Carl Jung said, “Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.” We refuse to bear the pain of being alive-- the pain of coming to life within our own lives. The agony of the delivery room is not just the mother's. We continue to birth ourselves long after we are born, throughout our life. Or not. To refuse to bring ourselves forth to meet our circumstances, square up to our inner contradictions, rise to every occasion, and be who we are, no matter what, again and again, in each situation as it arises, is to die again and again, and finally to waste our entire life by refusing to live it. Carl Jung said, “In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential that we embody. If we do not embody that, life is wasted.” This "essential" is our Original Nature. The face that was ours before we were born. Our Essence. Our essential identity. Who we are. Carl Jung said, “The development of personality means fidelity to the law of one’s own being.” "The law of one's own being" is our Original Nature, our essential identity, who we are born to be, to incarnate, to bring forth within the context and circumstances of our life, moment-by-moment-by-moment, which we sacrifice continually upon the altar of success, or popularity, or wealth, or fitting in/belonging... We neglect/reject who we are in service to all we have to do to have the life we want for ourselves-- never-minding the life our Self wants for us. Here we are. Now what? It always comes down to bearing the pain that must be borne, to suffering the agonies that must be suffered, in allowing our life to bring us forth to meet our circumstances/ourselves, and do what needs to be done in each situation as it arises all our life long. Beginning here and now. Never-minding getting what we want, and having it made.
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