Plotting the Primal Quests

Y-Axis: Self-detachment

The ego/self is intrinsic to experiencing pleasure. Basic pleasures are rather similar amongst people, so gratification might seem to have little to do with personal identity or ego per se. However, people vary and gratification is idiosyncratic and personal. So the Quest requires careful focus on oneself to know what precisely gives the most pleasure and how to mix and time the delivery of pleasures. Attention is given to bodily state and health, and ensuring the ego/self does not intrude and spoil pleasures in other ways. So this Quest must be placed very low on self-detachment.

X-Axis: Transcendence of Reality

This Quest is about the desire to find and indulge in pleasures in a bodily and sensual way. Such pleasures have to be obtained in a manner that is congruent with existing personal and social realities, otherwise there would be disruption and stress. The gratification leads you to feel good about yourself, and ready to be positive about the world too. Pleasures can take you «outside yourself», but this is often via escape or avoidance rather than by putting things in perspective as transcendence requires. So it is placed very low on transcendence of current reality.

Y-Axis: Self-detachment

This Quest demands the maximum subjugation of the self, often explicitly in a written contract or in a promise or vow. All egotistical preferences and selfish desires must be put aside. The rules, rituals and duties, whatever they may be, must be followed simply because they exist and the encompassing duty-/rule-setting entity has been willingly accepted. So we rate it very high on self-detachment.

X-Axis: Transcendence of Reality

In this Quest, fulfilment of a role and its obligations means that there is little pressure or need to do other than what is expected and often rather fully pre-specified. Many choices are predictable and social support is in-built due to personal acceptance of the social institution and mutual inter-dependence with that institution. Because the engaged reality directly supports the Quest, there is relatively little need to be distant from it. So this Quest can be placed very low on transcendence of current reality.

Y-Axis: Self-detachment

Spirituality demands abandonment of the self as an illusion or delusion. It either insists that the self is everything or nothing. The feeling that your ego/self is you is altered, so that you are aware of being part of an undifferentiated whole. However, such a phrasing implies part and whole, whereas there is simply oneness (non-duality) about which virtually nothing can be said. It seems that we should place this Quest very high on self-detachment.

X-Axis: Transcendence of Reality

Much intensification of experiences and personal determination are required in a Spirituality Quest because the aim is to enter a different world. In this world, evil and good are fused: that is hard to grasp. The divine realm is felt to be real or even the true reality, and it is given full attention, while everyday reality is viewed as an illusion even while appreciating its nature. This means that there has to be a maximum transcendence of current reality.

Y-Axis: Self-detachment

This Quest is built around personal ideals, and the goals and projects pursued are socially adaptive. It is necessary to relate sensitively to others, in order to inquire usefully about the social situations relevant to projects. Inner attention draws on emotions and personal intuitions. So the degree of self-detachment must be in the lower half of the Y-Axis. However, there is greater detachment than in Pleasure because others are considered and ideals transcend personal preferences. Also, any project takes on a life of its own and requires a degree of dispassionate attention.

X-Axis: Transcendence of Reality

The Quest for Meaning demands activities that are determined by personal preferences, get socially defined, require compromises, and adapt to social norms. So positioning in regard to transcendence of reality must be in the lower half of the X-axis. However, the focus on ideals indicates a potential for emergence from what currently exists. The effort «to make a difference» or to «grow as a person» is also beyond current reality. So it seems reasonable to suggest more transcendence than Pleasure or Obedience.

Y-Axis: Self-detachment

Developing and implementing practical ways to rescue others in great need, regardless of personal interests, requires a significant degree of sensitivity and self-detachment. The Quest is not an altruistic aspiration, but a force that seems to be a demand with little concern for the self or much care for what others think and do. So it must lie in the upper half of the Y-axis. However, use of the self is needed to empathize with those who suffer, and rescuing and helping demands personal initiative, social judgement and practical efforts. That makes it less detached than Obedience or Spirituality.

X-Axis: Transcendence of Reality

Salvation has a strong ethical and future-oriented component insofar as it is preoccupied with finding ways to improve the condition of others in a way they can accept. But the ethical performance is not problematic in principle, the humane requirement is evident and ways to proceed are typically known. In the effort to rescue, much that is harmful or unhelpful must be tolerated, compromised with or even engaged. So, although this Quest requires more transcendence than Pleasure or Obedience, it is similar to Meaning in its relation to current reality. It is therefore also located in the lower half of the X-axis.

Y-Axis: Self-detachment

The Enlightenment Quest calls for self-knowledge, so some engagement with the self is essential. However, the self must be viewed in a dispassionate way. It is necessary to confront and accept aspects that would normally get ignored, rationalized, denied or rejected unconsciously. So a fairly high degree of detachment is essential. That places it in the upper half of the Y-axis, but not as high as Obedience or Spirituality.

X-Axis: Transcendence of Reality

Typical features of the Enlightenment Quest, like clear perception and readiness to distinguish right from wrong, are only possible from a position that relates to reality while sitting above and apart. For example, it is irrelevant here that dispelling of illusions causes discomfort for others, especially those in power. This perspective on reality is naturally far more dispassionate and disconnected than that found in the Salvation and Meaning Quests. That places it in the upper half of the X-axis. However, active effort to educate others is characteristic, so the transcendence required is not so great as in a Spirituality Quest.