The Ceiling of Development
El techo del desarrollo
A reflection on how the growth of the body and mind reaches a natural limit without the realization of being, and how these two dimensions of human development depend on each other.
The Ceiling of Development
A reflection on how the growth of the body and mind reaches a natural limit without the realization of being, and how these two dimensions of human development depend on each other.
There is something about pointing to this that makes it difficult to talk about. The moment you try to name it, it starts to become reified, turned into an object, as though it were some fixed thing that is changing. And if I always use the same word, whether "consciousness" or any other term, it begins to harden into an understood idea of what it is. But it cannot be reduced to that.
Development has a ceiling
It also works the other way. If the development of the body and mind is not complete, there are limits to the possibility of realizing being. This is harder to say assertively, but it seems true: there is simply so much pain and fear that will arise, and working through that can actually support the realization of being.
At the same time, it has often happened that precisely because the pain and fear were so intense, the realization of being broke through. So the relationship is not straightforward.
What I feel much more confident saying is this: the development and growth of the body and mind has a ceiling if being is not realized. That is why there are these evolutionary leaps in human history. Someone realizes being, teaches ethics, and there is a developmental leap in society, because there had been a ceiling in the conventional, collective mind.
What helps, and what it cannot do alone
When it comes to the development of the person, the body and mind, psychology is good. Working on ethics is good. Physical exercise and caring for the body is good. Working on emotions, pain, and fears, and aligning all of that with better maps, helps.
But if you were to completely clear away all fear and pain, there would be nothing left to bring about being or waking up.