Tuesday, August 15, 2017
10:25 a.m. I don’t know, Rita, sometimes it feels like we’re saying, “Every way that people see the world is wrong.” That goes for religions, philosophies, everything. And that can’t be.
Sure it can, and of course no it can’t. but if you will look at it as a matter of “everybody’s view is partial,” the statement is self-evident. There is no need to assume that what you and I come to is unique; neither is there a need to see it as either in error or error-free. Right and wrong, all that, is not appropriate. It is like asking if an elm tree or an oak tree is more “right” as a tree. You could make up a criterion to judge them by, but why bother? Every species of tree, every individual tree, is unique, which is how it should be. To try to impose an externally (or even internally) judged hierarchy of right or wrong would be worse than useless.
So, don’t worry about it.
That was an inside joke that I recognize but others won’t. Okay, I won’t worry about it.
No path provides perfection (whatever that may be thought to be), all paths may lead toward perfection, depending upon who treads the path and the manner they tread it in. But the pathless path is as good as any other, and as limited. Don’t waste your time regretting that you are not as big or as all-encompassing as the universe. You have a partial view, that is all you will ever have, and what’s wrong with that?
I know you remember what’s wrong with it.
Of course I do, but that yearning for the impossible is not pointless either. It doesn’t mean you missed the boat, it means you still want more. Nothing wrong with that.
Well, I look forward to the Christians and Buddhists and Muslims all finding out that they are wrong – not to mention the materialists.
They won’t know that from me. It isn’t that they (or we) are wrong unless they (or we) claim universal applicability. Jesus said he was the way. It was his followers who took that to mean, the only way. The Buddha didn’t even claim that, and his followers still made the claim on his behalf, so to speak.
“Thank God that I am Jung, and not a Jungian.”
Exactly. Same idea. Devout followers have many virtues, but broad-mindedness isn’t always one of them, nor flexibility.
I could send out this little bit, or we could move to another session. What do you think?
I really don’t know. We could try, I suppose.
“Do you have any regrets?”
I think maybe we should come fresh to that one, too. A fast answer would be, “No, of course not,” and as usual a longer answer would tend to take it away. So let’s address it when you are fresh.
Okay. Till then.