Theos-Talk Archives (December 1995 Message tl00295)

Jim:< In Jung's commentary on Richard Wilhelm's
>translation of the Taoist text The Secret of the Golden Flower he says
>"When faced with this problem of grasping the ideas of the East the usual
>mistake of Western man is like that of the student in Faust. Misled by the
>Devil he contemptuously turns his back and carried away by Eastern
>occultism takes over yoga practices quite literally and becomes a pitible
>imitator. Theosophy is our best example of this mistake."
>
>Hard words but his point is that there is a fundamental difference between
>the Oriental and Occidental mind and that what is "best" for one is not
>necessarily correct for the other. Jung got a little carried away there
>IMO but he does have a point.

Yes he does. And as I have pointed out before this idea was
originally expressed to me by James Long back in 1969 before I knew of
Jung. Jung's criticism is directed toward Adyar. Basically we in the West
need a whole new type of meditation/yoga practice based on the Eastern
model but differing to account for our basic differences in constitution.

Jerry S.