The Whole

It is impossible for the outside observer to see the whole of you from outside, for the whole of you includes that observer. Each time that observer moves further away to include more of you, he positions himself at the next level, which he then needs to move back from so that he can view that level as well - and so on, in an infinite regress.

The only way to find the Whole is to return back through all the layers to the Centre, and in coming to this nothingness, to then turn around and look out, and see that you contain the Whole. (You must return to your centre, he to his.) You cannot grow to become the Whole, but only return to the place of nothingness at the centre where you are the receptacle for the Whole as it is given to you in this moment. Being the Whole is not an achievement, but a discovery.

This corresponds to the mystic's journey towards God, travelling through all the levels of light and darkness, to find that the longed-for Goal, the Beatific Vision, eludes him/her. He/she must in a sense give up this growth towards God, towards being the Whole, which can so easily be a spiritual ego-trip, and return to having nothing, being nothing, wanting nothing - the simple truth of the centre. The attempt to know all things fails and is replaced by knowing nothing. In this 'dark night', in this 'emptiness' and 'nothingness' is discovered the Goal which all along was right where one is, which contains all things. The paradox of the ongoing and expanding knowledge of things and the utter ignorance or 'not-knowing' of the centre, the union of these two aspects of oneself, leads us to "wonder, delight, awe and utter self-humbling in face of the total Mystery." (D.E. Harding, The Hierarchy of Heaven and Earth.)

Thus the Whole and the Centre fit together perfectly, and this, along with all the levels in between, is who you really are.