Competing or Complementary Pathways?
In ‘Gurus, Guides or Do it Yourself ‘ I discussed whether or not I thought it necessary to join formal spiritual organisations or movements, whether it was necessary to have a guru, and which, if any, representation of ‘God’ should be sought, offering some of my own personal experiences. It seems to me that as much as anything it is the spirit of enquiry that is important, that the seeker has the requisite sense of having a definite ‘calling’ to look for that ‘other/higher way’, that ‘deeper truth’, or whatever you want to call it, together with seriousness, preparedness to take full responsibility for themselves and undertake to commit to the demands of the journey. It is not some order of frivolous entertainment or, as I saw last year advertised in Riskikesh ‘Sacred Adventures’. As emphasised earlier, there is no easy way of getting true enlightenment. It shouldn’t have to cost you a lot of money, but it should cost you honesty and commitment; a dedicated effort and willingness to confront yourself and those aspects of your personality that you might never have had reason to question before. So if you find yourself beguiled by courses, movements or gurus of whatever order, with slick websites that present an alluring mix of exotic methodologies and where the only real commitment is suspending your common sense whilst digging deeply into your wallet, then please stay away from them!
The much misunderstood psychologist Carl Jung is commonly coopted to underwrite many people’s notions of spirituality and spiritual development, and has found his way into many New Age spiritual movements. He himself would, however, have deplored this. The many newly emergent movements that believe that his teachings support their fantastical notions of the way the cosmos is and works and human spirituality as part of this have clearly never read him properly, let alone done the work necessary to understand his ideas about the nature of the psyche and thus most of what people think they know about him is at best grotesquely simplified and at worst completely fabricated. Here, for example, is what he has to say upon the Western proclivity to give oneself over to Eastern spiritual practices, already becoming popular even in his day:
“The usual mistake of Western man when faced with this problem of grasping ideas of the East is like that of the student in Faust. Misled by the devil, he contemptuously turns his back on science and, carried away by Eastern occultism, takes over yoga practice word for word and becomes a pitiable imitator (theosophy is our best example of this) (1).”
Misappropriating Jungian psychology simply acts to draw people further into the fantasy realms of their own Unconscious, with all its attendant perils, with nothing whatever to guide or protect them. Jung had much to say on the dangers of what these days is commonly understood as Cultural Appropriation; and on the subject of enlightenment:
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular (2).”
That is pretty much the be all and end all of this journey of enlightenment.
Whilst understanding Jung’s concerns, I personally believe that there is much to be learned from Eastern philosophical and theological traditions, which I will attempt to outline here. Firstly, despite my apparent reservations, I do not think there is any inherent harm in taking a life break and signing up for a course in an ashram and indeed there may be many benefits to it. The concept of any life break or retreat, wherever it is and within any spiritual tradition is to be able to take a break from the humdrum nature of one’s life and have an opportunity to see things differently. Gap years, work away, international volunteering and so on serve similar purposes, as does backpacking around the world.
Ashrams, the more serious of them, offer a supported and disciplined environment wherein aspirants can explore their spirituality and learn a little about the spiritual traditions of the East, including the several major works within the Advaita Vedanta. Most offer standard accommodation with space for personal retreats, vegetarian cuisine, community formalised rituals and activities, guided meditations, hatha yoga courses and so on. Given the hundred or so of these establishments in greater Rishikesh alone, aside from on-line information or the reviews offered by previous guests, I wouldn’t know how it is possible to able to evaluate realistically the quality of these, particularly for the majority of folk who are likely to have little prior exposure, coming from the very different cultural backgrounds of western developed countries.
(1)https://carljungdepthpsychologysite.blog/2020/05/10/carl-jung-on-theosophy-anthology/#.YXLZFJDBWUB
(2)http://jungcurrents.com/jung-shadow-darkness-conscious