It is important for our spiritual growth to develop a balance between our left side of emotion and our right side of action. Often, if we’re dragged into the left side, or pulled into the right side, we lose touch with those around us. We become individualistic. Either we’re withdrawn and unwilling to communicate, or we’re too full of ourselves to care what others have to say. In both cases our connection with other people becomes undermined.

When in the centre, we automatically become collective. There is a desire to connect, to communicate. It is a joy to be in the company of others. All apprehension and suspicion vanish completely. All disregard and arrogance melt away.

The famous psychologist, Carl Jung, spoke at length about this. He called it Individuation. He said we have both a collective side and an individual side. The problem is that people identify with one or the other. If we become too individualistic, we neglect our social responsibilities; and if we are too socially oriented, we neglect our inner selves. Individuation is a sort of harmonising of these two sides. By working out who we in fact are, through a realisation of the self – self-realisation – our uniqueness unravels. We are then able to fit into the collective pattern in a more creative and natural way.

In order to attain this sense of the collective, however, we must become balanced. Our thinking function and our feeling function, need to be kept in their rightful places. Over-development of either function takes us away from the Self.

Our seeking, our search for some meaning in this world, is a very personal journey. We make discoveries and draw conclusions, not in a social setting, but within ourselves. If we are on the right path, then this journey is nothing short of profound. There are times when the world seems to stop at the moment of some significant realisation; a realisation that encourages us further along our path. God, or the All-pervading Power, seems to touch us on such occasions.

However, the nature of our spiritual development changes with time. At some point there is a subtle shift or transition from a very personal, individual journey, to one that has a collective dimension. It seems that the “seedling” not only has to learn to adjust to the earth, but also to exist amongst others of its own kind.

Brian Bell