“Neither knowledge, luck nor intelligence but expanded sensitivity to the wisdom of one’s own process creates the independence of a congruent personality.”
Arnold Mindell in “River’s Way”.
By a congruent personality, Mindell means one that is relatively free of double signals. For example, someone who knows what they want and goes for it, or knows they don’t know what they want and is comfortable hanging out in the space of not-knowing. But there are always in-between stages, moments when we feel itchy in our own skin, uncertain, perplexed. In these moments, as Mindell implies, tools and techniques of awareness are our allies in achieving congruency, and the more we own these tools and techniques through regular practice and familiarity, the more independent we can be. But independent of what? Does he mean of others? Does he mean of the culture and our conditioning? Does he mean of the need for a belief system that may or may not be helpful in the present moment?
the wisdom of process, the wisdom of one’s own process … sensitivity to it…. i can only speak personally, but when i am connected to that deepest sense of process, the spirit before the signal, the creativity before the dream; the independence, as you write, is from conditioning, from personal history and from a critical inner world that neither serves me nor supports anything that feels well…. in touch with process, with spirit or whatever you want to call it…. there i feel well…. free… close to nature …..that is mine..