Habituation leads to pain through inadequacy of adaptation (dysfunctional behaviors), and this pain goads us to the Spirit-Matter Split, as dissociation ("I am not the body; I am pure subjectivity," -- the absurd Eastern error) and as materialism ("I am the body; I am objective, without personal biases," -- the pathetic Western error). These are not mental ideals, but pervasive moods, our very underlying logic of life.
One way disowns material existence and the body; the other disowns or is oblivious to subjectivity, or ones inner, personal life; one disowns the "outer", the other ignores or disowns or is oblivious to the "inner".
Interesting point: when "outer" and "inner" perceptions (and identification with either) are differentiated (observed individually), equalized (made equally observable through practice), and integrated (observed simultaneously), formless Spirit appears as ones own nature. (Jesus' saying, "If your 'eye' be single, your whole body will be full of light."). But even habituation in that equalized state, as an effort, is impractical as a moment-to-moment life practice.
Habituation shows up as being set in our ways, as resisting change, as persistent wounds, as persistent dysfunction, as fear, as force (forceful idealism or aggressive materialism), as bogged-down politics, as hypermasculine "spirituality" (celibacy, imposition of ideals upon oneself, striving to overcome self), as "final" knowledge, as the (presumed or apparently actual) inaccessibility of transcendental intuition, and at last as at first, as self-identification and our repressed and unconscious "shadow material" that goes with identification. (We hide or resist aspects of ourselves, which become shadow material, entrenched, unconscious, as subconsciously controlled states of stress and compulsive behavior in-and-as our very bodily existence. It does not hide in transcendental Spirit, but in our "immanent" selves).
The problem is, habituation is the very vehicle of the transmission and survival of civilization from generation to generation (knowledge and tradition), and this present generation unwisely (and habitually) rejects habituation (via post-modern deconstructionism of knowledge and views) -- rather than recognizing habitual habituation as the problem and choosing habituations wisely! (or we tend to think our habituations are wise and so reinforce them.)
Thus, the global crisis of transformation and ("first tier") culture wars so often spoken of in integral circles come down to the drag of habituation upon necessary evolutionary transformation.
Transcendental intuition makes transcendence of habituation possible (or easier), but transcendence without conscious embodiment (and people typically underestimate what that is), is dissociation, subject (vulnerable) to our own "shadow" influences -- the very Spirit-Matter Split. And, of course, the work of conscious embodiment is limited without self-transcendence, which makes shadow material palatable enough (and witnessable enough) for differentiation and integration.
The problem may be seen as incompetence in regulating habituation -- full spectrum.
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