Carl Jung and Tibetan Buddhism
January 26, 2008 – 11:12 pm
Kindly Bent To Ease Us
Carl Jung was convinced solutions to our most difficult conscious problems can arise from our unconscious. He based his assertions on numerous witnessings of the power of the unconscious to act upon the individual’s psyche. Not only was he convinced of this but clearly shows us how the first germinal stages of that communication from the unconscious arise.
s19. “To begin with the task consists solely in observing objectively how a fragment of fantasy develops.”
Jung notes that the unconscious typically communicates with our conscious self through something simple and seemingly unformed like a fantasy. But if our aim is healing we have to relate to the fragment of fantasy differently than we normally might. Broadly speaking we usually relate to fantasy fragments by either getting wrapped up in them or by completely rejecting them. Jung’s prescription is instead to unobtrusively and objectively observe the transformations of the fantasy. Yet even this simple step in aiding the natural healing processes brings us to other difficulties.
s19. “Nothing could be simpler and yet right here the difficulties begin.”
Jung then proceeds to give a list of all the reactions our conscious mind marshals to reject this little bit of fantasy. The array of defenses and attacks is quite impressive and usually very effective in squelching the first forms of the fantasy. But even if the first lines of defense have been overcome other reactions lay in wait. Carl Jung calls this obliteration of the first stirrings of the unconscious messages a mental cramp that needs to be massaged in some way to let the messages through.
He mentions several methods for getting to the fantasies, like writing, visualization, drawing or painting, working with clay, and even dancing. I myself years ago before studying Carl Jung’s works systematically worked through this process in learning to identify the unconscious promptings by developing writing techniques inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist Longchenpa of the 14th century.
I studied Longchenpa’s works in the series Kindly Bent to Ease Us, translated by Herbert V. Guenther, and what struck me the most were his poetic and quite beautiful depictions of the ways in which thoughts formed like clouds which one could almost lazily follow as they moved across the sky of the mind. Finding this image quite appealing I constructed very effective exercises for developing this method of observation of not only thoughts but of feelings and fantasy fragments.
Based on this training and its results I can independently attest to the accuracy of Carl Jung’s description of the process by which the unconscious becomes conscious as well as the efficacy of the methods he briefly describes. These methods have been known and used for centuries to effectively connect the unconscious to the conscious mind. Of course his injunctions about who can benefit from these exercises and who can be harmed by them have to be taken seriously, since the exercises need to be modified to the character of each individual.