{"id":1211,"date":"2017-11-16T03:22:31","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T03:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/healingandtransformation\/?p=1211"},"modified":"2017-11-16T03:22:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T03:22:31","slug":"search-meaning-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/healingandtransformation\/2017\/11\/search-meaning-2.html","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Quest: The Search for Meaning & Finding our Calling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/9\/96\/Bloch-SermonOnTheMount.jpg\"<\/a>
The Sermon on the Mount
Carl Bloch, 1890<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As seekers in the West, we seem to have lost our way in how we interpret capitalism and our soul\u2019s yearning for spiritual sustenance. A spiritual void came out of disconnecting from the land and losing our traditional roots. Aboriginal cultures are deeply rooted to nature and their connection to the land, and this means that they neither feel lost nor have the need to go seeking something, nor feel the need to achieve some magical goal.<\/p>\n

Western cultures broke away from residing wholly in the body and placed more emphasis on the mental aspects. Whilst much was achieved through intellectual pursuits and human ingenuity (including the technology that allows us to engage with digital screens), what is missing are elements of the instinctual self that require integration.<\/p>\n

Respect for the sacredness of all life-forms is part of the cultural heritage of indigenous culture. This rootedness in the earth and nature-centered ideology is far removed from the\u00a0Judeo-Christian tradition of\u00a0<\/span>humanocentrism<\/em>, which places the human being as the centre of the universe.\u00a0The biblical tradition placed man as superior to other creatures, specifically in the verse of Genesis 1:26, it\u2019s written:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Such an outlook breeds separation from the inferior-sounding extrinsic natural environment, especially that, according to this logic, it is man that is created in God\u2019s image and not fish or any other creature (definitely not the creeping variety!) Historically Europeans have sought to dominate and suppress nature. This point of view has a concomitant bias against natural inclinations within the human personality. Rejecting parts of the self, particularly their natural instincts, has led to Europeans in particular suffering from a form of cultural disorientation. This creates confusion about one\u2019s inner nature and expression, conflict about who one is, and how one fits into the world.<\/p>\n

One of the results of this spiritual gap is the personal development industry which attempts to fill this spiritual void or bridge the gap between what we are and how we feel about ourselves. It is not necessarily doomed to fail, just so-often misleading as the spiritual sickness has a solution only found in nature, and in acts that ground and deepen one\u2019s roots.<\/p>\n

Carl Jung\u2019s concept of\u00a0individuation<\/em>\u00a0is helpful to broadly define the goal of personal development \u2013 the drive to achieve wholeness and balance. In Jungian psychology, one could understand individuation as\u201cknowing yourself.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

What makes a person unique and identifiable as separate from another person is this process of\u00a0individuation<\/em>. Through undergoing experiences, a person\u2019s innate qualities and unconscious psyche, are gradually integrated over a lifetime into a healthy whole self. Having seen many people yearn for personal transformation, it is important to recognise that no two people are alike. They may look alike, but spiritually be on a completely different page. Each path represents different phases of learning and growing.<\/p>\n

In the West, people come from a \u00a0place of not being whole and complete \u2013 whereas in traditional cultures, there was a deep cultural understanding that we are born whole and complete \u2013 and nothing can separate us from this truth. Individuation naturally unfolds where a culture is in harmony with its environment. The Western opposition to its environment and enmity towards outsiders, creates a disharmony, a spiritual gap, and in many cases, a disunity within the maturation of personality.<\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/3\/33\/MaslowsHierarchyOfNeeds.svg\"Psychologist Maslow, who investigated healthy minds as a counterpoint to Freudian\u00a0psychology\u2019s preoccupation with studying the sick mind, found that a healthy person must have a vision and belief in the\u00a0achievement of his\/her goals. Maslow described this tendency for\u00a0self-fulfilment or self-actualisation as\u00a0\u201cthe desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Maslow writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cA musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.\u00a0\u201c<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The change always comes internally within the self-concept inside a person\u2019s mind:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety.\u00a0If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Maslow<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maslow later expanded his vision to include a higher level of human consciousness \u2013 self-transcendence \u2013 having a spiritual goal outside of oneself.<\/p>\n

Viktor Frankl writes in Man\u2019s Search for Meaning that meaning is at the highest rung of human needs:
\n\u201cThere is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one\u2019s life.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Frankl goes on to write,<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life\u00a0is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The human need is not for purpose at all costs including the loss of humanity, but for purpose that fulfils a goal worthy of each person, a higher purpose that inspires a deeper calling.<\/p>\n

It is in philosophy that one begins to understand what is common to humanity and also what culturally separates us. The search for meaning is arguably a Western trait, as for indigenous cultures, meaning was never lost \u2013 all of nature is imbued with meaning. In the West, if we do not feel significant and part of the whole matrix around us, then we are doomed to suffer the gloom of detachment and ennui. Solutions put forward for inner harmony may include an embracement of nature and nature-centered therapies. The awakening of one\u2019s freedom, one\u2019s calling \u2013 is the invocation of Spirit to break free of social conditioning and pursue one\u2019s lower and higher nature. Self-actualisation is inherently achieved by listening less to the indoctrination of society, and more to the calling of one\u2019s essence. What this evolves into could inspire or uplift \u2013 invite trepidation or fear.<\/p>\n

For Westerners, this may mean appreciating the rainbows in the clouds instead of painting pretty pictures with artificial light. It may mean feeling the call and following it to evolve how we see and create our world. Seekers will keep seeking until they are home in themselves. This is still a sacred path of discovery \u2013 unknown and unknowable without bravery, discipline and self-sacrifice.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/p>\n

What do you think – or feel? Feel free to comment down below!
\nYou are awesome as you are, and I love you!
\nAnd if you love me back, please click \u2018share\u2019 up at the top!<\/p>\n

David Starlyte (ND) – Australia’s Leading Soul-Coach, Speaker and Ascension-Guide.<\/p>\n

PERSONAL HEALING GUIDANCE COUNSELING SESSIONS NOW AVAILABLE VIA SKYPE
\n(Email me for details: davidstarlyte@gmail.com)<\/p>\n

Find out more about me:\u00a0www.davidstarlyte.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow me on Facebook:\u00a0davidstarlyte<\/a><\/p>\n

Original Artwork (The Sermon on the Mount) by\u00a0Carl Bloch (1890) via Wiki Commons<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As seekers in the West, we seem to have lost our way in how we interpret capitalism and our soul\u2019s yearning for spiritual sustenance. A spiritual void came out of disconnecting from the land and losing our traditional roots. Aboriginal cultures are deeply rooted to nature and their connection to the land, and this means…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":570,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[963,209,192,38,35,220,253,241,12,50],"tags":[947,676,948,949,950,951,952,953,954,260,770,743,955,956,957,958,959,960,905,961,962],"class_list":["post-1211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ascension","category-awakening","category-belief","category-inspiration","category-perception","category-personal-growth","category-soul-coaching","category-spiritual","category-transformation","category-wholeness","tag-abraham-maslow","tag-carl-jung","tag-finding-our-purpose","tag-frankl","tag-freud","tag-freudian-psychology","tag-humanocentrism","tag-individuation","tag-judeo-christian","tag-jung","tag-mans-search-for-meaning","tag-maslow","tag-meaning-of-life","tag-personal-development","tag-personal-myth","tag-psychoanalysis","tag-psychology","tag-rafal-olbinski","tag-self-actualisation","tag-self-actualization","tag-viktor-frankl"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Greatest Quest: The Search for Meaning & Finding our Calling - Healing and Transformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/healingandtransformation\/2017\/11\/search-meaning-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Greatest Quest: The Search for Meaning & Finding our Calling - Healing and Transformation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As seekers in the West, we seem to have lost our way in how we interpret capitalism and our soul\u2019s yearning for spiritual sustenance. 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