In my pursuit of (atheistic) spiritual enlightenment I have uncovered a myriad previously hidden paths that beg travel. One of those paths is emotional growth. That is, through my writing and thoughts that have not yet been shared, I have come to the conclusion that spiritual enlightenment requires emotional growth. At the beginning of this journey I was wary of emotions we typically classify as negative: anger, depression, sadness, etc. I suspected that an emotionally mature person would most often be happy regardless of the problems they face. However, I have come to see that there's a place for all emotions. I thank my friends for helping me to understand that. Unfortunately, I now find myself without a definition of emotional maturity. If it's not someone who's always happy, what is it.I'm going to take another approach this time. Instead of just coming up with a definition, let me name a few people who I suspect are emotionally mature and then figure out what it is about them that makes them so. Some people who come to mind: Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Dr. Martin Luther King. While I wish I knew these individuals enough to know how they thought and how they experience emotion, I can only guess. Here are my best guesses based on their actions (those that I have knowledge of):
- They each had the ability to care deeply about people - even people they knew little about.
- Each responded emotionally - with anger, sadness, etc. - to evil acts they witnessed and they were able to harness these emotions to move themselves and others to action.
- Each was able to overcome their fear of confronting evil. The old adage "ignorance is bliss" is frightfully accurate. It takes courage to face truth and one must overcome their fears in order to do so.
- Each was able to put personal needs and emotions aside in the interest of what they considered to be the greater good. Or, perhaps happiness for them was a product of others' happiness.
Before I proceed, let me restate an important axiom of many of my conclusions about growth (intellectual, emotional, etc.). If a person desires to reach a certain level of aptitude, they only need to study and practice sufficiently in order to do so. Some people are born with natural talents (be they musical, emotional or otherwise). These people can reach the same level a less talented person can reach with less effort. Also, energy spent earlier on will be more fruitful than energy spent later. Kids have fewer beliefs to reconcile with new ones they come across.
Assuming this axiom holds true (and I believe it does), we are all capable of achieving the level of emotional maturity that we associate with the people I referenced above. The questions at this point are how and why? More thoughts on that soon. Looking forward to your feedback.
