You know Jesus’ instructions to “Pray always”? He was talking about creating a regular, on-going, uninterrupted conscious presence with our Psyche. Psyche is that which has always been called “God,”–especially before theology, doctrine, heaven and hell, etc. Which is to say, before the Church of Rome invented theology, doctrine, heaven and hell, etc. in the four hundred years between Jesus’ death and the closing of the canon of scriptures we call “the Bible,” when the Church of Rome declared it to be all the Bible we would ever need in 392 CE.
Before then it was always Psyche that we experienced which the Church of Rome would call “God.” Psyche is the foundational source of our spiritual knowledge, which is to say knowledge beyond our physical senses.
I wrote this as the 114th entry in “Zen Thoughts” over in my Published Works Blog:
Carl Jung put Psyche forth as the guiding force in our life, whose purpose with us is to assist in our aligning ourselves with the Tao, with the swings and flow of our life as we develop into the self we are built/called/ment to be. Jung’s ideas about “individuation” is about us becoming who we are, the person we are born to be, “the antithetical self,” as opposed to “the Primary Self, or as he calls them, the Antithetical Mask,” with “the Primary Mask” with the “Primary Mask” being who we are supposed to be/expected to be by parents and society, and “the Antithetical Self/Mask,” being the person we authentically are called/ment to be. Our place is to know and be who we are. Jung’s idea of enlightenment/awakening would be knowing and being who we are, and his word, “individuation” was his idea of our task in being alive, that is to say, becoming who we are. And Psyche is with us to assist us in the work to live out of our true identity in our life. And I am interested in knowing how best we might do that in the time left for living. Jung would say we do that by attending our dreams and our symptoms and the swings and flow of our life in light of doors opening and shutting and events happening and opportunities coming our way, and where we are lucky and where we are not lucky with the trends and tendencies of our life over time.
The work to recover/develop/tend our relationship with Psyche, or God without the theology and doctrines, will be a renewal of our spiritual life requiring us to work out a partnership with Psyche in knowing what is called for and doing what needs to be done, when, where, and how it needs to be done, or as the Taoists would put it, “Doing the right thing at the right time in the right place and right way.” Without doctrines and theology to tell us what that is to be.
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I came across the writings of Carl Jung when I was almost 40. The idea of individuation sparked my attention since I was struggling to individuate from a lifetime of walking in step with parental ideas and strong influence.
Throughout the rest of my life I tried to keep the idea of experimenting with individuation in the back of my mind. I must say that this led to an interesting, challenging, bumpy road.
Now the challenge is to accommodate myself to what I can do to meet this political climate as I prepare to leave this life. In my life I have experienced many endings, whether from jobs or outside interests that often intrigued me. Most times I had a sense of completion, usually by leaving a location clear of possessions, etc.
Now, the challenge to offload possessions is complicated by an aging body that uses a walker. Recent occurrences have created more of a sense of urgency to make the next step to possible assisted living. I am trying to make room in my life to acquiesce to change from where I have lived for 10 years here in Asheville, NC.
I am continuing to individuate with as much grace as I can find within me. In the past, it has not always been graceful or welcomed.
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The conscious recognition of the work to be ourselves here and now, doing what is called for the way we would do it, all things considered, is the challenge for all of us between birth and death. Here we are, now what? Who says so? What is called for? What do we do about it? And we build/create the foundation for who we are talking about when we say “I,” “Me,” “Mine,” over a lifetime of mindful awareness observing ourselves in action through all of the experiences in that lifetime. We know who we are and who we are not by watching ourselves responding to all of the situations of our life over time. So, I could take a vow of silence and solitude when I retired because I knew who I am and had the freedom of retirement in which I could keep the vow. We know what is me and not me over time. And we live to be “me” and not “not me.” This is the “antithetical self” we are bringing forth in our way with what remains of our life at any point that we start living in the service of the antithetical self–which is also living in the service of the Psyche, teaming up with the Psyche to create/produce the antithetical self. So your work now, and my work now, is teaming up with the Psyche in order to bring ourselves forth in the situations that arise throughout our time left for living. I write about steps to take to do this–which comprises the full scope of the nature of the church’s work once it throws out the God of theology, and theology, and doctrine, and starts over as it would have been the day Jesus died.
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Thank you for your response.
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