Fulfilment

Understanding Fulfilment Understanding fulfilment The narrow perspective The wide perspective In preparation Please return later The Pilgrimage Site

Understanding fulfilment The word fulfilment is derived from the verb fulfil, meaning: 1. bring to completion 2. bring to reality (i.e. make real) 3. achieve or realize (something desired, promised or predicted); 4. gain happiness or satisfaction (from Latin satis ‘enough’ + facere ‘make’) (by fully developing one’s abilities or character); 5. carry out (a task, duty or role) as required, pledged or expected; 6. satisfy or meet (a requirement, condition or need). The word is derived from late Old English fullyfyllan ‘fill up, make full’. It is crucial to note that to ‘fulfil’ means to ‘fill full’ rather than to ‘be full’. In other words, ‘fulfil’ describes an act rather than a state; in short, it describes the final act that completes the filling process. The notion of the verb ‘to fulfil’ is more easily understood when set beside the (formerly synonymous, now not so) notion of the verb ‘to complete’ (as used above). The verb ‘to complete’ is derived from Latin complere ‘fill up, finish, fulfil’, from com- (expressing intensive force) + plere ‘fill’ (from plenus ‘full’). The verb ‘to complete’ also indicates and action that ends filling. In other words, both ‘to fulfil’ and ‘to complete’ mean: to end, stop or halt the filling or completion process and/or, moreover, the ending stopping or halting of the emptying or depletion process. Once it is understood that ‘to fulfil’ is essentially synonymous with ‘to complete’, and that, therefore (the steady states of) ‘fulfilment’ and ‘completion’ (i.e. completeness) are synonymous, as are (the unsteady states, hence processes of) un-fulfilment and incompletion (i.e. incompleteness), then understanding the goal of pilgrimage becomes much easier. And the goal of pilgrimage is to eliminate incompleteness and achieve completeness (read: fullness, wholeness, or holiness). Understanding fulfilment