Psycho-spiritual psychotherapy, science and religion, cultism, the unique individual and the ego

Psycho-spiritual psychotherapy, science and religion, cultism, the unique individual and the ego

The Buddha spoke about suffering. Is this a good way to explain the “spiritual” in psycho-spiritual? For example, why should an atheist or a person without practicing faith come to a psycho-spiritual therapist? Is it necessary to be on a spiritual quest or could the client be moved to practice spiritually as a result of therapy?

Everyone who lives and breathes has an experience, a sense of something dear to them, something they value and honor, something they revere or respect, someone they love, and perhaps a person or a thing they would give their life for. Therefore, everyone has an idea of ​​the spiritual, that which lies beyond common sense as a self-interested entity concerned with survival and personal pleasure. Psychologist Jung went a step further and, having examined a variety of dreams from different times, cultures, moral and value systems, claimed that humanity shares a collective unconscious that is inherited and expressed in frequently recurring symbols and archetypes.

Everyone has a spiritual side, although they can call it by a variety of names; Everyone values ​​something or someone above themselves, even if it is science, philosophy, the state of the world, or ecology. But today we can ask: “Isn’t science the new religion?”

The usurpation of religion by science is the result of a senseless desperate conflict in which people try to find the “right” answer without regard to the diversity and complexity of reality and its composite experience. For example, science can't say much about what is intuitive and instinctive, let alone what is numinous and in a completely different realm than the kinds of phenomena that science aims to observe and measure. The spiritual, the transcendent and the divine are beyond words and experiences. It is pointless to try to convince someone who is scientifically convinced of the truth of spiritual, numinous events, just as it is pointless to try to convince a spiritually minded person of the absolute truth of science.

What happens when a scientist comes to you for therapy? Do you see another side of life? The pursuit of the inner realms, the experiencing of inner processes, and the understanding of inner objects and their meaning can be interpreted in any number of ways that are personal to the experiencer and the client. Many a numinous experience has been minimized by the scientifically minded client and reduced to an emotional or instinctive neurological event. But we are all different, which is one of the wonders of being human; the differences, the diversity, the uniqueness and the individual contribution that each person makes to the whole.

Spiritually, each of us has an individual, unique contribution to make to the whole. But alongside this claim is the idea that the end of spiritual attainment is to participate in a common essence, sometimes called unity consciousness. A feature of religious cults is that everyone begins to dress, behave, and even think alike. So what are the unique human qualities of the individual?

Religious or spiritual cults have led to a sheep mentality. As in all walks of life and in all pursuits, there are very few people who remain questioning and nonconformist enough - free from the schizoid tendencies of feeling insecure about belonging and fitting in - to withstand the collective force of the status quo, even when it is very strange, inhumane and corrupt. But anything done in the name of spirituality is not necessarily more spiritual than a political rally, a football fans' meeting or even a drunken evening. All of these endeavors invite and insist on abandoning one's individuality and embracing the ethos of the collective.

In psycho-spiritual therapy, resolving childhood needs and desires is a primary concern. We work first with the unfinished business of the personality, because only when the ego is fully formed and healthy can you surrender to the spiritual fire. The fulfillment of the ego lies in the surrender or abandonment of the ego because you are much more than the ego allows you to be. So this is a radical transformation that is achieved by being in your true center.

A person is more than his ego. This is evident in ordinary acts of loving and sacrificing, even of pleasure. But overcoming the ego is a tall order for most people. In pursuing spirituality in the modern world, it is important to remember that the early and profound teachings of ancient spirituality did not have to deal with the central theme we have today, and that is individualism. The modern world (and I don't think we need to say Western as if it were different from the Eastern; Western and Eastern dichotomies have always been confusing because the divide is more cultural and political than geographical) has increasingly centralized the individual, so we have an attack from the ego forcesnonpareil. No time in the past has ever had to deal with this problem and certainly not 3000 years ago in the Indus Valley, for example, when your caste and station in life was very fixed and unless you were aristocratic or belonged to the priestly class, you were involved in livelihood, in survival.

Today we have leisure, recreation, choice – even spirituality has become a tourism industry!

So we need to look at what the individual means in terms of spirituality. The spiritual path in the modern world is individual in nature and approach. Firstly, this is obvious because you notice that people do not mix their spiritual philosophy and methodology. This has its own difficulties; You follow Buddhism until you find something you don't like, then you go into Sufism or Taoism until you find something you don't like there, and throw in a little mystical Christianity and a course in miracles. The obvious difficulty is that you cannot dictate your spiritual practice based on your personal preferences, for the simple reason that spiritual practice should challenge your personality at every turn. So if your personality is in the driver's seat, you really won't get anywhere.

Today we are saturated with spiritual wisdom and guidance, so comparing paths is inevitable. Even the great Thomas Merton [controversial monk and Catholic mystic] thought about turning to Zen in the last years before his death. But as Joseph Campbell noted when asked if you need to let go of your religion to achieve spiritual goals; No, you must go all the way to where religion at its source represents the truth of the spiritual journey to awakening and liberation.

Individuality cannot be avoided. We must have a spiritual practice and methodology that embraces and works with the individual, not by ignoring them, but by seeing how they can support the venture of enlightenment. The ego is not just a fiction to be discarded as if a few years of meditation would pay for it. The ego must be understood and first brought into service to the higher faculties of human existence.

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