When I was young, just a teenager, I read many things from philosophy; many of these books I read were just ideas and beautiful words for me. They didn’t go into my head or heart. They sounded just too far away from normal life; it was like reading a fantasy book: they have nothing to do with reality, or at least nothing to do with my reality.

Until I was seven years old, I was autistic. I never spoke, not even “yes”, “no”, or “papa” or “mama”.

In those seven years, I experienced something quite amazing. Because I didn’t use words, my consciousness was not able to be aware that you are you and I am me. I just felt that you, me, everything exists as one. In that stage of awareness I had no feeling of separation.

At that time, anyone who spoke to me was no different to a frog croaking, a bird singing, the wind blowing, a tree shaking, or a stream flowing. They were all the same, sound was just sound.

I lived in this united feeling of oneness for nearly seven years, but once I understood language, that feeling disappeared. Then you became you and I became me. I became aware that everything has its own label as a separate individual reality.

If you don’t know the names of things, you are able to be aware that everything is always in the present. That is actually more reality than separation.

Why?

In the ocean, every wave is separate and different, but the essence of all waves is one ocean. And this one ocean everywhere has the same essence: H­₂O, water. The whole universe (all the space, planets and life forms) has different appearing form, but together they are still one universe.

If I shake a bottle full of different juices, they will eventually mix together. We shake our lives in the big bottle that is the universe. Eventually we will all learn how to share life together.

If you learn how to share your life with others, then your awareness level will increase. Your awareness will no longer be limited to your personal, narrow view. You can see things from more angles and feel more deeply the positions of other life forms.

As a child, when I would see butterflies and birds, I didn’t know that they were separate from me. In fact, there was no me and no time. Everything existed together in a different space as one. Because everything was joined together as one, I didn’t have any intention to harm them. They would always stop near me without fear.

I never had any intention to grab them. I didn’t know they were different from me. They were me in a different space; I was them in a different position. If we are all one, then I don’t have to grab any of them, just as you don’t have to grab hold of yourself.

If people truly love you and trust you, you don’t have to be possessive and grab them. They will come to share with you because of their free will and enjoyment. If we have a possessive need to grab someone, that love is already impure because our heart is greedy. There is no freedom for their heart to be open.

The most beautiful flavour of love is the freedom of pure attraction and pure sharing. If we know how to keep ourselves free and not destroy other people’s freedom, that pureness is quite amazing.

When all of life has their own freedom and shares their individuality in harmony as one… Everything Is One, One Is Everything.

From a talk on 11 August 2011.