Over many years I felt that Jung's "view of reality," as it were, fell short, that is, was quite incomplete, though, in all fairness, deeper and more complete than most other psychological perspectives. I particularly found that his perspectives on "Eastern" approaches to reality, such as Buddhism and Daoism, even in lieu of the fact that he wrote the Introduction to Wilhelm's I Ching, were lacking, not necessarily in the analytical sense but absolutely in the experiential sense. I wondered how he could even think to comment on the essence of Buddhist meditation, for instance, having never practised it himself, but based on his intellectual "analysis" of it. In my own experience of many, many years of zazen and vipassana meditation, its "essence" is not an intellectual, mental, or even intuitive conclusion whatsoever; rather, it is more of a state of being. I attempted on occassion to articulate this point to my various associates who were followers of Jung and considered themselves to be "Jungians," but I was never articulate enough to convey my point either accurately or successfully, even though I did write a few essays regarding Jung's failure to comprehend or experience the essence of Buddhism or Daoism. I say this in no way to denigrate from Jung's accomplishments in going farther than other Western psychologists in his search for and understanding of the soul.
I recently came across something that may convey somewhat of what I had wanted to convey. David Brazier, in his book, Zen Therapy: Transcending the Sorrow of the Human Mind, is able to capsulize Zen teachings and articulate them quite well. He integrates Zen thinking with many Western psychological approaches quite well. What follows is germane to my point:
"In Buddhist psychology, the word 'self' is the collective noun for all conditioning. In the west, most psychology is concerned with the level of the mind called 'consciousness' or ego. Most psychology is ego psychology. There are psychologies which try to reach deeper than this and go into the unconscious layer. Then there is what is call 'depth psychology' which attempts to fathom the collective unconscious. Zen is the attempt to go even further than this: (Brazier, 81)
We have unknown layers, or realms of consciousness within us. And through meditation,we can perceive how states of consciousness can be altered ... We begin to realize that
we are, in fact, a storehouse for all human history. Jung termed these deep layers of the psyche as 'the collective unconscious', and asserted that they were the most profound parts of our nature. With continuing experiences in meditation, however, we come to realize that this theory is not quite right. We can actually penetrate beyond [though I would say 'beneath'] the depths of the collective unconscious of human nature and there come to the bottomless sea of Buddha-nature. If we go beyond the collective unconscious, thereby breaking through the final barrier of the unconscious layers, we experience true birth completely anew in the ocean of true emptiness. this is infinite freedom of no-self, no-mind, no-idea; this is life itself, completely unconditioned. Here in the infinite no- mind we find flowers, the moon, our friends and families, and all things just as they are; we appreciate our everyday lives as miracles. But please confirm this for yourself. (Hogen, Y. On the Open Way. Liskeard, Cornwall:Jiko Oasis Books, 1993)"
Brazier goes on to say, "Even the archetypes of the collective unconscious represent ways of dividing the world of experience. Often enough, the contents of the unconscious are the 'other halves' [a reference to William James's notion of the two 'halves' of 'me' and 'not me'], the split-off parts, of our consciousness which we have repressed. Discovering them can thus be an important step on the road to wholeness. Rather than putting ourselves back together item by item, however, Zen offers the more demanding route of rediscovering the original unity directly through experiences of 'sudden awakening'." (Brazier, Zen Therapy, 83)
In other words, Zen tries to return us to our "primordial nature," or "original awareness," which is a "whole or unified ground of being," rather than being "individually mine/ours." In this respect, "I" do not exist there/here.
In presenting this perspective, I do not pretend to possess it, though aspects of it have become known to me on occassion.
I recently came across something that may convey somewhat of what I had wanted to convey. David Brazier, in his book, Zen Therapy: Transcending the Sorrow of the Human Mind, is able to capsulize Zen teachings and articulate them quite well. He integrates Zen thinking with many Western psychological approaches quite well. What follows is germane to my point:
"In Buddhist psychology, the word 'self' is the collective noun for all conditioning. In the west, most psychology is concerned with the level of the mind called 'consciousness' or ego. Most psychology is ego psychology. There are psychologies which try to reach deeper than this and go into the unconscious layer. Then there is what is call 'depth psychology' which attempts to fathom the collective unconscious. Zen is the attempt to go even further than this: (Brazier, 81)
We have unknown layers, or realms of consciousness within us. And through meditation,we can perceive how states of consciousness can be altered ... We begin to realize that
we are, in fact, a storehouse for all human history. Jung termed these deep layers of the psyche as 'the collective unconscious', and asserted that they were the most profound parts of our nature. With continuing experiences in meditation, however, we come to realize that this theory is not quite right. We can actually penetrate beyond [though I would say 'beneath'] the depths of the collective unconscious of human nature and there come to the bottomless sea of Buddha-nature. If we go beyond the collective unconscious, thereby breaking through the final barrier of the unconscious layers, we experience true birth completely anew in the ocean of true emptiness. this is infinite freedom of no-self, no-mind, no-idea; this is life itself, completely unconditioned. Here in the infinite no- mind we find flowers, the moon, our friends and families, and all things just as they are; we appreciate our everyday lives as miracles. But please confirm this for yourself. (Hogen, Y. On the Open Way. Liskeard, Cornwall:Jiko Oasis Books, 1993)"
Brazier goes on to say, "Even the archetypes of the collective unconscious represent ways of dividing the world of experience. Often enough, the contents of the unconscious are the 'other halves' [a reference to William James's notion of the two 'halves' of 'me' and 'not me'], the split-off parts, of our consciousness which we have repressed. Discovering them can thus be an important step on the road to wholeness. Rather than putting ourselves back together item by item, however, Zen offers the more demanding route of rediscovering the original unity directly through experiences of 'sudden awakening'." (Brazier, Zen Therapy, 83)
In other words, Zen tries to return us to our "primordial nature," or "original awareness," which is a "whole or unified ground of being," rather than being "individually mine/ours." In this respect, "I" do not exist there/here.
In presenting this perspective, I do not pretend to possess it, though aspects of it have become known to me on occassion.
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