"The fact that many a man who goes his own way ends in ruin means nothing . . . He must
obey his own law, as if it were a dæmon whispering to him of new and
wonderful paths . . . There are not a few who are called awake by the
summons of the voice, whereupon they are at once set apart from the
others, feeling themselves confronted with a problem about which the
others know nothing. In most cases it is impossible to explain to the
others what has happened, for any understanding is walled off by
impenetrable prejudices. "You are no different from anybody else," they
will chorus, or "there’s no such thing," and even if there is such a
thing, it is immediately branded as "morbid" . . . He is at once set
apart and isolated, as he has resolved to obey the law that commands
him from within. "His own law!" everybody will cry. But he knows better: it is the
law . . . The only meaningful life is a life that strives for the
individual realization – absolute and unconditional – of its own
particular law . . . To the extent that a man is untrue to the law of
his being . . . he has failed to realize his life’s meaning.
The
undiscovered vein within us is a living part of the psyche; classical
Chinese philosophy names this interior way "Tao", and likens it to a
flow of water that moves irresistibly towards its goal. To rest in Tao
means fulfillment, wholeness, one’s destination reached, one’s mission
done; the beginning, end, and perfect realization of the meaning of
existence innate in all things."
– C.G. Jung
Collected Works
[via whiskey river]
