interconnect

Interconnectedness is part of the terminology of a worldview which sees a oneness in all things. A similar term, interdependence, is sometimes used instead, although there are slightly different connotations. Both terms tend to refer to the idea that all things are of a single underlying substance and reality, and that there is no true separation deeper than appearances. Some feel that 'interconnectedness' and similar terms are part of a contemporary lexicon of mysticism, which is based on the same core idea of universal oneness.

Religion

The mystics have related this as the notion of 'All in one, and one in all' - which, in turn, relates to the theological concept of panentheism (not the linguistically similar, but philosophically and operationally distinct word pantheism), but in the most thorough meaning of that term: not that 'All is within god' (as your breakfast might be within you), or that 'God is solely within all' (the same analogy), but, rather, that the two - god and the creation (or in secular terms the commonweal/commonwealth) are all one within one-another: ie a complete exo-/endo- conception of interconnectedness.

"Our salvation depends upon our knowing and recognizing the Chief Good which is God Himself. I have a capacity in my soul for taking in God entirely. I am as sure as I live that nothing is so near to me as God. God is nearer to me than I am to myself; my existence depends on the nearness and presence of God. He is also near things of wood and stone, but they know it not. If a piece of wood became as aware of the nearness of God as an archangel is, the piece of wood would be as happy as an archangel. For this reason man is happier than the inanimate wood, because he knows and understands how God is near him. His happiness increases and diminishes in proportion to the increase and diminution in his knowledge of this. His happiness does not arise from this that God is near him, and in him, and that He possesses God; but from this, that he knows the nearness of God, and loves Him, and is aware that “the Kingdom of God is near.” (Meister Eckhart) ^[1]

Implications

In terms of religion, spirituality, personal world-views and paradigms, the theology of 'god present within every human being' - a concept familiar to Quakers and to Lutherans might help to explain various life actions (e.g. Quaker testimonies) such as, for example, the rejection of human slavery (to own a slave would, in this cosmo-theological world-view, be to claim ownership of 'that of god' present within the slave.)

In global political, social, and ecological terms, the concept of co-relational, 'All in one, one in all', panentheistic, exo-/endo-interconnectedness will doubtless have significant economic, distributional, moral, ethical, political, personal, social, and ecological ramifications.

See also

• Monism
• Nondualism
• Shunyata

References

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