Oneness: Being in Concord, Harmony of Hearts

I once heard a preacher say, oneness is not sameness, and initially, it didn’t make sense to me. I took it as some sort of a buzz word he added to his homily to trigger some effervescence, you know, the usual spiel. But as I searched deeper into things, I came to understand that oneness means one accord. And I’m sure you might be questioning yourself like, “doesn’t one accord still mean sameness?” Well, the simple answer is, no! But let’s go into the nuances.

In fact, the problem stems from our facile hermeneutics, where we interpret sameness and similarity as synonyms. Sameness refers to absolute identicality, a complete indistinguishability whiles similarity refers to a level of resemblance but never enough to compromise distinguishability. In other words, similarity acknowledges both the uniqueness and congruence between separate objects or organisms but sameness on the other hand means being completely identical, it means being of one and the same substance, structure, and function.  

So, oneness as a state of one accord, can be yielded only when the similarities and disparities (or the uniqueness and congruence) of the separate objects or organisms involved can be discovered and amalgamated into one unit whole. It connotes the forming of a concord i.e., the coming together of separate substances in one accord. Well, concord (from Latin; con-together, cor-heart) means bonding together in a heart-to-heart union. In other words, to be in a concord means a harmony of hearts, an interconnectedness of hearts.

If you know a little bit about music, you might know that harmony means a combination of different tones to form one beautiful sound, a concord of sounds. This means that harmony operates in acceptance because all parts share an agreement to bond with one another to achieve an equilibrium, a perfect equity.

Therefore, for humanity to be in oneness, we need to acknowledge our uniqueness and congruence in the spirit of togetherness of hearts and harmonize them into one unit whole. In other words, we must yield our hearts to accept, respect, and appreciate our uniqueness (our otherness) and bond into a holistic unit whole. Therefore, oneness implies a manifestation of communion (a koinonia) which is the coming together of people in goodness of heart, a fellowship of sharedness and interconnectedness built on values of equality, diversity, charitability, accountability, responsibility, and serviceability.

So, remember, oneness is our ability to bear good heart towards one another: accepting, accommodating and fostering flourishment and wellbeing in one another no matter our otherness. Therefore, for humanity to be in oneness, we need to transcend beyond the self and dwell in a togetherness of hearts.