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NW: Do you see a decided difference in the Jungian approach and some popular spiritualities, in that Jungian originates from a place of transcendence vs. salvation? ... it seems to me that one approach is passive, the other assertive... do you see what i mean?

Yes, I can see your point. I'm not sure where to apply a value to either approach because I think that a person has to be authentic to where they are.

In terms of personal authenticity, I come at this from perhaps a different angle than many others. There was a time when I had many beliefs, I had trust, I had faith. Those all got pulverized, so that now, in this process of putting myself back together I'm being a lot more discerning about what I'm willing to adopt as a belief, or where to place my faith and trust. In other words, I'm not certain I can answer your questions because I still haven't answered all of mine.

However, I do believe that there is divine intelligence interwoven into the fabric of the universe (and thus, humanity) that is known by many names. At the very center of this intelligence there appears to be Nothing; Silence; Stillness; Emptiness; Formlessness, but out of this center emanates All. Let me pull in the words of some others to try and explain...

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Beyond this experience, all light disappears, all awareness ceases. There is no perception of anything; there is simply no experience. When the soul is completely concentrated on the absolute there is nothing to perceive, for to perceive total darkness is not to perceive. Light is the awareness that arises out of this total darkness, revealing that the absolute is prior to light, awareness, and consciousness. This experience of cessation is the experience of complete ego death, for it is going beyond the world of manifestation, beyond even awareness of the world of manifestation. There is no awareness of self or soul, for there is no awareness at all, without this being unconsciousness or sleep. When awareness looks out again, which we experience as the return of awareness, the manifest universe reappears. With the return of awareness the logos appears as the displaying of time and space, and all the phenomena of the universe. We are here the absolute, the luminous night, witnessing appearance arising within it, out of it, but we still experience ourselves as the immense stillness and stupendous silence underlying all existence and all appearance.

Source: Ego Death


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I think some forms of spirituality identify with this center of Stillness and say, Everything is Nothing. I think other forms of spirituality identify with that which emanates from this center and see only the Everything; they find it offensive to equate Everything that Is, with Nothing at All.

Meanwhile, here we are, with our little human minds and our little human egos trying to make sense of it all. These two places of Being can seem so disparate. How can we live our lives on this plane of existence as if Everything is Nothing? How can we bring this knowledge down into the body as lived experience?

Allow me to drag in some more words...

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There are a lot of books out on the concept of the soul. Do you have a definition?

Well, for me, the soul is the divine part of us that is embodied in this physical form for a few years. Eventually it is released, but I see soul as the embodied part. I see spirit as the energy, the disembodied energy that can come in to union with the soul in the body. For example, a great dancer like Nureyev can prepare his instrument. His muscles can be in perfect shape through his attention and his concentration. So, his consciousness, his light in his body--which for me would be soul--can be a perfect instrument. But, he's a great dancer when spirit is in union with that instrument. The leap is in the union of soul and spirit.

<center>It's in that surrender to
the transcendent...
that art is created.</center>

I think of the soul as feminine, because it's the receiver--in both men and women. The artist, for example, has to have a receiver and just hopes to God that the spirit will come and touch into soul so that there will a poem come out of that union or a piece of music or art. It's in that surrender to the transcendent, or however you want to call the spirit energy, that art is created.

Source: Empowering Soul Through the Feminine


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I think that ultimately, surrender--what might be considered passivity--will always have a role to play because you are encountering a force that is much greater than "you". Transcendence is found in the surrender. Does surrender+transcendence=salvation? That, I don't know.


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