Thread: Carl Gustav Jung - Videos, Books, Ruminations

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

In several of the newer books I keep running across the idea of the opposites, and the fact that they need to be reconciled or united. What does it mean?

Ooo.

This whole thread is dripping with philosophical surrealism which grabs my interest but the topic of the unification of the opposites is my favorite topic of all time to talk about.

The matter of reconciling, uniting, balancing the opposites is a focal point of many religions, Taoism, Buddhism, Sufi Islam, Hermeticism, and my own Baha'i Faith. The common thread through all these traditions seems to involve taking a sharp look at two polar "opposites" and realizing the truth that they are one and the same. My favorite Taoist teacher (whose YouTube videos unfortunately are no longer on the internet) put it this way: "When you see the Yin and Yang symbol, you at first might be tempted to see it as two things, Yin and Yang, but in reality it is just one symbol, and the division you see is an imagined one."

An analogy I've heard is that when two men enter a room-temperature room, one entering from outdoors during winter, and the other entering the same room from a sauna, the former man will describe the room as "warm" and the latter man will describe it as "cold", despite both describing the same room. This analogy, then, meant to illustrate the true unity and oneness between hot and cold.

The goal is the absolute liberation of the self from suffering through unity of the opposites. The main opposites to unite are the opposites of "Good" and "Bad". If you can internally unify these concepts, you are totally free from suffering. The reason for this being thus: If you unify the concepts of Good and Bad, then the things in the world are not "good" nor "bad" anymore, they simply are. If there is no "bad" you see in the world, then there is no fault with things, and you can accept the world as it is. And if you can see no bad in the world around you, there you have it: a liberation from suffering itself.

Zhuang Tzu calls this "freeing the bond", Baha'u'llah calls this "detachment", there are many, many names for this concept of unification of the opposites throughout a myriad of cultures, religions, and traditions. I think I could literally spend forever talking about this one thing if permitted. :p It is quite literally my absolute favorite philosophical or theological topic.

Originally Posted by LabyrinthDreams

This whole thread is dripping with philosophical surrealism

Wow, I suppose you're right - I had never thought of it that way, but that's a cool observation.

Originally Posted by LabyrinthDreams

An analogy I've heard is that when two men enter a room-temperature room, one entering from outdoors during winter, and the other entering the same room from a sauna, the former man will describe the room as "warm" and the latter man will describe it as "cold", despite both describing the same room. This analogy, then, meant to illustrate the true unity and oneness between hot and cold.

This is a very good analogy - it perfectly illustrates the idea.

Originally Posted by LabyrinthDreams

If you unify the concepts of Good and Bad, then the things in the world are not "good" nor "bad" anymore, they simply are. If there is no "bad" you see in the world, then there is no fault with things, and you can accept the world as it is. And if you can see no bad in the world around you, there you have it: a liberation from suffering itself.

Zhuang Tzu calls this "freeing the bond", Baha'u'llah calls this "detachment", there are many, many names for this concept of unification of the opposites throughout a myriad of cultures, religions, and traditions.

It's also a part of the Ancient Greek/Roman practical philosophy known as Stoicism, in fact it's one of the core concepts of it. I've spent several years studying and practicing it, and it makes a huge difference in quality of life. Basically you divide everything in the world into 2 categories - things you can control and things you can't. Then you just forget about everything you can't control, and instead concentrate only on those things you do have control over - which turn out to be your own thoughts, feelings and actions. The maxim that goes along with this is 'There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so' - that's a very Stoic Shakespeare quote. And you're absolutely right - putting this into practice really does bring liberation from suffering. Somehow I failed to connect up Stoicism with the reconciliation of the opposites, but your post made me realize it, so thanks for that! I suppose this is what Jung meant when he said that in middle age a person needs to adopt a practical philosophy of life in the ancient sense.