Psychology: as a personal approach to family, culture and the great unknown as opposed to meditation looks to the universal.
In the previous post I described the relationship between meditation and psychology. Meditation looks into the spirit, universal to all beings. Psychology: as a personal approach to family, culture and the great unknown. Psychology explores the soul as personal and unique.
We only have our personal experience, when it gets right down to it. Based on that, we can make choices of how we would like to treat ourselves and others. We can study psychology, go to therapy, and meditate. For what? To uncover false assumptions, process the hurt and refine our position with family, culture and the great unknown.
One false assumption, that is at the bottom of so many problems, has to do with the opposites in life; good and bad, right and wrong, human and Divine, etc. Usually the assumption is to be good and don’t be bad, seek pleasure and avoid pain, love but don’t hate, of course. Why then is this so difficult? Why is there so much pain, when there is such a great effort for pleasure and happiness? Because the false assumption becomes: Repress the bad, get rid of the pain, seek the purity of the Divine and reject the human instincts, only love and never hate.
But this assumption only works temporarily and then the negative comes back with a vengeance. Some way, these opposites need to be understood as co-creators, rather than enemies.
Jung said: There is no consciousness without discrimination of opposites. (C.G. Jung, CW 9i, par. 178).
The Tao te Ching #2 Written by Lao-tzu From a translation by S. Mitchell
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,
acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
Therefore, when negativity comes, be more curious with what it might teach. If I feel sadness, What is this about? Because if I don’t understand my sadness, how can I understand happiness? When I hate, does it really mean I am afraid because I cannot control others to be like me? This way, the negative becomes as valuable as the positive.
