Quotes from James Hollis

this tungsten spark we call our soul

was her life as lived in fact her authentic journey, or was she driven by complexes so powerful as to render her incapable of choosing anything else?

So much of life is on automatic pilot, and we pay for this loss of consciousness over and over in the sabotage of relationships, in our self-stultifying attitudes, and in the shameful power we routinely bequeath to others in managing our values.

Man is a reed, the weakest of nature, but he is a thinking reed. It is not necessary that the entire universe arm itself to crush: a vapor, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than what kills him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage that the universe has over him, the universe knows nothing of this.

Yet it is clear that we cannot choose not to choose, for not choosing is a choice from which consequences flow, and the inner split between soul and world widens.

Thus, soul solicits us even as we seek it. The German poet Friedrich Hölderlin expressed the paradox this way: "That which thou seekst is near, and already coming to meet thee.

This search, this fantasy, is the chief fuel for our culture—the fantasy of romantic love, the fantasy that there is this other who will make our life work for us, heal us, protect us, nurture us, and spare us the world's trauma.

Folk wisdom observes that lovers are fools, lovers are blind; we also speak of a folie a deux because in this mutually projective state, the person is acting not out of a conscious relationship to reality, but out of the archaic and often overwhelming power of personal history.

democracy flourishes when we express our doubts over a policy, over the motives of our leaders. Compare this with those who flee troubling ambiguity by wrapping themselves and their vehicles in flags, drown honest debate with chauvinistic clamor, and encourage a pseudo-patriotism that ill serves its nation by silencing serious dialogue that might lead to more refined judgment.

Occasionally someone rises from evening meal, Goes outside, and goes, and goes, and goes. . . Because somewhere in the East a sanctuary stands. And his children lament as though he had died. And another, who dies within his house, Remains there, remains amid dishes and glasses, So

He was not saying that external reality does not exist; rather, that we can only know it subjectively.

the Sage of Koenigsburg, Immanuel Kant, ended traditional metaphysics and made modern psychology necessary by discerning that we never know reality directly;

DURING THE COURSE of his long and distinguished career, the Irish poet W. B. Yeats often changed his themes, style, and personal philosophy, sometimes leaving behind the audience he had cultivated. When he was upbraided for this confusing constancy of change, he replied: The friends have it I do wrong Whenever I remake my song Should know what issue is at stake. It is myself that I remake. 54

It is much easier to deny, blame others, project elsewhere, or bury it and just keep on rolling.

We have to stumble through so much dirt and humbug before we reach home. And we have no one to guide us. Our only guide is our homesickness.

At the same time, in speaking to women's groups, I have suggested that women look at men this way: if they took away their own network of intimate friends, those with whom they share their personal journey, removed their sense of instinctual guidance, concluded that they were almost wholly alone in the world, and understood that they would be defined only by standards of productivity external to them, they would then know the inner state of the average man.

four categorical ways in which the Shadow manifests in our lives. They are found when the Shadow a) remains unconscious, albeit active in our lives; b) is disowned by being projected onto others; c) usurps consciousness by possessing us; or d) broadens consciousness through recognition, dialogue, and assimilation of its contents.

Be kind. Everyone you meet has a very large problem.

The Shadow is not just what is unconscious, it is what discomforts the sense of self we wish to have.

To experience some healing within yourself, and to contribute healing to the world, you are summoned to wade through the muck from time to time.

We are all meaning-seeking, meaning creating creatures and when we experience the loss of meaning, we suffer.