The Whole In The Part

Eric Butterworth Speaks: Essays on Abundant Living #136

Delivered by Eric Butterworth on January 11, 1976

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The British High Command was once studying some areas of military involvement in a distant place on the globe. The War Minister stepped back and said, “Gentlemen, we need larger maps.” And...to consider the subject of healing in the broadest possible context we need to enlarge our frame of reference.

Most of us have grown up under the influence of a religious philosophy that deals with a universe of many parts—God and heaven above, earth and human life beneath, Hell and Satan under the earth. Now, we may have gained freedom from the latter, and we may have changed our view to an “omni” perspective of the former, but so often we have failed to really “get it all together.”

We may think of God in man, God guiding man, God protecting man, but it is still God and man. In this consciousness prayer is a kind of negotiation with God, and healing is something that a helpful God does for us. Thus, we reveal that, though we have the new insight into Truth, we may be putting “new wine in old wineskins.” Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” It is a giant idea that has been obscured because people have thought that Jesus’ relationship with God was unique to him alone. Actually, Jesus was saying, “You live in the universe, and you are a part within the whole. But the whole of things is also within you, and there can never be a separation.”

“Holy Spirit” is a common term in Christianity that is rarely understood. Preachers talk about it as a divine personality that comes and goes by grace or divine whim. Get this idea into your consciousness so that you may never again hear the term “Holy Spirit” without remembering it—”Wherever Spirit is at all, the whole of Spirit must be. And because God or Spirit is omnipresent, the whole of Spirit, in other words, Holy Spirit, must be present in its entirety at every point in space and time.” It is a fantastic concept! No wonder it has not been widely understood in religion. Be sure, as a student of Truth, that you understand it. It is the foundation on which the whole structure of your consciousness of Truth is built.

What it means is that God in man is the Holy Spirit or the whole of Spirit. The whole of Divine Mind, the whole of Divine Love, the whole of Infinite Substance is in you and in focus as you at every moment in time and wherever you may be. “Wherever I am, God is” in His entirety. Whatever else we may ultimately find the universe to be, it is whole. We may not see or understand the whole, even the whole of the point where we exist, but it is whole, and in that we can feel secure. Nothing can be taken out of the universe, and thus nothing is irrelevent or inconsequential in it. This means thay you are important, and you are whole.

Your life may have many phases, and your experience may reveal many conflicts, but you are a whole creature. There is that of you that always transcends any illness, lack or inharmony. Note we said, “That of^ you...” not “That in you...” The idea, “Spirit in man”, is often thought of as something added on, like a shadow. Spirit in you is you. You are Spirit. It is the whole of you which may be expressing in part.

The idea of the whole in the part has been sensed by biologists seeking to understand the miracle of growth in plants. Edmund Sinnott refers to a something present in the plant that represents “the natural configuration of the whole.” This may be the plant-kingdom counterpart of Paul’s “Christ in you.” The seed can become the tree because the tree is in the seed. You can become what you desire to be because the Christ, your divine potential, is within you. It i£ you. Whatever jLs is whole, whether you can see or experience that wholeness or not.

Seeing wholeness is not easy, because of the influence of the emotions, the senses, the intellect. From a partial experience we “judge by appearances.” But when we “judge by righteous judgment,” or see wholly, we see one to one. This is what the Hindustani word “Namaskar” means in essence—”The whole of me salutes and and relates to the whole of you.” This is seeing oneself or others as they can be.

Politicians are wont to say, “We are living in troubled times.” But the great mystic teachers have always taught, as Jesus puts it, “In the world you have tribulation, but I have overcome the world.” This is to say that the problem exists chiefly in our minds, and the way out is in the Allness of Divine Mind within. Thus, the Way Out is In.

Today there is a great interest in “Human Potential”. This is good, but unfortunately the application often suggests putting something into us, conditioning the subconscious mind with new power and ability. Human potential is divine potential. God can never be more than God nor less than God. Man, created in God’s image-likeness, can never be more than that God-pattern within, nor less than that. It is a matter of realizing potentialities, not “adding to” but “opening out a way whence the imprisoned splendor may escape.”

Thus, your potential is not something you can possibly achieve; it is a reality before you begin to work for it. It is the whole of you which you may be expressing only in part. It is that of you that is always whole, even if the surface self may be ill, confused, or in poverty. Everyone has the desire for health, for success, and for a life-affirming existence. But the desire has a cosmic origin.

It is the part sensing the whole. You could not desire healing if you were not already whole. The word “possibility” comes from the Latin word “posse” which means “to be able.” This calls for the affirmation, “I am able.” Declare this, not to put something into your mind, but to get into the flow of the creative process. The health you want is now yours, because you are whole. The love you hunger for is within you now, because you are whole. The wisdom you seek is within the depths of your mind, because you are whole. When you “treat” for help or healing, or use the affirmative approach in prayer, it is not a means of creating something, waving a magic wand to bring you good out of the ethers. The affirmation, as the word implies, “adds firmness” to your consciousness of wholeness.

The old hymn sings, “Holy, Holy, Holy...” It is usually reserved for a religious service. Actually, it is a dynamic projection of spiritual power, if one remembers the true meaning of “holy” as being whole. The poet says, “That thou seest, man, become too thou must—God, if thou seest God, dust, if thou seest dust.” Singing or saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy” can be a sense of relating to life, seeing it or sensing it, from the perception of wholeness. It is a commitment to see wholeness everywhere...in persons, in relationships, in the economy, in world affairs...and, most important, in oneself.