Enlightenment has nothing do do with darkness!!

@innertalks amen to that

@RasmaSandra

Yes, the light at the end of a tunnel, is not a train coming to run us down, but one we can get on and go further along in it, on it. To quote an old cliche, "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" And yet, even if it does kill us, maybe it makes us stronger too, when we go to the other side. Everything is sent to help us in some way, I think, if we can see the light still shining in there somewhere in the apparent darkness.

Yes, I agree. What's a little darkness, when we can use a torch, (for example, the Bible, prayer, meditation etc) to find our way through it.

Enlightenment can have many meanings. The "Age of Enlightenment" means the period of time when we moved out of the "dark ages". I think Jung is referring more to the New Age meaning of this term though. It means a higher sense of awareness, a rising to a state of higher consciousness. Living completely from the light of who you really are. Realisation of the truth of God, and ourselves. All that lofty sort of stuff. Jung is saying that if we forget about trying to strive for greater awareness, and if we just get rid of and work on what is holding us back, like our dark spots in our characters, this too should in a reverse sort of a way lift us higher in awareness too, for it is these bad habits, this limited thinking, and these dark areas of our lives that we are hanging onto that are holding us back from our entering the full light. In some ways, his approach might work, but to me, it's concentrating on the negative, which usually brings more of the same to you. Better to look towards the light, than to look back at the darkness I think. If we are staying thinking about darkness, we are thinking darkly. We cannot forgive ourselves of our own sins ultimately. God must do that. Pray to God for light, instead of staying in darkness, trying to get the blind to cure the blind. That's only my own opinion though.

@innertalks Thanks for sharing your opinion. When darkness comes, I turn on the light. As long as there is light than darkness cannot overpower us. Just some thoughts!

@1hopefulman Yes, I agree. That's always the best solution to darkness. Turn on the light, or ask God to do so for you, if you cannot find the switch, and pray to him about it.

Thanks, siva. I was reading something about the Jewish religion yesterday. They have the idea that we have two souls attached to our human body. One is Godlike, a part of God in us, the other is evil, a part of the Devil in us. We can choose just to live from the God part, and the evil part will then all but disappear. The "glass half empty or half full" is an interesting analogy. That says, like you said, it is all more about our attitude, or our viewing platform. We can choose to see God's hand working in even what we think is bad. The Jews believe that too. They think that even though we all have free will, and it is the free will of someone to choose to harm us, and his karma will be affected by it, nevertheless, God allows this to happen too, for some reason of his own. God's reason then sits behind every other reason, they think.

@Shiva49 Thanks siva. We all have total free-will, but most of us haven't got the knowledge, understanding, fortitude, power, or guts to wield it fully, I suspect. So we remain pawns in their hands.

@innertalks The freedom of choices we enjoy is the greatest of blessings. To think it is rather recent and still denied to many even now. Without it, we will be less human. It is said we can raise our consciousness to a high level and the limitations are our own making. When we do what is right, and listening to our inner voice guides us to that, then we are well on our way to godliness. It is not difficult to make it a habit and a way of our living. However, our big leaders won't leave us in peace and even drag us into watertight compartments to divide us and force us at each other's throats. We are still pawns in their hands - siva

Me too. The psychologists tell us to own our dark side, but I think if it was God that made us, that would be like owning the devil in us. No, God made us from his love, and the Bible tells us that in God, and his love and light, there is no darkness. "God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all." From 1 John, chapter 1, verse 5. God put no darkness into us either, when he made us.