Whole

Everybody has favorite concepts we live with and elaborate over the years. Deepening, refining them, proving them and exploring them. Sometimes we realize only much later that this is so - and what this has meant and means for our sense of individuality. In a way it is vital to have a focus, because of the infinite aspects of infinite topics and the meaning of life as service and expression. True mastery stems from dedication, right? "...and is seen only in the details", as a friend of mine noted comparing amateurs and professionals. Coming from music studies and linking his comment to the stunning perfection of Bach's music in which every single note has its perfect and wonderful relationship to the whole, I agree. 

In my case my favorite spiritual concept and topic for my human experience is that all is one. When I started a regular and deep Bible study as a student in middle school, I saw it everywhere. Aspects of this spiritual fact include a deep understanding in prayer that there is only one Life. This insight and what it means spiritually resulted in the permanent healing of migraine headaches of a family member. An application of the oneness of goodness overcame several situations in the workplace and notions of national stereotypes (I wrote about it here). Character transformation is probably the deepest effect of this daily focus. "God is not part, but the whole," writes Mary Baker Eddy in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 102, and being the whole means: God is All. 

I had already for years prayed and worked practically daily to understanding the oneness of Life, until I realized that I was doing it. I had already given a talk on the topic "Man is one" at an Italian Youth conference on spirituality, written articles in the Christian Science periodicals and experienced several stunning healings on the way, yet never really connected the dots - it feels natural to live with this idea every day. What this tells me is that God is working with each one of us in an individual way, and that this unity is more felt than reflected upon. It is a practice, not a theory.

With humility and joy we can catch glimpses of oneness every day. Behind every effort for healing, peacemaking, reconciling, overcoming divisions and fractions, is the powerful spiritual law of oneness. This is the basis why these efforts are successful - and why they started in the first place. Everything is already spiritually whole and complete, and striving to understand this fundamental truth about the nature of Life is really not the starting point but the result of this supreme law in operation. 

In a current article in the Christian Science Journal Patricia Tupper Hyatt touches on this subject in a deeply inspiring way. She adds, I find, another fundamental aspect to the understanding of the spiritual law of oneness. One might think that oneness means something like a puzzle, with each piece needed for the wholeness of the image, but that is not all to it. There is more. She writes: "God’s supremacy does not have limited or hit-or-miss expression in single individuals. Each one of us represents the whole of God’s being in an individual way. And when we know a spiritual truth, we know that it is true for all of God’s creation and that it has all the authority of God behind it. While God does need all of us to express Him fully, we each reflect His infinite power." Her article elaborates this idea beautifully and shares a powerful healing. You can find the full article here.

The whole is expressed not just partially, but fully in each on of us. When someone at a meeting commented recently how only a few people were present, it came to me to propose this: "Well yes, but lets explore not the fullness in the room, but the fullness in man. Each one of us is a little universe." And we did. And experienced no lack, but completeness that evening. Have a whole day!