Or perhaps we merge into some sort of spiritual oneness

Perhaps. But this seems to presuppose that the soul has its origin in spiritual oneness too, emerges from that oneness as a personal being, and then returns to that oneness again.

This leaves many questions to be answered.

• How and why, from that oneness, would personality emerge?

 

• Why, from oneness, should a plurality of personal beings appear? Why in so many varieties? And what could determine what those varieties will be?

 

• And why would the living being automatically return to that oneness again?

The idea that personal beings somehow spring forth from an impersonal oneness runs into problems like the ones mentioned above. But even supposing it’s true, why suppose that at death we automatically merge into oneness again?

Of course, we can speculate that only some of us do, or that we do so only under certain circumstances. But then we’re back to the original question: What happens to the rest of us, or where do we go meanwhile? That is, If personality does survive, where does it go?