Carl Jung I try to accept Life and Death
To the Mother Prioress of a Contemplative Order
Reverend Mother, 26 March 1960
Many thanks for your kind report about Father Victor!
I am still shaken by this stroke of fate which has felled him.
According to the experience and knowledge of medical science the verdict seems to be absolute, yet, in order to do justice to your faith, I must say that I know (and have seen myself) of certain similar cases where an apparently miraculous recovery took place.
There is a 1:x probability of an unaccountable cure.
I would share your standpoint of undaunted faith if I were not disturbed by the thought that this earthly life is not supreme, but subject to the decrees of a superior economy.
I try to accept life and death.
Where I find myself unwilling to accept the one or the other I should queson myself as to my personal motives. . . .
Is it the divine will?
Or is it the wish of the human heart which shrinks from the Void of death?
We should not only have a more or less complete understanding of ourselves but also of the way in which we are related to our fellow beings and of their nature.
Our moral freedom reaches as far as our consciousness, and thus our liberation from compulsion and captivity.
In ultimate situations of life and death complete understanding and insight are of paramount importance, as it is indispensable for our decision to go or to stay and let go or to let stay.
Since I had your letter, I have heard that the truth has been told to Victor White (which I hoped for fervently) and, as far as I know, the effect has been all to the good.
There is such a thing as tempus maturum mortis [The time is ripe]and it is up to our understanding to fulfill its conditions.
Sincerely yours,
C.G. Jung
Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 546-547
“We are so convinced that death is simply the end of a process that it does not ordinarily occur to us to conceive of death as a goal and a fulfillment.”
“It would seem to be more in accord with the collective psyche of humanity to regard death as the fulfillment of life’s meaning and as its goal in the truest sense, instead of a meaningless cessation.”
“Death is the hardest thing from the outside and as long as we are outside of it. But once inside you taste of such completeness and peace and fulfillment that you don’t want to return.”
“…death appears as a joyful event. In light of eternity, it is a wedding…The soul attains, as it were, its missing half, it achieves wholeness.
“What happens after death is so unspeakably glorious that our imagination and our feelings ado not suffice to form even an approximate conception of it.”
“Shrinking away from death is something unhealthy and abnormal which robs the second half of life of its purpose.”
“We need the coldness of death to see clearly. Life wants to live and to die, to begin and to end. You are not forced to live eternally; but you can also die, since there is a will in you for both. Life and death must strike a balance in your existence. Today’s men need a large slice of death, since too much incorrectness lives in them, and too much correctness died in them.
What stays in balance is correct, what disturbs balance is incorrect. But if balance has been attained, then that which preserves it is incorrect and that which disturbs it is correct. Balance is at once life and death. For the completion of life a balance with death is fitting. If I accept death, then my tree greens, since dying increases life. If I plunge into the death encompassing the world, then my buds break open. How much our life needs death!”
“Joy at the smallest things comes to you only when you have accepted death. But if you look out greedily for all that you could still live, then nothing is great enough for your pleasure, and the smallest things that continue to surround you are no longer a joy.
Therefore I behold death, since it teaches me how to live. If you accept death, it is altogether like a frosty night and an anxious misgiving, but a frosty night in a vineyard full of sweet grapes. You will soon take pleasure in your wealth. Death ripens. One needs death to be able to harvest the fruit. Without death, life would be meaningless, since the long-lasting rises again and denies its own meaning. To be, and to enjoy your being, you need death, and limitation enables you to fulfill your being.”
