Wholeness is the foundation of the holistic lifestyle. To live such a lifestyle is to look in the mirror of the mind and see who we are. And to see who we are – infinite consciousness – is to experience the highest of all experiences: self-realization.
Why is this state of being so hard to attain? It’s because we have an ancient habit of taking oneness and replacing it with multiplicity. That’s what we do when we identify with our name, our reputation, or our physical form. In reality we are beyond all of that. But we become attached to form. And wholeness evades us.
Many seek but so few find. We may strive for wholeness but our lives are habitually filled with fragmentation. We always seem to say “I am this” or I am that.” We put limits and boundaries on the unlimited and the boundless.
To enter each moment of life fully is to step into the unlimited and boundless. When we are able to do that we are free from entanglements of the past and desires of the future. Life becomes devoid of expectation.
Why do we want to take the ocean and put it in a bottle? It doesn’t make sense but that is what the mind does. It categorizes, it labels, it distinguishes. It doesn’t allow life to just be. It has to control it, to manipulate it, to bottle it up. We cut up paradise into 1/4 acre lots.
We postpone life when we are full of desire. “I will be alive when…I will be alive then….I will be alive if…” But this is nonsense. I am alive now. And now. And now. Each moment is full of aliveness. No moment is any less or more. In the current moment life simply is. It unfolds.
Everybody wants freedom but so few know how to attain it. Our essence is infinite and yet we reduce ourselves to tiny imbeciles trying to fulfill our desires that we think will make us happy. Bliss is our essence but we don’t know it. We look for wholeness and meaning everywhere except within.
Some people decide if a day is good or bad by the weather, some by the newspaper headlines, or the stock market, or how their sports team did the night before. This is madness. I have fallen into the trap way too many times, especially when I was a young man.
It wasn’t until my world fell apart that I experienced bliss. That was freedom. No worries, no fears, just an experience of being. That’s how life becomes whole for many people. Delusions are shattered when they hit bottom.
We chase after mirage after mirage, and with each disappointment our thirst is increased. It is only when we learn to quench our thirst from our internal and eternal fountain of bliss that we realize what we are in essence. Our purpose in life is to go from “I am thirsty” to “I am the Ocean.” That’s wholeness.
When we can understand that our bodies are merely vehicles of spirit, we can become detached from the body’s demands. When a car no longer serves our purpose, we trade it in for a new one. Similarly with the body, we can let it go. We are not that. It is no different from a car we get into. When the time comes for another one, we get another one. If we have more lessons to learn before we can truly realize who we are, we take another body
If we know who we are, we can just detach from what was once ours – name, family, possessions, power, reputation-and experience the state of “I am.” Not “I am this” or “I am that,” just “I am.”
Wholeness — The Significance of Life
That is the whole purpose and significance of life – to transcend form and realize our true nature as formlessness – as consciousness. Timeless consciousness. Wholeness. Beyond fear, beyond worry, beyond doubt.
How do we get there – to this state of consciousness? To this state of whoeness? By living life fully. By letting go of the past. By experiencing each moment as it is.
There are no good or bad moments – there are just moments lived fully. There are moments that are more challenging than others, but that is not a negative, that is an opportunity.
If life were meant to be a vacation, we would never have left that realm of the spirit where souls experience life between lives. We have a purpose – to discover being.
It’s not easy. But life is not meant to be easy. It’s meant to be experienced – deeply. Who do you think had the more joy – Mother Theresa working with the poor and the lepers of India, or the son of a billionaire who takes it easy and never works a day in his life? Joy comes from the clear vision of seeing who we are.
Joy and easy are two different things.
Life becomes painful when we take it personally. “Why is this happening to me?” “I give up.” “Life’s too hard.”
Life becomes an opportunity when we can become an observer. This brings in the role of consciousness. When I can observe myself being a husband, or a father, or a writer, I can experience it as an experience. But when I identify myself as a husband, father, or writer, I diminish myself and my experience. I become attached. I become limited. And I lose perspective of my essence, which is beyond form.
Life is meant to be an opportunity, not an obsession. I think when we make the transition from the spirit world to the physical realm, sometimes the meaning of it all gets lost in translation. And then we suffer. But that’s OK because the suffering eventually frees us from the delusion of attachment, the delusion of clinging to illusion. Wholeness is waiting for us when we let go.
We’ll get it right one of these days. Just don’t cling too hard. I like how Elisabeth Kubler-Ross put it: “I’m not OK and you’re not OK but that’s OK.”
