If everything is one Consciousness, do ideas of right and wrong have any relevance?
The question is already the answer.
Right there in the question itself is the confusion that leads to the question and, by the same token, the answer is implied in it. It is the result of a misunderstanding of levels.
If we deeply feel and think that everything is an expression of one Consciousness, of one Reality, then the actions and behaviour that spring from that feeling and thought will, by definition, be in line with it.
Each action will be in harmony with the one Reality simply because it proceeds from that, not just in theory, but in thought and feeling. It is our experience that if we feel hateful, we act hatefully. If we feel loving, we act lovingly. Likewise, if we truly feel that everything and everyone is an expression of the same one Reality that we ourselves are, we will act accordingly and will quite literally behave towards others as we would behave towards ourselves. That does not mean we will always have a sweet smile on our face. We will often come across situations where the understanding that everything is an expression of one Reality is not present, and our subsequent actions will be appropriate to that situation. In fact they arise out of that situation. Nevertheless, whatever the shape of that action, it will come from the feeling of the essential oneness of all things. This is not to suggest that any action that does not come from the feeling of oneness is somehow not an expression of that oneness. It absolutely is. Everything, everything is an expression of that oneness. Ignorance and wisdom alike.
Every thought, however beautiful or ugly it may be, arises in the same presence of Consciousness, which is its very substance.
However, this fact does not magically turn ignorance into wisdom. It does not mean that, at a relative level, unloving behaviour is the same as loving behaviour. All thoughts are equal in the sense that they are all ultimately expressions of the same Reality. Their substance is the same but their objective content is not. If we see a rope and think that it is a snake we will act appropriately and try to catch it, avoid it or kill it. If we see that it is a rope, we just walk by. Both the sight of the rope and the sight of the apparent snake, both the thought of the rope and the thought of the apparent snake, appear in Consciousness. The substance of each perception and each thought is the same that is, Consciousness. However, that does not mean that both thoughts are true at the level of mind. It is true that it is a rope. It is not true that it is a
snake.
Likewise, the behaviour that follows from seeing the rope or seeing the snake is very different. When we see the rope, we just walk by. When we think we see the snake, fear is born and most of our subsequent thoughts, feelings and activities are governed by this fear.
If we experience Consciousness everywhere, we do not experience objects, although of course we experience apparent objects. In fact we only ever experience Consciousness. That is, Consciousness only ever experiences itself. So when it is said, ‘If we experience Consciousness everywhere...’ it means, ‘If we knowingly experience Consciousness everywhere...’ If we think we experience objects, we are not experiencing Consciousness knowingly. If we think we see a snake, we are not seeing the rope knowingly. The rope and the snake are the same in substance, but they are different as appearance.
To experience separate objects is not to experience Consciousness knowingly. To experience Consciousness knowingly is to not experience objects.
We cannot claim to be experiencing objects and Consciousness at the same time, any more than we can claim to see the rope and the snake at the same time.
Of course when we see that everything is Consciousness, that everything is one Reality, we continue to see apparent objects.
However, we cannot think that we see the snake and claim to see the rope at the same time. They are mutually exclusive positions. Seeing the rope is synonymous with no longer seeing the snake. Once we see the rope we can still see the appearance of the snake, but we know that it is a rope.
Maya still dances, but it is a dance of love not seduction.
Similarly, if we know deeply that everything is an expression of Consciousness, that everything is Consciousness, we see Consciousness everywhere.
As a result we no longer believe the divisive, dualistic concepts of the mind. We no longer believe in good and bad as absolute realities. However, that does not mean that they cease to appear at the level of the mind or that they are not appropriate at that level.
Similarly, if we see good and bad as absolute realities, if we believe in them, we are not seeing everything as one Reality. Once we have labelled something as good or bad, we are already committed to mind, to its dualistic concepts.
If we see everything as an expression of one Reality, we are taking our stand at a place that is prior to the mind, prior to good and bad, right and wrong. We have not yet divided our experience with the mind although the mind is still available for use when appropriate.
definition seeing our experience, seeing the one Reality, through the dualistic filter of the mind, and opposites – good and bad, right and wrong – are inherent at that level. That is what mind is. There is nothing wrong with that, but we should at least be clear about the nature of our ideas. The same goes for beauty and ugliness. At the level of the mind, beauty and ugliness exist. At the level of Consciousness they do not. Beauty does not have a purpose. It is already the fulfilment of any purpose. However, from the level of the mind, its purpose could be said to draw attention to the absolute Beauty that is the substance of all things.
To say that there are no beautiful or ugly objects is disingenuous. It is to superimpose the apparent understanding that everything is one Consciousness and that there are therefore no objects onto the deeply held belief and feeling that there are objects.
Once we see objects, we are in duality. And once we are in duality, there is good and bad, right and wrong, beauty and ugliness.
However, if we are looking from the point of view of Consciousness, then there are no objects and therefore no good and bad, right and wrong, beauty or ugliness.
Neither the position of Consciousness nor the position of the mind is problematic. In fact both are necessary for the healthy functioning of the apparent individual in the apparent world.
However, it is problematic to pretend that at the level of mind there is no diversity, no difference, no values, that one thing is as good as another.
It is disingenuous to appropriate the understanding that is true from the point of view that there is only one Reality, and to pretend that it holds true at a level where we have already denied that very Reality, by dividing it up into separate entities. That is the confusion between sameness and Oneness. This is one of the limitations of teachings that only present us with statements of the absolute truth. Whilst they may be true, these statements are often appropriated by the mind as a belief, and laid as a thin veneer on top of already existing beliefs, which in fact simply get buried deeper as a result. Consciousness liberates itself with clarity and honesty, not with the superimposition of beliefs and dogma. Sooner or later Consciousness comes to see the difference between its own openness, its own Presence, which welcomes all things into itself with benevolent indifference, and a mind which, by definition, sees differences and yet has imposed on itself a straitjacket of ‘nonjudging.’ Such ‘non-judging’ comes from fear and confusion. It is not the true, benevolent indifference of Presence.