Can anyone relate?: Spiritual bypassing is particularly tempting for people who are having difficulty navigating life's developmental challenges, especially in a time and culture like ours, where what were once ordinary landmarks of adulthood -- earning a livelihood through dignified work, raising a family, keeping a marriage together, belonging to a meaningful community -- have become increasingly elusive for large segments of the population. While still struggling to find themselves, many people are introduced to spiritual teachings
Somewhat on the same subject, the Jungian analyst Robert Johnson has written: Dr. Jung once said that in essence there are two problems in therapy: the problem of the twenty-one-year-old and the problem of the forty-five-year-old, regardless of the actual chronological age of the person. The twenty-one-year- old's problem has to do with getting into life, while the forty-five-year-old's problem is how to get back out of life.... ...I also encountered a dilemma that seemed to grow to epidemic proportions in America in the 1960s and 1970s--the individual who is facing both problems at the same time. Such people manage to avoid growing up, taking responsibility and truly engaging life, thus extending their adolescence into their twenties, thirties, forties and even fifties....While it's true that social expectations regarding the contour of one's life have changed, still nothing is sadder than an individual who has reached the age of fifty and still has not engaged life.... (Balancing Heaven and Earth, p. 143.) http://www.amazon.com/Balancing-Heaven-Earth-Robert-Johnson/dp/0062515063 No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.484 / Virus Database: 269.12.9/975 - Release Date: 8/26/2007 9:34 PM
