A primary characteristic of a mentally healthy person is the successful integration of the “shadow” side of their psyche and the achievement of inner wholeness. The defining trait of an enlightened person is exactly the same—they are whole. And the glue that binds our fragmented parts together is called love.
Thaddeus Golas:
“There is no right way to behave ‘after’ enlightenment. We are not required to be or not to be anyone, for in our hearts and minds we contain everything; we are full.
What does it mean to be full? It means seeking to include within ourselves everything that ‘differs’ from any limited idea. It means understanding that when we define something as positive, we simultaneously create something negative. When we choose an ideal of knowledge, we must also deal with the ignorance that differs from that knowledge. In separating an ideal of holiness, we are bound to meet the sins that accompany it; we must take responsibility for having created them…
But if we remain open and do not resist the negative, we are not dependent on it. If we acknowledge that the ugly is always present within us, we are free to create beauty. If we know that there is stupidity within us, we can freely turn to our intellect.
Love is the highest and holiest action because it always includes that which is not love; it is always directed toward absorbing the unloving and the unloved. How often we try to find cause-and-effect relationships in our experience, even though what is happening is nothing more than the oscillations of states alternating with one another. We can choose the path of denial, like monastic discipline, and then feel insufficiently rewarded. Or, conversely, we can indulge in sensual pleasures and later feel cheated.
We never step aside to see that we are simply swinging pendulums. Many of us try too hard to think of ourselves only as good, nice, and wise. This represents an attempt to be a pendulum that swings in only one direction.”
— Thaddeus Golas, The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment
Pamela Kribbe:
“Enlightenment means that you allow all aspects of yourself to stand in the light of your consciousness. Enlightenment does not mean that you are fully aware of everything that is within you, but that you are willing to meet every flaw of yours. Enlightenment is compared to love. And love means to accept yourself as you are.”
Good psychotherapy has a distinct positive effect on a person’s spiritual development, and conversely, a good spiritual practice increases an individual’s level of psychological well-being. It is not important which approach we choose to follow to achieve our inner wholeness—secular or spiritual.
What matters is that the path is one: the integration of fragmented inner parts through the simple act of seeing them and accepting that they, too, are part of our nature. In doing so, we cease to be swinging pendulums and begin to understand what it truly means to possess an inner center.
Kameliya Hadzhiyska
