as requsted by my most awesome therapist and spiritual counsellor, happydog....

[premabast]

from Facebook:

Kat Garcia is pondering Individuation and the complex relationship between material and spiritual achievement/advancement.

Happydog Potatohead
if this was LiveJournal we could REALLY talk!
All righty, then, sweethearts, go for it!

>^,,^< //

Comments

[happydog]

Now, how are we connecting individuation and spiritual achievement? Is one dependent on the other, in your view? Does further individuation make spiritual achievement possible, and how does material achievement come in?

Ever notice how utterly NOM my icons are? ;)

[premabast]

Anywho, right. Well, I am a mere kitten re: Jungian stuff, but at least on first blush I'm certainly connecting the two - in fact, I am tempted to _equate_ them. To my understanding so far, individuation happens, if at all, during mid-life, after a person has taken care of all the basic, biological imperatives --- you've achieved independence from the parents, have found a suitable mate, started a new family and/or realized your career goals, etc. It is at this point that the 'okay, great - wait! is this _it_?'s can kick in, and can result in the so-called mid-life crisis. Now for some, this leads to a search for Meaning in life - a search for Self, etc, and this is what I see individuation as. tbc

question the second

[premabast]

Yes, I feel Individuation is dependent upon spiritual achievement / enlightenment. As above, I think they are so intimately connected as to perhaps be equal. tbc

question the third

[premabast]

Yes, I think so. In fact, I think only when one is strong in Self is spiritual achievement possible - and the stronger in Self one is (aka the more 'individuated'?) the most likely s/he is to avoid the entrapments of conformity with a chosen spiritual group or the automatic taking on of the beliefs/practices seen in others one deems to be more 'spiritually advanced' than oneself.