Human Development
Ecosophical self realization
Description:
Traditional approaches to maturity of self have considered the self in isolation, divorced from home, environment and identification with others. Arne Naess posits an [ecological self] where the wider self, not that defined by the narrow ego, develops in relation to its surroundings, including other human beings and also animals. This development transcends narrow selfishness and also selflessness, where the smaller self is suppressed in conscious devotion to others and reacts against the lack of self love in a hidden hostility against life which colours behaviour. Sacrificing of one's own interests, even for the good of nature as a whole, is counter-productive. Instead, self love - love of the wider self - embraces not only the individual but nature as well. An objective approach to knowledge and realization of one's potential, based on insight, reveals the depth of identification with one's surroundings. This is demonstrated in the response to abrupt relocation or threatened change in one's immediate environment, when one's very identity seems threatened- destroy one's surroundings and part of one's self is destroyed. Defence of nature, then, is not just defence of one's external surroundings but defence of one's inmost self; defence of the fundamental rights of others is literally also self-defence. By embracing rather than conquering the world one actually defends one's self interest in the widest sense of the word 'self'. Instead of performing morally right actions against an inner resistance, if one does so in accordance with one's own inclinations, with pleasure, then that act becomes beautiful. It is not a matter of seeking happiness, which is essentially an activity of the smaller self, but of interaction in which joy arises, this is self realization. The closer one comes to identifying with others, not only other humans but also on a wider plane, the closer one comes to self realization in the personal sense but also in the sense that one is raising the level of total self realization, since realization of each self depends on that of all others, and of all others that of each self.Broader:
MaturitySelf-actualization Related:
Deep ecology