Carl Jung on Consciousness and Becoming Conscious
[Carl Jung on Consciousness and Becoming Conscious]
Consciousness and Becoming Conscious Consciousness is the divine light; it is the possibility of seeing oneself, and this means to me that it is the very basis of life.
Consciousness is the transformation and the transformer of the primordial instinctual images.
The act of becoming conscious happens to man in darkness.
If he can grasp and handle consciousness then the fire brought from Heaven becomes a sacrificial flame, not the wrath of the gods.
The acquisition of consciousness by force creates a sense of guilt.
Consciousness is only possible if a spark of the essence becomes detached from the unconscious, religiously one could say from God.
Consciousness is obviously the supreme quality: the destiny of the world is to achieve entry into human consciousness.
Man is the being God has sought not only to show him the world, but because the Creator needs man to illuminate his creation.
We must become conscious for God because, through us, God becomes conscious and then becomes man.
We have to realize the inborn divine will, which is the process of individuation.
If I am all things I cannot discover anything.
I am a point that requires space and time to expand into consciousness.
If I am all things I cannot distinguish myself from the rest or recognize what is different from me.
Man is the dividing line of the acts of consciousness; he illuminates the night of the unconscious around him.
The actuality of things is a great puzzle.
What existed before and outside us? At a certain time a vast change must have taken place; yet even then, at that moment, the possibility of consciousness must already have been present in the world.
If a sudden separation occurs in the pleroma there arises the possibility of creation and consciousness.
In the completeness of the pleroma there is nothing to explain or distinguish because change and causality cease to exist there.
When we have achieved our greatest capacity for consciousness the task is to continue our efforts to carry into reality what we have learned.
In certain areas this cannot be done — I could not commit a murder, for instance.
With the contents of my consciousness I must live as naturally as a plant.
If I act inadequately it is the ape in me that does it.
The positive result of analysis enables us to become unconscious again.
Analysis is an intermezzo that lasts until the individual’s greatest possible capacity for consciousness has been achieved.
Then he can return to nature and re-enter the dark current of life, practice Zen, or spend his time in alehouses.
Unfortunately the last possibility does not agree with my health!
We do not know our own role in life.
We behave like the lizard; we do what it does except that we also talk …
We approach life from the side of consciousness, but at certain times we have to make the sacrificium intellectus.
We must sacrifice everything and become again as a child; not to remain a child, be it understood, but to re-enter childhood.
This state implies a divinely transformed nature, a higher level of existence, and a more profound realization of the world.
The unconscious has first to be activated; then we must extricate ourselves, doubting all the things we have hitherto believed; then we can turn back and resume our place in the collective unconscious.
This higher consciousness must be re-integrated into the dark flow of life so that we see then only that, which is immediately before our eyes.
Even Goethe could only know a fraction of his possibilities and his destiny.
Mankind today is faced with problems that formerly concerned only the gods.
Man can now choose between total destructiveness and complete constructiveness.
These are superhuman possibilities.
The light of consciousness needs to be clearly distinguished from the cunning of the unfathomable depths of the spirit.
The psyche is emancipated from instinctual patterns and from causality. The psyche is also the scene of conflicts between instinct and free will, for instincts are without order and collide with the organised consciousness.
Europeans are especially likely to believe that they can replace instinct by intellect. ~Carl Jung; Conversations with C.G. Jung; Consciousness and becoming Conscious; Pages 9-13.
