psychology & spirituality

What is the relationship between psychology and spirituality? Psychology is the study of the mind. With psychology we try to understand the mind. We try to find any problems that there are in the mind and cure them, if possible. Psychology has the aim of normalising us, of making us fit to live in society. Psychology uses the mind to look into the mind. As with all things to do with the thinking mind, it is a relative business. Its success is judged in relative terms. Am I normal? That means, am I the same as other people? Am I the same as some average person, whatever that may mean? So, psychology is not looking for the absolute within us.

Spirituality, on the other hand, is looking for the absolute. The sole concern of the spiritual search is to find the absolute within us, to find our essence. This cannot be judged in relative ways. The end point has nothing to do with whether we are fit to live in society or not. It has nothing to do with comparison at all. It has nothing to do with becoming normal, becoming average. With the spiritual quest, we are not at all concerned about becoming similar to other people. That is not the aim and it is not the measure of our success.

Whilst the spiritual journey requires us to understand our own mind, and to clear any obstacles to enlightenment that we find there, that is just a part of the work, a step along the way. Once we get beyond the difficulties in the mind, then we can enter into different spaces in our being. We can explore the depths of consciousness which are beyond the thinking mind. We can reach to our very core. We can find the divine within us.