The Gates of Mercy: Portals of Transcendence According to Jung and

Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D. Behold the gates of mercy In arbitrary space And none of us deserving The cruelty or the grace

From “Come Healing” by Leonard Cohen In a 1958 dialogue between Carl G. Jung and master Shinichi Hisamatsu, there was a surprising exchange:

CGJ: If someone is caught in the ten thousand things, it is because that person is also caught in the collective unconscious. A person is liberated only when freed from both. One person may be driven more by the unconscious and another by things. One has to take the person to the point where he is free from the compulsion to either run after things or be driven by the unconscious. What is needed for both compulsions is basically the same: nirdvanda [freedom from the opposites]. SH: From what you have said about the collective unconscious, might I infer that one can be liberated from it? CGJ: Yes! (Young-Eisendrath and Muramoto 2002, 116) The Collective Unconscious

CGJ from Collected Works, Vol. 8: [The collective unconscious] constitutes in its totality a sort of timeless and eternal world-image which counterbalances our conscious, momentary picture of the world. It means nothing less than another world, a mirror-world if you will. But unlike a mirror-image, the unconscious image possesses an energy peculiar to itself, independent of consciousness (p. 376) And… Never shall we put any face on the world other than our own, and we have to do this precisely in order to find ourselves (p. 379). Common to All Persons or Beyond the Personal?

CGJ: The personal unconscious develops in the course of life, for example through experiences, the memory of which I repress. The other, the collective, is something instinctually innate and universally human. My collective unconscious is the same as yours, even though you were born in and I here in Europe. SH: Does the collective unconscious involve something common to all persons or something that is beyond the personal? CGJ: One can only say that the collective unconscious is the commonality of all instinctive reactions found among all human beings. The possibility of our speaking with each other intellectually rests on our sharing a common foundation. Otherwise, we would be so different as to understand nothing. Distinction Between Jung’s Self and No-Self of Zen

SH: What we in Buddhism, and especially in Zen, usually call the “common self” corresponds exactly to what you call the “collective unconscious.” Only through liberation from the collective unconscious, namely, the common self, the authentic self emerges…. CGJ: My concept of self corresponds, however, to the notions of atman or purusha. This personal atman corresponds to the self insofar as it is at the same time “the self.” In my language, the self is the counterpart to the “I.” What I call the self is the whole, the atman. SH: The …atman still retains a faint trace of substance, but that is not yet what I call true self [or no-self].

The true self has neither substance nor form… Universal Human Self: Collective Archetype Organizing imprint of human subjectivity that leads to the universal human experience of individual subjectivity that is – Embodied: coherence in a body, during waking life (when absent: depersonalization) Continuous: a narrative/life story/identity that “explains” our whereabouts in time and space (when absent: dissociation) Agentive or Autonomous: personal causation associated with our actions (when absent: psychosis, neurosis, dissociation) Relational: needs other humans, culture and language, to develop and sustain human subjectivity (when absent: autism, death) Human Self is Relational

There is no such thing as a self without other selves: bonding, separation anxiety, and grief are universal aspects of human identity formation and self-functioning throughout human life. We need others to see/know ourselves. Primary Compassion: even before birth, the desire to soothe and care for another: directed, especially, to the (m)others on whom one depends after birth; the infant helps the (m)other Primary Emotions: at birth, motivational systems of joy, curiosity, disgust, fear and sadness compel interactions Archetype & Sankhara

Jung: Archetypes: universal imprints or predispositions or organizing forms that are situationally activated (“innate releasing mechanisms”) in human experience and behavior Buddha: Sankhāra/samskāra: “that which puts together” mental dispositions or formations Jung’s archetype of Self is the imprint or predisposition that compels human beings to organize individual “ego complexes” in relationship with other humans; it is also the individual link between the collective unconscious and the ten thousand things Zen’s No-Self/True Self is without disposition, boundary or location , Earliest Teachings in India (developed 3rd – 5th century)

Abhidharma: Approximately 454 years after the Buddha died (he taught around 2,500 years ago), his teachings were recorded in three texts. One of these has the name Abhi – meaning “higher” or meta – , universal spiritual laws about the nature of reality, as well as the application of these laws to our experience. Major insight: Truth/reality arises and passes away in nano-second units of conscious action called cittas. Consciousness is activated at the membrane between subjectivity and objectivity in discrete units that signal “contact” between perceiving subject and object. Within the arising and passing of cittas there are some un-programmed or free cittas that permit a clear insight into subject/object or non-dual nature of reality. Dependent Arising Fundamental teaching of the Buddha: “If this is, that is; if this ceases to exist, that also ceases to exist” Consider Self /Other within this context of arising: they arise together: If this is, that is; if this ceases to exist, that also ceases Buddhist perspective: fundamentally we want to awaken to this truth of non-duality because it frees us of our fears, but the habits and narratives of a discrete self interfere Psychoanalytic perspective: We are deeply conflicted about awakening to this truth because it threatens the nature of our identity and our defenses Liberation, According to Abhidharma

Among the 17 cittas of a nano-second, some are free -- not being “pushed” into perception from past tendencies nor “pulled” by future desires. These are the gates of mercy that open through both grace and cruelty -- always available, but rarely noticed. Buddhism uses teachings and practices to sensitize us to these openings into Depending Arising or the No-thingness of here-and- now existence. Buddhism also teaches sensitivity to non-duality in phenomena – the nirdvanda that Jung referred to. Insights into Dependent Arising show us precisely how self/world, life/death, good/bad and other opposites arise together and have no “thingness” in themselves. Later Indian Buddhism and Alaya-vijnana The focus of Abhidharma is presen -moment awareness through developed concentration and equanimity, especially in absorption states. Freedom depends on one’s ability to deconstruct the smallest unit of noticeable time in order to open the gates of mercy. This is a model of a conscious mind that arises moment to moment. In the third century of Indian Buddhism, the model of the unconscious mind began to develop through Yogacara practices and discourse. Alaya-vijnana: a streaming substrate consciousness – carrying karmic tendencies – compels a subjective experience of self/world; this “storehouse” consciousness, like all the senses, also has attention, sensation, feeling, perception and intention. This is an autonomous complex that overtakes awareness. Collective Unconscious as Substrate Consciousness: Combining Jung and Yogacara Buddhism

This streaming substrate consciousness which carries the archetypes of self/other – of which we are typically unaware – is catalyzed by karmic energies that can shape our sight, hearing, smell, taste, feelings, kinesthetic perceptions. It is rigidified by deep mental habits that predispose us to perceive and act in repetitive ways, some afflictive and some beneficial. It is also shaped by social and cultural views, as well as shared assumptions, language, affective schema, images, and the basic division that “I am” in-here and “the world and others are” out-there. This is the ground of the wounded and wounding relational self of human beings. Buddhist Practices Aim at Breaking Down the Split Between Self and World “Transcending dualism doesn’t mean doing away with dualistic discrimination. It means doing away with right and wrong from a self- centered perspective.” – Keido Fukushima, Japanese Conventionally, “When you scoop up water, the moon appears in your own hands, you’ve become one with the moon. When you look at a flower, it’s you looking at the flower and the flower being looked at.” – Fukushima Ultimately, self/other, self/world, life/death, pleasure/pain, good/bad arise together as Dependent Arising and cannot be separated into “I am” and “You are” or other dualities that arise together. Buddhism uses some traumatic training practices to bring about a dose or view of unity and non-location. Titrated Trauma in Zen Practices “The realization of no-self requires severe training.” – Fukushima Monks get up at three every morning every day of the year and often practice until eleven at night. On average, there is six hours per day of sitting meditation (solid immobilized silent sitting). Also, there is physical work, begging, social work, training periods, and ceremonies. Monks are humiliated, scolded, and hit with a stick. Up to four times a year, monks attend a seven-day intensive practice in which there is no sleep at all. Food is simple and scarce. “During meditation, difficult thoughts arise, but during this sleepy, hungry condition, unnecessary illusions don’t appear quite so easily. A very efficient practice.” Severe training is thought to be most compassionate. Awakening to No-Thingness changes your view of everything. Knower and known are re-united. Even After Awakening, You are Still 95% Unconscious of Your Own Motivations

Most of our ways of meeting our needs are unconscious. In order to change these ways, we must become conscious of them. The archetype of the human self involves “splitting” or failing to recognize how we are creating Self/Other all at once. Our human consciousness (working memory) is extremely limited. We must automatize our learned “solutions” (and their failures) to life’s problems. Only 5% of our goal-directed actions (our “agency” or “autonomy’) are conscious. Buddhist training can awaken No-Self within a person who is psychologically immature and emotionally unintelligent. I am My Actions and Not My Self:

I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir. The Buddha There are two rules of thumb for knowing yourself and others by their actions, instead of their embodiment, narratives (even the stories of their actions) or their relational tribes: (1) For yourself: remember that only 5% of your goal-directed actions are conscious; (2) For others: remember that only 5% of their goal-directed actions are conscious. Trauma Is Not “Defilement” Unless We Use It to Harm Self or Others

Trauma – deeply distressing physical or mental or moral injury – does not have to become a repetitive emotional habit nor is it necessarily simply “negative.” Even early traumas can wake us to the non-duality of self/world. Trauma breaks down our illusions about self “in here” and world “out there” and our repetitive ego narratives. We can make use of our trauma to shake ourselves out of our waking dreams of control, omnipotence, independence and the need for enemies. The deepest view from a non-dual perspective is “no blame.” It arouses our compassion and insight about the inherently human world and human self. This is not complete liberation from the collective unconscious. Gates of Mercy: Liberation from the Collective Unconscious Liberation is not simply awakening to non-duality. Trauma is not simply negative. Being liberated from the collective unconscious, we engage in a complex world with close attention to the ways in which subject/object arise together and are never separated. Liberation means returning again and again to a commitment, in our theories and our practices, to the knowledge that we learn about ourselves through the ways that others help us to see ourselves, and that we can accept and re-cycle, with equanimity, even the most harmful effects of the world and others on our being. In that way, our enemies are our teachers and hatred is met with non- hatred. And we come to be at ease with all conditions.