“Only too often the cultural man kills his natural man and nature replies by making the cultural man impotent. What more accurate statement of our modern dilemma can be made?”
Robert A. Johnson. “The Fisher King & The Handless Maiden.
Understanding the Wounded Feeling Function in Masculine and Feminine
Psychology.” HarperOne, 1993.
Our dominant culture removes not only the antisocial aspects of our wildness, but sadly, also the prosocial, animal wildness we require to be fully, vitally human. Each of us is influenced far more by our culture than we realize. The prevailing self-concepts & worldviews of our culture gradually become our own by default. But the present culture's worldview & our self-concept is mechanical, materialistic & meaningless - the universe and everything & everyone in it, according to this perspective, are essentially machines, composed of nothing more than bits of matter, that inevitably break down due to the law of entropy. And we wonder why there is so much loneliness, cynicism, depression, anxiety, burnout, misogyny, racism, suicide, violence, poverty, starvation, war, etc, etc.
Einstein said that the most important question a human being needs to answer: " 'Is the universe a friendly place or not?' ... If we believe that the universe is unfriendly ... peace will be elusive at best."
Joan Borysenko. “Fire in the Soul. A New Psychology of Spiritual Optimism.” Warner Books, 1993.
Before our current mechanical / materialistic culture, with its hyper-rational way of thinking & speaking, which alienated us from the world of direct experience, "natural" human beings felt intimately connected to Nature.
Today, most of us were born & raised in cities - a situation as bizzarely unnatural as wild animals being bred & raised in zoos. And yet, we settle for a steady income, a roof over our head and dreamily shuffle along with our robot herd.
“The Greek word mechane, which is the origin of our term machine as well as the root of machination, has a very sober connotation. Its root means to trick, and everything concerned with it has a dark character. Dreams of mechanical things failing in their purpose often alert the dreamer that he or she is using devices or attitudes that are unworthy of his or her best interest. It is commonplace in the dreams of people who are capable of high consciousness that mechanical things do not work well. …
It’s true that our overly complex outer way of life needs reappraisal, but it is the inner form of trickery that is the most deadly. We could abandon all our cars and computers and airplanes as advocates of simplicity advise but still keep the inner trickery that is the real source of the infamous devil’s bargain. It is not necessary to give up the outer things to avoid the devil; but it is necessary to abandon our nefarious struggle to get something for nothing.
Whenever you trick, psychologically speaking, you amputate the hands of your most tender feeling function, a price far too great for any outer advantage.
… a mechanical view of life is wrong and extracts the feeling price. If an excess of ‘thing’ in life is eroding away one’s peace, it is the attitude that is wrong, not the things. Trickery as an attitude always involves getting something and refusing to pay the human, direct price for it.”
Robert A. Johnson. “The Fisher King & The Handless Maiden.
Understanding the Wounded Feeling Function in Masculine and Feminine
Psychology.” HarperOne, 1993.
“The naïve man often doesn’t know that there is a being in him that wants to remain sick. Inside each man or woman there is a sick person and a well person: and one needs to know which one is talking at any moment. But awareness of the sick being, and knowledge of how strong he is, is not part of the naïve man’s field of perceptions.”
Robert Bly. “Iron John. A Book About Men.” 25th Anniversary Edition. Da Capo Press, 2004.
“When Dr. Jung was asked the question ‘Will we make it?’ he always replied, ‘If enough individuals will do their inner work.’ There seem to be no collective solutions to this problem of wounded feelings, only individuals brave enough to take the problem personally. This is the new heroism.”
Robert A. Johnson. “The Fisher King & The Handless Maiden.
Understanding the Wounded Feeling Function in Masculine and Feminine
Psychology.” HarperOne, 1993.
“Modern science has come to understand that matter is only condensed energy. Sooner or later, science will also discover that what it calls energy, is only condensed psychic force, which discovery will lead in the end to the establishment of the fact that all psychic force is the condensation, purely and simply, of consciousness ie spirit. In other words, there is an energetic continuum running through all of creation, beginning in the virtually vibrationless awareness of pure consciousness, and ending in the solid world of rocks and tables. In contrast to the more traditional theological model, which views God and creation as rigidly separate, the wisdom model stresses the fluidity of movement along this energetic continuum, and the presence of divine consciousness at every level, regardless of the outward form.” Valentin Tomberg
Cynthia Bourgeault. “The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming An Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart.” Jossey-Bass, 2003.
Concise instructions for continuous meditation practice:
"There is silence everywhere,
you just have to listen for it.
I am surrounded by love,
I just have to stop looking for it.
Trust opens both,
If I let it." Joan Benner
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