Reflection for July 21st 2011

One reason Carl Jung’s language on the two halves of life appeals to me is because it allows me to affirm some deeply conservative values—and what are often identified as very progressive values—in the same breath, almost like deep inhalation and exhalation. Both are true but what we have is a pseudo form of both, even in the church. Panting instead of breathing, it seems. That is why the argumentation never ends, and never gets anywhere, and why I talk so much about non-dual thinking and contemplation.

The contemplative soul always reconciles the two sides of things and doesn’t need to over-identify with one side or the other. Split thinking is the major blockage to broadband wisdom, which invariably challenges the illusions of both sides. Two-halves-of-life language allows me to talk about repentance, conversion, and transformation as needed by both progressives and conservatives, but in different ways. Often, I end up pleasing nobody. I sometimes wonder if this isn’t what Jesus meant when he said that “the Son of Humanity has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58).