Resistances to Jewish Spiritual Development

Resistances to Jewish Jewish and generic spirituaJdev8q)ment Spiritual Development share many aspects, however, there are a number of particular issues related to unfolding Jewish spirituality. The foffowinglist is a mixttxe of resistances which may be used as a checklist. 1) Denial of one's particularity, ancestry, due to overly universal identifications. 2) Denial of one's universality, homogeneity due to overly parochial identifications. 3) Disinclination to be autonomous-- overdependence on Rabbi, leaders, group. 4) Disinclination to be self-reflective, avoidance of self-reflection, meditation, etc., fear of the difficulties of meditation, the body pain, emotional 5) Split Life Goals--Assimilation attack--Inability to stem the flood of information input-6) Denial of one's ability to feel subtleties of one's soul-7) Despair over lack of attainment-- Hebrew, conceptual, transpersonal 8) Inability to find or surrender to a community with which to grow. 9) Confusion of transpersonal realms, archetypal awareness, etc., with the ego. 10) Pseudo-suffering-- Abandonment of one's soul due to others suffering the holocaust. 11) Pseudo realization--Avoiding spiritual growth due to an illusion of utopian or messianic goals. 12) Fear of flooding with psychic realities--Who am I? What am I? 13) Failure to integrate archetypal awareness--Excessive adulation of rabbi-Rebbe figures. 14) Failure to differentiate from archetypal awareness. Denial of one's humanity. 15) Failure to integrate universal awareness--excessive fear of God. 16) Failure to differentiate from universal awareness. Resistances to the Changes of Generic Spiritual Development 1) Disinclination to be self-reflective. 2) Overdependence on others' spiritual attainments: clergy, leaders. 3) Split Life-Goals: Inability to stem the flood of information input. 4) Fear of flooding with psychic realities. 5) Despair over lack of attainment. 6) Fear of the pain of change. 7) Avoiding spiritual growth due to an illusion of utopia. 8) Avoiding spiritual growth due to an illusion of despair.