One of the issues that comes up in discussing and understanding Buddhism is the shift away from a mystical "One-ness" (which becomes just another word for God in my way of thinking) to a shift in paradigm to seeing the flow of change as a unity or equality in being. For some Buddhists and New Age thinkers, consciousness becomes that "One" thingy - expanding to a personal, permanent soul, and flowing into a stream of "collective consciousness".

I personally find that the true power of Buddhism actually comes from stripping all the mystical out of things. I also believe that while we don't know all there is to know about this remarkable wetware of a brain we have, we will continue to discover more about what consciousness is as a function of being alive. The Consciousness Studies Homepage discusses many of these issues and is an excellent resource.