Humanness and Emotions
Wholeness Quotes
THC Editorial Team November 28, 2021
Contents
Wholeness refers to accepting all that there is in oneself, taking care of unfinished business, and authentically being present to and accepting all that there is in others and the world around us.
The following is a curated collection of our favorite wholeness quotes, definitions, and references.
Quotes on Wholeness
We all have a sacred calling that has very little to do with what we accomplish in this world. It is the calling of the sacred — the quiet pull of an implicit wholeness within each of us that awaits our conscious recognition.1
The Deep Heart: Our Portal to PresenceNo matter how deeply we have been wounded, when we listen to the inner voice that calls us back to our bodies, back to wholeness, we begin our journey.2
Radical AcceptanceLove of the self, self-compassion, a feeling of fullness, of wholeness, may emerge from the experience of being integrated.3
Mindful awareness, mindsight, and neural integrationBy psychological work we are changed. In spiritual work we are revealed: we manifest our inner wholeness in conscious daily life.4
How to Be an Adult: A Handbook on Psychological and Spiritual IntegrationTo honor and accept one’s own shadow is a profound spiritual discipline. It is whole-making and thus holy and the most important experience of a lifetime.5
Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the PsycheAcceptance is
To be Noble,
To be Whole,
One with Heaven-and-Nature,
With the Enduring Tao.6
Tao Te ChingConsciousness is continually widened through the confrontation with previously unconscious contents, or—to be more accurate—could be widened if it took the trouble to integrate them…. the transcendant function is…. a way of attaining liberation by one’s own efforts and of finding the courage to be oneself.7
Memories, Dreams, ReflectionsGriefwork done with consciousness builds self-esteem since it shows us our courageous faithfulness to the reality of loss. It authenticates us as adults who can say Yes to sadness, anger, and hurt.4
How to Be an Adult: A Handbook on Psychological and Spiritual IntegrationWhatever you are is never enough; you must find a way to accept something however small from the other to make you whole.8
Anthills of the Savannah, As cited in Oxford Essential QuotationsOn this sacred path of Radical Acceptance, rather than striving for perfection, we discover how to love ourselves into wholeness.2
Radical AcceptancePsychological and spiritual work—both necessary for full human realization—are meant to proceed both separately and simultaneously as life unfolds.4
How to Be an Adult: A Handbook on Psychological and Spiritual IntegrationWe have come to understand that psychic suffering is not a definitely localized, sharply delimited phenomenon, but rather the symptom of a wrong attitude assumed by the total personality. We can therefore never hope for a thorough cure from a treatment restricted to the illness itself, but only from a treatment of the personality as a whole.9
Collected Works of C. G. JungWholeness is the highest and healthiest version of any person, a version so awesome that to die before experiencing it would be one of life’s greatest tragedies.10
Wholeness: Winning in Life from the Inside Out… every philosopher, psychotherapist, or thoughtful author at one point or another wonders about the purpose of life and the promise of wholeness.11
The Promise of WholenessCompassion honors our experience; it allows us to be intimate with the life of this moment as it is. Compassion makes our acceptance wholehearted and complete.2
Radical AcceptanceThe wholeness of a home depends much on its ability to prepare its young to leave the nest and risk trusting their own wings to take them to unknown elsewheres, where they will have to build their individual nests.12
To Bless the Space Between UsTo be human is to know that we are imperfect and whole: we will hurt and be hurt; we will feel disappointed and will disappoint; we will stumble and fall and get back up again.13
The Wisdom of AnxietyRadical Acceptance is the art of engaging fully in this world—wholeheartedly caring about the preciousness of life—while also resting in the formless awareness that allows this life to arise and pass away.2
Radical AcceptanceThe heart area is central to human experience. It is where we feel most affected and touched, both emotionally and spiritually. Our sense of meaning springs from the heart, as does our sense of oneness or communion with the whole of life.1
The Deep Heart: Our Portal to PresenceMindfulness is not paying more attention but paying attention differently and more wisely — with the whole mind and heart, using the full resources of the body and its senses.14
Mindful Way Through DepressionThe true work of man in the latter part of his life is the cultural process of bringing up some of the contents of the unconscious and integrating them into consciousness.15
Transformation: Understanding the Three Levels of MasculinityWhen one is at home in oneself, one is integrated and enjoys a sense of balance and poise. In a sense that is exactly what spirituality is: the art of homecoming.12
To Bless the Space Between UsWhy grieve? For two reasons. First, those who grieve well, live well. Second, and most important, grief is the healing process of the heart, soul, and mind; it is the path that returns us to wholeness. It shouldn’t be a matter of if you will grieve; the question is when will you grieve. And until we do, we suffer from the effects of that unfinished business.16
On Grief and Grieving… we are a unique expression of a greater loving whole.1
The Deep Heart: Our Portal to PresenceHealing means moving toward wholeness or integrating.17
Healing the Child Within‘Love’ is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.11
The Promise of WholenessWe need to take the time to notice, learn, and listen with our heart and soul rather than using logic alone to arrive at what I believe is the ultimate goal of humanity—the promise of wholeness.11
The Promise of WholenessThe reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not “get over” the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal, and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again, but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same, nor would you want to.16
On Grief and GrievingMindfulness is not and cannot be about improving yourself, because you are already whole, already complete, already perfect (including all your “imperfections”).18
Meditation Is Not What You ThinkThere are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.8
Dialogues, As cited in Oxford Essential QuotationsWatch an animal, a flower, a tree, and see how it rests in Being. It is itself. It has enormous dignity, innocence, and holiness. However, for you to see that, you need to go beyond the mental habit of naming and labeling. The moment you look beyond mental labels, you feel that ineffable dimension of nature that cannot be understood by thought or perceived through the senses. It is a harmony, a sacredness that permeates not only the whole of nature but is also within you.19
Stillness SpeaksI have… called the union of opposites the “transcendent function.” This rounding out of the personality into a whole may well be the goal of any psychotherapy that claims to be more than a mere cure of symptoms.20
As cited in The Quotable JungBrief is this existence, like a brief visit in a strange house. The path to be pursued is poorly lit by a flickering consciousness whose center is the limiting and separating “I.” . . . When a group of individuals becomes a “we,” a harmonious whole, they have reached as high as humans can reach.21
As cited in The Quotable EinsteinThe experience of wholeness requires emotional maturity and empathic boundaries to deal with the expanded awareness within the greater whole.11
The Promise of WholenessZarathustra’s chief teaching was that the physician had to heal himself, that he should see himself with his own eyes and make himself whole.20
As cited in The Quotable JungIn our pursuit of wholeness, a crisis can look like a problem initially but gracefully transform into a blessing.11
The Promise of WholenessNo account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded.22
Varieties of Religious ExperienceOnly what is really oneself has the power to heal.20
As cited in The Quotable Jung… to unite the elements of life in contemporaneity, that is precisely the task.23
As cited in The Quotable KierkegaardI define wholeness as coming home in yourself, fully integrated and balanced as a sovereign person who places the love of life itself as the highest value and who is in service to the divine, giving of yourself in ways that you are authentically moved to.24
From Heartbreak to WholenessThere is a point of consciousness within everyone which has the seed of wholeness. By wholeness I mean the potential to realize integration within oneself, and to actively direct the forces of one’s life…25
As cited in Creating Wholeness: A Self-Healing Workbook Using Dynamic Relaxation, Images, and ThoughtsWholeness brings healthy perspectives to situations in your life that once brought you pain.10
Wholeness: Winning in Life from the Inside OutWholeness is a complex journey with many twists and turns.11
The Promise of WholenessA surrender to wholeness is a surrender to the ceaseless creativity of the Present—it invariably takes you someplace new.26
Radical Wholeness: The Embodied Present and the Ordinary Grace of BeingIt is tremendously important that people should be able to accept themselves; otherwise the will of God cannot be lived…. to bring forth what the original will intended is really the task of a whole lifetime, a very serious undertaking.20
As cited in The Quotable Jung