Carl Jung is saying the that the lower mind (as opposed to Divine Consciousness) moves mechanically, restlessly on the move, non-stop, like a pendulum. He thinks it is not so much concerned with what is right and wrong while it swings back and forth between fantasy and reality.
Right and wrong have to do with what we are taught, whereas, the mind, left on its own is like a wild stallion. It is not easy to tame and disregards what we are taught to be good and bad. It runs back and forth from pleasure to pain, love and hate, anger and peace, regardless of how right or wrong these feelings may be deemed to be by its society.
Yet, Carl Jung may have not seen how deeply the lower mind clings to the pendulum that swings between right and wrong. He may not have acknowledged that we are constantly judging, measuring ourselves against others, measuring others against ourselves, and coming up with conclusions that add to even more judgments about who is right and who is wrong. So I would amend that statement to read, “The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, right and wrong.” We move from fantasy to reality while we are constantly judging according to some yardstick, whether real or imagined.
For example, you are at a party and someone spills a syrupy drink all over you. You immediately swing from anger to forgiveness as the drink spiller desperately apologizes. Then you congratulate yourself inwardly for being the better person and not throwing your drink in his or her face. You feel pleased that you are being moral about it and doing the right thing. From there you can go into fantasy of overcoming the mishap and becoming the best of friends, even possible soul mates.
All the time you are presenting yourself to yourself in the best light in terms of right and wrong while you are living out a fantasy in your mind that may be completely preposterous (they’re married, you’re married, it truly was an accident and nothing more, in life drinks get spilled). Or the pendulum can swing the other way, combining nonsense with morality. You imagine yourself fighting this person because they were wrong to be so careless and end up berating yourself as a victim that always attracts bad things. You go to the corner to cry.
While I admire Carl Jung, I feel he did not recognize that the ego mind is not as straightforward as a pendulum. It is more like a free-flying, restless machine that is all over the place. A pendulum follows certain gravitational pulls, while the ego mind is capable of going off in a completely random way.
Right and wrong have to do with what we are taught, whereas, the mind, left on its own is like a wild stallion. It is not easy to tame and disregards what we are taught to be good and bad. It runs back and forth from pleasure to pain, love and hate, anger and peace, regardless of how right or wrong these feelings may be deemed to be by its society.
Yet, Carl Jung may have not seen how deeply the lower mind clings to the pendulum that swings between right and wrong. He may not have acknowledged that we are constantly judging, measuring ourselves against others, measuring others against ourselves, and coming up with conclusions that add to even more judgments about who is right and who is wrong. So I would amend that statement to read, “The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, right and wrong.” We move from fantasy to reality while we are constantly judging according to some yardstick, whether real or imagined.
For example, you are at a party and someone spills a syrupy drink all over you. You immediately swing from anger to forgiveness as the drink spiller desperately apologizes. Then you congratulate yourself inwardly for being the better person and not throwing your drink in his or her face. You feel pleased that you are being moral about it and doing the right thing. From there you can go into fantasy of overcoming the mishap and becoming the best of friends, even possible soul mates.
All the time you are presenting yourself to yourself in the best light in terms of right and wrong while you are living out a fantasy in your mind that may be completely preposterous (they’re married, you’re married, it truly was an accident and nothing more, in life drinks get spilled). Or the pendulum can swing the other way, combining nonsense with morality. You imagine yourself fighting this person because they were wrong to be so careless and end up berating yourself as a victim that always attracts bad things. You go to the corner to cry.
While I admire Carl Jung, I feel he did not recognize that the ego mind is not as straightforward as a pendulum. It is more like a free-flying, restless machine that is all over the place. A pendulum follows certain gravitational pulls, while the ego mind is capable of going off in a completely random way.
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