How would you feel if you knew that you were connected with this world around you on its deepest levels? On a cellular level, and even deeper.
Feeling this connection can free us from the anxiety of isolation and vulnerability. Dissolving the barriers between the self and the surroundings gives a feeling of mental and physical weightlessness that can only otherwise be experienced through mind-altering substances. Without you having experienced this, it will only be a practice in intellect for me to tell you. However, it may move you to experience for yourself.
How is it true that we are not separate when the weight of the self feels so heavy? When we can see the barriers so vividly, and when we are blind to the commonalities?
The body feels dense, heavy. However, science has explained what has been known for centuries. Every object is made of atoms hovering around one another. Within each of these atoms contains mainly empty space. Therefore within each object, we perceive as solid is empty space, including the body. We touch the hand and it feels solid, however, we are not even touching the hand. We are feeling the electrons in our bodies repelling the electrons of the object we are touching.
Light waves reflect off of objects and report to the mind through our eyes. This is how we create what we see. Objects are perceived as solid because the light waves are too large to fit between the empty spaces. We see ourselves and others as a heavy solid mass, however, we are light and filled with empty space.
We have created a solid sense of our continuous thoughts that we call the mind. However, it is nonexistent. There is no such thing as the mind, it is just a label that we have given to thoughts, images, desires, and identities. It is an illusion that carries a great weight within ourselves. An illusion that combined with the illusory density of our bodies creates a heavy ego. This ego keeps us in a constant state of separation. This ego prevents us from knowing our true selves.
Zen masters would say, go and find your original face. The face you had before you were born, the face you will have when you have died. What were you before you were written all over by society? Who will you be when you have been stripped of the body and the thinking mind? This is who you truly are.
When you realize that the ego is false, it begins to disappear. When you realize that the body is not solid, there comes a lightness. When you are no longer identified with the mind, when the thoughts begin to fade away into nothingness, there comes a hollowness. Not an emptiness that is negative, but a hollowness that is filled with quiet and peace. A hollowness that is filled with awareness. The Buddha called this anatta, meaning no self. To become hollow.
With a cluttered mind and the illusion of a heavy body, you are not receptive to your connection with the world around you. You are incapable of seeing the nature of the self, let alone the nature of the world. You are in an illusion that there is a separation. However, once you come in tune with your true state, you can begin to feel your connection with the reality that surrounds you. In this state of quiet and hollowness, you can begin to experience oneness. This is the greatest relaxation of all.