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    Gratitude for the Gifts of the Psyche -Honoring the Gifts with a Symbolic Attitude- In the Eye of the Storm – An individual response to the Personal and Global Crisis

Gratitude for the Gifts of the Psyche -Honoring the Gifts with a Symbolic Attitude- In the Eye of the Storm – An individual response to the Personal and Global Crisis

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November 27th, 2021

Thus, we speak on the one hand of a personal and on the other of a collective unconscious, which lies at a deeper level and is further removed from consciousness that the personal unconscious. The “big” or “meaningful” dreams come from this deeper level. They reveal their significance—quite apart from the subjective impression they make—by their plastic form, which often has a poetic force and beauty. (Jung, 1969, p. 291 para 555)

The image has more elements when I pay attention to details. At first, it is a bunch of grapes. They remind me of a time in my life when I had a huge arbor of Concord grapes. In the late summer and early fall I would grab a cluster of them to enjoy their freshness. The burst of flavor awakened a delicious experience. The texture was both firm and soft as I pressed each one into the roof of my mouth. The flavor and color of the juice stayed on my tongue after swallowing the fruit. The memory is personal and makes my mouth water as I remember it.

The grapes show a variety of ripeness from plump to beginning to dry. They are attached to the vine which has nourished their entire life. Some of the leaves have begun to dry too. The fence posts have held them since they first began to vine.

If this image presented itself in a dream, it could be amplified in so many ways, including its upcoming transformation into its next life of wine or jam. How would you interact with the image if it occurred in your dream life?

While as a dream, it would invoke the nostalgic memories of past summers, at a teleologic context, […]

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    The Alchemic Fountain of Life – Living a Symbolic Life – In the Eye of the Storm – An individual response to the Personal and Global Crisis. 

The Alchemic Fountain of Life – Living a Symbolic Life – In the Eye of the Storm – An individual response to the Personal and Global Crisis. 

November 20th, 2021

The ever-flowing fountain expresses a continual flow of interest toward the unconscious, a kind of constant attention or “religio,” which might also be called devotion. The crossing of unconscious contents into consciousness is thus made considerably easier, and this is bound to benefit the psychic balance in the long run…. If attention is directed to the unconscious, the unconscious will yield up its contents, and these in turn will fructify the conscious like a fountain of loving water. For consciousness is just as arid as the unconscious if the two halves of our psychic life are separated. (Jung, 1970, pp. 162-163 para 193)

Fountains activate my visual, auditory, olfactory, feeling, and imaginative centers. I often feel cleansed as I watch and listen to the sounds of water bubbling up and cascading out of the bowl and into the pool. I encounter the here and now in a way that settles my mind. The outside world and all its issues disappear as I internalize the image. It happens in an instant as the fountain’s flow creates stillness in me.

I imagine I am the fallen blossom on the edge of the bowl. I feel two worlds. I am in the flow of the water as it shifts from the bowl and falls into the bigger pool below. I feel the air above me. I relax in the union of above and below.

I stay here until the flow moves me into the pool below. Life is a dance of the flow of the psychic energy between the conscious and the unconscious, between the individual and the universe, between the soul and the Spirit, between the Atman and the Brahman. Each one of us orchestrates this dance […]

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    The Sacred Space – Stilling the Flippant Mind – In the Eye of the Storm – An individual response to the Personal and Global Crisis. 

The Sacred Space – Stilling the Flippant Mind – In the Eye of the Storm – An individual response to the Personal and Global Crisis. 

November 13th, 2021

Today I am directly conscious of the anima’s ideas because I have learned to accept the contents of the unconscious and to understand them. I know how I must behave toward the inner images. I can read their meaning directly from my dreams, and therefore no longer need a mediator to communicate them.
(Jung, 1961, p. 188)

She watches the world in a relaxed position. When I look at her, I feel the comfort of a sigh. There is nothing to do, nowhere to go. There is only this moment.

The image engages the observer in me. It helps me step back away from the activity of the outside world and rest in the quiet inside. I place my awareness in the stillness. The only movement I feel is my breath. I notice a sense of peace and rest within. My mind is receptive to the soft qualities of life. I relax and float on stillness.

I am grateful for the spectrum of my life. I have qualities the world sees, and I have much deeper places that only I know, as well as those yet to be revealed. The lioness image invites me to accept what is, be in the moment, be who I am in my wholeness. When I sit still, my wholeness resonates with the personal and collective aspects of the known and unknown. It tells me, “Stillness is natural. The lioness rests in her moment of now.”

It takes thousands of years of human civilization to distill the simple truths of life. Some of this wisdom is embedded in our scriptures, philosophies, literature and art. This works for most people most of the time but not for all individuals all the time. Then […]

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    The Safety Bubble -Rearranging the Chairs on the Deck of the Titanic -In the Eye of the Storm – An individual response to the Global Crisis. 

The Safety Bubble -Rearranging the Chairs on the Deck of the Titanic -In the Eye of the Storm – An individual response to the Global Crisis. 

March 14th, 2021
It is therefore of the utmost importance in practical treatment to keep the integrity of the personality constantly in mind. For, if the collective psyche is taken to be the personal possession of the individual, it will result in a distortion or an overloading of the personality which is very difficult to deal with. Hence it is imperative to make a clear distinction between personal contents and those of the collective psyche. (Jung, 1953, p. 154 para 241)

This image helps me see how many world views a person can take and how many different views of us are possible as any given moment. The important factor is having perspective objectively and subjectively.

In midst of the pandemic and global racial fairness movement among other contemporary challenges that face us, we are all in our individual bubble of safety and viewpoints. We tend to look at ourselves, others, world and the future from inside our bubble. However, our bubble is still part of the collective. While it is our personal responsibility to establish a safe and secure bubble for ourselves and our families, we must never forget that we are part of the whole. Our destiny is intertwined with the rest of humanity. If we forget that continuity with the collective, we are merely rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. We swim or sink together. That the spiritual message of the pandemic and the other global crises. It reminds us of our interdependence, attachments and importance of neighborliness. Most importantly, to attend to the least fortunate amongst us. As Christ succinctly put it,

Matthew 25:40- King James Version (KJV)

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, […]

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    At a Crossroad – In the Eye of the Storm- An individual response to the Global Crisis

At a Crossroad – In the Eye of the Storm- An individual response to the Global Crisis

At a Crossroad
In the Eye of the Storm
An individual response to the Global Crisis
ISSN 1939-3407
 
April 6, 2020
Ashok Bedi, M.D., Jungian Psychoanalyst
www.pathtotheosoul.com
www.tulawellnessllc.com
Robert BJ Jakala PH.D., Jungian Psychotherapist
In a storm, the safest place is in the eye of the storm. My colleague BJ and I will share our daily reflections on this centering process from an Analytical perspective, sharing from the repertoire of our personal and professional experience. BJ is a psychologist and a photographer and will pick an image of the day that catches him in this collective crisis. I will amplify it from a Jungian Analytical perspective. We hope that this may offer you a baby step on the path to your own unique response to this chaos.

But, just as our free will clashes with necessity in the outside world, so also it finds its limits outside the field of consciousness in the subjective inner world, where it comes into conflict with fact of the self. And just as circumstances or outside events “happen” to us and limit our freedom, so the Self acts upon the ego like an objective occurrence which free will can do very little to alter. It is, indeed, well known that the ego not only can do nothing against the Self, but is sometimes actually assimilated by unconscious components of the personality that are in the process of development and is greatly altered by them. (Jung & Hull, 1959/1968, pp. 5-6)

The bifurcation calls to make a choice, since I cannot go in both directions at the same time. So rather than choose quickly, I spend time in the moment of choice and photograph it. I listen to visual mind as a photographer that considers the potential of the interplay […]

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    Honey – The Elixir and a Poison – In the Eye of the Storm – An individual response to the Global Crisis

Honey – The Elixir and a Poison – In the Eye of the Storm – An individual response to the Global Crisis

Honey – The Elixir and a Poison
In the Eye of the Storm
An individual response to the Global Crisis
ISSN 1939-3407
 
April 5, 2020
Ashok Bedi, M.D., Jungian Psychoanalyst
www.pathtotheosoul.com
www.tulawellnessllc.com
Robert BJ Jakala PH.D., Jungian Psychotherapist
In a storm, the safest place is in the eye of the storm. My colleague BJ and I will share our daily reflections on this centering process from an Analytical perspective, sharing from the repertoire of our personal and professional experience. BJ is a psychologist and a photographer and will pick and image of the day that catches him in this collective crisis. I will amplify it from a Jungian Analytical perspective. We hope that this may offer you a baby step on the path to your own unique response to this chaos.

With the honey the pleasure of the senses and the joy of life went into the mixture, as well as the secret fear of the “poison,” the deadly danger of worldly entanglements.(Jung, 1970, p. 493)

The drop of honey is about to return to the jar, but in this moment, it is noticeably separate. The unusual design of the spoon is functional for just such an occasion. It is used like a regular spoon to scoop things our of a jar, but then rests in a way that facilitates conservation. The spoon is placed in position so there is little or no waste of honey.
The image reminds me how important the right tool at the right moment is in life. We have been asked to follow medical guidelines, based on research, to protect our health. One of those guidelines is to wear a mask to help prevent the spray of droplets during conversation. We are not used to seeing people wearing masks in public. […]

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Trauma as a path to Wholeness- by BJ Jakala, PH.D. and Ashok Bedi, M.D. January 17, 2019

The Bloggers are traveling through India as a part of a study tour presently and we will be blogging a daily reflection chosen by photographer and Depth Psychotherapist BJ Jakala and reflections by Jungian Psychoanalyst – Ashok Bedi.

This is an image at a temple. On the right is the Shiva and Shakti – integrated in wholeness: half man and half woman. In the middle is a desecrated Goddess Shakti whole on breast is vandalized. However, inadvertently, it has transformed the goddess into an Androgynous wholeness: masculine and feminine integrated – the goal of individuation and personal growth. Sometimes, it is through our traumas that we grow the most. It gifts us wholeness and integration. It challenges us to activate our deepest resources which amplify our hidden treasures of personality on the stage of life.

By |January 17th, 2019|Uncategorized|0 Comments|

How to Make Your Company More Successful

My consultation with CEO Jonathan Pellegrin was recently featured in his work and book in the New York Post.

http://nypost.com/2017/09/04/hiring-a-shrink-could-make-your-company-more-successful/

You may preview Mr. Pellegrin’s book at

 

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Selling-Family-Business-Responsible-ebook/dp/B06XD3WCS1

 

 

By |September 10th, 2017|Uncategorized|1 Comment|

Spiritual Paradox of Addiction

My recent book, The Spiritual Paradox of Addiction, Co-Authored by Fr. Joe Pereira was recently launched in Mumbai at the Press Club of India. Here is the link. It will soon be published in USA.

https://www.facebook.com/events/140790343192180/

Book on psychological, spiritual origins of substance addiction

 

 

 

By |September 10th, 2017|Uncategorized|0 Comments|

HAPPY DIWALI

Diwali

Click below for the article

Diwali

By |October 30th, 2016|Uncategorized|0 Comments|