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Most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a very restricted circle of their potential being. They make very small use of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little finger.

William James

Wholeness is the concept that we contain all potentials for any action, thought, emotion or feeling. While we do not express all our potentials, we know that they are within us. These "potentials" are the elements that are aspects of energy. Energy is the substance of which true self is composed, thus each of us contains all designs that we express into the physical, emotional, and mental dimensions. In this wholeness, we have the capacity to display either pole of any duality such as good and bad, generous and selfish, productive and lazy. All are manifestations of designs. We do not deny any aspect of ourselves, even when we make mistakes while we learn how to perform intuitively, effectively, and lovingly in our interactions. Wholeness exists as a principle even if we do not acknowledge it. When, we consciously acknowledge our wholeness, we develop a willingness to work with it, to develop our ability to express ourselves.

The word wholeness comes from the Saxon word, "Hal," from which we derive the words, "whole," "hale," and "hello" a greeting by which we wish wholeness upon someone. These words are also related to "holy" and "health".

The characteristics of wholeness.

-Wholeness is coming to terms. This "coming to terms" starts with an acknowledgment of the world as it is, inside of us and outside of us. We know that we cannot repress or ignore that which confronts us but instead we must create peaceful, constructive relationships because we intuit that these things have something to contribute to our wholeness, life, health, and success. We come to terms even if the conditions are currently disturbing, painful, or apparently negative. Underlying each of those unpleasant conditions is a design of life that we can understand and then express in a more productive form.
-Wholeness is expansiveness. It is an acknowledgment that all parts of ourselves and our world are not autonomous, they are members of one large system. When we recognize this system, we realize that it has a synergistic character, and that "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts".
-Wholeness is individuality. Wholeness is not an, oceanic oneness, on the contrary, in the first step toward wholeness, we differentiate and clarify the parts. We separate our ego from our potential internally, and from social conformity, externally. We attain wholeness with those distinct parts that make us individual, as we understand our relationship to them.
-Wholeness is relationship.We are individuals but we are also a part of many dynamic systems such as family, culture, or the universe. Neither the individual person nor the individual parts of the psyche can be viewed or understood separately, because of this relationship. The elements interact on a on to one basis, but each interplay ultimately reverberates through the entire system, affecting all other parts. We are part of a synchronized, organic, interdependent whole, like the organs of the human body. Even if we are simply studying the individual self, we must remember that one part of that self is our social interface. This interface is like the handle on a tea cup, that is part of the cup, but it is that which connects to something else. We cannot understand the cup without understanding also the aspect of it that extends its structure and purpose beyond itself.
-Wholeness is balance. We have an equal respect for every aspect of our life, thus, we do not favor any one part at the expense of the others. We don't spend an inordinate amount of time developing ourselves physically at a health club when we need instead to give more time to our family. Out of this base of equal respect, we do allow values to emerge, making one thing more valuable than another, but we recognize that the contrary is also worthwhile in its own time. If we value commitment as a virtue, we also honor our opposing desire for freedom. We accept both sides of our dualities, knowing that the characteristics we have selected to define our ego are there only because they serve our purposes at this time. They are not innately better than the material that is in our potential. If we insist on one side or the other we are fighting the dynamics and we are darkening our repressions. Instead, we can bear the tension of our opposites, enduring the continual conflicts between our light and dark, our kindness and cruelty, etc.. If we patiently abide the struggle, we learn from each side and we observe a solution emerging from the paradox, arising not by rational arbitration or compromise but by the synthesizing grace of our true self.
-Wholeness is having a center. This center is our true self. The center gives purpose to our activities. We are not performing unrelated acts, but rather we are choosing acts that are coordinated to move us in a particular direction in life, toward the fulfillment of meaningful goals.
-Wholeness is subject to three common fallacies. In Necessary Wisdom, Charles M. Johnston, M.D., described three errors that can occur in our quest for wholeness:
- Separation fallacy. This is dualistic thinking, right and wrong, me and you, us and them, leaders and followers, teachers and students, and good guys and bad guys. In the separation fallacy, we do not recognize common qualities and intent between the opposites in a duality.
-Unity fallacy. In contrast to the separation fallacy, the unity fallacy attempts to reduce us all to a common, bland, featureless homogeneity. The unity fallacy is a category error, trying to achieve a oneness in the human condition when in fact oneness exists only in the realm of spirit.
-Compromise fallacy. Like the unity fallacy, the compromise fallacy strives to create fairness, but it does so at the expense of individuality and genius. Johnston says that in this fallacy, we consider various opinions and then we split the difference. We degrade brilliance in order to meet mediocrity half way.

Our journey toward wholeness is a return to wholeness.

We start our infancy in a state of wholeness where we do not recognize ourselves as being distinct from our surroundings and our mother. Eventually, we discover that we are a separate individual. We develop our ego and its outer world manifestations, career, home, family, and social presence. During this ego building phase, we claim particular traits to constitute our ego and we push the opposite traits in to our potential. When we become aware of our true self our perceptions change and we are propelled back toward wholeness. This regained wholeness, however, is not like the amorphous, oceanic wholeness of infancy, it is a crisply defined system based upon conscious integration of our inner and outer worlds.

Next Topic: Individuation