"Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for, and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are."

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

You are a whole being. Within you are all potentials. Though they may not all come to the surface, there still underlies the possibility. We can deny ourselves these truths and limit our capacity, or we can come to accept them.

In denying our wholeness, we believe there is some absolute ideal. In renouncing wholeness: we deny flaws, we deny imperfections. Yet the world is imperfect and messy — and so are we. In-between reality and expectations lie dissonance and suffering. In refusing to acknowledge unpleasantness, we pursue short-term relief at the expense of long-term unity — peace.

And what we sacrifice in the long-term compounds; it accumulates until what we have lost far exceeds what we gain in the instant. The best chocolate is a balance of bitter and sweet. The best fragrance is a combination of pure and sour. On the subject of style, a blend of only the most appealing and colorful is tacky. The mixture of drab and appalling is tasteless. Beauty is harmony and within harmony is balance.

Good taste involves experience and refinement. Likewise, wholeness calls for maturity and emotional sophistication.

The Sufi Mystic

In "The Guest House," Rumi writes: