Carl Jung Quotations 19

That is, as man himself is created for a purpose, he may use all created things for that purpose, and in order to do so freely he must be indifferent and unconcerned about them. One might almost think that this attitude was similar to that of Buddhism. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture IX, Page 220.

We could say that the universe only exists in order that this fruit may ripen; in order that the Self may come into being and reach its own place, which is simply a psychic process of becoming. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture IX, Page 220.

It is much more important to be contented and peaceful than to be intellectual. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 214.

As God is the union, the reconciliation, of all the opposites, it is natural that both the good and evil principles should be in him potentially, should originate in him. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 215.

An old alchemist said that God was obviously displeased with his work on the second day when he had separated the waters above from the waters below, thus creating the Binarius (two) which is the devil. On all the other days "God saw that it was good" but not on the second day. (Compare Gen. I. 6-8.) ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 215.

The principle of evil is just as autonomous and eternal as the principle of good. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 215.

But gradually God was only spoken of as the good God but the Church knew, and perhaps still knows, that God is dangerous. But it preaches in mild murmurs, for it is not popular to speak as Luther spoke of the deus absconditus. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 215.

We think we have conjured away this danger when we call it God, for Christianity has forgotten the dark side of God. The old Church knew that God was dangerous. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 215.

If man does not reverence and submit to the unconscious, which created his consciousness, he loses his soul, that is, he loses his connection with soul and unconscious. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 214.

One living experience is worth a great many intellectual formulations and a psychology must be founded on this fact. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 214.

A certain line of thought, for instance, is developed through a series of dreams; and I discover that I am the duplicate of my unconscious anticipation of myself; at the same moment I am filled with a sense of purpose as if a secret arrangement of my fate existed. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 214.

If I discover that I have been anticipated, it makes an enormous impression upon me; I could not in that moment clearly define the meaning of my life but I feel it as something living. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 214.

We are thought from our psyche before we know it, we can bring empirical facts to prove this. So the statement that "man was created" seems to me very important. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 213.

Consciousness is produced from a quite specific unconsciousness, which anticipates things that consciousness will only later recognise and understand. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 213.

The child's psyche is unconscious, an animal psyche if you like to express it that way, and very gradually a conscious condition develops. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 213.

Natural science holds that man has developed, through long generations of pre-human ancestors. This is, of course, a process of nature, not a human activity. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 212.

He [Neitzche] expressed it as “God is dead” and he did not realise that in saying this he was still standing within the dogma, for Christ's death is one of the secret mysteries of Christianity. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 197.

There is a real salvation in these medieval ideas which can free a man and give his existence a meaning far beyond the sacred bank balance and which reaches as far as suffering. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 191.

We suffer from a certain "development arrete", our spiritual development stopped short, whereas that of the East is hypertrophic. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 197

Not the human being, not the ego, is God but the Self is God in man, and it is superior to human consciousness, just as the whole is superior to a part. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 196.

But we stopped at the institution of the Church, it was erected for the welfare of mankind and the divine germ of the individual was neglected and repressed, to such an extent that we have no understanding for the East and depreciate its teaching as megalomania. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 196.

Our culture, which is threatened today, is primarily a Christian culture, if it had not been for the Roman Catholic Church, we should still be barbarians. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 196.

I am afraid that the historical responsibility for this state of things belongs to the Church: it did not emphasize the metaphysical significance of the individual and taught its members to deify the Church, the institution. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 196.

It is curious that the East has such a negative attitude to suffering, that it regards it merely as an illusion to be overcome, whereas to us it is the path par excellence to Christ, to the Self. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 194.

We know for psychological reasons that when the outer attitude to the world is feminine and passive, the inward attitude will be masculine and active. And of course vice versa, a belligerent outer attitude means a feminine inner attitude, characterised by a peculiar receptiveness and surrender. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 192.

We saw that Christ is the western parallel to the eastern Atman or Purusha, and the search for both is the search for the Self, though the paths are utterly different. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 189.

There is indeed a meaning in suffering, it is a sort of divine secret, for it is less the human being and more the divine man that suffers. God humiliated himself to become man and thus necessarily fell a victim to human suffering. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 189.

The alchemists think of the Redeemer as lying hidden or sleeping in the materia, he does not only descend from heaven but comes also from the depths of matter. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 189.

It is, however, impossible for us to recognise our relationship to eastern ideas, or to assimilate these, unless we realise our own Christian background and that such ideas were expressed in the original documents of our own faith. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lectures, Page 197.

Every profound student of alchemy knows that the making of gold was not the real purpose and that the process was a western form of Yoga. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Page 107.

Just as the ark found a dry point on which to land, so you find a small but firm spot, an instinctive foundation on which you can stand and from which you can see: here I am right and there I am wrong, I am not quite right and not quite wrong, I am that. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Page 111.

These unconscious actions, therefore, do not exist for us (any more than America exists for those who do not know that it was ever discovered) but other people see what we are unaware of ourselves! ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Page 111.

This dissolution of the darkness also dissolves the picture which we have made of ourselves. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Page 111.

We like to think that we are not unconscious but we are to an amazing extent: think of the many things we do without knowing it. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Page 111.

The chemical and the psychological processes went hand in hand, the alchemists worked with such intensity and expectation that it had a psychological effect on them. This is difficult for us to understand. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Page 110.

In alchemy, the redemption of man is brought about through the opus; in contrast to Christianity, where redemption depends entirely on the grace of God. The eastern concept is identical with the alchemical idea: it is the task of the individual to redeem himself. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Page 110.

Christian iconography represents Christ as a very feminine man. This is not just a matter of taste, but because he could not be the redeemer if he were not woman as well as man: all the opposites had to unite in him. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Page 110.

In the West, we associate the spiritual with something high above, but the East finds it in Muladhara, the lower part of the pelvis, that which supports the roots, the lowest foundation of life. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Pages 104.

I have seen such cases where a second personality brings about an absolute change in character. It is this phenomenon which is made conscious here through active imagination. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Pages 106.

We, in the West, are all in the deep darkness of avidya and badly in need of redemption. We need to achieve psychic understanding, not just to be, but to know what you are. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Pages 104.

We constantly hear of Mahatmas and Rishis living away in the mountains of Tibet who are capable of all kinds of magical practices and in India this is also taken for granted; but when Shri Rama Krishna became interested in the question and tried to discover if such people existed, he did not find a single one. Usually it is the invisible or psychic reality which is meant. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Pages 103.

Later the single lotus is imagined on the firm ground of seven jewels, which is reality; so it is on the foundation of reality that the lotus is induced through imagination. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Pages 103.

Active imagination is the intentional activating of a function which otherwise remains passive. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Pages 175.

We do not stop to think that nothing would exist, there would be no culture in the world, if it were not for active imagination; it is always the forerunner, everything springs from it. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Pages 175.

The ego changes all the time, it has every kind of illusion, but the Self is as it is, there is nothing we can alter in it. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Pages 175.

In the East the Void represents a psychic emptying of all conscious contents through the practice of Yoga. In the western series the chaos, or nigredo, is not thought of as a psychic condition but as a condition of the materia. This is the great difference between the East and the West. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture, Pages 175.