The potential for growth is present in all life. This includes us.

      Human development is evident in individuals, communities and the human species as a whole. It involves aberrations, arrests and regressions.

Relaxing

      Growth is not something we achieve through striving. We will abort the process if we become compulsive about it. Growth is elicited, energised and directed by inbuilt potential. We need to free ourselves, internally, so that we can enthusiastically participate in the development with increasing intentionality. This intentionality is partially a function of developmental potential.

Growth?

      What are we referring to when we talk about growth and development?

      Growth is more easily observed than defined. We observe acorns growing into oaks, goslings into geese and children into adults.

      Growth can be healthy or unhealthy. The definition of what constitutes healthy or unhealthy growth is a matter of judgment. Such judgments are unavoidable. In some areas judgements are easier to make than in others because there is general agreement on what constitutes health. Few would dispute the fact that the growth of cancerous cells is unhealthy.

Health?

      Definitions of psychological health are less universally endorsed. While most would conclude that Hitler's career offers evidence of unhealthy development, there is far from total agreement on what constitutes pathology. Some are convinced that [193] labelling a condition "pathological" is a disguised value judgement.

      Using any sort of schema, or classification, in certain academic circles, is unacceptable. Nevertheless, we do, and always will make value judgements about ourselves, others and society. Those ideologically opposed to making value judgments in their academic work, if not in their personal lives, are sometimes regarded by their critics as extreme examples of the practice they denounce in others.

      We constantly observe and interpret. Our interpretations influence our observations. These inter-related processes are initially shaped by the way we are taught to view life and to assess moral dilemmas.

      It is impossible for us to free ourselves of our interpretive grids. However, it is not the interpretive grid that is the problem, but failure to realise that we are viewing life through a cross-stitched pattern of meanings that pre-shapes our experiences.

      For this reason, we cannot avoid value judgments in determining what constitutes healthy or unhealthy growth.

      These value judgements are part of a comprehensive worldview. This worldview is rarely idiosyncratic. It is usually shared by others and endorsed by vocational and cultural communities. While accepted opinion may prove to be in error, the burden of proof lies with those wishing to contradict current orthodoxy.

      History demonstrates that the critic is occasionally correct. However, the fact that such reversals do occur, does not justify us carelessly jettisoning endorsed opinion and replacing it with the unsubstantiated intuitions of a lone oppositional voice.

Healthy development

      We need to return to the question of what constitutes healthy development.

      Accepted opinion would suggest that healthy development, in the context of human maturation, could be measured by the degree to which an individual develops positive potentiality and by the extent to which their lives enrich others and contribute to [194] society.

      To tease out this definition, one could argue that healthy development evidences an increase in self-esteem and groundedness. It may also be observed in an increasing integration of the diverse elements of the self and in the capacity of the range of sub-personalities, which are located largely in the unconscious and which surface in our dreams, to playfully engage each other.

      Healthy growth will also result in increasing authenticity. We will pretend less. It will also be revealed in our capacity to love--to respond to others empathically, compassionately and helpfully. It will be evident in our self-forgetfulness and other-centredness, in our growth in intuitive wisdom and in our ability to live our own truth.

      While the potential for personal development is a genetic given, it will manifest in circumstances that allow for its emergence.

Gift and discipline

      We are not merely taken along for the ride. We participate in the process. Spiritual development results from the interplay of gift and discipline.

      The importance of this interplay was reinforced, for me, by a series of dreams.

      The dreams suggested that my conscious effort would be supplemented by the participation of elements of the self, shadow personalities, with which I was barely acquainted. However, I needed to provide these construction workers with the necessary materials. It was suggested that I should not undervalue the qualities of those doing this work. I needed to recognise that the merely mechanical--perhaps my daily self-talk--would significantly contribute to the process. It was also indicated that I develop a disciplined schedule of meditation.

Rituals

      Our disciplines are rituals.

      Western society has jettisoned ancient soul rituals. As a [195] consequence, Westerners need to devise personal rituals. As Anthony Stevens argued, in the absence of cultural rituals, we need to devise our own means of initiation.¹ For Adi Da, who has drawn upon the wisdom of the East, this has involved intuitive, participatory observation, a process that takes us beyond the limits of sheerly analytical thinking. ²

      My rituals are dream interpretation, self-talk, meditation and the reading of soul-nurturing literature.

Patterns of development

      Is there a pattern to human, spiritual development?

      There are different models of human development, each of which has valuable insights to offer.

      James Fowler considers that human development involves transition through a series of faith stages. Most people do not proceed through all stages. The first stage begins in infancy, when we image our parents' approach to life. It culminates, for those few who reach the final stage, in a rich, comprehensive approach to life reflected in the lives of people like Gandhi and Mother Teresa.³

      Jung traces the emergence of the ego from its unconscious ground, and follows its progress until it reconnects with that ground. He argues that this development is spiral.⁴

      Others view development as two-phased. The first phase involves self-enhancement, the development of our potentialities and of the central core of the self. This first phase provides the basis for a later self-emptying, self-giving phase. Transition between the phases involves an owning and integrating of the shadow and the body.⁵

      Wilber, marrying the insights of East and West, describes development as a progress from prepersonal, to personal, to transpersonal development.⁶

      The anandamaya culture of India argues that there are five sheaths enclosing the mystery of the life-germ--the food sheath, the breath sheath, the mind sheath, the spontaneous wisdom sheath, and the sheath of bliss. Development involves our setting out on an inward journey that eventually penetrates to the [196] innermost of these sheaths, the bliss sheath.⁷

      Some theorists are unhappy with models that suggest stage transitions. For example, Stanley Hauerwas argues that moral development, the facet of human development with which he is concerned, is best depicted, not as a series of stage transitions, but as narrative. He argues that people's lives are like meandering story lines.⁸

      Stage theorists would agree with Hauerwas, except that they would want to go further and argue that common maturational patterns can be discerned. Others, again, would contend that there are well-defined paths towards integration linked to recognisable personality types. The basic assumption underlying the Enneagram is that the way we approach challenges to our self-esteem or security, when we are young, establishes reaction patterns that remain with us for life.

      There is no one model of human development that is so right that its accuracy and comprehensiveness justifies us excluding other models. Each of us, because of our uniqueness, will find one model more helpful than others. It is more than likely that, as we develop, we will gravitate to alternative models, to replace or supplement that which has guided us thus far.

Anticipation

      What is important is that we free ourselves for growth. The bud, dependent on its own potential, will unfold its gorgeous petals. We need to ensure we are not inhibiting its development.

      While we need to be intentional, and disciplined, in our co-operation with our growth potential, we should avoid compulsion. We should schedule in rest periods. It is also important that we are not mesmerised by the impossible. We would do well to accept Jung's caution that life's problems are basically unsolvable. It is therefore important for us to honour polarities and to recognise that life issues, while they can never be solved, can be outgrown.⁹

      This journey is not without its dangers. Whatever is good in this life is costly. Personal development is one of the most costly of [197] all exercises.¹⁰ [198]

[LS 193-198]