Self-development

Constructive self-development usually involves some ethical discipline such as a philosophical system or yoga. The striving towards self-development, self-awareness and a whole-hearted approach to life requires mutual support and encouragement. Self-development is not an automatic process, but requires individual will and effort. Starting with curiosity or the "desire to know", the individual is impelled to understand, systematize, organize and analyse more and more, the more he or she learns, both in depth and breadth. By doing so the person becomes something more than previously.

Self-development carries with it the need for self-expression to be creative in the sense that children are creative, in contrast to the predictable responses acquired with enculturation. Ultimately it leads to spontaneous behaviour without motivation and is experienced as the mystic awe and delight associated with the term [moksha]

. At this level the ego-centred self is enlarged and extended to include and integrate with others, and is expressed as a responsible, giving love based on knowledge. The ultimate aim can never be said to have been reached, as the more satisfying the pursuit of self-development the more one is impelled to pursue it.