The past few days I’ve been musing on a psychological mechanism not unlike a “collective consciousness”. It deserves mention because it has genuinely affected me, and contributed to my sense of well-being.
This consciousness is like a single identity which all elements of creation participate in. When I see someone happy, it makes me feel happy – as if that happiness were my own; when I see the excitement of an achievement, it is as though I had achieved it. The same with sadness and sorrow.
An implication of this is complete freedom from the need to be “best” in a comparative sense. As long as anyone, anywhere, excels in their life, I excel also. I can pursue what is best according to my own moral understanding, without needing acceptance or recognition from others. It is my joy that contributes to the human welfare, more than the products of my labor.
If each person did this, he would naturally seek what makes him happy, and his happiness would contribute to the happiness of all. It ends comparisons between high and low, because what matters is that happiness, and not the place one carves within the social echelon.
I reflected on this while opening doors for people at the conference, since although I’d chosen to occupy a low role, I felt as if I shared in the magnificence of the highest there – because we are all part of one reality. And if what we feel is the sum of all, none should be left out. The feelings of loneliness we experience, perhaps, come from the ego wishing to stand apart from this collective unity, in the same way that the desire to own will reveal the extent of one’s poverty.