Universal & Unique
The process of deepening into awakening and our humanity can be expressed in many ways.
It is a deepening into the one and the many, into the whole and the part, into the absolute and the relative, into the impersonal and personal, and into the universal and the unique.
Deepening into the one, the whole, the absolute, the impersonal and the universal, allows for a deepening into the many, the parts, the relative, the personal and the unique. And the other way around. Deepening into one allows the other to deepen.
It is also interesting to look at how each of these appear in many different ways and at several levels (infinite ways and levels, deepening on how we slice it).
For instance, the universal is found at a human level. Everything in us is universally human, although with a unique flavor. And we can work with the universal at this level through various approaches, such as projections (seeing in my human self what I see in the larger world), the Byron Katie inquiry (this is what happens when we believe in any particular thought), the Big Mind process (the voices play themselves out in similar ways for all of us), and so on.
The universal is found at the level of the world of phenomena. This universe is one seamless process, always reorganizing itself in different and new ways. It is all (part of) the same process. And the Earth is also one seamless process, reorganizing matter coming out of a number of supernovae - all our physical ancestors. The living Earth is solar energy transforming and animating matter. And so on.
And the universal is found at the transcendent level. Everything - beyond and including all polarities - is God, Buddha Mind, Allah, Brahman, Dao, Spirit and so on.
And these universalities are always expressed in finite, personal, unique ways, including in each of our lives. It all comes out filtered differently, in each aspect of the whole and in the present. It is always different from any other aspect, and always new, different and fresh.
Every aspect of existence, including our human life, is completely universal and completely unique. It cannot be any other way.