Jung at the Foot of Mount Kailash: a Transpersonal Synthesis of Depth

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Volume 30 Article 15 Iss. 1-2 (2011) 1-1-2011 Jung at the Foot of Mount Kailash: A Transpersonal Synthesis of Depth Psychology, Tibetan Tantra, and the Sacred Mythic Imagery of East and West Judson Davis California Institute of Integral Studies Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/ijts-transpersonalstudies Part of the Philosophy Commons, Psychology Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Davis, J. (2011). Davis, J. (2011). Jung at the foot of Mount Kailash: A transpersonal synthesis of depth psychology, Tibetan tantra, and the sacred mythic imagery of East and West. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 30(1-2), 148–164.. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 30 (1). http://dx.doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2011.30.1-2.148 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This Special Topic Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals and Newsletters at Digital Commons @ CIIS. It has been accepted for inclusion in International Journal of Transpersonal Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ CIIS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Jung at the Foot of Mount Kailash: A Transpersonal Synthesis of Depth Psychology, Tibetan Tantra, and the Sacred Mythic Imagery of East and West Judson Davis California Institute of Integral Studies San Francisco, CA, USA Tibetan Buddhist Tantra and Jungian depth psychology represent two of the world’s more dynamic psycho-spiritual traditions. This comparative study explores their respective insights, cosmologies, and often striking similarities, with particular emphasis on the manner in which mythic imagery is employed in both disciplines as a powerful agent of healing and transformation. The ontological status of Tibetan deities and archetypal entities is also given careful consideration, especially in relation to the phenomena of psychic projection and autonomous spiritual dimensions. Keywords: Jungian psychology, Tibetan Tantra, integral scholarship, transpersonal, archetypal dimension, dream yoga, participatory event ungian psychology and Tibetan Tantra share a own distinctive characteristics and include sometimes number of characteristics and methodologies that widely varying notions of a higher spiritual order or have as their primary focus the treatment of human ultimate reality (the apparent incongruity between the J suffering and the elicitation of spiritual awakening. Jungian Self and the Buddhist “no-Self” being a primary Each tradition arose in a very different historical period example), but an in-depth explication concerning their and socio-cultural context, which makes these various respective metaphysical postulations is not the purpose overlapping aspects all the more compelling. of this study. Rather, it is my intention to examine how These two transformative disciplines—one mythic imagery is used in both traditions as a means revealing the wisdom of an ancient Eastern spiritual of inducing transpersonal experience, and how such tradition and the other the insights of a contemporary experiences affect and transform human consciousness. Western psychological framework—are linked most In this sense, regardless of the differences in ontological readily through their shared emphasis on the creative or epistemological pronouncements, it can be said that use of mythic imagery as a dynamic means of effecting both systems are committed to the treating and healing spiritual development. With transcendence acting as their of human suffering as well as the inducement of spiritual primary focus, both traditions emphasize the mind, or awakening through transformative methodologies that psyche, as the foundational basis of existence and the share a number of intriguing characteristics. In addition, primary means through which liberation (in the tantric each discipline emphasizes a radical shift away from the tradition) and psychic wholeness (in Jungian psychology) ego as the center of one‘s identity toward the realization of is pursued. Each emphasizes the realm of dreams (e.g., an inseparable interrelationship with a boundless and all- dream analysis in depth psychology and dream yoga in encompassing psychic matrix. And within this context, Tibetan Tantra), meditative visualizations (such as the it is essential to understand that in each tradition “the focus on wisdom figures in both disciplines), and an psyche or mind of the individual—the only instrument assortment of other practices that, at their very essence, through which one experiences reality—is the sole are designed to effect a reconciliation of opposites and the authority” (Moacanin, 2003, pp. 102-103). attendant union of masculine and feminine elements. In the spirit of integral scholarship, Western and It should be noted that both of these disciplines Eastern accounts of numinous states of consciousness, represent complex psychological systems that possess their findings from modern transpersonal research, and 148 International Journal of Transpersonal Studies , 30(1-2), 2011, pp. 148-164 Davis elements of my own personal, therapeutic, and mystical Jungian Depth Psychology experience are integrated in this study, especially when ungian psychology grew out of the depth psychological these aspects serve to enhance a given example or Jmovement that was initiated by Sigmund Freud in theoretical component. This is done in recognition of late nineteenth-century Europe. In contrast to Freud’s the need for spiritually reductionist psychoanalysis, Jung (1963) came to understand the human psyche as possessing a religious a scholarship that realizes that these religious worlds function whereby archetypal symbols—as revealed are not dead corpses that we can dissect and analyze through the unconscious and as manifested through from a safe distance, but rather are vital, living bodies dreams, myth, and creative expression—inform and of knowledge and practice that have the potential to guide human spiritual development on both a personal change completely our taken-for-granted notions of and collective level. who we are, why we are here and what we could or Jung was also fascinated by and readily should become. (Gunnlaugson, 2005, pp. 333-334) acknowledged what he viewed as the superior develop- The importance of integrating one’s own ment of various ancient Eastern spiritual traditions, and deeply transformative experiences into any related was especially intrigued with what he described as “the course of study is highlighted in Jeffrey Kripal’s self-liberating power of the introverted mind” (1992a, (2001) emphasis upon a mystical hermeneutic, as “the p. 56). He wrote a number of essays on various aspects modern, and now post-modern, study of mysticism . of Asian esotericism, including The Psychology of Eastern has been largely inspired, sustained, and rhetorically Meditation, psychological commentaries on The Tibetan formed by the unitive, ecstatic, visionary, and mystico- Book of Great Liberation and The Tibetan Book of the hermeneutical experiences of the scholars themselves” Dead, and a foreword to D. T. Suzuki’s Introduction (p. 3). Accordingly, in this study, for example, one of to Zen Buddhism. Jung was particularly drawn to the my own highly transformative mystical experiences manner in which certain Eastern disciplines emphasize serves as the starting point for an exploration of the the reconciliation of opposites and the union of male ontological status of autonomous dimensions and and female aspects. He also saw in these traditions a psychic projections. direct link to a primary component in his own evolving The integration of such material presents both psychological theory—the notion of unus mundus. potential benefits (e.g., the elucidation of theory through This term, which derives from his studies of medieval direct experience) and pitfalls (e.g., the potential for philosophy, translates as “one unitary world” and personal projection and cultural appropriation), and represents the original, inseparable union of all things, these important considerations can be approached the non-differentiated essence out of which all things with greater clarity when considered through Hans- arise and are given individual form (Jung, 1963). Georg Gadamer’s (1989) notion of a horizon, which The nature of unus mundus was conceived as he described as “the range of vision that includes manifesting into separate parts such as subject and object everything that can be seen from a particular vantage in order to bring forth a condition of actuality from the point” (p. 271). The spiritual and theoretical horizons potentiality inherent in the original, non-differentiated of both disciplines are thus explored in relation to their essence. Jung (1963) applied this concept to his study of respective vantage points, a process that inevitably the human psyche, and conceived that the differentiation unfolds within the context of one’s own particular of the conscious and unconscious contents of the psyche insights and experience. In this sense, understanding (i.e., separate parts or opposites) is necessary for the sake is not conceived as a final or fixed truth, but rather of growth and adaptation, but ultimately these aspects as an enhanced, deepened, and fluid perspective that must be reunited in order to achieve a state of psychic reflects the fruits of such a dialogical inquiry—and its wholeness. Central to this course of development

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