~ Martin Buber (1878-1965),

Have you ever walked through an upscale neighborhood with fancy cars parked in the driveways, and found yourself wishing that you could live like them? “I wish I lived like that,” you might think to yourself as you walk back to your one-room apartment.

Or maybe you resent the good fortune of a friend. Perhaps he will be taking a trip around the world, while you are stuck in your dead-end job which you can’t quit, because you must pay down your credit cards. Or maybe you covet someone’s job, looks, or relationship.

All of this envy, so difficult to feel, is like the one-two punch of longing and felt deficiency right there in your solar plexus. What are we to do when other lives seem better than ours, and we feel envy?

I recall years ago, while taking a break during a retreat, I found myself sitting beside a man who had lived the very life I had once dreamed for myself. He was active on the boards of different international non-profits. He had published several books. He associated with persons I admired. He even coined a word which now is commonly used.

The more he talked, the more worthless my seemingly nondescript life felt. By the time the bell rang for us to return to session, I felt return to full force all the ambition I once had felt for that path which I had dreamed, but he had lived. I wondered whether I had made a mistake to have chosen the different path which I had taken through life’s woods. His life seemed like gold; mine like lead.

Again in session, sitting with and inquiring into the fog of envy which enveloped me, from deeper within there sprang to mind the image of a bee hive alive with bees tending to the honeycombs. With the image of the hive, emerged the thought that life is like a beehive, and we each have our own honeycombs to tend. The honeycombs of my fellow retreatant and I were of neither more or less value than each other. They were simply different. He had his life to tend; I had mine. Life, existence, Being – whatever you might call it, simply asked that we tend to our own honeycombs with diligence.

With this teaching from within, my envy then transformed spontaneously into a peaceful contentment for the givenness of my life. Of course, now and then envy returns. When it does, I remember the beehive and my honeycomb, and there returns a basic trust in the givenness of my life as it is and the course of its unique unfolding.

Neither is my life better nor worse than yours; neither is your life better nor worse than others whom you might envy. We’re all just different from each other. Personal authenticity asks that we live and respect that difference of our unfolding lives which are our very own honeycombs to tend.

Fritz Perls (1893-1970)
Gestalt psychotherapist,
in Gestalt Therapy Verbatim

Jason and Beth have started dating. They really like each other. Yet Jason is put off by Beth’s needing so much time to study for her degree. Feeling bored one evening, Jason calls Beth, and asks whether she can join him for a drink. “I’d like to, but I can’t tonight. I have to study,” she replies. He curtly ends the call, and wonders whether she’s worth it.

Sue finds herself in a difficult financial situation. She asks her best friend, Holly, for a loan. Holly considers Sue’s request, and then decides to not loan money to Sue. Sue feels hurt that her best friend would not help her. After all, “That’s what best friends are for!”

Partners Rory and Nick have different spiritual paths, one Christian, the other Buddhist. Over and over again Rory tries to point out the error of Nick’s ways, and Nick insists that his beliefs are his privilege. Finally in frustration, Rory warns Nick he’s uncertain whether they can remain partners.

It’s human to have expectations of others. It happens everyday. An expectation of another person is a belief that another person should act, think, or feel in a certain way. Yet the expectations which you have of others is your problem, not theirs. So too, the expectations which others have of you are not your problem.

In the above, Jason believes that a person who cares for him should make him a priority, overlooking that Beth has her own life and priorities to tend. Sue claims that best friends should lend money to each other, ignoring the boundary that the money belongs to Holly. Rory forgets that a person’s religious beliefs are a matter of his/her personal relation to the Mystery.

When insisted upon, expectations of you become demands which violate your personal boundaries. Boundaries delineate the living expression of your individuality. They include boundaries around your body, feelings, thoughts, preferences, values, beliefs, time, money, resources, actions, etc. Quite simply how you feel, think, value, spend your time and money, and act is the privilege of your individuality. Of course, you are responsible for such.

How other persons feel about your exercising your freedom is their privilege and their business, not yours. Sometimes they may agree. At other times they may disagree or not approve of you. Should another person insist upon the validity of his expectation of you, perhaps you might remind him that his expectation is his problem not yours, and he could benefit from seeing a counselor.

“What happened to the crow, Zorba?”

“Well, you see, he used to walk respectably, properly – well, like a crow. But one day he got it into his head to try and strut about like a pigeon. And from that time on the poor fellow couldn’t for the life of him recall his own way of walking. He was all mixed up, don’t you see? He just hobbled about.”

~ The character of Zorba in Zorba the Greek
by Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957),
Greek author, poet, and philosopher

Imagine two persons who at the end of their lives are identical in attainments. Two doctors – with the same degrees from the same school, both happily married with good children, living in identical houses, driving the same cars, etc., etc.. Yet why might one feel fulfilled while the other feel abject despair?

Or imagine two spiritual aspirants of seeming equal virtue who stand before the symbolic threshold of enlightenment. Their fellows know them both as industrious servants of humanity, generous, kind, compassionate, etc. Yet why might one cross over the threshold, while the other be turned away?

Perhaps the parents of the despairing doctor taught her that marriage, wealth, and status were the hallmarks of a successful life, and being a doctor was perhaps one of the most preeminent professions. So she repressed her heartfelt desire and nature to be an artist, whereas the fulfilled doctor followed her inner calling to help others by doctoring.

Maybe the turned away spiritual aspirant had assiduously studied the Buddha, Christ, and Krishna, and practiced modeling his behavior after their idealized excellence. Yet the other aspirant had meandered this way and that through his inner life to discover the natural excellence of his own nature, exemplified by those Great Ones.

It’s natural that we idealize others. We idealize their the looks, style, relationship, resume, confidence, knowledge, wisdom, etc. We idealize objects such as luxury cars, fancy houses, and wealth. We idealize values such as happiness, goodness, and spirituality. Who wouldn’t want such things? I do. Don’t you?

Yet the danger of idealization is that we may adopt what we idealize as part of our self-image, and seek to become our idealized self-image rather than become our own distinct self. By orienting ourselves to an external, idealized object, we may deafen ourselves to the callings of our own unique, authentic nature. By trying to actualize an ideal self-image, we may twist and distort our inborn nature.

The way of authenticity suggests that we seek first to actualize our inborn nature by following the twists and turns of its own unfolding guidance. Yes, we may be steered away from conformity, but of what value is conforming to a decaying culture? If at the end of our path we should arrive at the threshold of our Selves, our lives will have been well spent. And, if per chance we will have known what others idealize, then we will have been further graced.

Do you try to squeeze yourself into some ideal? Do you effort to be like someone else rather than yourself?

~ Richard Moss, MD,
Contemporary American spiritual teacher
in The Mandala of Being

What can we really know with certainty about the mysteries of existence? Yet somewhere on the planet today, like too many days before us, because of his or her religious convictions an adherent of one god will bludgeon to death an adherent of another god. But let’s put this religious certainty into perspective.

At birth, we’re thrown onto a rock whirling through dark nothingness at 67,000 mph. We are born naked, knowing absolutely nothing, possessing nothing – not even the language which later encodes our learning. Later death strips us of every possession we presumed was ours.

Between birth and death, amid the infinite Mystery in which we live and move and have our being, we comfort ourselves – with certitudes. They give our fragile egos something to grip so very, very tightly for security while we pass our days atop a rock floating in infinite darkness. Certainty provides security; “not knowing” reveals our existential uncertainty.

While our certitudes are many, they also are fragile. How many unknown gods lie dead and forgotten beneath crumbled temples buried in sand? How many unassailable religious doctrines, like the earth is the center of the universe, have proven to be nonsense? The frailty of our beliefs stems also from the fact that beliefs are word forms seeking in vain to encapture the ineffable; at best they are metaphors.

The fragility of our certainties reminds me of a poem of the Persian poet Hafiz, “Someone Should Start Laughing”. To borrow from Hafiz, I would comment ‘if you think your tiny head can comprehend infinity, someone should start laughing, someone should start wildly laughing.’

In part, psychological maturation expresses as an ability to tolerate uncertainty and a willingness to encounter the truth of our experience as it is. Like Hafiz, I do affirm the magnificent Mystery which surrounds us! Yet neither do I presume to know anything of this Mystery other than what I may have personally experienced to be true, nor do I give my intellect permission to overreach my humanity by trying to comprehend the infinite.

Perhaps it is the very arrogance of our religious certainties shackle and bind the sacred, and prohibit its beneficent influence from leavening our humanity. In this regard, to my way of thinking, it serves us more to remember what is not known, rather than what is thought to be known.

When you go outside today, take a moment to recall that you stand, walk, and drive on the surface of a rock which floats in a spacious nothingness that expands infinitely in all directions.

We humans walk around deaf, dumb, and blind to a secret of human anatomy. You might think that the great minds of modern science would have discovered it, but no! So, I’ll bust the secret open.

Contrary to popular opinion, you have four mouths, not one! Four!

Of course we all know the mouth that perches beneath the nose. Yet there’s also the mouth of your feelings – your heart. Your intellect also has a mouth. So too, your true nature or spiritual aspect.

Unfortunately, confusion reigns about how to nourish our humanity, resulting not only in simultaneous obesity and starvation, but also diseases in body and soul.

Others more knowledgeable than I can speak to you about nourishing your physical body. Regarding nourishing your feelings and heart, a daily diet rich in vitamins L(love), F(friendship), S1(self-soothing), S2(support), and others you might imagine have been found important for warding off unhappiness and depression. Research shows that another and another after-dinner snack are of no nutritional value for the heart.

Your intellect also has its own dietary requirements. Your skillful attention to feeding this mouth includes feeding yourSelf Vitamins N1(new experiences), N2(new ideas), A(the Arts), and even P(puzzles and games like Sudoku, chess). Failure to maintain a diet adequate in these nutrients may result in boredom, dullness, even mental decline. Contrary to public opinion, cookies and ice cream are not nutritional substitutes here.

Finally, your spiritual nature has the most intriguing dietary requirements. Often we overlook Vitamin H(honoring our humanity). Disparaging our humanity has been found to be toxic. Vitamins I (interest in the Mystery which surrounds you) and C (courage to develop your own personal spirituality) are essential as is Vitamin T(trust in true nature’s implicit beneficence). No, pretzels and chips are devoid of such nutrition. These and other similar vitamins will protect against nihilism and existential dread.

It seems that weekly television news reports about the epidemic of obesity which plagues our fellow citizens. I suspect in part it results from misunderstanding our nutritional requirements. We mistakenly feed our bodies, when it’s our hearts, minds, and souls which cry out with hunger.

How well are you feeding your own, precious humanity?

~Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter

Despite truthfulness being essential for an authentic life, we can deceive ourselves in innumerable ways. All to often we buffer ourselves from disappointment, unhappiness, and pain by avoiding things, not showing up in our lives, or lying to ourselves. But does putting your head in the sand really work?

Possibly you’re just not happy with your job, your partner, or your life, but changing would require too much effort and lead to an uncertain future. Your security is worth settling for less of a life, you tell yourself.

Maybe you drink a bit too much or get stoned every night or smoke cigarettes, and you tell yourself you could stop any time. Yet you haven’t yet, but you will, later. You can trash the days of your life, and get away with it in the end, you believe.

That recurring pain you’ve been feeling in your left side – sometimes you awaken at night in a cold sweat for fear it’s cancer. Yet you never do call the doctor in the morning. You still sleep beneath the teenage spell of seeming immortality.

Perhaps you think that you can lead a nation by calling a depression “the Great Recession” and incurring more national debt in order to reduce the national debt, because like Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels you believe a lie told often enough becomes the people’s truth.

Yet despite apparent invincibility, the Nazi war machine ended in ruin. Moreover people do die from untended illness, lives sometimes are wasted, and too many persons later regret a life not lived. Why? Because to paraphrase Ayn Rand, you can’t evade the truth forever. Life just doesn’t work that way. Truth is life-affirming, and evading truth is life-denying. You can’t fool Mother Nature.

The dictionary defines an “illusion” as a false idea, a false belief, or a false perception. If I am dis – illusioned, then life has purged from me an idea, belief, or perception which was false. It could be something as simple as puncturing a cherished, but false self-image. Although it is painful to be disillusioned, living in illusion eventually brings greater pain.

If disillusionment dispels the false, then it reveals the true. Therefore for lovers of truth and persons who wish to become more authentic, to be disillusioned is to be blessed by truth.

How might you be avoiding something, not showing up in your life, or lying to yourself? Is it really worth it?

  ]]> http://personal-authenticity-project.com/blessing-disillusionment/feed 0 http://personal-authenticity-project.com/blessing-disillusionment http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PersonalAuthenticityProject/~3/z_kFES2c4gQ/listening-within http://personal-authenticity-project.com/listening-within#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:13:37 +0000 Michael http://personal-authenticity-project.com/?p=2599 We are so very much more than what we take ourselves to be. Like a water skeeter bug which skates atop pond water, we skate the surface of our lives, ignorant of the depths immediately below.

So why would we wonder why our lives seem barren of depth or empty of aliveness? Why would it puzzle us that despite our intelligence and best efforts, we remain entangled in seeming intractable personal problems?

The logic of our situation is impeccable.

Continue reading Listening Within – Lifting the Veil of the Authentic Self

“Just pause thought. In that space, do you disappear? What is there in that space? Obviously you are there. You are quite present and aware. That is all. You are, and you know you are. There is both the sense of being or presence and a knowing capacity. Is that awareness ‘over there’ while you are ‘here’, or are you that which is aware? Realize that you must be the presence of awareness….”

~ John Wheeler
contemporary American nondualist teacher
in The Light Behind Consciousness

We are so very much more than what we take ourselves to be. Like a water skeeter bug which skates atop pond water, we skate the surface of our lives, ignorant of the depths immediately below.

So why would we wonder why our lives seem barren of depth or empty of aliveness? Why would it puzzle us that despite our intelligence and best efforts, we remain entangled in seeming intractable personal problems?

The logic of our situation is impeccable. We live on the surface of our being buoyed by incessant thoughts and thinking. Yet we can enter the silent depths of our souls and Being, and there find sustenance, but only when – we stop thinking.

Said differently, thought veils the authentic Self, the soul, Being. To lift the veil of these mysteries, we need to stop thinking and come to rest in the silent, ever present experiencing awareness which then immediately reveals itself.

One practice which establishes such a relation to our depths is listening within which has sometimes been referred to as presence or contemplation.

The very act of listening establishes both a mind which is silent and also you in experiencing awareness. How simple is this to experience for yourself? Just take a moment to close your eyes, and listen attentively to every nuance of sound in your room…. To hear, the mind must be silent.

And, who hears when the mind is silent? The experiencing awareness which you are. That ever-present awareness which preexists any of your thoughts such as “I”, your name, identity, ideas, ideals, beliefs, images, reactions, memories, desires, hopes, prejudices, attitudes, assumptions, positions, etc. Why? Because you are awareness itself; you are not thoughts such as these which are only the content or objects of the awareness which you are.

The world which reveals itself when we establish ourselves in experiencing awareness was pointed to when contemporary teacher, Eckhart Tolle, wrote “Spiritual awakening is awakening from the dream of thought”. Your incessant thinking veils the mysteries of your Being.

Of course, “listening” within is a metaphor for an attitude of awareness with which we turn our attention inwards to engage the flow of our inner experience. Just as in everyday conversation, you can’t listen and talk to someone at the same time, so too you can’t listen within effectively, if you are thinking at the same time.

To listen within is to step out of the known and the ego, and to step into an inner process which already and ceaselessly now unfolds within. Because thought is the known, and the ego is constructed of thought, when we step out of the ego, we engage our experiencing (inner and outer) without the mediation of preconception, memory, the known, the mind. We open to experience the living immediacy of the unknown, which is the next moment. This is the “freedom from the known” which Krishnamurti urged, like Tolle.

When listening, we are receptive. We let experience come to us. We do not grasp or appropriate or interpret or make meaning of or act upon our experiencing. For without thought, there is no “I” to grasp, appropriate, or interpret; there simply is Being which lets experiencing unfold itself with unconditional acceptance and curiosity.

From the unfolding experiencing itself, meaning and significance may reveal itself as thought arising organically from our experiencing. We “listen” to feelings, images, memories, which arise spontaneously as may arise essential qualities of Being and other states of consciousness (Being). The experiences which unfold do so with an inherent logic which seemingly seeks to optimize our being.

As we become more skilled in “listening within”, we find ourselves becoming more and more skilled in simply living as experiencing awareness throughout the entirety of our daily lives within and without.

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~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882),
American author, poet, and philosopher,
in The Over-Soul

Long ago, and far, far away lived a young man in his 20s… me. Then I dated a woman who was in training to become a therapist. I remember that amidst one of our arguments, she yelled out, “You need therapy!”

And so I soon began therapy. But given I didn’t earn enough money to afford private sessions with a therapist, I began with a group. One by one each group member would work individually with the therapist. As I witnessed others and myself work with our issues, I learned an essential truth which continues today to guide me and my work with my own clients:

You and I are Life, expressing as an unfolding process of becoming which is guided profoundly by an inherent logic and intelligence.

Many persons understand that “living in process” refers to the experience that you and I are a process. Instant by instant our experiencing unfolds through a ceaseless transformation of states, thoughts, feelings, sensations and worldly experiences. Not for one instant does your experiencing awareness remain the same. You are a verb, not a noun. You are a dynamic, not a static thing.

Less commonly do we understand that your process and mine are not haphazard sequences of chance experience. Instead our life processes are guided by an inherent logic and intelligence.

The intelligence which guides the presentation of issues to our awareness, seeks not to undermine us, but rather actualize our human potential. Psychologist Abraham Maslow alluded to this intelligence as the drive to Self-actualization. Back then in the therapy group, as others and I faced and worked on the issues which our processes brought up, we did not meet defeat; rather we inevitably experienced greater integration, effectiveness in daily living, and authenticity.

Moreover, our life processes do not limit their expression to our inner worlds. Just as the issues which arise from within us reflect the logic and intelligence of self-actualization, so too do the experiences and situations with which we are presented by everyday life. Psychologist Arnold Mindell affirms that the river of your unfolding process also expresses itself through the “world channel” of the experiences and situations which daily life presents you.

For example, it is not that issue with your partner that stymies you, but your not turning your face to the issue and working it. Similarly, the pain of that dissatisfying job or life situation calls you to growth, if you will address it, and choose to live more largely. Affirming that your life process expresses itself in your outer life, the Buddhist meditation master, Chögyam Trungpa, reminds us that, “Situations are the voice of my guru, the presence of my guru.” – the voice of that intrinsic intelligence which would carry forward our livingness.

Of course it’s one thing to understand these things intellectually, another to live them. Sometimes when my own humanness resists the flow of my own life process, a trickle of awareness stirs from my unconscious to remind me of a scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Standing outside the ballroom where he will meet Juliet for the first time, Romeo experiences prescient misgivings. He nevertheless decides to enter saying, “But he that hath the steerage of my course, Direct my sail.”

“…The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out.”

~ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935)
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
in the decision, Abrams v. United States, 1919

“The last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth.”

~Alan Binder,
(then) Federal Reserve Vice Chair in a 1994 speech,

Recently a 5-month-old post “Allegiance to Truth in an Age of Deception” has been “discovered”, and generated reader interest from across the net. The difficulties of making our ways happily in life amidst a culture of deceit seems to have struck a nerve with many of us.

After all, allegiance to – or – love of truth is an optimizing orientation to life. Within each of us there is a drive to become, to actualize our human potential. Environments of deception and falsehood thwart this actualizing drive, for if our day-to-day decisions are based on misinformation provided us by governments and corporations, then we cannot easily carry forward our lives.

We are challenged not only to renew our society by having the courage to live by the light of our own truth, but also to ferret out truth from the thicket of deception which ensnares it. There is an old adage that in the marketplace of ideas, truth will win out the competition. But what happens when truth is banned from the marketplace? Where then can we find truthful information with which we may guide our lives?

You wouldn’t think this is just an academic issue, were your mortgage under water or your family was hungry, because you were unemployed. If you had trusted Fed Chairman Bernanke’s “hopium”, you would have been sorely disappointed, given that since 2008 Bernanke has consistently understated the severity of the economic crisis (i.e., Source and Source).

Keep in mind also that the Bureau of Labor Statistics “Birth / Death” computer model inflates the “good news” about the monthly jobs creation. Thus far in 2011, the BLS computer has created more than a half million “jobs” out of thin air, but not one will put food on your plate (Source) Fixed-income seniors and anyone who buys groceries knows that inflation is higher than what the government reports (Source).

Just as we cannot rely on government to provide us the information we need to successfully govern our lives, so to we cannot rely upon the mainstream television, radio, and media. During the 80s and 90s the consolidation of the media resulted in a small

number of corporations controlling the media. Media concentration impacts freedom of the press, editorial independence, and diversity of views. The Conan O’Brien YouTube clip (at 1:15) to the right reveals just how scripted our news programs are. Moreover given how troubled our world is, you might think that television national news might not squander some of its 18 minutes of non-commercial reporting on amazing dog stories.

No wonder more and more persons turn to the internet for news. Yet even internet institutions censor information, for under government pressure Google delists sites and YouTube yanks videos.

Considering this difficulty of finding truthful information, I remember a political discussion with my neighbor. At a certain point, I asked him for the source of his information. “Fox News,” he replied. And which books had he read in regards to the topic? “None,” he answered, for he didn’t read books.

In search of the truthful information which we each need to successfully guide our lives, we must do more than rely solely upon sources whose existence depends upon the existing economic order. To a significant extent, the quality of our lives depends upon the quality of the information upon which we base our decisions.

Startled, I countered: “But you can’t do everything that comes to mind! You can’t kill someone because you detest him.”

He moved closer to me.

“Under certain circumstances, even that. Yet it is a mistake most of the time. I don’t mean that you should simply do everything that pops into your head. No. But you shouldn’t harm and drive away those ideas that make good sense by exorcising them or moralizing about them. Instead of crucifying yourself or someone else you can drink wine from a chalice and contemplate the mystery of the sacrifice. Even without such procedures you can treat your drives and so-called temptations with respect and love. Then they will reveal their meaning–and they all do have meaning.”

~ The character of Demian in Demian,
by Herman Hesse (1877-1962),
German author

Pulling out of a Dutch Bros. coffee stand the other day, I found myself idling behind a car whose bumper sticker read, “God bless everyone – no exceptions”. Yes! And, while we’re at it, how about God bless all parts of everyone, no exceptions.

No, I don’t believe in an unforgiving, long-bearded white man sitting atop a heavenly throne of gold. However, I do affirm the generosity of Being whose light shines upon all beings, great and small, virtuous and villainous. While most of us would welcome feeling the light of such generosity fall upon us, why do we shade the “lesser” parts of natures from such a kindly embrace?

Of course, it’s easy to present to others and take pleasure in those parts of ourselves which are compassionate, honest, patient, etc. But, oh no! It’s so very hard to admit our hatefulness, dishonesty, impatience, etc. Yet, the person who assists a senior to cross the street can be the very same person who gets in a huffy snit because the senior before him in the supermarket express line has several items more than the 10-item limit.

Within us there is a psychological drive that seeks to actualize the potential of our human nature. In a Christian culture, such as ours, which generally misconceives the message and the issue as being a dualistic struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, we may misunderstand our goal to be as “good” as we can be. Living so, we suppress and repress any part of ourselves which does not conform to our concept of goodness.

However the goal of this drive to actualize ourselves is not goodness, but wholeness as in the teachings of numerous contemplative traditions, i.e., “Be ye whole, even as your Father in Heaven is whole.” (Matthew 5:48, New Revised Standard Version). The practice of such wholeness neither suppresses, represses, nor shades from the light of awareness the less pleasant aspects of ourselves. Wholeness includes all. No exceptions.

Just as a loving parent might beckon an unhappy child to come near, and share her troubles, so we may beckon those difficult parts of ourselves to come near, to enter the light of our awareness, and to reveal to our heart’s curiosity how these difficulties arose, and how they might be healed. Inclusion into awareness allows the possibility of transformation, as suggested by the story of the Buddha’s compassionate inclusion of the serial murderer, Angulimala, into his community of monks. Angulimala later became a Buddhist saint.

No, the attitude of wholeness does not mean that we like all parts of ourselves. It does not mean that we give ourselves permission to act out. We continue to relate to each other according to the norms of right human relations. Yet inwardly, when for example we experience perhaps our hatefulness, dishonesty, or impatience, neither do we pretend nor do we presume to be other than the very human person we are.

(Were you interested in reading more about wholeness, see “Personal Authenticity Expresses as Wholeness, Not Goodness”)