Well into his lectures to his brethren at Gethsemani Abbey on the similarities between Cistercian and Sufi mysticism, Thomas Merton introduced the work of a professor of psychiatry at George Washington University in Washington, DC, who wrote a book that described a Sufi/psychiatric analysis of what the later stages of the path towards union with God means. The professor wrote his book in 1965: Final Integration in the Adult Personality: A Measure for Health, Social Change, and Leadership, by A. Reza Arasteh. The book is a fascinating blend of perennial Sufi teachings and modern psychiatric thought.
Arasteh describes the path of spiritual development as proceeding through three levels: (1) the instinctual level, such as when a child is in its infancy (similar to an animal), (2) cultural development, wherein one learns to align one's emotions and actions with society's expectations (if not its demands), and (3) going beyond society into union with God. The meaning of life is thus all about growth, learning, and change.
Arasteh also describes three inner conflicts that we struggle with, on this path to final integration. We must come to an understanding and acceptance of these internal conflicts, in order to hold to the path of maturation. The first of the inner conflicts concerns our struggle with death. All we have known in our younger lives is continuity, so we tend to feel our life will go on—that we should even be immortal. But we must come to see that death is built into life... it's a natural part of existence. We must accept that fact.
The second struggle or inner conflict that we must deal with is the issue of what constitutes a meaningful life. None of us wants to accept that our life has had no meaning. We want to feel that our life made a difference to someone or to society. Some of us deal with this struggle by seeking some kind of popularity or acquiring a feeling of importance, so as to feel notable. We want to be seen as creative, to be admired... these days to have thousands of Facebook “friends.” It’s just another way of seeking some kind of immortality.
The third struggle follows from the second—it is that we must come to see that, overall, society is meaningless. Although we've come to feel that our life acquires meaning by conforming to society's norms, we must at some point come to the realization that these norms are basically irrational. It is not easy to arrive at this insight, because we've often already absorbed much of society's inculcation and it's hard to admit that we've swallowed the Kool-Aid. It's hard to back out and take our next step in the journey.
Thus the path to full integration, in Arasteh's perspective, is to grow beyond both society and popular culture. This is precisely the path that monks have chosen, when they enter a monastery.
The gift of final integration is to come to understand that we do not need to strive for the bogus creativity that society desires, but seek the true creativity that comes from union with God. God is the ultimate creativity.
The challenge of going beyond society's meaninglessness is to come to realize a deeper understanding: that those of us who seek to detach from society are often still in it, to some degree—unless we fully retreat to some desert hideaway. So how do we participate in society to the degree that makes sense, without becoming a part of society? That's the perennial challenge for the contemplative. Again, monastics do it by withdrawing behind cloistered walls.
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