“There is, so to speak, a “cold” kind of evil and a “hot” kind of evil. The hot evil is carried, no matter whether by demons or by human beings, by an unquenched emotional affect underneath, like a suffocated fire burning and smoldering all the time, and this kind of repressed affect is highly infectious. […]
Anger
- Alchemy
- Analytical Psychology
- Astro-psychology
- Bert Hellinger
- Desire
- Duality
- Fear
- Feelings
- Good and evil
- Guilt
- Healing Stories
- Helping others
- How Change Happens
- Humanistic Psychology
- Lessons of Love
- Marianne Williamson
- Marie-Louise von Franz
- Mental health
- Osho
- Relationships
- Sadness
- Spiritual Teachers
08.03.2015
The Empty Boat
This is a story told by Lin Chi, which a close friend sent to me a while ago, and now I feel the urge to pass it on. For me, it is the best thing I have ever encountered regarding how we can stop taking life’s events personally. “When I was young, I used to […]
26.09.2014
The samurai whose master had been killed
There is a story about a samurai that I like very much. I am retelling it here from memory. Once upon a time, there was a samurai whose master had been killed. He set out to find his master’s murderer, as his samurai duty commanded him to kill the man. When he finally found him, […]
23.05.2014
Driving or Being Driven
A friend once shared with me how he dealt with his constant irritability and outbursts over “drivers who drive like idiots.” The thought occurred to him that if he is a better driver than they are—because he can drive in a way they cannot—then getting angry at the fact that they can’t is simply foolish. […]
08.11.2013
The storms that wake us up
Very often, women are crucified within themselves—torn between showing their feelings to the men who anger them or holding those feelings in. Unfortunately, there is no single right answer. Both are true. Both are rays of a “just sun” that is fair precisely because it shines in both directions. Today, I am sharing only one […]
12.10.2012
The Rooster, a parable
“Ji Xingzi was training a fighting rooster for King Xuan of Zhou. After 10 days, the king asked if the rooster was ready for battle. — Not yet, he is still boastful and vainly shows off. After another 10 days, to the same question, Ji Xingzi replied: — Still not. He still lunges at every […]
10.07.2012
How to Become More Honest with our Feelings
This is a continuation of the previous article on Intelligent Emotions. In it, I briefly outline the core ideas from David Viscott’s book The Language of Feelings about the crucial importance of being in contact with our emotions and being able to express them in an appropriate way. According to Viscott, if you want to […]
30.03.2012
Osho on “the way of the sly man”
Below is an excerpt from a talk by Osho. In it, he answers a question from a man who says that he moves between anger and sadness and doesn’t know whether he should express anger or let it explode inside him. Osho answers this question thus: “Anger and sadness are both the same. Sadness is […]
01.11.2011
The Fourth Sin: Failing Our Potential
“At origin aggressiveness is almost synonymous with activity.” — D.W. Winnicott This quote opens the chapter “The Astrology of Aggression” by Howard Sasportas in the book The Dynamics of the Unconscious. In it, the author reveals through astrological examples how the aggressive impulse is naturally embedded within us (the energy of the planet Mars) and […]
This is a story from the Vedas, retold in the book “The Dynamics of the Unconscious” by Howard Sasportas and Liz Greene—leading authors in the psychological branch of astrology. “There was once a serpent that struck terror into a village. It bit and killed people. A sage arrived there, preaching his philosophy of love and […]
02.08.2011
Osho on the roots of anger
“The psychology of anger is that you wanted something and someone prevented you from getting it. Someone came as a barrier, as a blockage. All your energy was directed to get something and someone blocked that energy. You could not get what you wanted. This frustration becomes anger… and this anger is against the person […]
The goal of psychotherapy can be described in many ways. One of them is helping the client learn how to become their own therapist. In this sense, every successful psychotherapeutic process includes an element of learning. That’s why I would like to share an important concept that can help both clients and therapists: the distinction […]
