no way out
“Jung has said that to be in a situation where there is no way out, or to be in a conflict where there is no solution, is the classical beginning of the process of individuation. It is meant to be a situation without solution: the unconscious wants the hopeless conflict in order to put ego-consciousness up against the wall, so that the man has to realise that whatever he does is wrong, whichever way he decides will be wrong. This is meant to knock out the superiority of the ego, which always acts from the illusion that it has the responsibility of decision. Naturally, if a man says, “Oh well, then I shall just let everything go and make no decision, but just protract and wriggle out of [it],” the whole thing is equally wrong, for then naturally nothing happens.
But if he is ethical enough to suffer to the core of his personality, then generally because of the insolubility of the conscious situation, the Self manifests. In religious language you could say that the situation without issue is meant to force the man to rely on an act of God. In psychological language the situation without issue, which the anima arranges with great skill in a man’s life, is meant to drive him into a condition in which he is capable of experiencing the Self. When thinking of the anima as the soul guide, we are apt to think of Beatrice leading Dante up to Paradise, but we should not forget that he experienced that only after he had gone through Hell. Normally, the anima does not take a man by the hand and lead him right up to Paradise; she puts him first into a hot cauldron where he is nicely roasted for a while.”
Marie-Louise von Franz, The Interpretation of Fairy Tale
the trial of Khudriam
The father of Ramakrishna, Khudriam was living comfortably with his wife and two children in his ancestral village Dereypore.
Khudiriam had two children, a son, Ramkumar, and also a daughter. Khudiriam was the owner of many acres of farmland. It would be many years before the birth of Gadadhar [Ramakrishna].
Many years before Gadadhar was born, Khudiram was approached by a resentful, indignant village acquaintance. Khudiram was asked by this man to share in his resentment and to bear false witness against a neighbor.
Khudriam did not resist his loyalty to his principles, “I was not there”, “I did not see it”, “I do not know for certain” – these three precepts were undivided from his personal truth, and he would not be coerced into bearing false witness against a neighbor who he had no resentment for.
The resentful acquaintance who had approached Khudriam, not getting the desired “cooperation” from Khudriam, was even more infuriated and dissatisfied. His next move was to build a case against Khudriam and to report and charge Khudriam for an illegal offense.
The cost of the court proceedings [and the verdict] deprived Khudiram of his ancestral property.
Dispossessed of property and reputation, Khudiram travelled with his wife and two children to a distant village, Kamarpukur, where he was provided a dwelling on about an acre of fertile land. The crops from this little property were enough to meet his family’s simple needs.
Ten years later, Khudiram made a pilgrimage to south india [Rameswar]. When he returned, his wife gave birth to his third son who he named Rameswar.
At the age of sixty, Khudiram made a second pilgrimage, this time to Gaya.
At this holy place Khudiram had a dream in which the Lord Vishnu promised to be born as his fourth son.
When Khudiram returned to his homeland, Khudriam and his wife conceived their fourth child, and On February 18, 1836, Gadadhar [later known as Ramakrishna] was born.
In memory of the dream at Gaya, baby Ramakrishna was given the Epithet Gadadhar, meaning, the “Bearer of the Mace”. It would not be until many decades that Gadadhar would be regarded as Ramakrishna.
Three years later, Khudriam’s fifth child, his second daughter, was born.
Gadahar grew up into a healthy and restless boy, full of fun and sweet mischief.
By this time English traders laid the foundation of British rule in India, and Hindu society became infected by the new uncertainties and new beliefs.
The soul of India was to be resuscitated through a spiritual awakening. We hear the first call of this renascence in the spirited retort of the young Gadadhar: “Brother, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning education?”
Ramkumar could hardly understand the import of his young brother’s reply. Ramkumar described in bright colors the happy and easy life of scholars in Calcutta society.
Gadadhar, however, intuitively felt that the scholars, to use one of his own vivid illustrations were like so many vultures, soaring high on the wings of their uninspired intellect, with the eyes fixed on the charnel-pit of greed and lust.
Gadadhar stood firm and his brother Ramkumar had to give way. Gadadhar’s series of uncompromising negations, heroic deeds and penetrating genius persisted through many decades and the brilliance and wisdom of his life landed him the title “Ramakrishna.”
freedom
There are two ways of describing freedom. The one side refers to the freedom to do what one likes. The other side refers to the freedom from fear, anger, despair, anguish, anxiety, hatred. The two sides are of one coin, because without freedom from fear or anger, one cannot like doing most of the things one would easily like. The less freedom we have inwardly, the less freedom we have outwardly.
The perfect square has no corners
“The perfect square has no corners.” [Tao Te Ching, 41]
Between two meeting points, there are infinitely many sub-distances. Therefore, the precise point where two lines meet goes beyond the mind. The harder you aim for perfection (the more precise you try to be) the more you become aware of the illusion of boundaries. The mind creates boundaries, where objectively, there are none.
petty misuse of bureaucratic power
“Now and then we encounter the kind of non-helpful person that everyone encounters now and then in a bank or government institution. That person has authority of some kind, even if that authority is limited to the position of bank teller or cashier. The person in authority would reject the ID or paper work that the client offered, or require some information that was unnecessary and difficult to obtain. Sometimes, I suppose, the bureaucratic runaround was unavoidable – but sometimes it was unnecessarily complicated by petty misuses of bureaucratic power.” Paraphrased from: [pg. 206, Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life]
Why are ppl terrible?
Why are ppl terrible? I have asked the same question and the best I can come up with is that they are punishing you for not “cooperating”, and what they mean by cooperating is obeying their expectations and saying yes to all their requests. If you say “no” to the wrong person, especially if you show them your irritation with their request, then watch out, they will punish you for it, sometimes in a long drawn out sequence.
“People are wonderful. I love individuals. I hate groups of people. I hate a group of people with a ‘common purpose’. ‘Cause pretty soon they have little hats. And armbands. And fight songs. And a list of people they’re going to visit at 3am. So, I dislike and despise groups of people but I love individuals. Every person you look at; you can see the universe in their eyes, if you’re really looking.” – George Carlin
