“a question of … becoming conscious”
The purpose of human life is the creation of consciousness.
Edward Edinger[i]
“Human behavior can be characterized as unconscious, irrational and self-destructive. Increasing self-knowledge is one way of moving forward toward a healthier identity and the resulting sustainable behavior.”[ii]
Nisargadatta says: “By self-knowledge I mean full knowledge of what you are not. Such knowledge is attainable and final; but to the discovery of what you are there can be no end. The more you discover, the more there remains to discover.”[iii]
Consciousness leads to enhanced authentic power and freedom. It has many practical benefits such as dealing with phobias. “The ability to turn an unconscious complex which has one by the throat into an object of knowledge is an extremely important aspect for increasing consciousness. It is as though one who was fighting for his life in the arena were magically transported to the position of spectator—desperate reality becomes an image for contemplation, and the subject as ‘knower’ is removed from harm.”[iv]
Insight # 51 comes to us from C. G. Jung (1875-1961). He was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung’s work was influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy and religion.
“Life that just happens in and for itself is not real life; it is real only when it is known. This does not mean that the self is created, so to speak, only during the course of life; it is rather a question of its becoming conscious. The self exists from the very beginning, but is latent that is, unconscious.”[v]
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Additional Reading:
- Consciousness II, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 1
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[i] Edinger, Edward. The Creation of Consciousness: Jung’s Myth for Modern Man. Toronto, Canada: Inner City Books, 1984, p. 57.
[ii] Henry, Roy Charles. “Archetypes and Identity: Introduction.” Who Am I? October 2013, p. 95.
[iii] Maharaj, Sri Nisargadatta. I Am That. Durham, NC: The Acorn Press, 1973, p. 480.
[iv] Edinger, op. cit., p. 38.
[v] Jung, C. G. The Portable Jung. New York: Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 350-351.
