Self-actualising People And Spiritually Enlightened People Are The Same Thing

[Pav]

I came to this realisation last night. I have been studying some eastern religions/philosophies (Taoism, Zen Buddhism) recently and I have noticed that the the states of liberation that these religions attempt to teach are strikingly similar to what Maslow called Being-perception. 

As an example; I remember from a lecture by Alan Watts he says [Paraphrasing here] that after liberation they may then enter back into society and act which every role they like, only now the see through the illusion. This sounds similar to where Maslow talks of the "second naivety" of self-actualising people. This is where self-actualising people live from the Being realm, however they don't revert back to the mind of a child, they instead still know the Deficiency realm only now they may selectively choose when to use it as the situation sees fit. 

I glanced back at Maslow's original description of self-actualising people in Motivation and Personality, and found that the description matched what I expected from someone who was liberated; ie universal acceptance, resolution of all dichotomies, the ability to perceive reality more objectively/concretely, the ability to see thoughts/concepts/rubrisisations for what they really are without getting so attached, "getting out of their own way" allowing them selves to function spontaneously/effortlessly, the ability to freshly appreciated the everyday life as if it were experienced for the first time, the ability to see past their own ego and devote themselves to a course greater than themselves, ect.

I seems that western psychologists (Maslow, Jung), Taoism, Zen, Hinduism, the teachings of Jesus, are all alluding to the same fundamental state of Being only verbalised in different ways.

[Leo Gura]

Most of Maslow's subjects (if not all of them) were not enlightened. They were just more aware than the average person.

More awareness means you're closer to what an enlightened sage or an ideally self-actualized person would generally look like.

But enlightenment is such a rare thing, that self-actualization is much more realistic as a goal for most folk.

[charlie2dogs]

the newage version of enlightenment, is defining personal growth, as levels of enlightenment, according to actions performed, when in reality enlightenment has nothing to do with actions performed or personal growth.  most personal growth consist of dealing with the never ending issues created by the human identity, rather than enlightenment and liberation itself,