“When gluttony is less than ruinous, we have a milder word for that … we call it ‘taking our comfort.’ ” “Consider, too, our talents for procrastination, which is really sloth in five syllables. … and few of us would seriously think of giving them up, at least until they cause us
excessive misery.” (12 & 12, p. 67)
“If men as individuals surrender to the call of their elementary instincts … the result for them all taken together must be a state of in-security, of fear, and of promiscuous misery.” Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) German-American physicist / philosopher
Which character failings (or instincts) place you in a state of seeming misery, lately? Think of the 7 deadly sins (false pride, anger, gluttony, greed, lust, envy, sloth)
THE DEFECT’S MANY DISGUISES –
“When gluttony
is less than ruinous,
we have a milder word
for that … we call it ‘taking
our comfort.’ ” “Consider,
too, our talents for procrasti-
nation, which is really sloth in
five syllables. … and few of
us would seriously think of
giving them up, at least
until they cause us
excessive misery.”
(12 & 12, p. 67)
A DEEPER LEVEL OF SURRENDER –
“Asking our Higher
Power to remove our
shortcomings requires a
surrender of a more pronoun-
ced nature than our initial sur-
render. In this new level of sur-
render, we accept not only our
addiction but also the short-
comings related to our
addiction.” (It Works,
How & Why, p. 50)
“If men as indivi-
duals surrender to
the call of their elemen-
tary instincts … the result
for them all taken togeth-
er must be a state of in-
security, of fear, and
of promiscuous
misery.”
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) German-American physicist / philosopher
“As we see coincidences and miracles happening in our lives, acceptance becomes trust. We grow to feel comfortable with our Higher Power as a source of strength. As we learn to trust this Power, we begin to overcome our fear of life.” (The Basic Text, p. 25) “He who has faith has … an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness, and assuring trust that all will come out well – even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly.” – B. C. Forbes (1880 – 1954) Scottish journalist
“We don’t have to be religious to accept this idea.” “We began to see evidence of some Power that could not be fully explained. Confronted with this evidence, we began to accept the existence of a Power greater than ourselves. We can use this Power long before we understand it.” (12 & 12, p. 52) “I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” – Frank Lloyd Wright (1869 – 1959) U. S. architect
How would you describe the “main ingredient” of your own spiritual growth, nowadays?
IT ALLOWS US TO LOOK DEEPER –
“… when we have
taken a square look
at some of these de-
fects, have discussed
them with another, and
have become willing to
have them removed, our
thinking about humility
commences to have
a wider meaning.”
(12 & 12, p. 74)
THE MAIN INGREDIENT –
“We couldn’t handle
the ordeal of life by our-
selves. It wasn’t until we
made a mess of our lives
that we realized we couldn’t
do it alone. By admitting
this, we achieved a glim-
pse of humility. This is
the main ingredient of
Step Seven.” (The
Basic Text, p. 36)
“I can trust
my friends. These
people force me to
examine myself,
encourage me
to grow.”
“A great turning point in our lives came when we sought for humility as something we really wanted; rather than as something we must have.” (12 & 12, p. 75)
“My turning point was my pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. It was then that I, who had dedicated most of my life to penetrate the ‘secrets’ of the universe; realized that there are no secrets. Life is and will always be a mystery.” – Paulo Coelho (1947 – ) Brazilian spiritual author
What character building moments have you had lately where you had to make a fateful choice?
“Many of us have exclaimed, ‘You mean I even have to tell the truth about that?’ or ‘If only I could still lie, steal, or cheat, it would be so much easier to get what I want.’ ” (It Works, How & Why, p.47)
“People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.” – Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 – 1962) U.S. First Lady & ardent feminist
“The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action.” (The Big Book, p. 17)
“The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.”- Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970) British philosopher / mathematician
What were a problem you’ve had lately and the solutions you used to solve it?
What is an example of a price you felt you had to pay to make you feel wiser today, lately?
“Many of us had lived our lives up to this point with a secret feeling of shame.” “Often this shame stemmed from unresolved guilt over mistakes we’d never fully dealt with.” (Overeaters Anon., p. 29) “A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong,
which is but saying … that he is wiser today than yesterday.” Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) Irish satirist/writer
“One evening, Simple Simon met a pie man. The pie man was on his way to a food fair in the village.
“Dear pie man, let me taste one of your pies,” said Simple Simon.
“Alright, but first you have to give me a penny. Then I will give you a pie,” said the pie man.
“I’m sorry but I don’t have any money,” said Simple Simon. The pie man smiled and left Simple Simon standing by the roadside. Simon did not have a pie from the pie-man who did not give a pie to the Simon because Simon did not give a penny to the pie-man.”
Everything has a price. We have to pay the price to attain what we want. Otherwise, our life will not make a progress.
Like Krishnamurti, how have you followed your own Sacred Heart to the peaceful resolution of a challenge you’ve faced, lately?
“We have found that God [or one’s H.P.]* does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. To us, the realm of spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive, never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek. It is open, we believe, to all … .” (As Bill Sees It, p. 7)
“In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.” – Krishnamurti (1895 – 1986) Indian spiritual author
“Yes, we … did dream those dreams. How natural that was since most [of us] are bankrupt idealists. Nearly every one of us had wished to do great good, perform great deeds, and embody great ideals.” (12 & 12, p. 156)
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” – Carl Jung (1875 – 1961) Swiss, psychologist
What steps have you taken to live the life you have always wanted, lately?
“Jung was the eminent adept of Freud and, for a while, a tireless fighter for the Freudian cause, that is, the universal promotion of psychoanalysis. He was influenced by Freud’s approach to the delicate problem of dream interpretation. Later on, Jung develops his own theory which includes several revolutionary features: subject level, prospective aspect, compensation, amplification method.
It is known that Freud interprets dreams on the object level; that is, according to the relationship between the dreamer and the persons or situations in his real of phantasy life. Jung introduces the subject level. What is this level? The fact that the dream reveals, in a symbolic way, some features of dreamer’s psychic life or of his internal psychic transformations. This way the dream becomes an indicator of those changes that sometimes point to the development of the individuation process.
Dreams are a cloudy picture.
So if someone dreams of his mother, the mother in Jung’s view is not an evocation of the real mother, but of the dreamer’s anima, that is, his emotional, feminine side. Mother can also be a suggestion to what is basically biologic in the human nature or can lead to the inherited background, the homeland in a cultural way.
Freud’s dream approach is retrospective; that is, it refers mainly to past events, placed back in the dreamer’s childhood (psychic trauma, sexual repressed wishes and so forth). Jung’s dream approach is prospective; he treats the dream like an inner map of dreamer’s future psychic evolution towards a more balanced relationship between his ego and the unconscious (be it personal or collective).
Talking about infantile complexes, Jung states, in accordance with his orientation, that complexes are not of importance per se; what really matters is what the individual’s ego does with them. This way, the complexes, even the neurotic ones, become raw material for dreams, the language through which the dream (the unconscious) expresses itself.
The mother complex,
for example, may indicate a process of development on the basis of some inherited features or life events that constitute the background of the individuation.
For Jung the concept of compensation includes another powerful idea: the dream is an attempt to counterbalance a hypertrophied ego. That is why the interpretation of dreams should seek to discover the compensatory aspects that help the ego better adapt to the demands of internal and external life. In a certain clinical situation, as a result of a dream interpretation, Jung had to explain to his patient that she must resign her too rationalist attitude (as a consequence of her animus inflation) in order to cure her severe neurosis. This way the dream becomes a message of the unconscious that indicates several neurotic deficiencies in the individual life orientation.
Finally, Jung adds to the free association method, developed by Freud, the method of amplification . He states that there are elements of the dream to which the dreamer cannot provide personal associations.(1) These elements are symbols.(2) In this case, the analyst should intervene with his knowledge and complete the dreamer’s gaps related to them. The associative material comes from various cultural areas: mythology, religion, alchemy, folklore and so forth.
One must notice that these essential additions to the method of dream interpretation should not be taken over easily. Jung warns us repeatedly that dreams ought to be interpreted at first by Freud’s method. Only exceptional cases demand the use of his own method.(3)
