Every single person possesses a mind. The mind is formless. Your mind can generate all kinds of thoughts, and therefore it can generate different brain waves. So, thought is a kind of energy. In physics, the principle of energy is that it cannot be divided. Thought is energy, the physical body is energy, the atmosphere is energy, and even a table is energy. Everything is energy, so one cannot look at reality as an amalgamation of separate pieces, because energy cannot be divided. The instant your mind generates the thought, the reality corresponding to the thought manifests as a whole. This is a manifestation of the oneness from which you cannot be separated.
People tend to think oneness means we are all one and the same, but that is not so. Our minds possess the same ability, but the individual who possesses the ability is unique in himself or herself. For example, if I generate an angry thought, will you become angry too? You will not. Therefore, I have my mind, which works for me, and you have your mind, which works for you. We use our minds differently, though they have the same ability and purpose. Whatever your mind manifests will be your reality, and that reality is oneness because it cannot be cut into pieces. At the fundamental level, your reality and my reality do not conflict with each other because our minds are formless. The formless can overlap the formless.
Conflict only arises when we become attached to what the mind has created. Imagine that we are in a room having a discussion. I am speaking, and you are listening to me. All who are present can hear my voice. Immediately afterward, each of you brings forth a thought pattern that defines what I have said according to his or her habitual thought pattern. Each of you will have a unique, personal definition–a perception–and become attached to it. The definition you create is your attempt to grasp what I have said. As I spoke, you thought and reacted to what I said. Thus, your idea of what I said is different from what I actually said. This dynamic is the cause of many problems in life. In fact, it has caused wars.
Dualistic thinking causes the mind to become attached to its creation, so it is less flexible. It can cause all sorts of conflicts in the world. Even within the individual, duality is a constant source of conflict, questioning and upheaval. For example, you might want to buy something, but at the same time you do not want to buy it. You might love someone but suddenly feel you do not love him or her anymore. This is conflict, and it occurs within you. You might insist on one view of an issue, but your husband or wife will insist on a different view. Then, of course, you argue over such things all too frequently. Or, imagine the people in one country versus those of a neighboring country. The people in my country feel we have the right to possess a certain piece of land, but the people of the neighboring country feel otherwise. So, a war can erupt between those countries in regard to that piece of land. It does not matter whether either country really needs it.
We carry our own habitual thought patterns with us, and we use those patterns to handle all the things that occur in our lives. However, do you think everything in life can be handled through a means of habitual thinking? If it were so, each of us would be a sage. We are too easily confused by all the issues and turns in life to judge them clearly. Have you, for example, carefully examined your life in order to discover the source of all your difficulties? We have so many worries and so much suffering, but the way we talk to others–the way we give advice–is as if we have already solved all our problems. Despite all your worries, when you talk to someone who has a particular difficulty, you will suggest that he or she do one thing or another. However, your concepts, based on habitual thinking, are the cause of your problems. How can any solution based on those concepts solve a problem for someone else?