Understanding Oneness

Most of the time we explain Oneness or Brahman or Universe or God along the lines that we are a part of a greater whole. This is the easy part.
The not so easy part is how, even as parts, we are also wholes. As above, so below. How the microcosm and the macrocosm are the same. How, even in this appearance of being finite we are infinite.
If the whole is other than the sum of its parts, then it should be clear that wholeness is a quality that cannot be acquired through a quantitative summation. Infinity is not a number
I may define myself as a part of a greater whole. I may start with being a part of my family, and then a part of my community, my state, my nation, the human race and so on. At each level of self-definition, my distinctions progressively reduce from the particular to the general. The progressive reduction of personal defining characteristics unifies me with an ever greater whole.
And yet a rose is not just a part of a rose plant nor is it just another flower
A rose is a rose is a rose
In the process of generalisation, something vital is being lost.
So it is not enough to say that Oneness is the outcome of a generalisation towards an ever increasing basis for unification. For in the process of unification through generalisation we are at risk of losing the vitality of the particular. We are losing the magnificent and unique beauty of the rose. We are at risk of trivializing the supreme, the divine quality of the rose, that enables it to stand out defiantly and bloom in its own perfection and glory
So then just as we believed that the whole is other than the sum of its parts, so also the greatest defining characteristic of the particular is always greater than any characteristic we may ascribe to it. No matter how deeply and sincerely we praise the beauty of the rose, our praise will always fall short of the deeper definition that truly makes a rose a rose.
The moral of the story is that the more we unite with the universe, the more do we rejoice in the glory of our own unique natures. As Jesus said, “Cast thy bread unto the waters and it shall be returned to you a thousandfold”
The less we cling to our self-defining identities, the more is our true self returned to us.