Mysticism and Monism
As the Mystic focusses on the 'experience' of Oneness, the Monist explores the 'idea' of it.
The 'Experience' of Oneness
Mysticism deals with the experience of Oneness. Though most of us experience our lives separately from everything else, for the Mystic this makes no sense. Her experience of the world is characterised by her connection to and union with everything that is not her. Her experience is like water flowing into water and flowing back again. In time she learns to expand infinitely, recognising there is nothing she is not. This is what I term the Unitive Experience a state in which we become One with the absolute.
There is extensive evidence to support the notion that the mystic experience has a common core. In Hinduism, Christian Mysticism, in Sufism, or in Neo-Platonism we find the same recurring theme. In each instance the adherent experiences a sense of Oneness with the all of everything of which she perceives herself as a facet. Though the individual may describe the event in terms of her particular tradition in each instance the experience results in the effacing of the self, and the eradication of all multiplicities and distinctions.
The 'Idea' of Oneness
Monism deals with the idea of Oneness. The (existence) Monist claims that the Cosmos came into being before its parts. That the parts (us) are a fragmentation of the whole but that it is the whole which is fundamental and that all fragments are emergent. It is an idea that is refinding its voice in QUnatum Physisc. In his book 'The One' Heinrich Pas argues that all matter and information point to the hidden reality of Oneness. Other quantum physicists such as David Bohm suggest that the Cosomos is an indivisible and entangled unity of interacting systems. Einstein himself said that every separation and distinction is an 'optical delusion of consciousness'. The very brightest amongst us have realised that Oneness is the truth of reality.
There has only ever been One of us here.