Part and Whole

Inner Frontier
Fourth Way Spiritual Practice

Inner Work

For the week of: March 25, 2002

Part and Whole

We have this body. We have these feelings. We have this mind. Body, feelings, and mind: each has a life of its own. They hardly know or acknowledge each other except when forced to, as in illness. We speak without feeling what we say. Our mind protests our physical appetites and recoils at our emotional excesses. Our body ignores our mind’s would-be yoke of discipline. Our feelings both “love” and hate the same object.

Yet exceptional moments of wholeness do come, with all our parts in agreement, coordinated, and effective. Such moments offer a glimpse of the possible. To increase that wholeness beyond accidental glimpses, to reintegrate our fractured nature, we practice the path of inner work and spiritual transformation.

One way toward wholeness starts in noticing our inner divisions. For this, we seek to know our parts. We intentionally stay in contact with our body through sensation. Beginning with sensing parts, say an arm or a leg, we eventually work our way up to sensing our whole body. That gives us the stability to see our thoughts as thoughts and our emotions as emotions.

Moving further into the path of self-integration, through more awareness and self-acceptance, we consciously embrace all our parts into our unique wholeness. Rather than live a part of our life, we seek to live the whole of it. However, attempting to force the issue deepens our inner divisions rather than bringing wholeness. Instead we work toward a more complete awareness of ourselves. Within the inclusive tent of consciousness, our parts naturally find their rightful relationships.

For this week, focus on seeing your parts as parts, seeing them in action, loosely connected.

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