We are not disconnected and separate islands as we think. Maybe in the physical layer, we all seem like individual islands. But whether we like it or not, whether we accept it or not, whether we want it or not, we are all interlinked by the collective consciousness.

It is like this: if the food is poisoned, only the person who eats it will suffer, not everyone. In this sense, you can think of yourself as an individual. But as you move towards the subtler levels of Existence, you can see our interconnectedness more clearly. For example, if the air is poisoned, whoever is breathing it will suffer, even if they are a long distance from each other. This connection is at the breath level. This means that in the subtler energy layers, the distance between us is reduced. Even more than the physical and breath levels, we are connected more closely at the mental level.

When I say mental level, I mean the level of thoughts. Our thoughts affect not only us but also everyone around us and beyond. Your thoughts are more infectious than your cold. In fact, people may escape from your cold, but they cannot escape from your thoughts. Take a simple example of going to a college football match on a Sunday. When you enter the stadium itself, you can see the air charged with emotions. You are also immediately affected by the cheering mood prevailing there! Similarly, if there is group violence, like a religious fight or collective grief, like a death in the house, the mood affects you beyond your control. If you catch a cold from someone, you might suffer physically for a few days and then finally get over it. But when you catch thoughts from people, you suffer mentally with them.

Similarly, anything you think affects the people around you. If an individual mind is polluted, not only the individual, but a much bigger group suffers. For example, if one person who has a disturbed mind sits as a leader of a city, the whole city will be affected by the decisions that he makes! His disturbed thinking will result in wrong decisions and hence will be harmful for the whole city.

Going a step further, if one corrupted visualization leads to a particular action, the action can have tremendous impact on a huge population, not just on that person with the corruption. For example, take the case of the atom bomb. It is nothing but a ‘visualization’ of the nuclear theory! The basis of the nuclear bomb can be found in the famous formula E=mc2 , that was discovered by the physicist, Albert Einstein. But corrupted visualization of this formula led to disturbance of the whole planet earth. We are all now threatened by this one theory, by this one invention. Today planet earth has enough atomic weapons to burn itself 700 times, over and over again. Seeds of violence are created whenever we feel we are individuals, unconnected or unrelated to others. We become selfish, dogmatic and violent. When we live with only individual consciousness, we dissect, we cut things into pieces and analyze. Such logic always destroys things. On the other hand, by tuning into the collective consciousness, we unify things. Understand: not only in the mental level, even in the deeper conscious levels, the deeper you go, the more deeply you are connected.

Just see this diagram above. I shall try to explain the truth on the basis of this diagram.

These seven circles represent the seven energy layers in us. The first layer is the physical body, the body that you can feel as your hands, legs etc. The second layer is the pranic body, the body in which your prana or life energy or breath circulates. Like this, there are seven energy layers that make up the total body, with the physical body being just one of those layers.

Now, in the physical layer, you, god and I can be represented as three different points in the circle. In the physical level, the distance between us is great. If you go inward a little to the pranic level, the distance between us is reduced. If you go in deeper to the mental level, the distances are further reduced. When you go deeper and deeper, it finally merges into one. You can see that at the innermost point of all these layers, god, you, and I are one. There is no distance. That is the Truth even at the gross level!

It is only your perception that causes you to think you are a separate entity. You are not a separate entity as you think. When you love someone intimately, his or her love and suffering affects you. It comes and goes out of your being. It is because, in the deeper levels, you don’t have an individual entity, you are a part of collective consciousness. You don’t want suffering, but somehow you are not able to escape from it. Again and again, whether it is physical pain or mental suffering or spiritual bondage, you keep experiencing it. This is because you are not aware that you are part of the collective consciousness. Once you become aware and realize that you are a part of the collective consciousness, that you don’t have an individual identity, that you don’t have a separate ego, you don’t suffer.

In Existence, there is nothing such as a separate, individual identity. Once you experience this, you go beyond pain, suffering, depression and disease. Please understand that as long as you have your own set of concepts, you remain as an individual consciousness, and you continue to suffer in some way. Why do you think you continuously resist heat and cold, aspects of nature? Whatever nature offers, you resist. There is a beautiful saying: Man as a rule is a fool. When it is hot, asking for cool When it is cool, asking for hot.

Always asking for what is not! When it is cool, you resist the cold. This happens because you think you are different from Existence. I myself have lived in the extreme cold of the Himalayan mountains, with the bare minimum of clothing. The body was never disturbed. I never had a problem. The reason is that I never thought that I was different from the atmosphere. I never had the feeling of separation from nature. I have seen many sannyasis in the Himalayas who do this same thing. It is only when you start thinking that you are different from the atmosphere that you start resisting it.

There is a very simple practice you can take up now. If you are feeling cold, just relax into yourself. Identify the area where you are feeling cold. Witness that area. In that area, don’t resist the atmosphere. Don’t resist the air. Don’t resist the temperature. Just say to yourself, ‘I am not going to resist nature. I am not going to resist the temperature. I am not going to resist Existence. Let me relax.’ Make a conscious decision. You will see the body relaxing, and the idea of cold disappears! You become completely comfortable. When I say this, people ask me, ‘It is alright to practice it here, but what about in real extreme conditions?’ The mind always likes to think of extremes, even if they are never going to happen. Be very clear that even in extremes, you can do this, if you put your effort into it with totality. The problem right now is that you don’t have that much totality, that much clarity. If you can totally fall in tune with nature, you can surely be comfortable even in extreme conditions. There are many human beings who do that and so can you. One more thing is that in the air, all possible bacteria and viruses are present. At any moment a single virus or bacteria can cause a disease in you. But if you are in total tune with nature, then even if the virus or bacteria goes inside you, you will not be disturbed!

The seeds of violence will be created when you feel you are an individual

The moment you start thinking that you are somebody, some individual separate from Existence, then the whole of Existence becomes your enemy. Existence is not here to kill you or destroy you. It is your only trustworthy father, mother, friend and teacher. When you are in tune with the collective consciousness, when you become a part of the collective consciousness, nature is with you. Nature becomes your friend, and it protects you. Wherever you want to achieve success in the social or economical line, only when you feel in tune with the whole group, only when you fall in tune with the collective consciousness, will you be able to achieve what you want to achieve.

As long as you feel you are an individual, as long as you want to keep a distinct place for yourself, as long as you want to have an idea that you are ‘somebody’, an ‘identity’, be very clear, you will be resisted and you will be resisting. Whether it is home or office or vacation, this will happen. If you disappear into the collective consciousness, you will again and again be protected and taken care of. You will attain complete success, not only socially and economically, but you will also experience it as a feeling of fulfillment. The feeling will be inexplicable. The moment you start resisting, you start making hell out of it. As long as you resist the current, whether it is your workplace or your house or your company or any place for that matter, as long as you don’t disappear into the collective consciousness, you will continuously create hell for yourself and for others.

Even in the physical layer, if you think you are something separate, be very clear, you will be inviting diseases. In the mental layer, if you think you are a separate individual, again and again, you will be sowing the seeds of violence. The seeds of violence will be created when you feel you are an individual. With collective consciousness you unify, but with individual consciousness you dissect, you cut things in pieces. Logic always breaks. Intuition always unites.

The moment you understand that you are deeply connected, totally connected, intensely connected to the whole group, to the whole universe, not only do you start experiencing the bliss, you also start living. You start opening up many dimensions of your being. Right now you are stressed out, disturbed continuously, you have to think too much. With this one body, you have to think so much. You can enjoy so much. If you disappear into this collective consciousness, you will have so many dimensions, so many possibilities that you simply cannot imagine it!

See, now with one body, there is a feeling of joy and you are able to enjoy so much. Imagine what you can do if you have two bodies? And just imagine what you can feel when you have many bodies! This is the experience you will get when you realize you are a part of the collective consciousness. When you experience the feeling of oneness or collective consciousness, you forget all the differences of your name, wealth, social status and prestige. Whatever you think of as you just disappears. What you are is revealed.

source: Living Enlightenment