The Self and the Lotus: A Jungian View of Indian Buddhism, Volume II


Book Description

It is obvious to thoughtful persons that our culture is undergoing a major transition--as is our religion, the carrier of values and guide to meaning. It is essential, therefore, that we understand how religion functions when a culture is alive and well. Observing how it has functioned elsewhere, in another time and place, is a good way to gain objectivity about the religious life. And this survey of ancient Indian Buddhism serves that purpose. It is important, too, that we try to interpret ancient wisdom in a modern way so that it has meaning for us. Thus, this work on Buddhism introduces the psychology of C. G. Jung and demonstrates to what extent Jung knew about Buddhism, how he used it to comment upon the psychology of religion in general. This is the second volume of a two-volume work. Following the first volume's exploration of the "Life" of the Buddha and "Early Buddhist" teaching, this volume explores "Mahayana" teaching, Buddhist "Philosophy," and "Tantra." At important junctures of the discussion, the author pauses to reflect from the point of view of Jungian psychology.




The Self and the Lotus: A Jungian View of Indian Buddhism, Volume I


Book Description

It is obvious to thoughtful persons that our culture is undergoing a major transition—as is our religion, the carrier of values and guide to meaning. It is essential, therefore, that we understand how religion functions when a culture is alive and well. Observing how it has functioned elsewhere, in another time and place, is a good way to gain objectivity about the religious life. And this survey of ancient Indian Buddhism serves that purpose. It is important, too, that we try to interpret ancient wisdom in a modern way so that it has meaning for us. Thus, this work on Buddhism introduces the psychology of C. G. Jung and demonstrates to what extent Jung knew about Buddhism, how he used it to comment upon the psychology of religion in general. This is the first volume of a two-volume work. Following introductory materials, it explores the “Life” of the Buddha, then his “Early Teachings”—before they are expressed in “Mahayana” Buddhism, the subject of the second volume. At important junctures of the discussion, the author pauses to reflect from the point of view of Jungian psychology.




The Collected Works of C. G. Jung


Book Description

A revised and expanded digital edition of Jung’s complete collected works—now with cutting-edge navigation and accessibility features The New Complete Digital Edition of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung has a host of new content, navigation, and accessibility features that make it a richer and easier-to-use resource for readers and researchers who want to read, explore, and search the works of the pioneering and influential psychologist. Containing twenty volumes, the New Complete Digital Edition may be purchased as a single collection, but each of the volumes may also be purchased individually. New features: Revised and expanded side navigation Expanded master table of contents Volume 19—the General Bibliography of C. G. Jung’s Writings—has been replaced with the most recent edition of that volume Volume 20—the General Index—has been added for the first time Updated from EPUB 2 to EPUB 3, improving navigation and accessibility: Visible markers—which work on all devices and ereader apps—indicate print page and volume number Descriptions for all of the approximately 1,850 images Tables converted from images to HTML All Greek and accented characters captured as Unicode ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Application) labels to support assistive technology functionality Other features: Each of the twenty volumes may also be purchased separately Both the New Complete Digital Edition and the individual volumes are full-text searchable The Collected Works of C. G. Jung forms one of the basic texts of twentieth-century thought: at once foundational for depth psychology and pivotal for intellectual, cultural, and religious history. The writings presented here, spanning five decades, embody Jung’s attempt to establish an interdisciplinary science of analytical psychology, and apply its insights to the fields of psychiatry, criminology, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, personality psychology, anthropology, physics, biology, education, the arts and literature, the history of the mind and its symbols, comparative religion, alchemy, and contemporary culture and politics, among others: each in turn has been decisively marked by his thought. Of timely and ongoing relevance to the understanding of these fields, Jung’s writings are at the same time essential reading for any understanding of the making of the modern mind.













The Psychologisation of Eastern Spiritual Traditions


Book Description

This essential book critically examines the various ways in which Eastern spiritual traditions have been typically stripped of their spiritual roots, content and context, to be more readily assimilated into secular Western frames of Psychology. Beginning with the colonial histories of Empire, the author draws from the 1960s Counterculture and the subsequent romanticising and idealising of the East. Cohen explores how Hindu, Buddhist and Daoist traditions have been gradually transformed into forms of Psychology, Psychotherapy and Self-Help, undergoing processes of ‘modernisation’ and secularisation until their respective cosmologies had been successfully reinterpreted and reimagined. An important component of this psychologisation is the accompanying commodification of Eastern spiritual practices, including the mass-marketing of mindfulness and meditation as part of the burgeoning well-being industry. Also presenting emerging voices of resistance from within Eastern spiritual traditions, the book ends with a chapter on Transpersonal Psychology, showing a path for how to gradually move away from colonisation and towards collaboration. Engaging with the ‘mindfulness movement’ and other practices assimilated by Western culture, this is fascinating reading for students and academics in psychology, philosophy and religious studies, as well as mindfulness practitioners.







The Snake and the Rope


Book Description

While there are many psychological monographs on Hinduism, no work has surveyed the history of that tradition in a sustained way. Thus, The Snake and the Rope: A Jungian View of Hinduism breaks new ground both for religious studies and for psychology. Trained on both sides of the argument, the author of this work is uniquely qualified to elucidate what, for example, the Vedic hymns meant to the people who composed them and what they might mean for us today. He shows us what karma means for Hindus and what Jung says it canmean for us. We learn how Jungians use the term "Self" that Jung borrowed from the Upanishads and how it is the same and different in its new, modern context. The reader will witness a red thread of "goddess worship" from earliest India to Classical Hinduism. Jung says the modern equivalent is devotion to the collective unconscious deep within ourselves. Having served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a Thai village in the late 1960's, George R. Elder returned to the States to earn a Ph. D. in Buddhist Studies from Columbia University. He subsequently taught Comparative Religions at Hunter College (City University of New York) and would co-chair the Religion Program for several years. In 1989, Dr. Elder and his family relocated to Florida. He trained to become a Jungian analyst and maintains a professional relationship with the C.G. Jung Study Center of Southern California. His works include The Body: An Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism in collaboration with ARAS (Shambhala, 1996). He recently co-edited An American Jungian: In Honor of Edward F. Edinger(Inner City, 2009).




An Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism


Book Description

The first volume of An Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism was a stunning collection of color images and text organized around mythic themes that follow the solar calendar from cosmos and creation to death, transformation, and rebirth. In this second volume, the focus is the human body as a carrier of deep psychological insights and sacred meanings. Whether idolized or abused, the body is the object of much fascinated attention, even obsessive preoccupation, in the contemporary Western world. What has been missing from our culture's preoccupation is an appreciation of the body's organs as symbols of the deepest contents of the human psyche. This book surveys the richness of meaning found in a wide range of beautiful sacred images from the world's traditions and explains what the symbolism of our physical form teaches us about the inner realities of our consciousness, spirit, and divine essence.