¿How these three, hand in hand, are a complementary impulse for personal development?
There are different ways to begin to know oneself and to explore an inner path. There are multiple entry paths, and life has its magic in showing the precise opportunity for each person at the right time. It can be, for example, a book that comes into your hands and changes your life; an important event in your life that you did not expect and takes you out of your known place; a moment of crisis that shows you introspection; starting a therapy or coaching process; doing a body practice in which you begin to delve into your emotions and gross and subtle energies; studying some philosophy that opens new mental windows; being inspired by a teacher; going through a healing experience; having a sudden or guided transpersonal experience; or starting to do a practice of some sacred tradition.
All of these events are examples of events that invite you to pause, to look at yourself in a different and new way, to discover new aspects of yourself, to ask yourself questions like: What is the point of this? Who am I? What makes me up? Where do I come from and where am I going? What is beyond what I call being me, or being life? And I think that all of these gateways are a blessing because they mark a before and after.However, there is sometimes the risk of staying focused on a specific aspect, as if in love with the new discovery and losing the perspective of including and remaining open to views that can complement you or continue to nourish you. This is when people can fall into fanaticism or exaggerated idealism. This happens because normally, when we begin to look inward we can be enthralled by the gift of the taste of getting closer to our Being, to our essence, which is undoubtedly a unique and wonderful experience.
Returning to the title of this writing, and from my experience, I believe that sometimes it happens that when there is a lot of psychology and little spirituality, there comes a time when the process ‘doesn’t work’, because much of psychology works on the ego, on the pathology, on what needs to be ‘fixed’, healed, closed. As Jung would say, to transcend the ego you must first have a healthy ego. It is, without a doubt, a productive and necessary process, because it is important to face our fears, inner monsters. However, after a lot of therapy there comes a point when the Being asks for a step further; the transpersonal step. It is when our interior shows us that we are something more than the ego. We are soul, spirit. It is something that goes beyond religious beliefs; it is your relationship with transcendence.
On the other hand, sometimes the gateway is first spiritual practice, which is often linked to the experience of the transcendent, of an expansion of oneself, of a connection with something different, with everything, it can be an ecstatic experience that leaves us dazzled. The risk of seeing too much light is that we forget to look at the shadow, and take action against unresolved issues of the ego, which remain tied up in some unrecognizable part. Jung’s quote:
And there is also the denial of the body. I have known spiritual paths that say that