When Seeking Becomes the Thing We Hide Behind

 It is not a comfortable quote to sit with. But if you observe how people tend to relate to spirituality, you will clearly see what Jung is pointing to.

As many of you may know by now, much of my inner landscape and my own philosophy are very much shaped by depth psychology. Depth psychology is quite different from other psychological modalities because it includes the spirit. It is spiritual and psychological at the same time, and I have based my work on this for a very long time.

Because of this foundation, I find myself returning often to the work of Carl Jung. Many people use the terms depth psychology and Jungian psychology interchangeably, and for good reason. He goes very deep in how he explores the self. His writings are not easy reading. They ask something of you. And perhaps that is exactly why they have stayed with me for as long as they have.

I also want to say this plainly before going further: Jung was not dismissing spirituality. He was certainly not mocking people who meditate, who seek, who genuinely want to grow. He himself went very deep. His was serious inner work. What he is pointing to is something far more specific, which is the way the spiritual path can become, for some people, a very sophisticated way of avoiding the very things that the path is supposed to lead towards.

To understand the full weight of what he was saying, it helps to read the quote in its original context. This comes from his Alchemical Studies, Collected Works Volume 13, Paragraph 142:

"Hysterical self-deceivers, and ordinary ones too, have at all times understood the art of misusing everything so as to avoid the demands and duties of life, and above all to shirk the duty of confronting themselves. They pretend to be seekers after God in order not to have to face the truth that they are ordinary egoists."

The sentences that come before the quote that circulates most widely are just as important as the quote itself. The avoidance he is describing is not dramatic or obvious. It does not look like avoidance from the outside. It looks, in many cases, like a life seriously devoted to growth.

I have sat with all kinds of people over the years. I have attended workshops alongside all kinds of people. And I have noticed something interesting in those who consider themselves to have a rich inner life. The emotional patterns are still there. They keep playing out. And what often happens is that a person has a moment of insight, and then moves on to the next thing, and then the next, without that insight ever becoming healing.

Having an aha moment and actually healing are two very different things.

We can be entirely sincere on the spiritual path, and sincerity does not equal healing. Sincerity does not equal clarity. Spirituality, as much as any other pursuit, can be co-opted by the very emotional patterns that keep us stuck. The seeker keeps seeking. The patterns keep running. And because the seeking feels meaningful, and often genuinely is meaningful at one level, there is very little pressure to look at what is actually in the way.

Jung's quote points at the deeper issue underneath all of this, which is the very human tendency to prefer the appearance of inner work over the discomfort of actually doing it. To seek the divine, as he puts it, rather than face what we would find if we stopped seeking for long enough to look.

This is the reason I identified seven patterns that I see repeatedly in people who are genuinely on the spiritual path and yet find themselves emotionally stuck. The patterns are not obvious. They do not announce themselves. They often feel like sensitivity, or discernment, or a careful approach to life. That is precisely what makes them so persistent, and precisely why so many spiritually aware people remain emotionally stuck without fully understanding why.

If you are curious about what those patterns are, you can download the guide using the link below. No complicated sign-up process just enter your email and it will come straight to your inbox.

Download the Seven Patterns guide, TAP HERE

© 2026 Shamala Tan