This is something by Osho that is closely related to the previous article on the dark night of the soul. Question to Osho: I feel that I do not allow my heart to open. When I was very young, I rejected my parents. I felt good being a little bad boy. Now I realize that […]
What is diagnosed in clinical psychology as endogenous depression (major depressive disorder) is known in the spiritual tradition as the “dark night of the soul.” This is especially important for people who suffer from deep depressive states without any apparent external cause. In fact, this knowledge itself is the best support for coping with this […]
Recently, I heard myself telling a client that I am “like this” because I have been touched by death. And I realized that this expression describes, better than anything else, what matters most to me. When I was seventeen, my mother died. But even before that happened, I lived constantly with the fear of death, […]
For quite some time now, I have been exploring the idea that human suffering has two different sources: (1) personal, and(2) transpersonal (collective). And I am increasingly realizing that there are people who experience the second one to a greater degree. This means that the origin of their suffering does not relate only to their […]
*”It has always seemed to me that guilt is not a true feeling, but rather a defense against sensations—of loneliness, ugliness, badness, and perhaps of remorse. Guilt is a defense against true suffering. This may sound heretical to you, but there is something highly manipulative and slippery about guilt. When people go on explaining how […]
“Our Ego wants to see God as a benevolent parent, strong enough to care for us so that no matter how old we are, we are never without a cosmic Caretaker. This is an important part of religion and spirituality; faith helps our inner child feel safe enough to grow. However, when we are in […]
Below, I present an abridged excerpt from Howard Sasportas’ book The Gods of Change. He retells the Sumerian legend of the descent of the goddess of the heavens – Inanna – into the underworld to her sister Ereshkigal. Sasportas includes this myth in his book to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the psychological symbolism […]
Over time, I have learned to respect the forces of the human unconscious as very real internal natural forces. There is little we can do against them other than getting to know them and finding adequate ways to experience them. They are like winter—we cannot stop it. But we can choose to put on warm […]
“*Depression is the truth of the body, just as meaningfulness is the truth of the spirit. The one does not exclude the other. It seems as though life, like Janus, has two faces. There is truth in spiritual beliefs and disciplines. I do not claim there is none. But there is also truth in […]
The Depressive State Is Necessary for the Creation of Individuality Here are a few more clarifications about the place of depression in our psychic life and spiritual development, and how to “use” it properly. They are especially valuable for people who have noticed that in their lives they often swing between extremes. At one moment […]
“Darkness has its correspondence in the alchemical nigredo, which comes after the coniunctio, when the feminine has accepted the masculine within itself. From the nigredo arises the stone, the symbol of the immortal Self.”— C. G. Jung To one degree or another, and in one form or another, all of us go through depressive moods […]
“The soul speaks to you in moments of silence. You hear its voice when you no longer know anything. Often, the soul begins to speak very clearly only when you surrender and throw in the towel. When you give up and despair, you open yourself to the new. It is then that you release all […]
