Spring                                                            Bee Hiving Moon

A major reason for doing the Intensive Journal Workshop was to restart my meditative practice and I’ve done that, now meditating in the morning and before bed. In its emphasis on integrating inner and outer work the journal itself  is a spiritual method fit for a humanist to practice though it is agnostic in its essence.

In the workshops I’ve attended many attendees have been Catholic and I can see why. This is a way that puts a premium on regular introspection and openness to the movement of the underground stream.  And, it insists on bringing that work into daily life.  This would feel familiar to someone who knows the monastic spiritualities.

It also has a distinctively Quaker feel with its emphasis on being led by the inner life (what Quaker’s call the inner light) and working in silence.  Though I never became a Quaker I’ve always felt close to their way.

Perhaps the point of closest connection between my own philosophical position and Progoff’s comes through Lao Tse.  A parable Progoff often uses sounds Taoist to me. When we come to an obstacle, imagine a large boulder, in the stream of our life, we have several options.  We can try to go around it.  We can climb out of the stream and attempt a portage.  We can probe for a way under the obstacle.  Or, we can remain stuck behind it.

Progoff offers an unusual strategy. Increase the flow of water in the stream.  Then, we can simply ride over the rock, carried by the extra water.  How do we do this in our life? By identifying the things that are working and emphasizing them.  As we increase our activity in the things that are working, we increase the positive flow in our life and any obstacles diminish, in fact, we may be able to float right over them.

Progoff offers this approach as an alternative to the problem oriented strategy of most therapy.  I like this idea, which is essentially the goal of Jungian analysis, too.  In my troubled late twenties and early thirties, I sought therapy, including doing outpatient alcohol treatment through Hazelden.  I went through a number of therapists, all well-intentioned, kind and compassionate, but each focused on my problems.  As I focused on the problems in therapy, then tried to work out the solutions in my life, it seemed my whole life was problematic.

It wasn’t until I found John Desteian and his Jungian approach that I began to appreciate my virtues.  Though I continued to grapple with anxiety and depression, I dealt with them as a whole person experiencing debilitating symptoms, rather than as a “depressed person” or an “anxious person.”  This insight, which came over years, allowed me to increase the flow of water in my stream so I could metaphorically rise above them.  That is, I continue to experience melancholy and anxiety, but as episodes in a full life, rather than as definitive of my life.

The Progoff work underscores and reinforces this understanding.