Bridge To Oneness

Merge Mentally With The External World.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio, Pixels.com.

Key Assertions: Transpersonal therapy helps one merge mentally with the external world. In transpersonal therapy clients first become more responsible for their lives and develop increased personal freedom and self-determination by learning to identify inner thoughts and feelings, develop Ego strength, raise self-esteem, and release negative patterns of self-invalidation; and then they get themselves together by confronting questions about the meaning and purpose of existence.

Answering questions about the meaning and purpose of existence tends to blur the boundaries of the Ego, allowing clients to transcend the separate self and encounter the transpersonal Self.

Through transpersonal therapy, clients build a psychological bridge between the Ego and the divine; increase their capacity for compassion, love and wisdom; and increase their sense of oneness with all of existence.

It is the development of the sense of oneness and using it for the good of other people and the Earth that is the chief purpose of the Heartwood Path.

The psychological action (force) helpful for this merger is transpersonal therapy, which combines the approaches of Western psychology (helping people integrate the Ego so they can better handle life’s practical realities) with the approach of Eastern psychology (helping people find serenity, receive and express compassion, and experience oneness). Transpersonal therapy is accomplished usually in two stages:

First, clients learn to identify inner thoughts and feelings, develop Ego strength, raise self-esteem, and release negative patterns of self-invalidation—thus becoming more responsible for their lives.

Second, after “getting themselves together,” clients confront questions about the meaning and purpose of existence.

At this point, clients engaged in transpersonal therapy often have built a psychological bridge between the Ego and the divine. This bridge allows them to have more capacity for compassion, love, and wisdom. The clients feel a sense of oneness with all of existence. It is the development of this sense, and using it for the good of others, that is the chief purpose of the Heartwood Path.

All photos, unless noted otherwise are by Dan Pierce.

HumaNatureConnect Activity

For this activity, apply the various zones of one’s psyche to the chore of merging mentally with the external world. In the table that follows are descriptions of the various zones of the human psyche. Next to each description (inspired by Albert J. Lachance’s chapter “The Architecture of the Soul: Sacred Process Ecopsychology” in the book The Greening of Faith: God, the Environment, and the Good Life, edited by John E. Carrol, Paul Brockelman, and Mary Westfall) write down what you have done, what you are doing, and/or what you plan to do to employ each zone of the psyche during your journey down the Heartwood Path or, more generally, in your life. Be sure to describe how each level of cognitive functioning helps you to perceive increasingly the wholeness of Creation. List personal experiences, ideas, and plans regarding how each zone has been, is, or will be employed in the quest of fulfilling your goals as an eartHeart (person who helps others be happy and, thereby, improves the health of the planet).