Wholism
The
subject of Wholism is really about what I call 'wholistic resonance'. A
beautiful and magical subject. Not so much a 'force' as 'power with', (shared
power as distinct from power over someone or something), which is an expression
of radiant love. Not man-woman type love, but a whole encompassing love. A caring
and sharing for and with others and with other species, other races and with our
planetary environment, and indeed, with existence at large.
I would define
Wholism as follows: Wholism is a system of life and existence
in which all things and all beings are recognised as being closely connected and
interrelated. They exist and live in a state of mutual support (symbiotic relationship)
resulting in overall benefit to all. Although on the physical plane we have separate
bodies, we are part of the one being of this Earth. And at the highest level of
our inner existence, the state of being separate is found to be an illusion, and
we become there part of the unity and oneness of All-being. The realisation of
this should bring peace, fulfilment and greater harmony to this world.
Corollary: Any gross departure from a wholistic way of life creates alienation.
The accumulation of all such departures is responsible for the social, personal
and planetary ills that exist in the world.
It is in the direction of wholistic
living that our civilisation, in what has been called the Aquarian Age, is destined
to travel - attuned to, and within the true spirit of God. Not in the following
of a man-made patriarchal image which is a misunderstanding of the real nature
of Divine Being. Wholism is in tune with Universal-being, or Universal-mind, or
whatever you may call it within your own personal structure of ideas.
The
ancient Chinese were wholistically oriented. They likened the Earth to an animal
body. They said that the mountains were like the bones, the soil like the flesh
or the skin and the rivers akin to the blood and veins.
Wholistic living
harmonises and resonates both within our being, (our inner dimensions and spaces)
and with our activity in the world which we share on the physical plane with other
people, with other races, with other species, and with our environment. Within
the sphere of planet Earth (of which our own bodies are a part), we are mere extensions,
born of Mother Earth herself.
Perhaps you have heard of the 'Gaia' principle.
Gaia was the Greek Earth-Mother Goddess of the ancient world, the Mother Nature
principle. Since the 1970's, scientists were beginning to examine the 'Gaia Hypothesis',
a theory put forward about 1970 by a British geo-chemist, James Lovelock, who
was with the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
when he originated the hypothesis. "The entire range of living matter on
Earth, from whales to viruses, from oaks to algae, could be regarded as constituting
a single living entity", he wrote. And this super life-form made up of its
myriad sub life-forms, is "capable of manipulating the Earth's atmosphere
to suit its individual needs and endowed with faculties and powers far beyond
its constituent parts.
Now to look at another and most important part
of the subject of wholism. It is everything to do with becoming whole in the fullest
sense of the word. Therefore we must have a really good look at all of the areas
of existence to see what are our possible potentials that may not as yet be fulfilled.
We should bear in mind that a wholistic existence doesn't just mean wholeness
for human beings, but also for all of life and our planet, its eco-system and
our relationship with all of it, and as part of it all. If we pollute the environment
or damage the eco-system, we, as part of it are damaged and become less than whole
(unwholesome).
As we have to start somewhere, we will begin by looking
at human existence and our various potentials and the areas of consciousness that
we should encompass if we are to be truly whole. This brings us to the subject
of the various modes of being which are often referred to as levels, realms, planes,
domains, or territories of being. Some of the major schools of thought in the
field of the study of human consciousness state that there are several realms
or modes of being with which our consciousness is engaged. A mode of being refers
to how our consciousness functions in a different way within each of these various
domains.
I have seen several slightly different versions of the 'levels of
being'. Sometimes the differences are really only differences in terminology,
and differences in the ways the words we use are defined. Sometimes the differences
reflect that we don't all have access to the same pieces of the 'jigsaw-puzzle'
of the understanding of life and existence as do some others, which is only natural
as we all have our own individual pathways and experience. The important thing
is not that there are differences in the way we perceive these levels. The importance
here is to bring to awareness within humankind in general that there really are
different levels or modes of being which are part of our own life-stream. And
further to that, an understanding that the different modes each act in accord
with different sets of laws. Sometimes these are similar and parallel, and other
times not. But this knowledge is necessary if people are to understand life, and
themselves, with enough insight to take part in creating a better 'adventure'
on this planet than is yet existing.
Broadly speaking, the realms or modes
of a person's existence, as I perceive them are as follows:
| | | The
transpersonal mode
The spiritual mode
The soul mode
The mode of intuition
The
mental mode
The mode of emotion, and of psychic energies
(sometimes called
the astral mode).
The mode of body healing and maintenance
(sometimes called
the etheric mode).
The physical mode
(includes
our physical existence and our
physical world and environment, and the physical
universe
at large i.e., everything that's fashioned from stardust). |
Most
metaphysicians would tell you that when the physical body dies we still continue
to exist and operate independently of the physical mode. The list of the realms
and modes above give an indication of some of the areas we might still be operating
in when our lives in the physical domain come to an end. We will look at these
various domains in a little more detail shortly. We should also look at how the
various levels and domains of existence relate and interact - or at least, how
they would do if we allowed them to. As a prerequisite for this it's necessary
to be willing to experience our beingness as operating within these different
modes, and to perceive how they differ from one another. If you were a motor car
and you acted as if your wheels were for motive power, your engine for traction,
and your gears were for acceleration, you would be in some strife in your existence
as a motor vehicle. You would suffer and be a rather unwell motor car, not functioning
very well at all!
I think this is much of a parallel with what I'm saying
about the different modes and levels in which our life force is invested. They
are parts or areas of our existence, each possessed of various faculties and having
the purpose of fulfilling different functions, and yet, together making up one
complete whole. We need to be experiencing them and using them for what they're
meant, rather than for what they're not meant! Otherwise we as beings are not
functioning properly and will sooner or later have problems, ailments and illnesses,
and not at all what you would call living wholistically.
A great many
people on our planet are very busily going about aware only of themselves as physical/animal
bodies. They have contact with mind and emotions and other modes and abilities,
but think of these as part of their physical selves, which they are not. They
are representative of different modes, different spheres of being, different levels
of energy from physical energy, but impinging on and interacting in an integrated
fashion with the physical plane of existence via the medium of the physical body.
Some
modes of being with which we are involved are not very 'real' to some people,
either because they didn't use them properly (as in the example of the car, given
earlier) and so lost control and withdrew (or even suppressed them). In some cases
it is because little effort has been made to exercise a particular mode of being,
and so the faculties attached to it have withered and atrophied.
A good
example of misusing a mode of being is in the area of the emotions. There are
those who misuse emotion by trying to use it against others as a weapon in various
ways, like making others feel guilty, or using it to control, and to put down
others. Eventually it ceases to work, and recoils upon the subject who then may
withdraw from showing much emotion. Or someone may be so overwhelmed by grief
and anger as a result of major losses in life that instead of unburdening their
feelings to gain relief, they suppress their feelings, and the emotional mode
becomes wooden.
Another common example is in the area of the soul. We can
be led to let the head rule the heart too much. In fact in our world this seems
to be regarded as a virtue because it allows us to obtain our objectives in life,
(though at the expense of our fellows and of the environment). Sometimes this
leads to the usurping of the soul mode by the mind, to the extent that the soul-impulses
of care for the welfare of others can become totally submerged in a person's life.
This accounts for much of man's inhumanity to man at an individual level and to
many social ills when it happens at the group or national level.
Examples
that come easily to mind are the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis during World
War 2, or in Bosnia and in Kosovo in the 1990's, and more recently from terrorists,
and the reaction to them by the USA. in Iraq, resulting in the deaths of over
twenty- thousand civilians as well as an almost total breakdown in law and order
there.
Were we but able to have mankind in general come to realise how
destructive such malaise is to personal morale, and the fulfilment of the 'inner
person', and how destructive it is at the social level, we would have a much happier,
healthier world. Less crime, less conflict, less starvation, and much less of
many other ills such as drug use to substitute for a lack of a sense of inner
fulfilment.
All of the above gives us an indication of the direction in
which holistic healing and therapy (a sub-section of Wholism) could be moving
in the future. Holistic healing is supposed to take into account the whole person.
I notice that people promoting 'holistic' healing and therapies often only address
one or perhaps two at the most of their client's modes of being. Often the approach
is still only directed to the physical body of the person. If no general survey
or assessment of all of the client's areas of existence is done, it may be an
alternative therapy, but not particularly holistic.
Holistic therapy should
begin with a skilled survey by one who understands all of the areas where a person
could be having troubles or disharmonies, which not having been remedied soon
enough, have broken out into the physical or emotional modes as upsets or illnesses
of one kind or another. Such a person might well require a physical or emotional
therapy. But if not helped in the areas and levels of being where the energy modes
went wrong, there will be a relapse, or perhaps there will be a new malaise instead.
A person, who is able to consult a client and fully survey all areas of being,
and how all of his relationships in them are functioning, might well make a profession
of such a set of skills. Such a person could be paid to assess which areas of
the person's life and existence need help, guidance or therapy, and to provide
lists of people who are effective in giving aid in those areas.
Now it's
time to give a brief description of the various modes and levels of existence
that were listed a little earlier.
(1.) The one that we are very focussed upon
is of course the physical/biological mode. This includes the physical universe
at large, our planet Earth, and the vehicles for human consciousness that we call
human bodies. Also included are the many other life forms, and the general and
specific environments in which we live.
(2.) Impinging upon, and interpenetrating
with our biological forms is another level of our beingness called the etheric
mode, which is concerned with maintaining body and healing flows. Perhaps an example
relating to this would be what is referred to in oriental medicine as 'chi' energy,
the energy that the Chinese consider as being the universal or primary energy
of life forms. It is said to flow along 'meridians' within the human body. These
are what is treated in subjects like acupuncture and shiatsu which remedy whatever
healing energy flows have become blocked.
(3.) The next realm is the astral
world or level. This is the world of emotional and psychic forces, and where we
create and experience the forms of energy known as 'thought-forms' (images powered
by emotional force, i.e., affinity, antipathy, happiness, anger, hate, enthusiasm,
grief, and all the other emotions that make up the full spectrum). Here we observe
our own created thought-forms, and possibly those created by others, and by other
entities. This territory, (as with most levels), is said to be made up of several
sub-levels, one of which contains the world of the dream state, and another the
world of archetypes and archetypal energies.
(4.) Now we come to another very
familiar mode of consciousness, the realm of the human mind. Here again we have
various strata of the level. Some of the important of these are:
The levels
involving symbols
The functions of memory
Three-dimensional mind-space,
and the placing within it of images or mental pictures, and the faculty of the
imagination
Conditioned ideas and attitudes
that we form, especially in
childhood
Reasoning and calculation
Analysis and synthesis
Intellectual
activity
Apprehension and interpretation
of sensory data
(5.) The mode
of intuition, which is in operation when we receive immediate understanding from
somewhere without any activity on the part of the mind. Also, we may shelve working
on a difficult problem, and then on a later occasion wake up from sleep with a
real understanding on how best to deal with the problem, and yet when we had tried
mentally to solve it, we could make no headway!
(6.) The realm of the inner
soul, which part of our being has been likened to our window to God. If kept clean
and clear (by wholesome and generally ethical behaviour and a sense of closeness
with our fellow human beings), spiritual energies and a benevolent radiance can
come through into all areas of our existence from the Domain of the Transcendental.
The less we have allowed this territory of our being to become atrophied, through
lack of being exercised, the less we are affected by the heavier areas of emotional
problems and mental rigidity. The quality of forgiveness is a soul quality, and
when exercised, dissolves and resolves heaviness of heart and the feeling of being
alien, and apart from others. The soul is aligned with the spiritual quality of
relating to others with love, sharing and caring and so is the universal solvent
of hostility and alienation.
(7.) The world of inspiration and spiritual energies
that are available to anyone who keeps an open soul, whether the person is a follower
of some religion or not. This is also the spiritual level of consciousness. It
involves activities concerned with the fullest and deepest realities of life,
devotional activity, states of prayer and communion, and sometimes the giving
of self in service to life and to humanity. It resonates in fullness and wholeness
with Universal Being, Cosmic Consciousness, or God, call it what you will, whether
in its transcendental (outside or beyond the world of time and space) or its immanent
(inhabiting the world of time and space) aspect.
(8.) The transpersonal area
of being, which is where we transcend our illusion of separateness of the 'ego'
and experience that at this level we are part of a 'oneness' or unity of the whole
of mankind and of existence as a whole.
A close inspection of ones own
involvement with these various modes of consciousness will probably bring to mind
some examples of experience with many of them. Some may find difficulty recalling
instances of one or another of them, in particular the last one, which is generally
obscured by what those versed in metaphysics would call 'the veils of illusion'.
Each
of these levels of consciousness is based on a different mode of space/time, and
so each one is governed by a different set of laws. But they do have interfaces
where they connect with and influence each other. The physical level is composed
of the densest and 'heaviest' form of energy of all of the levels. Then each one
further on the list is less dense or 'heavy' than the one listed before it, until
we find the lightest and least dense progressively at numbers 5,6, and 7 above.
There
are many other interesting things about these different modes of existence, their
uses and purposes, and the part they play in the evolution of human consciousness.
Ultimately,
we are meant to be working in a closely co-operating whole and integrated way
with all of them at the same time. But we have not necessarily yet evolved to
that point. Most of us find that we have to resolve some level of conflict between
one or two of them. Each of them can be like tides that pull or push us in different
directions of behaviour. For example, conflict between the 'heart' and the 'head',
or between the mind and the soul. All can pull us in different directions until
we discover that we only become fully whole and integrated, and free of inner
conflict when we centre our consciousness (reside) within the lighter and less
dense levels. We do not then let the mind or emotions usurp control from the inner
soul.
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