Serpent (symbolism)

The serpent (a snake or snake-like entity) is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. The word is derived from Latin serpens, a crawling animal or snake. Snakes have been associated with some of the oldest Rituals known to humankind and represent dual expression of Good and Evil.







http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Serpent_(symbolism)

Source:

Wikipedia:Serpent (symbolism)

Carl Jung on Zen Buddhism

 

Carl Jung on Zen Buddhism: Don’t Underestimate Its Spiritual Depth

By The Power of Ideas
- February 13, 2017

Carl Jung is one of the greatest western psychologists to have ever existed. Through unlocking the mysteries of our unconscious, he helped people discover their true selves.

He spoke about the beauty of becoming “spiritually whole” and the value in asking ourselves the hard questions. Here is an example from one his quotes:

“I have frequently seen people become neurotic when they content themselves with inadequate or wrong answers to the questions of life. They seek position, marriage, reputation, outward success of money, and remain unhappy and neurotic even when they have attained what they were seeking. Such people are usually confined within too narrow a spiritual horizon. Their life has not sufficient content, sufficient meaning. If they are enabled to develop into more spacious personalities, the neurosis generally disappears.”

So when such a revolutionary western thinker talks about becoming our true selves, it’s fascinating to see what he thinks of Zen philosophy. As we all know, Zen philosophy is mainly focused on reducing suffering through achieving “enlightenment”.

Below is a forward by Carl Jung for “An Introduction to Zen Buddhism” by D.T Suzuki:

“I should like to warn the attentive and sympathetic reader, however, not to underestimate the spiritual depth of the East, or to assume that there is anything cheap and facile about Zen.

The assiduously cultivated credulity of the West in regard to Eastern thought is in this case a lesser danger, as in Zen there are fortunately none of those marvelously incomprehensible words that we find in Indian cults.

Neither does Zen play about with complicated hatha-yoga techniques, which delude the physiologically minded European into the false hope that the spirit can be obtained by just sitting and breathing.

On the contrary, Zen demands intelligence and will power, as do all greater things that want to become realities.” – Carl Jung

For more wisdom from Carl Jung, check out these articles:

Carl Jung On Where Loneliness Comes From

15 Amazing Quotes By Carl Jung That Will Help You To Better Understand Yourself

Carl Jung Explains What Happens When You Die  





SOURCE: http://thepowerofideas.ideapod.com/carl-jung-zen-buddhism-dont-underestimate-spiritual-depth/?utm_content=buffere7df6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Albert Einstein, Rabindranath Tagore and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

 

Mahatma Gandhi with a friend in South Africa, circa 1900 -.

Rabindranath Tagore and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Rabindranath Tagore with Albert Einstein in 1926 at Einsteins Home in Berlin Germany

Rab Quotes:
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.

You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.]

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.

Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.

Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.