Individuation: The Process of Becoming Whole
Quieted by this thought, I had a momentary vision of something I had been doing the day before, taking a sailing lesson on the Zürichsee, the Lake of Zurich. It was as though the unconscious had presented me at the right moment with an image of the Process. I began to speak. “It is as though you were sitting in a little sailboat in the middle of the Zürichsee, and had no idea how to manage a sailboat. If the current was right and the wind was right, you might get to where you were going sooner or later. Or, you might bob around indefinitely and get nowhere. Or a storm could come up and you could be overturned and the whole project could end in disaster. But begin the Process, guided by another who has been through it himself and coped with the difficulties and found a way to solve them, and it is all different. You learn to take into account the structure of the boat itself, how it is made and how it responds to the water and the wind. The boat is comparable to your own personality. You learn about the currents in the lake; these correspond to the realities of life in which you are situated and which are somewhat predictable. You learn about the winds, which are less predictable, and these correspond to those spiritual forces which seem to give direction to life without ever showing themselves. In learning to sail you do not change the current of the water nor do you have any effect on the wind, but you learn to hoist your sail and turn it this way and that to utilize the greater forces which surround your. By understanding them, you become one with them, and in doing so are able to find your own direction – so long as it is in harmony with, and does not try to oppose, the greater forces in being. You may still have to face dangers – there may be swift currents or wild winds and times, but somehow you do not feel helpless any longer. In time, you may be able to leave your guide and sail alone, and one day you may even become a guide for others. You are not helpless any more.”
Quieted by this thought, I had a momentary vision of something I had been doing the day before, taking a sailing lesson on the Zürichsee, the Lake of Zurich. It was as though the unconscious had presented me at the right moment with an image of the Process. I began to speak. “It is as though you were sitting in a little sailboat in the middle of the Zürichsee, and had no idea how to manage a sailboat. If the current was right and the wind was right, you might get to where you were going sooner or later. Or, you might bob around indefinitely and get nowhere. Or a storm could come up and you could be overturned and the whole project could end in disaster. But begin the Process, guided by another who has been through it himself and coped with the difficulties and found a way to solve them, and it is all different. You learn to take into account the structure of the boat itself, how it is made and how it responds to the water and the wind. The boat is comparable to your own personality. You learn about the currents in the lake; these correspond to the realities of life in which you are situated and which are somewhat predictable. You learn about the winds, which are less predictable, and these correspond to those spiritual forces which seem to give direction to life without ever showing themselves. In learning to sail you do not change the current of the water nor do you have any effect on the wind, but you learn to hoist your sail and turn it this way and that to utilize the greater forces which surround your. By understanding them, you become one with them, and in doing so are able to find your own direction – so long as it is in harmony with, and does not try to oppose, the greater forces in being. You may still have to face dangers – there may be swift currents or wild winds and times, but somehow you do not feel helpless any longer. In time, you may be able to leave your guide and sail alone, and one day you may even become a guide for others. You are not helpless any more.”
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