As Jung came to understand human psychology beyond behaviorism, he identified the core dictate of human nature to be individuation. In essence: follow your own path. Life is a creative act, and rigid precepts—be they religious, cultural, or political—prevent people from living vivid, vibrant lives. Our souls become so tied up in the strings and shackles of right and wrong that we become as frozen as the dogmas themselves. The feminine, Eros, creativity, and the animal-body become alienated and oppressed. Like rivers corralled by cement walls, life can’t find its organic route and people meet their deathbeds feeling restless and unfulfilled.
Thank you for this Satya. I feel like it is a very real challenge internally to navigate the fine line sometimes between what are patriarchal values when some of them have provided safety and stability in our own lives. Like the institution of family, for example. I have only recently discovered just how deep and automatic my own good/self sacrificing patterns are in the role of mother in middle age now that my kids are older (21 and 17). I am about to break the rules and be very “bad/selfish” by moving to LA for a month to create my own artist in residence to intensively learn a music software program I have started and stopped over the past several years while being a good wife and mother. I could not sustain focus at home! I just released a new song this month where I use my voice to protest the violation of women’s rights. Angry middle aged woman? Bad. I still struggle with untangling this knot that shortens my breath because it also excites me to follow my soul’s calling. It feels unfair that it takes exhausting internal work to be good and bad.😁
"To participate in the perpetually unfolding creativity of existence, each individual has no choice but to struggle at times with doubt and seemingly irreconcilable opposites. It’s only through this struggle that something new can be born. The transcendent third. The previously unknown middle way. The choice that is not only this nor only that."
This is so, so important. More and more, it seems to me that what is most deeply true usually lives in and emerges from the space of paradox. The more we refuse to explore paradox — that two "seemingly irreconcilable opposites" could, somehow, coexist — the more we risk surrendering ourselves to increasingly extreme, zero-sum perspectives.
Great piece Satya.
This portion felt synchronous.
As Jung came to understand human psychology beyond behaviorism, he identified the core dictate of human nature to be individuation. In essence: follow your own path. Life is a creative act, and rigid precepts—be they religious, cultural, or political—prevent people from living vivid, vibrant lives. Our souls become so tied up in the strings and shackles of right and wrong that we become as frozen as the dogmas themselves. The feminine, Eros, creativity, and the animal-body become alienated and oppressed. Like rivers corralled by cement walls, life can’t find its organic route and people meet their deathbeds feeling restless and unfulfilled.
Thank you for this Satya. I feel like it is a very real challenge internally to navigate the fine line sometimes between what are patriarchal values when some of them have provided safety and stability in our own lives. Like the institution of family, for example. I have only recently discovered just how deep and automatic my own good/self sacrificing patterns are in the role of mother in middle age now that my kids are older (21 and 17). I am about to break the rules and be very “bad/selfish” by moving to LA for a month to create my own artist in residence to intensively learn a music software program I have started and stopped over the past several years while being a good wife and mother. I could not sustain focus at home! I just released a new song this month where I use my voice to protest the violation of women’s rights. Angry middle aged woman? Bad. I still struggle with untangling this knot that shortens my breath because it also excites me to follow my soul’s calling. It feels unfair that it takes exhausting internal work to be good and bad.😁
Really loved what you said here:
"To participate in the perpetually unfolding creativity of existence, each individual has no choice but to struggle at times with doubt and seemingly irreconcilable opposites. It’s only through this struggle that something new can be born. The transcendent third. The previously unknown middle way. The choice that is not only this nor only that."
This is so, so important. More and more, it seems to me that what is most deeply true usually lives in and emerges from the space of paradox. The more we refuse to explore paradox — that two "seemingly irreconcilable opposites" could, somehow, coexist — the more we risk surrendering ourselves to increasingly extreme, zero-sum perspectives.
Such a great essay.
Yes
Creation never takes time out does it?
I enjoy your insistence that we are here in order to get an inkling about our connection to maybe even our original
purpose?Divine type.
Your Grandfather who you amaze!
Really enjoyed this read
Thank you for reading and sharing 🌸✨