On the last page of the Big Book text, we are given the reminder that one of our objectives in this ongoing day a time twelve step process is to remain teachable with what one might describe as a beginner’s mind with this quote ‘ we realize we know only a little’. This article below is powerful in its presentation of how far what we intended is/was from what we actually achieve. It plants firmly the seed that perhaps we don’t know what’s best and remaining humbly honest, open and willing is not something we outgrow but rather something we grow into more deeply and more profoundly. There is an irony and paradox in this contrast between what we seek and what we experience. I love the reminders that so much of what I find true is a paradox. Like ‘one is too many and a thousand not enough’. These reminders that to only trust what I can rationally understand denies me perhaps my most essential truths. And these essential truths come from a firm conviction of ‘not knowing’ but trusting a Power greater than ourselves as we imperfectly but humbly practice these principles. – Bruce M.
WE CAN BE positive that our drinking was negative. We drank for happiness and became unhappy. We drank for joy and became miserable. We drank to be outgoing and became self-centered. We drank for sociability and became argumentative.
We drank for sophistication and became crude and obnoxious. We drank for friendship and made enemies. We drank to soften sorrow and wallowed in self-pity. We drank for sleep and awakened without rest.
We drank for strength and felt weak. We drank for sex drive and lost our potency. We drank “medicinally” and acquired health problems. We drank because the job called for it and lost the job.
We drank for relaxation and got the shakes. We drank for confidence and became uncertain. We drank for bravery and became afraid. We drank for certainty and became doubtful.
We drank to stimulate thought and blacked out. We drank to make conversation easier and slurred our speech. We drank for warmth and lost our cool. We drank for coolness and lost our warmth.
We drank to feel heavenly and knew hell. We drank to forget and were haunted. We drank for freedom and became slaves. We drank for power and were powerless. We drank to erase problems and saw them multiply. We drank to cope with life and invited death, or worse.
From Jim A. … some information about paradox that might add to our discussion of this short but provocative Grapevine Article.
Shadow Work information …
Ollie Anderson says, “Your shadow is all of the things positive and negative that you’ve denied about yourself and hidden beneath the surface of the mask you forgot you’re wearing”. He says “Your shadow isn’t a thing or even a place but a relationship you have with certain parts of yourself that you’ve hidden and by improving this relationship you can improve your life”.
A quote about ‘persona’ from Carl Jung.
“The persona is the mask we wear in relation to the world and others, it is created through a combination of socialization, societal expectations, one’s experience of the world, and the natural attributes and tendencies of the individual. It combines elements of how we want to see ourselves ideally and how we want the world to see us, as well as how the world does see us and wants us to be. Our persona defines our social identity. It is constructed in relation to the roles we play in our lives and in our world, how we want to look, and be seen. It’s the face we wear to be presentable and acceptable to our society, but it is not necessarily who we really are but who we want and pretend to be to others and many times to ourselves.”
Jim A. had some further insights and quotes about paradox and specifically Carl Jung’s take on paradox. You might remember that Bill W considered Carl Jung one of the founder’s of AA for his willingness to accept that possibility of a deep spiritual yearning as both a characteristic and possible solution for addiction. Bill’s communication with Dr. Jung is outlined in this post:
https://gugogs.org/2020/05/14/bill-w-carl-jung-letters-how-aa-history-was-made-grapevine-january-1963/
Below is a Jungian analyst insights into Dr. Jung’s perspective on paradox:
Jung on Paradox
Sue Mehrtens is the author of this and all the other blog essays on this site. The opinions expressed in these essays are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of other Jungian Center faculty or Board members.
Jung on Paradox
“… the paradox is one of our most valued spiritual possessions,…”
Jung (1944)[1]
“… paradox is the natural medium for expressing transconscious facts.”
Jung (1955)[2]
“… The paradox… reflects a higher level of intellect and, by not forcibly representing the unknowable as known, gives a more faithful picture of the real state of affairs….”
Jung (1954)[3]
“Things have gone rapidly downhill since the Age of Enlightenment, for, once this petty reasoning mind, which cannot endure any paradoxes, is awakened, no sermon on earth can keep it down. A new task then arises: to lift this still undeveloped mind step by step to a higher level and to increase the number of persons who have at least some inkling of the scope of paradoxical truth…. We simply do not understand any more what is meant by the paradoxes contained in dogma;… “
Jung (1944)[4]
“And what you do not know is the only think you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.”
T.S. Eliot[5]
A student was recently quite put out when I read a portion of Eliot’s “East Coker,” which contained the three lines quoted above. She said, in an aggrieved tone of voice, “But that doesn’t make any sense!” She was experiencing a “mind cramp,” an affront to the logic and rationality that are so prized in our culture. Our “petty reasoning minds” really don’t like paradoxes, as Jung recognized.[6] But he also recognized the value of paradox. This essay considers Jung’s attitudes toward this core feature of spirituality and why paradox is so important. We’ll begin with some definitions, offer examples and then consider the nature of paradox and its importance.
“Paradox” Defined
Years ago, when I asked students what “paradox” meant, one witty student (a devotée of the television series of the time) said “That’s when Casey meets Kildare.”[7] Nice try, but no: “paradox” has nothing to do with doctors. It comes from two Greek words para and dokein, meaning “to seem contrary to.”[8] A paradox is “a statement that may be true but seems to say two opposite things… a person or thing that seems to be full of contradictions…any inconsistent or contradictory fact, action or condition.”[9]
Jung recognized paradox is a “characteristic of the Gnostic writings”[10] that “did more justice to the unknowable than clarity can do,…”[11] because paradox refuses to rob spiritual “mystery of its darkness,”[12] and it serves to retain the unknowableness that is an inherent part of mystery. As I noted in an earlier blog essay,[13] modern Americans do not like mysteries, but the Gnostics did, in their understanding that the nature of Divinity is the mysterium tremendum, a tremendous mystery.
Jung also felt paradox could be a “better witness to truth than a one-sided, so-called ‘positive’ statement.”[14] As such, in its ability to embrace contradiction and both sides of an issue, paradox “… is the natural medium for expressing transconscious facts,”[15] and thus is “… one of our most valued spiritual possessions.”[16]
Besides its value in spiritual and religious contexts, Jung saw its utility in his researches in alchemy: “paradox and ambivalence are the keynotes of the whole work…”[17] of alchemy, and one whole section of Jung’s magnum opus, Mysterium coniunctionis, is on the “paradoxa.”