Life in Two Parts
Photo: Geranimo
As I have indicated in my other writings, I've been doing a lot of reading about Jung and his process of "Individuation", which could also be called integration or even enlightenment.
His life was spent as a psychiatrist but he also spent years going through this Individuation process which ultimately ended up in The Red Book. We could look at this book as a journal of someone that took a look at all the things we like to ignore.
I relate to his work deeply, because like him I felt that I had no other choice but to take a look at the parts of myself that most people would ignore. Its been the most difficult experience I have ever gone through, but I felt there was no other choice.
Alan Watts once said in his talks describing eastern religions, that some people end up seeing the game of life and cant look away from it. This is always how I have felt. I can remember being very young and thinking that something did not add up when it came to myself and everyone else being so miserable all the time.
People dont like it when I say that, they think its pessimistic, yet most people walk around all day with a low grade unhappiness or depression and think its normal. Very rarely is anyone content.
So a few us notice this and say no more, then we embark on the path of individuation.
Below is a hypothetical statement about life and how there seems to be two parts of it through a Jungian lens. The first part is mentioned as normal life, and the second is when we notice what I said above then have to integrate it. Again, these are not direct quotes from him but a digital rendition based off models of his work.
"The first half of life is often focused on building—establishing identity, pursuing education, forming relationships, and laying the foundations for a career and family life. In the process, we indeed encounter challenges and accumulate "baggage" in the form of unresolved conflicts, unmet needs, and adaptive but ultimately limiting patterns of behavior and thought. These are often necessary compromises or defenses that help us navigate the complexities of growing up and engaging with the world.
The second half of life, particularly for those who embark on a journey of self-awareness and individuation, does involve a process of revisiting and reevaluating these accumulated experiences. However, rather than viewing this as merely "undoing" the past, it can be more constructively seen as a process of transformation and integration.
This process is not about discarding the past but about engaging with it in a way that promotes growth and wholeness.
From this perspective, the journey through life is not so much about accumulation and subsequent undoing but about an ongoing process of growth, learning, and deepening understanding. Each phase of life has its challenges and opportunities, and each contributes to the rich tapestry of our individual and collective human experience.
Viewing life in this way can provide a more empowering and hopeful framework, recognizing that every experience, even those that contribute to our "baggage," has the potential to be a stepping stone on the path to greater wisdom and fulfillment."
What we can take away from this information, is that life runs in these cycles. You have people that wake up to whats going on and you have people that dont. Then you have the robots that walk around chasing the next dopamine fix while accomplishing nothing. In many ways life has systems in place, or roles, and each of us end up in one of them.
But if you end up on the path of waking up, you will eventually start asking questions, and the answer to my question ended up in the response above.
I was contemplating the idea of how the first part our life seems to be an accumulation of baggage that we have to undo (some of us) later in life. It can make anyone wonder why this cycle happens in the first place. Well you can see the answer above, and there is not much more I can add to it.
In closing, there seems to be two parts of life, at least to the ones that are aware of it, and we would be wise to know that its just how things are. As was said above, we end up in a place of greater wisdom and fulfillment if we roll with these parts.
We are trying to engage with everything that makes us human, instead of denying it or tryin to make it "better". But in turn life does become a lot better when we realize how it works.