Wholly-ness A part can never be anything—even though given a new identity—but a fragment of a shattered whole. The meaning of part is “a portion of the whole.” Even a “complete” portion is only an incomplete part of wholeness. If we were to shatter a vase and reassemble it, even though all of its parts were present, we would normally say that the vase had lost its wholeness. A vase which is truly whole contains all elements, including its wholeness. In a sense, a universe contains all elements, and no parts are in conflict, because there are no ‘parts’ to be found. It is the nature of the human mind to separate everything into parts. Every “thing” in the universe is the thing, or fragment or shard, that it is, because the mind of man has extracted “objects” from wholeness and has named them as such. A thing, if we refer to its meaning, is “that which is distinguished to be a specific entity.” And it is the mind of man which does the distinguishing (L.: “pick apart”, differentiate), through the process of thought. And so it is the mind of man, his thought, which seizes ahold of a fragment of the actuality of the whole universe; and he identifies or names it as a separate, existing entity. This can be a convenience. Say, a baby is born at home. The father calls to report to the mother’s doctor. “Is the baby okay?” the doctor asks. By baby, he means this newly born “body.” “Yes, the body is whole,” the father replies. By body, he means every portion of the whole baby: arms, legs, head, eyes, toes, etc. “But,” the father continues, “there is a strange spot on the body.” The doctor says, “Oh, where is the spot? What part of the body?” But the body has no
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