Carl Jung Quotations
We need the coldness of death to see clearly. Life wants to live and to die, to begin and to end. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 275.
The God of words is cold and dead and shines from afar like the moon, mysteriously and inaccessibly: Let the word return to its creator, to man, and thus the word will be heightened in man. Man should be light, limits, measure. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 271.
Magic is the working of men on men, but your magic action does not affect your neighbor; it affects you first, and only if you withstand it does an invisible effect pass from you to your neighbor. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 308.
The moon is dead. Your soul went to the moon, to the preserver of souls. Thus the soul moved toward death. I went into the inner death and saw that outer dying is better than inner death. And I decided to die outside and to live within. For that reason I turned away and sought the place of the inner life. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 267.
Only those remain living who are willing to die with life. Since what happens in the secret hour of the midday of life is the reversal of the parabola, the birth of death. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Para 800.
Where reason abides one needs no magic. Hence our time no longer needs magic. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 314.
The soul possesses in some degree a historical stratification, whereby the oldest stratum of which would correspond to the unconscious. ~Carl Jung. CW8, § 51.
Magic is a way of living. If one has done one’s best to steer the chariot, and one then notices that a greater other is actually steering it, then magical operation takes place. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 314.
The ancients devised magic to compel fate. They needed it to determine outer fate. We need it to determine inner fate and to find the way that we are unable to conceive. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 311.
Joy at the smallest things comes to you only when you have accepted death. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 275.
Every man has a quiet place in his soul, where everything is self-evident and easily explainable, a place to which he likes to retire from the confusing possibilities of life, because there everything is simple and clear, with a manifest and limited purpose. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 295.
When I comprehended my darkness, a truly magnificent night came over me and my dream plunged me into the depths of the millennia, and rom my phoenix ascended. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 274.
To be that which you are is the bath of rebirth. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 266
The solitary went into the desert to find himself. But he did not want to find himself but rather the manifold meaning of holy scripture. You can suck the immensity of the small and the great into yourself and you will become emptier and emptier, since immense fullness and immense emptiness are one and the same. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 273.
When the God enters my life, I return to my poverty for the sake of the God. I accept the burden of poverty and bear all my ugliness and ridiculousness, and also everything reprehensible in me. I thus relieve the God of all the confusion and absurdity that would befall him if I did not accept it. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 303
He who cannot bear doubt does not bear himself. Such a one is doubtful; he does not grow and hence he does not live. Doubt is the sign of the strongest and the weakest. The strong have doubt, but doubt has the weak. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 301.
We should not bear Christ as he is unbearable, but we should be Christs, for then our yoke is sweet and our burden easy. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 283.
This tangible and apparent world is one reality, but fantasy is the other reality: So long as we leave the God outside us apparent and tangible, he is unbearable and hopeless. ~ Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 283.
The outer opposition is an image of my inner opposition. Once I realize this, I remain silent and think of the chasm of antagonism in my soul. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 279.
All your rebirths could ultimately make you sick. The Buddha therefore finally gave up on rebirth, for he had had enough of crawling through all human and animal forms. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 277.
The spirit of this time has condemned us to haste. You have no more futurity and no more past if you serve the spirit of this time. We need the life of eternity. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 253.
The serpent is the earthly essence of man of which he is not conscious. Its character changes according to peoples and lands, since it is the mystery that flows to him from the nourishing earth-mother. The earthly (numen loci) separates forethinking and pleasure in man, but not in itself. The serpent has the weight of the earth in itself but also its changeability and germination from which everything that becomes emerges. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 247.
Life does not come from events, but from us. Everything that happens outside has already been. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
Paradise, here, means the new impersonal attitude that is needed. The white magician cannot find the keys, because the way that seemed to be the wrong way led into the right way; for they needed the completion of things. ~Carl Jung; Cornwall Seminar; Page 26.
The repressed libido for animal relationship is living in the unconscious. It appears in dreams either as animals; or we appear as having animal reactions, for example, the panic fear of animals; or we have inhibited movements due to being in water, a racial memory; also many flying dreams are really swimming. ~Carl Jung; Cornwall Seminar; Page 23.
The primitives say the real scale of values begins with the elephant, lion, eagle, perhaps cobra, then man and monkey. They recognize the fact that man is one of the animals. To say that man is on top is megalomaniac. ~Carl Jung; Cornwall Seminar; Page 24.
The getting away from the respect for brother animal begets in us the animal. A man is only human when he is accompanied by brother animal. He is only individual in relationship to other individuals. ~Carl Jung; Cornwall Seminar; Page 23.
At the Reformation two things happened which upset the absolute attitude of that day: (a) Crucifixes were found in Mexico, which undermined the belief in the uniqueness of the Christian religion where the crucifixion was the central teaching, (b) The rediscovery of Gnosticism, the Dionysian myth and so forth, which showed that teachings similar to Christianity had been prevalent before the birth of Christ. ~Carl Jung; Cornwall Seminar; Page 15.
Relationships must be fostered as far as possible and maintained, and thus a morbid transference can be avoided. ~Carl Jung; Cornwall Seminar; Page 5.
Introvert and Extrovert: The introvert discovers the possibility of being extroverted in the transference. The extrovert draws back on himself; he will become aware of the possibility of experiencing himself. The introvert discovers himself by learning the possibility of pouring himself out to the analyst. It is a discovery of his unconscious. ~Carl Jung; Cornwall Seminar; Page 8.
In states of excitement we speak to ourselves as though to an excited horse, that bit is the part possessed by the anima. In a woman the animus is multiform so that he cannot be nailed down so well as the anima. ~Carl Jung, Cornwall Seminar, Page 27.
Collective relationships must be based on individual relationships, for an individual cannot exist without relatedness, for we are each cells in an organism. When we make individual relationships we lay the foundations for an invisible church. ~Carl Jung, Cornwall Seminar, Page 20.
It is good to be old in years for it often looks as if we were arriving at the end of the history of our world; or at least that it will get terribly dark before the light can shine again and make it possible to see clearly. ~ Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 67.
With the archetype of the anima, we enter the realm of the gods, or rather, the realm that metaphysics has reserved for itself. ~Carl Jung, CW 9, Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious, Page 28
This light dwells in the “square inch” or in the “face”, that is between the eyes. It is the visualization of the “creative point.” ~Carl Jung, CW 13, Page 25.
The circulation is not merely movement in a circle, but means on the one hand the marking off of the sacred precinct, and on the other, the fixation and concentration. ~Carl Jung, CW 13, Page 25.
In the Middle Ages the flight to the spiritual world was still necessary. It was meaningful then to want to live spiritually and give little attention to the material, for meaning was directed towards the spirit. But it is meaningful today to want to descend with dignity to the chthonic world. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 47.
By “Thy Will” one person may mean only what his unconscious dictates, while another may disregard all his thoughts and aspirations and fatalistically accept all that happens in his outer life. To some people we must say, “You must choose your own way; you must act.” Others have to learn to refrain from acting. Few take both into account, which is why Deus et home is so important.” ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 39.
Superman is an inflated ego and a disappearing self. He lacks the spark. What would the rainbow be if it had no dark cloud behind it? ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 63.
It seems to me that we are at the end of an era. The splitting of the atom and the nuclear bomb bring us a new view of matter. As physical man cannot develop any further, it would seem that this particular evolution ends with man. Like the caterpillar dissolves and turns into a butterfly, it is conceivable that the physical body of man could change into a more subtle body. It might not be necessary for him to die to be clothed afresh and be transformed. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 63.
Schizophrenics with visions and hallucinations have a better prognosis than those who hear voices. The latter are more enslaved by the unconscious. ? ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 63.
When I say as a psychologist , that God is an archetype, I mean by that the “type” in the psyche. ~Carl Jung, CW 12, Psychology and Alchemy, Page 149
A concrete image is a manifestation requiring space in which the spirit clothes itself in the material in order to draw to man. Images and numbers are doors through which the spiritual can reach man. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 60.
The announcement of an important truth, even with the best of intentions, can lead to an extraordinary mess. That was the fate of Prometheus. It is therefore important to husband dangerous material very carefully so that first graders do not get hold of dynamite. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 59.
Analysts and mathematicians both consider themselves infallible; they live with invisible magic cloaks around them. They are both concerned with archetypes . Archetypes are living powers; they are the “thoughts of God.” ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 59.
The scientist is prejudiced by reason which acts to hide the world from him. Reality does not lie in statistical averages but in exceptions. There are events which do not obey statistical laws but only those of probability. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 59.
The articles of faith of science are: space, time and causality. The fourth is missing and rejected: the pleroma. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 59.
The I Ching can change me, if I have the patience to meditate. It is like a wine of noble vintage. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 56.
It is possible to participate in the unconscious with other persons, with animals and even with objects, through an unconscious abaissement du niveau mental. Connection is made and something may happen. I may, for example, verbalize what the other person intended saying. But even the clouds, or a glass, can reflect the inner psychic situation. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 51.
Matter may be stimulated by the inner psychic process, understood archetypally, to produce something analogous. A latent tension, for example, can manifest itself in creaking wood. Matter plays along with the psychic process. There is a story that says that when Mohammed ascended into Heaven the stone in the Temple of Jerusalem wanted to go too. The archetype manifests itself in the outer world as sympathia. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 51.
Darwin’s idea was discovered in different places simultaneously; it corresponds to a certain pattern in the unconscious. There are indeed many strange and extraordinary natural laws. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 51.
We should be particularly watchful when synchronous events occur for a numen is then in sight. In a certain mood one notices that the crows fly towards the left. When an archetypal event approaches the sphere of consciousness, it also manifests itself in the outer life. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 51
Synchronous events are widely accepted in Chinese philosophy and are the basis of astrology. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 51.
When someone is under a grave threat, and the archetypes are constellated, synchronistic situations can arise — events that are independent of him, existing in the outside world. ~ Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 51.
A marriage is more likely to succeed if the woman follows her own star and remains conscious of her wholeness than if she constantly concerns herself with her husband’s star and his wholeness. ~ Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 51.
Christ said of Peter who disavowed him, “On this rock I will build my Church.” It is a psychological fact that someone who is disloyal or a liar can be capable of uttering the truth to an extent that we cannot fore see. ~ Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 47.
He who wishes to take the Kingdom of Heaven by storm, to conquer and eradicate evil by force, is already in the hands of evil. ~ Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 47.
The words of the Bible and the sayings of Christ are paradox. We too must be paradox, for only then do we live our lives, only then do we reach completeness and integration of our personalities. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 40.
Psychologically the God concept includes every idea of the ultimate, of the first or the last, of the highest or lowest. The name makes no difference. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 44.
God wanted to become man and still wants to … ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Answer to Job, Page 455.
If we say “God”? we give an expression to an image or verbal concept which has undergone many changes in the course of time. … ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Page 360.
One should make clear to one self, what it means, when God becomes man. ~ Carl Jung, CW 11, Page 401.
If there were no imperfections, no primordial defect in the ground of creation, why should there be any urge to create , any longing that must be fulfilled? ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 32.
Christianity itself would never have spread through the pagan world with such astonishing rapidity, had its ideas not found an analogous psychic readiness to receive them. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Page 441.
But in omniscience there had existed from all eternity a knowledge of the human nature of God or the divine nature of man. This realization is a millennial process. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Page 402.
However we may picture the relationship between God and soul, one thing is certain: The soul cannot be “nothing but. ” On the contrary it has the dignity of an entity endowed with consciousness of a relationship to Deity. Even if it were only the relationship of a drop of water to the sea … ~Carl Jung, CW 12, Page 10.
What does this mean for humanity? What does it mean to say that man dies yet only the risen still live? All these questions may become actual during the next two thousand years, in the era of Aquarius. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 43.
If the Nazis had invaded Switzerland during the Second World War, I would have become a Catholic out of protest because the Catholic Church would then have represented the only spiritual power. That is, of course, if I had not been shot first. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 45.
Evil is that which obstructs meaningful vitality. It may show itself differently in each case. That which is above by reason of its charity, suppresses that, which is below; then the lower craves what is above. . ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 47.
We can only speak of the relativity of good and evil in individual cases. The categories of good and evil cannot be suspended; they are continually alive and cannot be attached to material things. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 47.
Instead of saying, “God is beyond good and evil,” we can say, “Life is both good and evil.” ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 40.
Some examples of editorial slips made by the Church in the Bible:
“Ye will be as gods!”
“When thou art alone then I am with thee.”
“If thou would ‘st pray enter into thy chamber …”
The parable of the unjust steward. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 45.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a primordial condition like Paradise, but it is later in time and cannot be reached by regressing, only be going forward. We do not know whether our present order is final. At another level a new creative solution may be required. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 39.
So long as religion is only faith and outward form, the religion’s function is not experienced in our souls, nothing of any importance has happened. ~Carl Jung, CW 12, Page 12.
When someone says, in the words of the “Our Father, ” “Thy will be done,” we must find out, if he is capable of taking both the inside and the outside, the ego and the world, into account. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 36.
A religious life presupposes a conscious connection of the inner and outer worlds and it requires a constant, meticulous attention to all circumstances to the best of our knowledge and our conscience. We must watch what the gods ordain for us in the outer world, but as well as waiting for developments in the outer world we must listen to the inner world; both worlds are expressions of God. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 36.
Dogma represents the soul more completely than a scientific theory, for the latter gives expression to and formulates the conscious mind alone. ~Carl Jung, CW11, Page 46.
I want to make clear, that by the term “religion” I do not mean creed. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Page 30.
God has a longing for man and it seems there is provision for God to be created in man’s consciousness. Consciousness is the cradle of the birth of God in man. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 39.
When we say “Our Father,” the Father also symbolizes that self which is hidden in Heaven, in the unconscious. The Son (Christ) is the consciously achieved self. The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete promised by Christ in the Words “Ye are as gods,” or “Greater things will be done by you.” ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 35.
The inner man has access to the sense organs of God. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 39.
I do not know whether Karma creates the ego or the ego creates Karma. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 43
… something which existed before the ego and is in fact its father or creator. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Page 263.
The self which includes me includes many others also. For the unconscious that is conceived in our minds does not belong to me and is not peculiar to me, but is everywhere. It is the quintessence of the individual and at the same time the collective. ~Carl Jung, CW 13, Page 182.
We would call the self a multiple consciousness in God, or a spiritual Olympus, or an inner firmament. Paracelsus already knew this and wrote it for us. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 36.
Primitive man was much more governed by his instincts than are his “rational” modern descendants, who have learned to “control” themselves. ~Carl Jung; Man and His symbols; Page 36.
The guilty man is eminently suitable and therefore chosen to become the vessel for the continuing incarnation, not the guiltless one who holds aloof from the world and refuses his tribute to life, for in him the dark God would find no room. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Page 460.
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making darkness conscious. ~Carl Jung, CW 13, The Philosophical Tree, Page 264.
The realization of the shadow is the growing awareness of the inferior part of the personality. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Page 208.
The self is the light of the world; it is the full realization of everything in consciousness. Every animal and every plant is a representation of the self… Thus the whole world enters consciousness. ~ Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 36.
A saying of the alchemist is, “God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” The saying holds for God, for the anima mundi and for the soul of man. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 35.
The ego is the workshop where the self is made. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 35.
It is normal for a man to resist his anima, because she represents the unconscious and all those tendencies and contents hitherto excluded from conscious life. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Page 75.
If the encounter with the shadow is the “apprentice piece” in the individual development, then, that with the anima is the “masterpiece.” ~Carl Jung, CW 9, Page 29.
On a low level the animus is an inferior Logos, a caricature of the differentiated masculine mind, just as on a low level the anima is a caricature of the feminine Eros. ~Carl Jung, Commentary Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 41.
For the son, the animus is hidden in the dominating power of the mother and sometimes she leaves him with a sentimental attachment that lasts throughout life and seriously impairs the fate of the adult. ~Carl Jung, CW 9, Page 29.
The animus is the masculine thinking in a woman. ~ Carl Jung, CW 13, Page 267.
Like every archetype, the animus has a Janus face. ~Carl Jung, CW 13, Page 268.
When a woman realizes her shadow the animus can be constellated. If the shadow remains in the unconscious the animus possesses her through the shadow. When she realizes her animus, mystical generation can occur. Sarah was Abraham’s legitimate wife, but Hagar, the dark one, had the procreative animus. Out of darkness the light is born. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 30.
A woman is oriented towards the animus because it is the son of the unknown father, the Old Sage, whom she never comes to know. This motive is hinted at in the Gnostic texts where Sophia in her madness loves the Great Father On the other hand a man does not know the mother of the anima. She may be personified, for example, in Sophia or the seven times veiled Isis. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 30.
Hildegard von Bingen transcended the animus; that is one woman’s service to the spirit. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 30.
When the woman experiences the mystery of creativeness in herself, in her own inner world, she is doing the right thing and then no longer demands it from the outside — from her husband, her son, or anyone else close to her. . ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 29.
There is no difference in intelligence level between those who tend to have dreams and those who have visions. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Psychotherapy, Page 19.
To a man the anima is the Mother of God who gives birth to the Divine Child. To a woman the animus is the Holy Spirit, the procreator. He is at once the light and the dark God — not the Christian God of Love who contains neither the Devil nor the Son. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung; Pages 31-32.
The animus which is not realized by the mother is like a part of a soul with a relative existence of its own. . ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 29.
A particle split off from the mother’s animus can enter her children and act like an evil spirit. As soon as the mother integrates this animus side of her soul, her children are freed. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 29
We should not try to escape upward or downward from the world. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 25.
We can only become real by accepting our sexuality and not denying it through saintliness. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 25.
The best protection against abandonment to demons is a conscious relationship to a close, living human being. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 25.
The power operating through the animus emanates specifically from the self, which is hidden behind it, and from its mana. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 29.
The meaning of sin is that it teaches humility; the Church says, felix culpa. ~Carl Jung; Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 29.
An archetype is composed of an instinctual factor and a spiritual image. ~Carl jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 21.
Archetypes are not matters of faith; we can know that they are there. ~Carl Jung; Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 21.
The archetype signifies that particular spiritual reality which cannot be attained unless life is lived in consciousness. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 21.
Archetypes are images in the soul that represent the course of one’s life. ~Carl Jung; Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 21.
The insane do not stop up their ears so as not to hear the inner voices; rather they do it to close off the outside and so be better able to hear their own voices. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 17.
Everyone in the world is crying out to be accepted. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 16.
A certain amount of suffering and unhappiness is our lot and no one can escape all the dark phases of life. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 14.
Psychology is a preparation for death. We have an urge to leave life at a higher level than the one at which we entered. ~Carl Jung; Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 16.
It is a very real help to find an expression that combines and satisfies the demands of the inner and outer worlds, the unconscious and the conscious. That is the achievement of the so called transcendent function. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 19.
Am I a combination of the lives of these ancestors and do I embody these lives again? Have I lived before in the past as a specific personality, and did I progress so far in that life that I am now able to seek a solution? I do not know. Buddha left the question open, and I like to assume that he himself did not know with certainty. In the meantime it is important to ensure that I do not stand at the end with empty hands. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Pages 317-318.
As therapists we are subject to the unavoidable destinies of our patients. ~Carl Jung; Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 113.
It is the role of religious symbols to give meaning to the life of man. ~Carl Jung; Man and His Symbols.
The unity of these two, life and consciousness, is the Tao. ~Carl Jung; The Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 103
Whenever the creative force predominates, human life is ruled and molded by the unconscious as against the active will, and the conscious ego is swept along on a subterranean current, being nothing more than a helpless observer of events.” Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul; Pages 168-171.
There is so much that fills me: plants, animals, clouds, day and night, and the eternal in man. The more uncertain I have felt about myself, the more there has grown up in me a feeling of kinship with all things. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 359.
I know only that I was born and exist, and it seems to me that I have been carried along. I exist on the foundation of something I do not know. In spite of all uncertainties, I feel a solidity underlying all existence and a continuity in my mode of being. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 358.
In knowing ourselves to be unique in our personal combination – that is, ultimately limited – we possess also the capacity for becoming conscious of the infinite. But only then! ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 325.
Thus we demand that the world grant us recognition for qualities which we regard as personal possessions: our talent and our beauty. The more that man lays stress on false possessions, and the less sensitivity he has for what is essential, the less satisfying is his life. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 325
Attainment of consciousness is culture in the broadest sense, and self-knowledge is therefore the heart and essence of the process. The Oriental attributes unquestionably divine significance to the self, and according to the Christian view self-knowledge is the road to knowledge of God. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Pages 324-325
Certain souls, I imagine, feel the state of three-dimensional existence to be more blissful than that of Eternity. But perhaps that depends upon how much of completeness or incompleteness they have taken across with them from their human existence. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 321.
To Western man, the meaninglessness of a merely static universe is unbearable. He must assume that it has meaning. The Oriental does not need to make this assumption; rather, he himself embodies it. Whereas the Occidental feels the need to complete the meaning of the world, the Oriental strives for the fulfilment of the meaning in man, stripping the world and existence from himself (Buddha). I would say that both are right. Western man seems predominantly extraverted, Eastern man predominantly introverted. The former projects the meaning and considers that it exists in objects; the latter feels the meaning in himself. But the meaning is both within and without. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 317.
I would say that both are right. Western man seems predominantly extraverted, Eastern man predominantly introverted. The former projects the meaning and considers that it exists in objects; the latter feels the meaning in himself. But the meaning is both within and without. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 317.
These fantasy-images undoubtedly have their closest analogues in mythological types. We must therefore assume that they correspond to certain collective (and not personal) structural elements of the human psyche…. These cases are so numerous that we are obliged to assume the existence of a collective psychic substratum. I have called this the collective unconscious. ~Carl Jung, CW 9I, para. 262.
Abstraction is an activity pertaining to the psychological functions in general. There is an abstract thinking, just as there is abstract feeling, sensation, and intuition. Abstract thinking singles out the rational, logical qualities of a given content from its intellectually irrelevant components. Abstract feeling does the same with a content characterized by its feeling-values . . . . Abstract sensation would be aesthetic as opposed to sensuous sensation, and abstract intuition would be symbolic as opposed to fantastic intuition. ~Carl Jung; CW 6, par. 678.
Affects occur usually where adaptation is weakest, and at the same time they reveal the reason for its weakness, namely a certain degree of inferiority and the existence of a lower level of personality. On this lower level with its uncontrolled or scarcely controlled emotions one . . . [is] singularly incapable of moral judgment. ~Carl Jung; CW 9ii, par. 15.