I think another really important aspect of psychological maturity as it relates to meditation is the capacity to sit with "I am the problem" without self-judgment, or otherwise somehow realizing that being the problem also inherently makes you the solution.
This is the problem with truly worthwhile SubStacks like this one - each piece elicits a need to say so much in response (appreciation/agreement) - that I just don't have the time!
May my 'Hearting' of this superb piece suffice for now sir!
Re: no.1 there should be no guilt using anecdotal evidence. At some point of being / reaching maturity - means enough to trust personal instincts - you made it this far in life, right..? Sometimes our unique insight is able to connect that, which Ai fails at - ‘Unexpected, yet related.’
I stopped feeling guilty about using anecdotal evidence when supporting personal writing when I learned that Bank of Canada started using ~narratives in their own research - essentially quantifying feelings of masses. ‘Hmmm... Feelings of masses..? Yup, Feelings of Masses’.
The unsatisfying thing, is the fact that in some instances the data is virtually ~all American.
You would think that it is ~hard to quantify Feelings of Masses - but no.
Yeah I feel this. I like to call it out though, because there are also times where I make assertions that _are_ backed up by strong evidence, and I don't want to cheapen the latter. I also want to be able to write openly about things I have varying degrees of certainty on, and adding "epistemic status" type caveats helps me do that without feeling dishonest or being potentially misleading.
"Specifically: it’s hard to meditate if you’ve got a bunch of bullshit to worry about."
I meditated on bullshit, concentrating on the person/thing that was driving me crazy. Eventually all the tiny fractal arms explaining the reasons for that person or situation came clear and action could proceed.
Sometimes it wasn't what I wanted to have to go through, tremendous pain was involved at times, then there are smaller sacrifices like not eating bread or leaving home, town, country. Sometimes it went 100% against what I thought would be the morally correct thing to do like abandoning a person or idea, ie family members, friends etc..
It was the right path *for me in a set of circumstances* and then one day after doing this for years, boom (in my forties which qualifies as 'mature').
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. -Carl Jung"
Shamans call the person who irritates a 'petty tyrant'. One uses the traits of dreadful people in their life to correct the ego. Its hard to do but supremely effective and the only proper feeling towards them is gratitude because as they say, 'self importance is the enemy'.
"As I said, the petty tyrant is the outside element, the one we cannot control and the element that is perhaps the most important of them all. My benefactor used to say that he who stumbles on a petty tyrant is a lucky one [...] because if you don’t, you have to go out and look for one.”
[...] If seers can hold their own in facing petty tyrants, they can certainly face the unknown with impunity, and then they can even stand the presence of the unknowable.
[...] We know that nothing can temper the spirit [...] as much as the challenge of dealing with impossible people in positions of power. Only under those conditions can warriors acquire the sobriety and serenity to stand the pressure of the unknowable.”
Totally agree! I spent almost a year of meditation ruminating on the same subject, on-and-off. It was awful and painful, but eventually I cut through it. Sitting with that emotion wasn't pleasant, but probably accelerated my practice.
I was just talking about this the other day when commenting on how modern meditation is increasingly sold as an easy self-help intervention. It completely misses the fact that deep meditation requires serious introspection and exploration behind motives, ethics, and understanding of our own psychology and the cultural backgdrop behind all of that.
"modern meditation is increasingly sold as an easy self-help intervention"
-----
The same can be applied to current "practitioners" of Yoga. A majority of people look upon it as solely a form of exercise, completely disregarding the meditative aspect. This can be witnessed by the overwhelming number of classes, and the number of attendees, in local gyms as opposed to those taught by Yogis or guided by long-term proponents of both the mental/emotional/meditative and the physical components inherent in Yoga.
Agreed. And I wonder at what point it crosses over from 'exercise' to shouting at the sleeping dragon and bashing it on the head with a stick. These women have no idea of the power of it when it wakes up. Shopping at Lululemon for cute yoga pants does not a yogi make.
I agree, although, I wonder how many begin to feel the deeper impact of yoga, even when it is only offered as a physical exercise. I practiced power yoga in Los Angeles for 5 years and witnessed this at times. If the teacher doesn't taken an explicit meditative or spiritual approach, the practice itself still does have a way of pulling you deeper into yourself. Especially if the teacher prompts students to sit in positions for longer periods, to push to the edge of discomfort, or genuinely take time for shavasana. It's fascinating how it can awaken something within!
With that said, asana accompanied with the other limbs of yoga really does offer an incredible foundation for spiritual practice (and is often missing in typical yoga studios).
I think another really important aspect of psychological maturity as it relates to meditation is the capacity to sit with "I am the problem" without self-judgment, or otherwise somehow realizing that being the problem also inherently makes you the solution.
Totally agree with this. It's something I struggled heavily with when I first started doing shadow work--lots of self-judgement.
The nice thing about learning this skill is it makes it a *lot* easier to do introspective work, since you're less afraid of what you might find.
Another great and very thought-provoking read, thanks Max.
This is the problem with truly worthwhile SubStacks like this one - each piece elicits a need to say so much in response (appreciation/agreement) - that I just don't have the time!
May my 'Hearting' of this superb piece suffice for now sir!
This is a fantastic essay. Do you have any more pointers for going about inner work/ the secondary resources you read that were inspired by Jung?
Thanks!
The most powerful Jungian resource for me was Robert Moore's Facing the Dragon (I reviewed it here: https://superbowl.substack.com/p/book-review-facing-the-dragon). James Hillman is also wonderful.
Thanks! Now on my list to read
My cat accidentally hit send on the first comment, then he asked to go for a walk & my browser cleared out my second comment. GG
Re: no.1 there should be no guilt using anecdotal evidence. At some point of being / reaching maturity - means enough to trust personal instincts - you made it this far in life, right..? Sometimes our unique insight is able to connect that, which Ai fails at - ‘Unexpected, yet related.’
I stopped feeling guilty about using anecdotal evidence when supporting personal writing when I learned that Bank of Canada started using ~narratives in their own research - essentially quantifying feelings of masses. ‘Hmmm... Feelings of masses..? Yup, Feelings of Masses’.
The unsatisfying thing, is the fact that in some instances the data is virtually ~all American.
You would think that it is ~hard to quantify Feelings of Masses - but no.
Yeah I feel this. I like to call it out though, because there are also times where I make assertions that _are_ backed up by strong evidence, and I don't want to cheapen the latter. I also want to be able to write openly about things I have varying degrees of certainty on, and adding "epistemic status" type caveats helps me do that without feeling dishonest or being potentially misleading.
"Specifically: it’s hard to meditate if you’ve got a bunch of bullshit to worry about."
I meditated on bullshit, concentrating on the person/thing that was driving me crazy. Eventually all the tiny fractal arms explaining the reasons for that person or situation came clear and action could proceed.
Sometimes it wasn't what I wanted to have to go through, tremendous pain was involved at times, then there are smaller sacrifices like not eating bread or leaving home, town, country. Sometimes it went 100% against what I thought would be the morally correct thing to do like abandoning a person or idea, ie family members, friends etc..
It was the right path *for me in a set of circumstances* and then one day after doing this for years, boom (in my forties which qualifies as 'mature').
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. -Carl Jung"
Shamans call the person who irritates a 'petty tyrant'. One uses the traits of dreadful people in their life to correct the ego. Its hard to do but supremely effective and the only proper feeling towards them is gratitude because as they say, 'self importance is the enemy'.
"As I said, the petty tyrant is the outside element, the one we cannot control and the element that is perhaps the most important of them all. My benefactor used to say that he who stumbles on a petty tyrant is a lucky one [...] because if you don’t, you have to go out and look for one.”
[...] If seers can hold their own in facing petty tyrants, they can certainly face the unknown with impunity, and then they can even stand the presence of the unknowable.
[...] We know that nothing can temper the spirit [...] as much as the challenge of dealing with impossible people in positions of power. Only under those conditions can warriors acquire the sobriety and serenity to stand the pressure of the unknowable.”
https://toltecschool.com/toltec-indexes/index-page-1/the-petty-tyrant
Totally agree! I spent almost a year of meditation ruminating on the same subject, on-and-off. It was awful and painful, but eventually I cut through it. Sitting with that emotion wasn't pleasant, but probably accelerated my practice.
I was just talking about this the other day when commenting on how modern meditation is increasingly sold as an easy self-help intervention. It completely misses the fact that deep meditation requires serious introspection and exploration behind motives, ethics, and understanding of our own psychology and the cultural backgdrop behind all of that.
"modern meditation is increasingly sold as an easy self-help intervention"
-----
The same can be applied to current "practitioners" of Yoga. A majority of people look upon it as solely a form of exercise, completely disregarding the meditative aspect. This can be witnessed by the overwhelming number of classes, and the number of attendees, in local gyms as opposed to those taught by Yogis or guided by long-term proponents of both the mental/emotional/meditative and the physical components inherent in Yoga.
fnord
Agreed. And I wonder at what point it crosses over from 'exercise' to shouting at the sleeping dragon and bashing it on the head with a stick. These women have no idea of the power of it when it wakes up. Shopping at Lululemon for cute yoga pants does not a yogi make.
I agree, although, I wonder how many begin to feel the deeper impact of yoga, even when it is only offered as a physical exercise. I practiced power yoga in Los Angeles for 5 years and witnessed this at times. If the teacher doesn't taken an explicit meditative or spiritual approach, the practice itself still does have a way of pulling you deeper into yourself. Especially if the teacher prompts students to sit in positions for longer periods, to push to the edge of discomfort, or genuinely take time for shavasana. It's fascinating how it can awaken something within!
With that said, asana accompanied with the other limbs of yoga really does offer an incredible foundation for spiritual practice (and is often missing in typical yoga studios).