I just finished listening to Jundo's excellent teaching on Wholeness and after sitting zazen came to some realizations on the subject.

As Jundo said, wholeness is "wholeness" regardless of its breadth and even "hole-ness" is wholeness. There is nothing that is not wholeness. In mathematical terms, a whole is a whole, yet it can be divided into two halves but each half is, in itself, a "whole half". There is nothing in each half that is not a half, that is not wholly contained within that half, so each half is its own form of a whole. AND YET, each half can also be joined by its other half to make a whole. On their own, the halves are unique, yet they are not separated from the greater whole.

Subsequently, each half can be divided into further halves, or quarters of the original whole, and subdivided again and again and again until we now have 32 individual parts. Each 32nd is a unique "whole 32nd", yet is not apart from its 31 brethren in the greater whole. No matter how much you divide it you still end up with a fractional "whole" that is not separate from the greater oneness.

In terms of living beings, this being called Richard is a unique whole being, yet is joined in marriage to his "other half" to make a whole couple. Richard is also 1/4 of an immediate family of wife, daughter and son, yet is not separate from the whole. 1/4 whole, family whole. By extension, this Richard is but 1/50,000th of his city, but is also a part but not apart of/from the whole community. This can be extended indefinitely throughout all beings within the mutliverse. We are whole individuals yet not separated from unity with the rest.

Now, my particular distress in terms of wholeness arises in my workplace. I am a teacher in a small-town school, one fraction of a staff-student population around 180. I am very secure in being a "whole 1/180th" but the problem is that I do feel separation from the other 179, particularly the 15 or so staff members. In recent years the "ed biz" has taken a very abrupt turn and I feel left behind and irrelevant in my school. It doesn't help that I feel the turn was not well-thought out and tosses the baby out with the bath. To mix metaphors further, I have been decrying the emperor's new clothes for some time but it has just been bleating in the wind. So, reconciliation with my colleagues is both the problem and the solution and I struggle with my feelings of bitterness, disappointment and downright anger toward them. This morning I realized that my feelings do not change the reality of "wholeness" and are merely clouds obscuring the clear blue sky of truth.

Thanks to Jundo's discourse I now know that I must focus on the wholeness of all, regardless of my opinions or feelings. They make no difference to the state of the whole and only increase the dukkha in my life.

Thank you again Jundo for your excellent teaching and may all sentient beings realize the wholeness that is.

Peace and blessings to all ,
Richard