I talk here mostly about waking up and healing. But there is another key part for a rich and healthy life – maturation.

If we look at standard models of human development, we can see there is an inner progression.

 

Stages of Development

 

Age

Area (Alexander)

Cognitive (Piaget)

Kosha

0-2

Behaviour and Senses

Sensori-motor

Anna-

2-7

Desires and Emotions

Pre-operations

Prana-

7-11

Mind

Concrete Operations

Manon-

11-18

Intellect

Formal Operations

Vijnana-

18-25

Feelings and Intuition

Post-Formal Ops

a/a

25+

Individual Ego

[Myness]

 

 

Universal

[Amness, Iness]

Ananda-

As new-borns, we learn to operate physically, then emotionally, then mind, intellect, and so forth.

But we continue to mature on each layer distinctly as we each have different styles of openness, attachment, resistance and repression. Each layer runs on different energy (chakra) and kosha (sheath or layer).

The average person doesn’t mature past “Concrete Operations”, the mind. They remain in what Loevinger called the self-protective or conformist stages. Some move further into Self-Aware, Conscientious, and so forth. Few people become what Maslow called Self-Actualized (Loevinger’s Integrated) yet that sets the stage for a mature enlightenment.

We can say the post-personal stages of enlightenment build on these stages. Yet it’s very possible to wake up without maturing psychologically. Sometimes, the more powerful attention added to an unresolved psychology leads to new issues, not resolution of karma.

Why do we get stuck so early in our potential? The answer needs some big picture plus understanding how we repress rather than release.

Big Picture

In the vast cycles of time, group consciousness rises and falls over thousands of years. When consciousness falls, we lose our sense of connection with the Divine and our higher Self. This can create deep impressions in our psyche that shadow it for eons.

Early in our development, we naturally individuate from our mother. We develop a sense of individuality and a sense of mine (ahamkara and asmita). This individuation is a necessary step in human maturation. But if our path is unclear and our growth resisted, we can get stuck there – as the vast majority do. We keep an immature self-sense, become identified with it, and build our life on it.

Response Pattern

That identified ego is protective and fear-driven (3rd chakra) so it wants to feel in control. Thus it claims passing thoughts, emotions, and actions as mine. And yet the ego itself knows this is an illusion and tries to hide it from us. (Which also tells us we’re not the ego.)

Some ways we try to control:

– getting people on our side (separating them from others)

– gossip,