How We Become Whole

I’d like to acknowledge my gratitude toward John and Joyce Weir, our mentors and founders of Percept language, which we now refer to as Perception Language. John passed away in 2006. A few days ago, I was considering what it was exactly, that made John so remarkably different from any of the other teachers in my life.

Primarily, John was emotionally healthier than any of my other teachers. In John there was one whole person. There were no hidden versions of John Weir.  He was not overly concerned with what other people thought of him. He was never trying to be John Weir. He was John Weir.  He was who he appeared to be.

Now, I will say that, generally, I had my radar up with all my teachers. I was particularly sensitive to people not being who they seemed to be. From John, I got no confusing messages and there were no surprises.

Before John, there was one enduringly helpful teacher who was full of wisdom, yet never let himself be seen.  It was as though he had a role to play, and played it well, but he could not let himself be known to me.

Other teachers, particularly meditation teachers, at times had a Buddha like presence, but in difficult moments, behind the wizards’ curtain, they would fall quickly down to human realms with the rest of us.  One powerful Zen master I studied with was secretly being inappropriate with his student nuns for years. I did benefit from his teachings, but in the end, I disappointed myself, realizing he was not who I thought he was.

John, on the other hand, was comfortable letting himself be known, at least all of himself that he had, so far, discovered. Even in his 90’s John was looking to discover more about himself, but by then most of John had already shown up.

Why was he so congruent? Because he had discovered and revealed most of what he found in himself.  And what he found was then fully integrated. In the process of integrating all of who he discovered, he was becoming whole.

John taught us about the power of self-differentiation, becoming aware of all parts of ourselves and revealing those parts to others, so to have these parts witnessed. In his opinion, and now mine, this is the golden key to growth…growth being one of the primary purposes for being here. And personal growth is a sure guarantee for a more interesting, more peaceful and happier life.

One significant thing I realize is that in order to reveal deeper parts of ourselves, we need to first begin to accept these parts before we will be willing to reveal them. For example, if I have a jealous part, I won’t reveal this part for others to witness, until I have some degree of acceptance of my jealousy.  In the Live Conscious orientation, we learn to accept these parts because we stop judging ourselves.

The act of revealing and being witnessed consummates the integration. As we integrate more of ourselves, we become whole. And when we become whole, we free ourselves up to live our own lives, be more naturally who we are, be more creative and spontaneously alive.

This then ties in beautifully with the process of the 5 A’s in Live Conscious. These steps are needed for growth (and thus change): Aware, Accept, Ask, Await, and Act.

To really incorporate this perspective into your life, it is necessary to experience this practice first hand in one of our Live Conscious Retreats.

 

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