Carl & Jerry & Joseph & Jack on Suffering

I’ve developed an emerging interest in Carl Jung recently as the result of a friendship with a man who has both an innie and an outie. He participates in the Carl Jung society where he lives and has told me all about it. He sufficiently piqued my interest and so I turned to Google to find out if such an organization exists in Portland. Pshh, of course such an organization exists in Portland. It turns out that it is one of the most active Jung organizations in the US. They have monthly lectures and the February lecture by Jerry Ruhl looked intriguing, so I decided to go.

He talked about lots of wonderful things and I’ll probably blog about them, but I wanted to focus on one thing in this post. Jerry quoted a guy by the name of Joseph Campbell who coined the phrase, “Follow your bliss.” I’m sure you’ve heard it before. It’s kind of become cliché and something that people put on bumper stickers. It’s kind of taken on a life of its own and has lost its original meaning.

Jerry said that most people haven’t heard the second part of that, which is, “your bliss is at the core of your suffering.” I can understand why that second part hasn’t quite caught on in the way the first part has. It’s not fun and fluffy. Not really something you’d sell in mass quantities on a bumper sticker.

Jerry also talked about how the word suffer is related to the word allow. Like when Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” It’s amazing what happens when I sit with whatever negative feeling or emotion or experience I’m having and allow it to do what it’s supposed to do for me. When I allow myself to ask what this is all about instead of trying to push it away. It’s almost like it’s a separate voice within me that I need to pay attention to and be compassionate towards. When someone I love comes to me with something difficult they are suffering, my reaction is to try and show love and support. Why not show the same to myself?

On a related note, I’m currently reading a book called A Path with Heart by Jack Kornfield. He illustrates different ways to respond to suffering by telling the story of the poisoned tree. He says that at level one, our first reaction is to reject the tree and to want to uproot it and get rid of it. At level two, we might have more compassion on the tree and not try to uproot it but build a fence around it so as to protect others from the tree. A person at the third and highest level would say, “Oh, perfect, a poisonous tree!” As Jack says, “This individual picks the poisoned fruit, investigates its properties, mixes it with other ingredients, and uses the poison as a great medicine to heal the sick and transform the ills of the world.”

Even though it’s not a popular bumper sticker, I can see how my bliss might be found at the core of my suffering.