From the Many to the One

The outside world pulls us in a hundred directions, scattering the self like particles dispersing outward from a centre. According to the well-known saying of Christ (upon him be peace):

“A house divided against itself shall fall.”

The message of monotheism is to turn away from the many toward the One.

At the very centre of the mind — or the core of consciousness — lies the Divine One. Remembrance of the One is the key to re-collect the scattered self. Without this spiritual anchor, we can never achieve wholeness

“Whoever makes his aspiration one aspiration… God suffices him for aspiration in this world. Yet whosoever is dispersed in his aspirations… God has no concern for him.”

— Muhammad ﷺ

(Ibn Majah 4106, Hakim 3715)

The Buddha emphasised the cultivation of a “one-pointed” mind (ek-aggatā).

Through regular remembrance of the One, our outflowing stream of consciousness is compelled to reverse back unto its radiant origin, where fragmentation gives way to integration, and the broken self rediscovers wholeness.

Ramana Maharshi offers some interesting insight on developing this one-pointed mind:

“Holding on to a single thought… If a single thought prevails, all other thoughts are put off and finally eradicated… Dhyana [meditation] is the chief practice… Dhyana means fight. As soon as you begin meditation other thoughts will crowd together, gather force and try to sink the single thought to which you try to hold. The good thought must gradually gain strength by repeated practice. After it has grown strong the other thoughts will be put to flight. This is the battle royal always taking place in meditation.”

(Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Talk 371)

The Last Prophet ﷺ described this inner struggle as greater than any external war. He also said:

“He who remembers among the heedless is like a fighter among the fleeing.”

(al-Kamil fi Du‘afa’ al-Rijal, Ibn ‘Adi, 5:1745)

All of this helps to explains why the central occupation in all faith traditions is not to go out and change the world, but to move inward — to remember and re-collect the scattered self through religious rituals like prayer, meditation and chanting of scriptures or mantras.

 If we wish to mend the world, we must first mend ourselves. A person who remains inwardly fragmented and broken cannot heal the world; they can only divide it further. Their inner disunity inevitably spills outward.

Only the integrated soul, who has attained wholeness, can truly integrate and heal. They quietly restore harmony to whatever they encounter — not by force or grand schemes, but by the radiant coherence of their own being.

Notes

* Only mindfulness of God who is at the centre of the mind can serve as the true anchor for the mind because He alone is within us and yet beyond the turning flux of the world, like the central point of the tornado, within it and yet beyond it.

* The Ka'aba, the house of God and centre of the Muslim world, is also a symbol of what lies within our own inner centre — namely the heart, which is itself a house where Divinity resides. The Muslim obligation to face the Ka'aba five times a day, and the pilgrimage to this holy house in Mecca, has an immense impact upon the soul, facilitating an inward turning and movement towards one's own sacred centre.

The Prophetic story of exile, war, and homecoming is also deeply symbolic. It is not simply a remote historical conflict but a struggle that we all face daily. Each warring faction mentioned in the sacred text are not just people who died long ago but exist as living forces within the soul of man. This interior dimension gives the Quranic narrative some of its inexhaustible depth and enduring power to illuminate the human condition.

* "The most fundamental unit of our society, the family... is breaking up to an ever greater degree, because there are so few people [today] who possess an integrated inner being" 

- Seyyed Hossein Nasr [Source: The Integration of the Soul, p. 1-2]

Divisions in the outside world are reflections of our internal division and discord.