In a holistic view of reality, with everything dependent upon what Teilhard de Chardin called a “single energy at play in the world,” all things would be so interdependent that apparent opposites—like yin and yang, feminine and masculine—are seen as complementary, interrelated halves of the same whole, balancing, integrating, uniting, and transcending their own presumed duality.

Lao Tzu called this wholeness of existence the “nameless,” which is all there was at “the beginning of heaven and earth.” In this original wholeness, all things are revered, in harmony with all other things, without divisions, and in perfect relationship.

All existence was intended to remain forever whole. However, adding intrigue to mystery, the evolution of existence took a detour in the Garden of Eden with the eating of the forbidden fruit. And, in another version of this narrative, in Greek mythology, with the opening of Pandora’s Box.

These narratives are not only about asserting our individual will over a greater will, which brought forth an archetype that introduced separation and opposition into the world. They also signal humanity’s fall from wholeness.

The separation of the “named” from the “nameless,” the temporal from the eternal, fragmented the “named” into “ten thousand things,” as Lao Tzu noted, and broke the Whole into pieces.

Yet, there is a hidden thread of wholeness that connects us all, that helps us remember where we came from, who we are, and where we are going. Imagine a world in which the explicit purpose of life is to realize the wholeness of the entire creation, to serve the good of the whole, to live our lives in wonderment of and in harmony with that whole.