Change is often easier when we unpack the meaning of the words we use. Some words are so emotionally loaded that we may fail to realize that they are needed, at times, to facilitate the changes we desire in our lives.
Take the word abandoned. The Oxford dictionary begins with some of the emotional baggage attached to this word: cease to support or look after (someone); desert:”her natural mother had abandoned her at an early age”. It continues: leave (a place or vehicle) empty or uninhabited, without intending to return: “derelict houses were abandoned”. And then zeros in on the heart string pulls: condemn someone or something to (a specified fate) by ceasing to take an interest in them.
However, the dictionary also offers a less negatively loaded understanding of the concept: abandon oneself to – allow oneself to indulge in a desire or impulse. (Note the term indulgence also carries a lot of baggage.) In a constructive context this definition tells us we have the ability to focus on creating something by letting go of (abandoning) the distractions and habits that stand in the way of moving forward. When this is done, those who prefer the earlier meanings of the word may uses those definitions to attempt to influence us. Luckily we may opt to abandon the guilt and continue to live and create.
Stating we wish to abandon duality is both a way of clearly stating what stands between us and the life we seek. And it also points us to the underlying truth of life – oneness – wholeness – unity. To consciously abandon duality is to embrace oneness.
Oneness and individuality coexist in nature. Think of an aspen grove. Every tree in the grove has exactly the same DNA yet each provides special and crucial services to the whole organism. (I will use the term trees for the individuals and grove for the organism until I learn a better way of identifying the parts.) The trees in the higher or drier parts of the grove bring in micro nutrients that are passed to all the other parts. Those in the lower and wetter areas provide water to assure growth and wellbeing across the entire grove.
In the aspen grove there is no duality. No mine and yours. No better or lesser. No right or wrong. There is simply life. In the grove individual trees age and die and new shoots take their place. The death of one does not reduce the genetic components of the whole. Similarly, the new shoot is not different genetically from any other part of the grove, it is simply another part of the life of the whole.
The great religions of the world and the mystics they have produced, have attempted to communicate the spiritual oneness of all creation. Being human some have focused on a small ethnic or cultural area of life while others imply that wholeness (oneness) is the basis of all life and creation – even the rocks.
To abandon duality is to align with mindset of the aspen grove, with the spiritual DNA of creation and to live from that perspective.
A.C.O.R.N. is an acronym for a daily practice that humans can use to align with the wholeness (oneness) of the aspen grove. I know that Oak trees are strongly individualistic in their approach to life. However, their seeds give us our acronym. A – ask. C – commit. O – obey. R – report. N – notice.
In the aspen grove parts have needs, nutrients, micro nutrients, water. Individual trees that have these share them.
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