How do you love? Can one define the concept of love? Love is an abstract word which elicits complex emotions and feelings in all of us, expressing many things. But what does it mean to you? That is the real question. How the question came about I see a wonderful healer who calls herself a kinesiologist, but really she is so much more. In any case, I took my daughter there a while ago and during the session, she asked Margaret how she...
How does one become conscious? I think that I have achieved some level of consciousness, but how did I get here and what does it mean? I have been thinking about this for a while and decided that writing down my thoughts might help me to express it clearly. The first steps Having been exposed to Jungian concepts for more than a decade and doing quite a bit of internal work, I have joined a Rudolf Steiner study group (Anthroposophy) about a...
There is a tale about a young Zen monk, who, after many years of apprenticeship under a well known Zen master, became frustrated with his lack of progress. No longer able to contain himself he confronted the master and accused him of withholding the information he needed to reach Satori (enlightenment). The master listened patiently as the young monk passionately made his case. 'Have I not served you these long years master? Have I not amply demonstrated my humility, patience and sincerity?' asked...
How would you answer the question: Who are you? You might answer with a name. So in my case I might say: I am Stephen, or I am Stephen Farah. But this is limited and somewhat flawed answer to the question. You existed prior to being named, legally you can apply to change your name, and frequently people use an alias for one reason or another. Whilst a name has a power over you it is not who you inalienably are. If it were,...
You can either be good or whole, but not both- C. G. Jung. In this post I examine the Jungian concept of individuation. I will consider what Jung meant by this idea, some of challenges to this idea and how one can practically approach such a goal.
I'm serious, I know that sounds like a crazy question, but I'm being dead serious (if you will forgive the pun). I might equally ask, have you ever been alive? I suspect, though, I know the answer to that question. I remember you as a child- and you were happy. I know you would cry at times and get angry or sad sometimes, but basically you were really, really happy. Happy to be alive and happy to be here or at least...
This is an amplification of an earlier post on the subject of truth and the stories we tell ourselves about it, to read the original post The Story of Truth click here.
A central idea in Romanticism was the idea of becoming. We are always in the process of becoming not only our future, but a future wherein we are different, and hopefully more, than we were before. You could say that becoming happens spontaneously as is evident in the changes we see in a child growing up. However Jung would argue that there is a world of difference between becoming which is driven by a conscious intention for individuation, and simply growing...
“Whilst it is questionable whether or not honesty is always the best policy, what is beyond doubt is that truth is superior to any policy." To be frank I have always had an ambivalent relationship with truth. Without making a messy and perhaps inappropriate confession let me just say I have not always been convinced of its preeminent value in the greater scheme of things. The question 'is truth the most important thing?' comes up in the Matrix Workshop. And I...
Okay I admit have a fetish for numbers , and couldn't resist the allure of this post. As 2010 draws to a close I want to reflect on a few of the lessons I have learnt during the last year. And then not to be found betraying the teleological principal of my greatest teacher, C. G. Jung, I promise my next post will be 11 ideas for 2011. Okay here goes… Personally this has been a big year for me. A challenging year...
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