Pairs of Opposite

Carl Gustav Jung (26 July 1875 - 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, an influential thinker and the founder of analytical psychology (also known as Jungian psychology). Jung's approach to psychology has been influential in the field of depth psychology and in countercultural movements across the globe. Jung is considered as the first modern psychologist to state that the human psyche is "by nature religious" and to explore it in depth. C.G. Jung says that in the world we live in, there are certain qualities that are absolute truths. These qualities come in pairs of opposites and you can't have one without the other. Such as - Fullness and Emptiness, Living and Dead, Light and Darkness, Hot and Cold, Time and Space, Love and Fear, Good and Evil, Beauty and Ugliness, to mention a few. These qualities exist outside of ourselves and inside of us. Therefore, when one is not in tune with their true nature - the true self [not the false self which is the EGO] one is constantly striving to define and attach oneself with these qualities in order to feel like we exist. The danger with that is that when one strives towards the attainment of the good and the beautiful - for example - and is not in tune with ones true nature, we then fall pray to the effects of the opposite qualities - evil and ugly, since these are one with the good and the beautiful. When, however, we remain true to our own nature, we distinguish ourselves from the good and the beautiful, therefore, at the same time, from the evil and ugly. According to Jung, he emphasized the importance of balance and harmony in ones life. He cautioned that modern people rely too heavily on natural science and logical positivism and that we would benefit greatly from integrating spirituality and appreciation of unconscious realms. He considered this process of individuation necessary for a person to become whole. In summary, Jung asks us to strive not after any of these external qualities which ultimately will always leave you empty, but after YOUR OWN BEING. Bottom line, there is only one striving, the striving after your own being. Once this is clear to you, you would not need anything else, thus you would come to your right goal by virtue of your own being.

A bit of Meditation

The practice of meditation or sitting in silence, its not something that you are just going to flow on your first try. In fact, its probably not going to make sense to you at all. You are going to be fidgety, anxious, confused and not sure of what you are doing or what its suppose to happen. You are probably not going to like it and for most, you are going to quit, because you are going to lead your self to belief that you are no good at it; its simply too difficult. The truth is; we have 5 senses that need stimuli and you have been facilitating that stimulus with external things all your life. How could you possibly be any good at just sitting there with nothing to do? The first few times you try, you are going to be bored out of your mind with the intense need to fixate on something. Come on, nothing truly worthwhile is ever easy. You can't fear failure so much to the point that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have and as Sherman Finesilver said,

"You’ve failed many times, although you don’t remember. You fell down the first time you tried to walk. You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim. . . . Don’t worry about failure. My suggestion to each of you: Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try." "The greatest failure of all is the failure to try." -William Ward

For some, meditation will be a struggle but don't deny yourself that struggle because if you never experience struggle in life, you never experience growth. One thing I've have learned about meditation, is that is a direct reflection of how you deal with life. Mediation makes you honest with yourself; honest with who you really are and whats on your mind - there is no one else there but you. So, give yourself that opportunity to feel who you are.