Don’t Get Stuck in Oneness: Everything Returns to the One, But Where Does the One Return to?
May 07, 2025
Everything returns to the One. Where does the One return to?
In mainstream spirituality, there is much talk about becoming One:
Becoming One with God.
Becoming One with Buddha.
Becoming One with Your True Self.
Becoming One with Everything.
We think we are separate from ultimate reality.
We think we are separate, and because of that we suffer.
We don’t feel at one with life, with reality, with everything.
And because we think we are separate and incomplete, we want to merge with ultimate truth, to become one with it, because then we’d be complete again. Oftentimes, enlightenment is thought of as this instance where we finally become one with absolute reality.
There is only one problem: If you “make” One, you get One, and this One will be a hindrance to your practice. Zen Master Seung Sahn Sunim said that if you make something, you will get something, and that something will be a hindrance. Whenever we make something, it means we come up with a mental concept and impose it over reality. Zen Master Seung Sahn said it’s like painting legs on a snake: we fabricate a concept and impose it on reality.
However, truth is already complete. The snake already moves perfectly without legs. The same way, when we come up with concepts such as the One, the One reality, it’s like painting legs on a snake.
Reality is already complete.
The sky is blue, the grass is green, you hear what I’m saying right now, so why make a concept such as "One" and put it over the reality of THIS moment? When we look at it closely, we can see that it’s only our sense of separate self that comes up with this concept.
Because we are ignorant, we believe we are separate from ultimate truth, and then we imagine this one truth, we come up with an idea of absolute reality, and then we chase it.
We are attached to this idea of One.
Now, we want to push everything else into this idea.
“If we can put everything else into the One, it will be perfect.”
Everything returns to the One. Where does the One return to?
Let go of Everything. Let go of One.
Return to the point before the One.
So where does the One return to?
