So the claim is that this sameness, this unity, this perfection-as we may call it-is not to be made, it already exists, and is here. We have only to recognize it, to understand it. Whether we know it or not, whether this perception assumes the force and clearness of a sense -perception or not, it is there. For we are bound by the logical necessity of our minds to confess that it is there, else, the perception of the finite would not be. ...
Even the most logical and rational mind, hooked on concepts, knows and perceives at some level they may or may not connect to, that the infinite, the formless, the eternal exists in all.
...the very fact of the consciousness that you and I are different brings to us, at the same moment, the consciousnees that you and I are not different. Knowledge would be impossible without that unity. Without the idea of sameness there would be neither perception nor knowledge. So both run side by side....
If we can perceive differentness...we have no choice but to understand sameness. If we see a right...we must see a left. If we percieve a front, we must perceive a back. If we have concepts and are full of "knowledge", we must also have within us that which goes beyond knowledge and concepts.
Thich Nhat Hanh used to teach, "neither different or the same; both different and the same."
"Thus, seeing the same God equally present in all, the sage does not injure Self by the Self, and thus reaches the highest goal. Even in this life they have conquered relative existence whose minds are firmly fixed on this sameness; for God is pure, and God is the same to all. Therefore such are said to be living in God."
We may be focusing on difference, but we can, like the sage, focus on sameness. We can see the same pure God in all.
All is well.
Vivekananda ( n.d.) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, page 217-231. Kindle Edition.
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