Cognitive development vs. spiritual awakening

This originated as an email to a seeker friend who expressed surprise at the lack of consensus among spiritual teachers about what "spiritual awakening" is, as well as about almost everything else. I had already seen in both seekers and teachers a tendency to overlook or downplay the ongoing influence of psychological factors in how one's awakening is understood and spoken about. The prevailing assumption seemed to be that awakening somehow trumps psychology, thus conferring psychological insight that, in my opinion, doesn't usually follow from even the deepest awakening. For more about this, see also Cognitive Complexity as Aspect of Intelligence. (The bullet-point format here was to help organize and lend concision to my thoughts on this matter.)

Cognitive development

• Cognitive development and spiritual awakening are largely, if not entirely, independent lines.

• Cognitive development unfolds in progressively encompassing stages marked by increasing levels of complexity, nuanced meaning making, and emotional maturity.

• As in the case of IQ, whatever developmental stage one ultimately matures into is highly individual, and is not up to oneself (the development in this sense isn't about "self-improvement").

• Although not tightly correlated with age, cognitive development can more or less stop at “earlier” or less complex stages typically reached between adolescence and the first decade of adulthood, or continue into advanced stages often not reached until well into middle age or beyond — and anything in between.

• The earlier adult stages are characterized by conventional meaning-making, tribalism, simple ideas of right and wrong, literal interpretation of religious scripture, intolerance of ambiguity, etc.

• Later stages are characterized by more nuanced meaning-making, comfort with ambiguity and paradox, appreciation of multiple perspectives, and greater recognition of relativism and complexity in virtually all things.

• (Bear in mind that those previous two descriptions can be placed like points near the poles of a continuum, with many stages in between, as well as some stages that come before the early adult stages, and potentially beyond the more advanced ones.¹)

• Just as an adult can understand a child, but a child cannot understand an adult, those of more advanced cognitive development can understand those of less advanced development, but the latter cannot understand the former.² Those of less advanced development can, however, (and, frustratingly, often do) think or believe they understand things that are beyond their actual level of insight or maturity (e.g., the phenomenon now known as the Dunning-Kruger effect).

Spiritual awakening

• Spiritual awakening — from the subtlest shift of orientation to the most radical transformation of identity and perception — can take place at almost any stage of adult cognitive development.

• No matter how dramatically one's awakening may sever their identification as or with their cognitive structure, that structure will continue to influence the way they understand and talk about awakening.

• Being (relatively) free of identification as one’s cognitive structure and character does not equate to being free of that structure and character. In this life of apparent embodiment, it seems there's no such thing as being free of one’s cognitive structure (which would likely represent death).

• Just as awakening has no impact on one's innate eye color, body type, preference for hot or cold climate, etc., neither does awakening significantly impact the basic trait structure of one's character.³

• Spiritual awakening clarifies and shifts one's identity in a profound sense (in terms of how, with what, and to what degree, one identifies), but doesn't automatically or immediately bestow wisdom or psychological maturity.

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¹ Interestingly, research (by Susanne Cook-Greuter, among others) has shown that at the most advanced stages, the trend of increasing cognitive complexity gives way to a deconstructive bent that tends toward simplicity. Of course, it's important to recognize that there's a fundamental difference between the simplicity of either a child or a severely developmentally disabled adult and that of one who's matured through all the prior stages — up to the most advanced or profound.

² If the developmental gap between two people is relatively close, it’s entirely possible for the person of less advanced development to at least intuit something of the more advanced stage of the other. This applies even more at later stages.

³ Awakening can, in some cases, alter certain personality traits. The point is that there still remains an overall gestalt of traits recognizable (both to oneself and to others) as one's personality, regardless of the depth of realization.