Human Paradox

The Soul is always moving, causing change, newness, friction, energy, and life. We are reminded that friction is necessary for energy to be created. Wind creates friction, causing movement in places on the earth so as to produce life. Human Paradox is friction and we want to choose the easy side of a duality and ignore,  resist, or bypass the difficult. To welcome both sides of the paradox means we will experience friction and life. The neglected side of paradox or one's shadow will make itself known and experienced whether we are conscious of it or unconscious of it. To bring it to the conscious level we can reap its benefit in our journey toward wholeness.

Beauty from the Dark

Beauty from the Light

We can become so ashamed of our humanness and yet it is our humanness that creates the needed friction, energy, and life. So should we not soften our responses to our humanness? And acknowledge our humanness, both sides of paradox and the Shadow? For there in the middle lies that which is whole, that which is Holy. How do we find the middle way? We get a glimpse of the middle way by practicing compassion. Robert Johnson speaks of The Miracle of Paradox, "To transfer our energy from opposition to paradox is a very large leap in evolution. To engage in opposition is to be ground to bits by the insolubility of life's problems and events. ... To transform opposition into paradox is to allow both sides of an issue, both pairs of opposites, to exist in equal dignity and worth. ... If I can stay with my conflicting impulses long enough, [through compassion] the two opposing forces will teach each other something and produce an insight that serves them both" (pg. 85-86,Owning Your Own Shadow). Johnson goes on to say, "... there can be no paradox - that sublime place of reconciliation - until one has owned one's own shadow... To own one's own shadow is to prepare the ground for spiritual experience." Any time we have the discomfort of the opposites living together, simultaneously within us, we can know that something greater than the ego is moving us, causing life through friction. Something needs our attention. To ignore or think it possible to wrestle the uncomfortable impulse to the ground will cause a split of the self. Here is where the real danger lies. The ego will unsuccessfully try to conquer over the uncomfortable only causing it to work even harder at getting our attention. Sometimes people come to Spiritual Direction or therapy wanting, begging for quick resolution but as Johnson writes, "... they would have something even greater if they could ask for the consciousness to bear the paradox." A young woman who could no longer stand the clash of opposites within herself came to a Jungian therapist from Zurich. "She burst into tears and cried out that she could stand it no longer. "Ja, gut," replied Dr. Meyer. "Now something will happen." Jung wrote, "Find out what a person fears most and that is where he (she) will develop next" (pg. 92, Johnson). What do you fear most? What change do you fear most? How compassionate are you today with your human clash of opposites, your own Holy place of paradox? Search for the middle way, the place where all of you is welcomed and loved; where you do not split yourself and abandon parts of her/him. For there, in the middle where the friction and energy live, is a direct experience of the Holy, something beyond what your ego can control. Your creator made you human, how exciting!