Self- Actualization

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-actualization 

I find I have gone through many of these steps. People seem capable of fulfilling them in different orders depending on their inherent abilities. As a very intellectual person I found that side of me much easier to fulfill and then got relatively bored with such acheivememts. Others are excellent athletes, artists or extremely good socially. Later they bore with those traits and desire to learn the others. George Bush has become a painter in his spare time. I love my "mundane" physical job as I use my body, not my mind, to its fullest and deal with lots of people in a real time practical scenario where I must learn to control my emotions and understand those of others and their motivations in order to just get through the day. This instead of being a solitary egghead of the ivory tower sort and also the spiritual isolationist who enjoys nature. Both have their advantages but lack completeness. I think the chakra theory is very useful here. People could move around the chakra fulfillment ladder ( not just linearly up it) as they learn more about what is possible to acheive with each chakra. The wiki article here mentions Einstein and Albert Schweitzer. Picasso or Leonardo da Vinci might be others or great politicians or statesmen like Julius Caesar. Buddha or Jesus would of course fulfill spiritual roles. Considering reincarnation one can imagine being a loving mother in one life, a casanova in another, a wasrrior in a third and an inventor or " mad genius" in a fourth, a wealthy trader in a fifth, a leader in a sixth, and finally settling into deep spiritualism in one' s last incarnation. If one considers haphazard modern rolechanging, people do much of these things by changing jobs and roles. Men become very motherly with their children nowadays, people do lots of online dating in general, play online warrior games or kearn martial arts, take over some managerial responsibilities at work, play the stock market or buy houses and then in old age start to think of deeper meaning in life. So each person tries to fulfill many roles but at different times in their lives and to a different extent, depending on capabilities. The real difficulty of course is guessing which stage you need to fulfill next and what you are going through now. Once you get that glassy eyed boredom with a certain life issue then you move on. Sri Aurobindo read extensively in literature and philosophy and wrote own works, plays, etc. He was a greatpolitical leader in India' s independence movement. He tried spiritual techniques because he thought this would help him acheive his political goals better but realized that politics was nonsense in comparison once he had seen the possibilities. 

I had an important phase in young adulthood ( saturn transit fist house for first time) as I left my average small middle class American town to find my European roots and escape the mundane. If you can make it in New Yorkk you can make it anywhere they say. My mom was English and a linguist. I was in England 13 months, obtained a passport and moved on to Germany to fulfill dreams of cultural, linguistic enrichment. One soon notices, after geting past linguistic barriers, that Europeans ape American culture to a great extent. Escaping americanization for genuine culture likely requires moving to another planet. India, Africa, etc. have all succumbed to superficial cultural norms. So one delves into deeper culture, older literature. I learned yoga, tai chi, got initiated into higher spiritual techniques, all of this as ancient human wisdom culture predating modern superficialities. I believe now that in general leaving America permanently was a good decision as I read about the problems they have due to many basic mistakes in infrastucture, health are system, subversion of democracy by the military industrial complex or entertainment complex dumbing down the population. India certainly has reason to envy American living standards but Europe has acheived a better life balance. It is more diificult to self actualize from extreme poverty of third world or in a sytem of extreme capitalism and money centered lobbyism like in America where the system is against one most of the time. Self- actualization on an individual level does not happen in a vacuum. There is a reason people remember " golden ages" like renaissance Italy or Elizabethan England where Shakespeare flourished. Buddha flourished under such a culture and Baghdad of the 1001 Nights was likely similar. Lower emotional needs are met in such cultures and we can concentrate on our higher needs. If education, work experience, basic food, medicine and housing become difficult to obtain as in third world or parts of America then self - actualization becomes impossible as we struggle for basic existence and turn to drugs to calm usand petty street crime to meet daily needs.