Below is an excerpt from Jung’s autobiographical book, in which this brilliant psychiatrist and psychologist describes the latest years of his life, well into his 80s. His words touch and move me; I feel in them the lived experience of a long and extraordinary life. I am grateful for the sincerity and deep humanity with […]
“The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life. Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid setting our interests upon futilities, and upon all kinds of goals which are not of real importance. […]
“A warrior of light sometimes—quite unintentionally—takes a false step and finds himself plunging into the abyss. Ghosts terrify him, and solitude torments him. Having always sought the Good Fight, he never imagined that this would happen to him, but it does. Shrouded in darkness, he communicates with his master. ‘Master, I have fallen into the […]
“If you really want to know your mind, the body will always give you a truthful reflection, so look at the emotion, or rather feel it in your body. If there is a clear conflict between them, the thought will be the lie, the emotion will be the truth. Not the ultimate truth of who […]
“Kabir, the great master, had a son named Kamal. Kamal quarrelled with his father and settled opposite him. People came to Kabir to pay their respects, but he never accepted anything from them. Kamal’s fame also spread and people began to go to him as well, but he accepted all gifts. Kabir became very angry […]
“For a warrior, there is no such thing as an impossible love. He is not intimidated by silence, by indifference, or by rejection. He knows that behind the mask of ice that people wear, there is a heart of fire. This is why the warrior takes more risks than others. He unceasingly seeks the love […]
“A warrior of light often loses heart. He believes that nothing can stir in him the emotion he so desired. He is forced to spend many afternoons and nights feeling that he is one of the vanquished, and nothing seems able to restore his enthusiasm. His friends say: ‘Perhaps his fight is over.’ The warrior […]
“There is no need to investigate the unconscious past within yourself, except when it manifests in the present moment as a thought, an emotion, a desire, a reaction, or an external event that happens to you. Whatever you need to know about your unconscious past, the challenges of the present will bring it to light. […]
“Man always has the last word, even against God’s will. Otherwise there would be no freedom, and what would be its meaning if it could not threaten even the Threatener?” — C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 214
“As long as the egoic mind is running your life, you cannot truly be at ease; you cannot be at peace or fulfilled except for brief intervals when you obtained what you wanted, when a desire has just been fulfilled. Since the ego is a derived sense of self, it needs to identify with external […]
This is one of my favorite fairy tales that supports the archetype of the Wise Man within us. Enjoy it! “In a village, there lived a very poor old man. Yet even kings envied him, for he owned a magnificent white horse. Many offered him extravagant sums of money, but the old man always refused, […]
“I am told that I am knowledgeable or even ‘wise,’ but I cannot accept it. There was once a man who scooped a little water from a stream in his hat. What does that mean? I am not that stream. I am at the stream, but I do nothing. There are others at the stream, […]
