Patterns of Spirituality

Effects on Personality of Spiritual Realisations

One belief that is occasionally met with during the spiritual journey is that once a person reaches the realisation of emptiness he can then create himself to be what he wants to be. This belief is flawed. The realisation of emptiness does not get rid of the effects of life-long determinism and mental confusion; all realisation does is to suffuse the person with spiritual wonder, and his defects fade into the background. In effect, the person can become a better person, since the positive aspects to his character are energised whilst the negative aspects fade into the background, but the process is not a wonder cure. A lower-class person will still have a lower-class mentality ; a middle-class person will still have a middle-class mentality ; an upper-class person will still have an upper-class mentality. If a person dislikes himself and his cultural background, he has to engage in active personality change ; spiritual realisations will not do it for him automatically.

The overall effects on personality of spiritual realisations depend on the method used to attain the realisations. The methods are three in number, and use either the will, the mind, or the feelings.  A person who uses his will power as his route to realisation (as is done in classical meditation) finds that his will power is slightly increased ; an intellectual who uses his mind as his route will find that his intellectual powers are slightly increased ; a person who uses his feelings and emotions as his route will find that his ability to empathise and love others will slightly increase. Realisations increase only slightly the person's existing abilities.  I consider that it is rare for completely new abilities to be added. So, for example, a traditional meditator may be able to use his increased will power to develop more psychic abilities (which come under the heading of extra sensory perception), but he is unlikely to develop love for humanity (which is an aspect of the feeling method) or to become a great philosopher (which is an aspect of the mind method).

To put these ideas another way - realisation harmonises with the person's existing interests and desires. Or, what the person experiences is tailored to his existing interests and beliefs. A person who follows the traditional route of meditation is not usually interested in his intellect or in his feelings for the rest of humanity.

Realisation is not the end of the spiritual journey; rather, it is just the next step up the ladder of human evolution. So it does not increase what the person is not interested in, and hence the meditator will find that though his will power is increased after realisation, his intellect and his emotional sensitivity to other people are not increased. Mother Teresa was an woman with abundant spiritual feelings, but her intellect and her will power were just ordinary.

During the spiritual journey, does a person really need to create a new self ?  The desire to do so is the result of deep guilt and self-hatred in the person. After all the years I have tried to change myself, I have now realised that all I want to be is just me. Once a person learns to accept himself, with all his virtues and vices, then there is no longer a drive to change himself. It is enough just to be oneself. Now I accept that all the issues that created deep guilt and self-hatred in me were nothing more than a pathway for me to explore the intricacies of the mind. There are a myriad ways through the mind, and so there are myriad ways to reach one's spiritual goals. The only difference is that some ways are more painful than others.

When a person adds psychology to his spiritual journey, then the process of transformation means that though initially the person sets out to change himself, he eventually learns to accept himself. Psychology is a process that uses the whole person : his will power, his mind, his feelings and emotions. Therefore if a person embraces psychology during his journey of change, then he will attain a more balanced result than traditional methods can lead him to. He will have attained a more mature character, a character that can handle worldly issues in more harmonious ways than traditional methods can achieve for him.

Copyright © 2002 Ian Heath
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