You don't know what it means to be an Individual
And it's important that you do.
Do you think you know what being an individual means?
I know I did. And boy was I wrong.
Knowing now what the real meaning is of being an individual, I think it’s critical that we all reclaim this word.
You see, the word individual has become so distanced from its original meaning that it has now becomes its shadow. A distortion. Quite literally the opposite of its initial Truth and seed. Even our dictionaries are mistaken. Because, if you look up individual in the dictionary you are likely to find erroneous definitions such as these: "existing as a distinct entity, ; separate"
Our collective idea of what an individual is based on our misguided perception of separation. The individual is a way of recognizing a separation of an entity, particularly a human, from a collective. So an individual is separate from a whole. This all stems from our own sense of separation from the seeming world outside of our selves, from God, from the Universe. There is "me" and there is "not me". The individual is the idea of "me".
In the search for the sense of separation, for that illusory "me", we fall further and further away from the true meaning of what an individual represents. So let’s repair the divide.
The word individual comes from the latin word individuus which means undivided. It is composed of the two root words which are:
in : not, opposite of
dividuus : divisible
Whereas our conventional use of the word is predicated on a sense of separation. It is oriented towards defining what makes us distinct from the collective. In that frame, when we think of ourselves as an individual, we are seeking to find what makes us unique. Searching for what makes us different from "others" around us.
In my own misunderstanding of the word individual, I have misunderstood the incredibly important process of individuation described in modern psychology.
By misunderstanding the idea of an individual as an entity separate from a whole, I misunderstood the process of individuation as a search for what makes me distinct from others. Literally trying to figure out who and what I am.
And in that fruitless search I am constantly analyzing, judging, and defining what constitutes my idea of self, and who I am as an individual. All centered around a sense of separation and distinctness. I then create an idea of who I am. This includes desirable traits such as : I am nice, I am considerate, I am funny, I am competent, I follow through on my commitments to others. It includes less desirable traits as well: I am shy, I lack confidence, I am not desirable to members of the opposite sex, I have trouble following through on commitments to my self. It includes a whole host of preferences and ideas about who/what I am, and who/what I am not.
And in that ongoing process, I am constantly rejecting that which does not support my self generated idea of self, and am constantly searching for proof that supports it. Holy fuck is it exhausting, depressing, and most of all isolating.
The antidote to this sad state of searching for what makes me distinct and separate is to return to the true meaning of an individual.
Undivided. Whole.
Individuation is a process of integration, not separation.
How do I become wholly undivided in the entirety of my Being?
Accepting all of it. Accepting all of my parts. All of my self. And as I accept all of my parts, warts and all, I become whole. I become holy.
Because what makes someone holy, is whether they are whole. It's not about their actions, it's about their state of Being. And naturally, beauty is what flowers from an inherent state of wholeness - (w)holiness.
So let us re-member what individuation is - a process of integrating all of my parts and becoming a whole Self.
And, let us re-member what it means to be an individual - undivided, whole.