Retreats
Psychology of Awakening
What we call Psychology of Awakening is a unique symbiosis between western humanistic psychology and methods to support spiritual awakening originating in middle eastern and eastern traditions.
The term Psychology of Awakening was coined by my teachers, Rafia Morgan, and Turiya Hanover. The work is based on the understanding that we need to "bring psychological and spiritual work together, only then is true transformation possible. This synthesis truly enhances deep and lasting growth."
This approach is not about improving and polishing our character, our personality structure. This work is about going beyond the ego-mind and waking up to who we truly are. Our personality is not what we really are. As a child, it served us to develop a strategy that helped us to navigate life around the do's and dont's stipulated by our caregivers. We had to find a way to receive love and avoid disapproval. It was paramount to our survival. But in most cases, the personality structure that we developed as children has not only become redundant but detrimental to our lives, now that we are adults. And yet, this is how most of us live all our lives without even being aware of it.
Osho, an Indian contemporary mystic, explains why this approach is so important in this day and age:
“In these twenty-five centuries man has become so burdened with rubbish, so many wild weeds have grown in his being that I am using therapy just to clean the ground, take away the wild weeds, the roots, so the difference between the ancient man and the modern man is destroyed. The modern man has to be made as innocent as the ancient man, as simple, as natural. He has lost all these great qualities. The therapist has to help him but his work is only a preparation. It is not the end. The end part is going to be meditation.” ~ Osho
