The whole thing
Wholeness often relates to many contexts of human development and wellness. In psychology, therapists generally use it to describe our main source of happiness and selfconfidence. In philosophy, metaphysicians use wholeness to describe a kind of unity with self and the environment, and ethicists relate it to a flexible nature grounded in virtue. Elsewhere it is linked to completeness, self-possessed judgment, being ‘the author of oneself as a unique individual’ (Nehamas and Ricoeur). Despite their various forms, these descriptions unite at one single point: in whole acceptation of the present state of affairs through the faith that pushes us towards more sustainable, more inspiring ones. To be whole is to connect thoughts and actions to the whole. It’s therefore an exercise, not an emotional destination. The result is that each of our particular actions finds a confident place in the world. Mindfulness can conversely be commercialized or reach the end of its self-reflective rope if it neglects connecting beyond yoga mats, books, kirtans, and silent retreats. This can cause a confused state of disconnection with the world. In the end, we see that it is integrative behavior, the kind that listens with an open heart and daringly refuses groupthink, which eventually finds wholeness. We are reminded of Dostoevsky’s paradox: Grouping foils the pursuit of wholeness, but only ‘idiots’ communicate with everyone and thing. The prince is an idiot because he expressly opens his emotional gates to exercise the wholeness which is love itself. Because of this he embodies social recovery: the antidote for most of man’s addictions. This type of simplicity, of a soul who trades ego for love, Dostoevsky gives the mark of lasting genius. When readers understand the apparent irony, the prince, shamelessly naïve and flawlessly simple, is elevated above the other characters who are satirized for their serpentine vanities. They, like so many others, are waiting for wholeness, since they will only cease to be sick when they are sick of their sicknesses.