Looking Across the Mekong River in Laos
I was almost tempted to do a bit of photo editing with this photo taken just a few hours ago just before sunset here in Vientiane, Laos. The scene is the Mekong River as seen from the fifth floor outdoor restaurant in Vientiane, looking across the Mekong River toward Thailand. I was initially worried that there wasn’t enough “light” because I was facing into the west making the picture darker than it was. But, the thought to edit lasted about a half a second at most and I decided to leave it “as is.”
The afternoon spent in various temples as well as a book I am reading on my e-Reader have left me in a pensive mood. I think back to my original foray into Transcendental Meditation in the early 70s, reading Siddhartha by Hemann Hesse back in the same time period and find some peace in meditative approaches that have come to me naturally in the second half of my life. Perhaps it is because I find myself approaching life in the older lane to be a contemplative time. Regardless of the reason, the temples of Buddhism, Hinduism, and a collection of animistic beliefs find a resonance in terms of honouring the unknown.
I am not drawn to any particular “religion” though I am drawn to a more spiritual life. For me, religions and a spiritual life don’t exactly go together. One can be spiritual with a professed religion as one can be rigidly religions without having a spiritual bone in one’s body.I am drawn to the numinous such as is found in this photograph. For me, it is telling that it contains water, land and sunset colours.
I belong to the earth and water, I am made up of both earth and water. And in the natural flow of life, I will return to the natural elements from which I came. And in the meantime, meaning will arise from how I life my life through both my attitude and my actions.
I cannot understand your post until you tell me what you mean by the term “spiritual?”
John Ferric
28 Jan 11 at 10:26 PM
Well, John, I can’t say as I can define it well enough. I don’t mean spiritual in terms of a religion or a movement, that is certain. The best I can do is to say that it comes from something “within” which is about connection with a deeper self that has no boundaries of space or time or any dimension we care to invent for our understanding.
rgl
31 Jan 11 at 10:46 AM
Why do you assume that because it comes from “within” that it is spiritual? What if it is Soul instead? This is the point I am attempting to make; the inner dimension is not limited to “spirit.”
John Ferric
31 Jan 11 at 9:55 PM
I don’t make this assumption, John. That which is unconscious is “soul” that which is conscious is spirit – the pull to consciousness is the pull to the spiritual (masculine, logos, father) – the pull to the darkness, is a pull to the feminine, to eros, to mother.
rgl
31 Jan 11 at 10:30 PM
So are spirit and soul opposites that need to be reconciled?
John Ferric
31 Jan 11 at 10:33 PM
They become as one as in the holy marriage, or coniunctio as Jung suggests rather strongly. This is a concept that is as old as man – symbols of yin and yang, Buddha being both male and female.
rgl
31 Jan 11 at 10:37 PM
I understand the symbolism. However, that puts the horse before the cart. The issue that Jung addresses is the soul itself. Why would he publish a volume: MODERN MAN IS SEARCH OF A SOUL? Why must we search, and how is that search to be conducted? What part, if any, does “spirit” play in the search? Why in the very same volume would he have an essay titled: THE SPIRITUAL PROBLEM OF MODERN MAN? In regard to the essay please be sure to understand what Jung means by the term “modern man.” What happed to soul?
John Ferric
1 Feb 11 at 10:57 PM
I am such an idiot!!! Cannot even write a metaphor properly! Please revise my 1 feb 11 post to read: “puts the cart before the horse.” I wish this site had an edit feature, folks like me need all the help we can get.
John Ferric
2 Feb 11 at 9:05 PM