majority of our fellow human beings live in and under. let's just look at the natural world.

Every living thing is in indirect or direct competition for it's survival with other living things. Most animal forms live under constant threat of being eaten alive. Even what appears to be peaceful can be horrific when viewed up close. Consider those peaceful whales swimming gracefully in the ocean, they are scooping up billions of krill, whole and still alive, into their gullets. Would you want to be in touch with all those tiny lives ending?

Even plants are fighting each other. Admittedly, it is done very slowly, but they squeeze each other out of the sunlight, and some vines literally strangle trees to death.

Do plants feel pain? They are clearly alive. Perhaps they are like those horror stories you hear about, where a patient goes into surgery compleatly aware and able to feel, but unable to move. Just because something is extremely undesirable doesn't mean it's not true.

I am never going to meditate again.

Here's proof that nature is downright cruel...

(don't watch it if you are sensitive)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM

Answer 1

Thats not cruel. Its all part of how we survive.

And thats nature also.

Its natural to kill to survive.

Life is not fair, its cruel, so live with it. Everyday someone dies or you might even die tomorrow. Big deal (Sarcasm).  

Answer 2

Well, I would say: 'At last, you have got it right'!

Answer 3

“Trying to run away is never the answer to being a fully human being. Running away from the immediacy of our experience is like preferring death to life.” – The Pema Chodron 2008 Calendar.

The same is true in connecting with creation. Even though horrors are present in the world, blocking them out during meditation creates an artificial state, not a natural one. The courage to face life in all its messiness will result in a fuller state of being.

Answer 4

I don't know, I'm personally not into meditation too heavily, but I think you are examining elements and because they exist assuming they have a link. Humans, for example, do deal with selfish issues and that's why we are in constant competition.  Plants and animals have instincts, but they don't really struggle with moral judgements like we do.  We fight to understand the balance between self and others.  In community, for example, humans can live in beautiful harmony, much like plants and animals, with one another complimenting strengths and weaknesses.  We intuitively want to love one another, at least, that's what I believe.

With regards to the universe, creation works in harmony.  Plants live and die, animals live and die, you live and die. Stars grow and stars explode.  Our own blood cells live in balance. Red and white and bacteria interact with one another and we exist.  The universe and the relationship between the planets and the stars in many ways reflects the relationship between a nucleus, electrons, protons, neutrons.  Atoms. It's really kind of cool to explore, but be careful to keep your thoughts on things that are positive and not dwell in the negative or the things you don't understand that breed fear.  Fear leads to anxiety and anxiety clouds your judgement.  Remember you are brilliant for who you are, unique and different.  Be proud of that and do good with it.

Answer 5

Never mind all that stuff. Where would you get jeans that fit a universal azz?

I'm not even going to think about the dating limitations!

Answer 6

You don't know what you're talking about and have never studied meditation, obviously. I suppose you wrote this question because you're a religious person who dislikes the idea of getting rid of your ego that holds onto things like a stupid religion. You're just full of it and until you yourself experience a transcendental state you shouldn't be trying to define what it is until you do experience it. "Oh why become one with the horrible universe?" ... what a load of c**p.

Answer 7

The enlightened vision attained by oneness will also come with the wisdom and understanding of all such things.  With your current understanding of the world and meditation, you've got a long way to go before you reach that kind of enlightenment.

Answer 8

First of all, not everyone is in competition. Your friends are those who are with you in your asperations, not against you. But yes, every organism has its enemies. Nature/the world is full of eaters, and those being eaten sort of speak. The eaters are happy, but those being eaten are in pain. Thus nature is full of both happiness, and pain. Nature is neither good nor bad. If this is true that the world is neither good nor bad to its inhabitants, then if you were to feel the net emotions of all life existing in the present, you wouldn't feel anything at all. You would be emotionless, numb. I think that perhaps he who sees the reality of the world, he who is "one with nature",  looks at the world not with hate, but with numbness. Because he sees much worth loving, but also much worth hating.  

Answer 9

Being one with the Universe certainly would be awful--I would hate to stretch myself that thin.

Answer 10

It's a matter of perspective. Try to see the whole picture.

You are looking from below, that is, from the physical realm, to up which is the spiritual. You should realize that all physical forms are changing constantly, nothing ever stays the same in this world of effects. Look at the seasons of the year, plant and animal life are born, live and grow, fade and then dry up as plants may do, and it is the end of their life cycle. There is nothing right or wrong in it, it is simply the Cycle of Life.

All forms will continue their livingness in another finer form, or another dimension, if you wish to call it that.

The error you make is to see the physical as the end all and be all, which it is not. The physical is merely a stage of growth and experience and when the time arrives it will be dissolved. That is Nature's way.

The discord you see in the world is the result of man's actions, not God's. God created a perfect realm and when man realizes his union with God mankind will then act accordingly, in a wise and spiritual way that will change how life is being lived here.

It only awaits man's intelligent use of his spiritual powers to make this a Heaven on earth. God has already created this perfection, it is in place, but man does not know it yet.

Answer 11

enlighten one may argue that it is because people fail to recognize himself in the other thing that suffering occurs. consider the golden rule, if you saw yourself in the animal or plant, you would treat it well, much like you would like to treat yourself well. if you saw him or her not as sam and sally, but as your left and right arm, then earth as your feet, then you want everything to be well in harmony. if you are one with the universe then everything is you. then the question of oppressing other beings becomes oppressing yourself. do you want to oppress yourself, poverty on yourself? your right eye is hurting so you want to heal it. the day when a brother sees himself in the other is the day when lions rests with lambs.

Answer 12

defagdf d

Answer 13

You have to firstly realize that the terms RIGHT, WRONG, or GOOD, BAD do not actually mean anything in the universe. They are made up by humans just to live safer, to survive. Your example of the nature is an example for this. Animals don't care about good or bad.

Btw, plants do not feel pain, they have no nervous system. But even if they did, why should u care? U want to live and so you will eat and try not to be eaten.

But I still can assure you that the UNIVERSE doesn't give a s***t about you or me or our little planet and our problems. Just live with that. Hmmm... maybe thats the answer: being one with the Universe means not to care about your little problems :)

Answer 14

i believe when they say be one with teh universe it means like a settled heart and soul and simply feeling calm. Mostly no conflicts with the self. yes the world is terrible sometimes, but thats wat natuer does, it keeps itself allive. its the cycle. nothing is ever bad or good.