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Scroll.in
12 hours ago
- General
- Scroll.in
How Indian traditions and the mandala influenced Carl Jung's philosophy
In 1927, Carl Jung stood in his Zurich home, gripped by a vivid dream of a mandala, a radiant circle of intricate patterns, pulsing with meaning, which he later described in Memories, Dreams, Reflections as a 'Window on Eternity'. This vision, a map of the psyche's quest for wholeness, became a cornerstone of his theories, deeply enriched by his 1938 journey through India's spiritual heartland. July 27 was Jung's 150th birth anniversary. In today's fractured world, Jung's ideas, rooted in archetypes, the collective unconscious and the integration of opposites, feel more vital than ever. Balance and meaning Born in 1875 in a quiet Swiss village, Carl Gustav Jung was a psychiatrist, philosopher and mystic who saw the human psyche as a vast, dynamic universe. Unlike his mentor psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who viewed the mind as a battleground of repressed desires, Jung believed it was a living system striving for balance and meaning. Jung's core concepts – individuation, archetypes, the shadow self, and the collective unconscious – were deeply influenced by the ancient wisdom he found in India's temples, texts and scholars. In Zurich, Jung's mandala dream echoed the sacred circles he saw in Hindu and Buddhist art. In these traditions, a mandala is far more than a geometric design. In Hinduism, it represents the cosmos, a map of divine order, often used in rituals to invoke deities like Kali or Vishnu. In Buddhism, particularly in Tibetan practices, mandalas are meditative tools, guiding the practitioner toward enlightenment by symbolising the universe's unity. Jung saw the mandala as a universal symbol of the psyche's integration, a bridge between the conscious and unconscious. Jung's fascination with India deepened as he engaged with its spiritual symbols. In Calcutta, he met Surendranath Dasgupta, a renowned scholar of Indian philosophy, with whom he had deep discussions about the Upanishads and kundalini, the coiled serpent energy at the base of the spine. In Tantric traditions, kundalini's awakening is a transformative ascent, uniting the individual with the divine. Jung saw parallels with his idea of individuation, the lifelong process of integrating the psyche's fragmented parts into a whole. He was equally struck by the Shiva-Shakti dynamic – the cosmic dance of masculine and feminine energies. In Tantra, Shiva represents pure consciousness, while Shakti is the dynamic force of creation. Jung linked this to his anima and animus: the inner feminine and masculine polarities that must be balanced for psychological wholeness. At the Konark Sun Temple, Jung stood before carvings of cosmic cycles and erotic figures, sketching them in his notebook. The raw passion depicted in the sculptures, blending the sacred and sensual, mirrored his concept of the shadow self, the hidden, often uncomfortable aspects of the psyche we must confront. He later wrote that Konark's imagery spoke to the 'living reality of the psyche', where opposites like light and dark coexist. In Bhubaneswar, he sketched temple carvings of Kali, the fierce goddess of destruction and renewal. Kali's dual nature – terrifying yet transformative – resonated with Jung's view of the shadow as both destructive and creative. He saw her as an archetype, a universal symbol of the psyche's power to devour and renew. Jung's encounter with the Tibetan Book of the Dead during his Indian sojourn further deepened his theories. This Buddhist text, a guide for navigating the Bardos, or transitional states, between death and rebirth, fascinated him. He saw its descriptions of visions and deities as manifestations of the collective unconscious, a shared reservoir of human experience that transcends individual minds. The book's emphasis on facing one's inner demons aligned with Jung's belief that confronting the shadow is essential for growth. He later wrote that the Tibetan Book of the Dead was a 'psychological commentary on the unconscious', a bridge between Eastern spirituality and Western psychology. In Delhi, Jung listened to Vedic hymns at a banquet, struck by their resonance with his concept of synchronicity – meaningful coincidences that reveal the psyche's connection to the cosmos. These moments cemented his belief that his theories were not new but echoes of ancient wisdom, reframed for a modern world. Jung's split with Freud, around 1913, was a pivotal moment that allowed him to pursue these ideas. Freud saw the psyche as driven by personal trauma and sexual instincts, with dreams as coded messages of repressed desires. Jung disagreed, arguing that dreams tapped into the collective unconscious, a shared layer of human experience filled with archetypes like the ' Hero ', who drives personal growth, or the ' Mother, the lifegiver who symbolises one's origin. Their breakup was painful, but it freed him to explore the mystical and cultural dimensions of the psyche. Jung in the era of polarisation Why do Jung's ideas resonate so powerfully in 2025? In an era of mass polarisation, his emphasis on integrating opposites offers a path forward. The shadow self, those parts of us we deny, is especially relevant. Social media amplifies our curated personas, but it also casts shadows – anger, fear, or shame we project onto others. Jung's call to face the shadow, to own it rather than vilify it, is a tool for healing. The collective unconscious speaks to our longing for connection, reminding us that beneath our differences lies a shared humanity. Jung's influence is undeniable. His ideas shape modern psychology, from therapy to personality tests like the Myers-Briggs, which claims to categorise personality types. Pop culture embraces his archetypes and mindfulness apps feature mandalas as tools for calm. In a world grappling with the rise of artificial intelligence, climate crises, and cultural divides, Jung's focus on inner transformation feels urgent. He believed that changing the world starts with changing oneself, a message that cuts through the noise of this era. Shadow work, Jung's boldest call, urged confronting the psyche's repressed elements. He saw it as a moral necessity for growth. Jung's shadow encompasses the darker aspects, anger, fear, or shame, that we deny or project onto others. Shadow work, his term for acknowledging and integrating these traits, aims for wholeness. In India, he saw parallels in Tantra's embrace of life's dualities, as seen in Kali's destructive yet regenerative imagery, which accepts all existence. Today, shadow work informs trauma therapy, where techniques like journaling or guided visualisation help process suppressed emotions, reclaiming fragmented selves for healing. Tantra's fearless acceptance of contradictions reinforced Jung's belief that embracing the shadow fosters authenticity. Freud suppressed undesirable impulses but Jung advocated their integration. Yet Jung wasn't flawless. Critics note his tendency to romanticise Eastern traditions, sometimes missing their nuances. His writing could be dense, almost esoteric, unlike Freud's clearer prose. Still, his willingness to grapple with the unknown, blending science with spirituality, made him a pioneer. He once said, 'The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.' This embrace of individuality is why his work endures. On Carl Jung's 150th anniversary, his Mumbai mandala dream remains a profound symbol of the psyche's balance of opposites: Kali's cycle of destruction and renewal, Kundalini's ascent, and the union of Shiva and Shakti. In 2025, as algorithms shape desires and divisions and challenge our humanity, Jung's call to self-reflection feels revolutionary. Infused with Indian wisdom, his theories are vital tools for today's world, reminding us that the path to self-discovery also connects us to one another – a truth as alive now as it was all those years ago when he dreamt of the mandala in Zurich.
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Is Oscar winner Jessica Chastain taking classes at Harvard?
Prior to her rise to fame, Chastain attended the Julliard School from 1998 to 2003, on a Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Celebrities are no strangers to the halls of Harvard. In 2014, Grammy-winning producer Advertisement In addition to her possible Harvard studies, Chastain has a busy fall ahead with the upcoming release of her new show, 'The Savant,' which she starred in and executive produced. Advertisement Chastain will also soon appear on the big screen in the film 'Dreams,' also starring Rupert Friend, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February and is set to release in theaters Ryan Yau can be reached at
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Oslo Stories: Dreams (Sex Love) review – The first part of Dag Johan Haugerud's trilogy is intimate, ambiguous and lingering
Oslo Stories: Dreams (Sex Love) Director : Dag Johan Haugerud Cert : 12A Genre : Drama Starring : Ane Dahl Torp, Selome Emnetu, Ella Overbye, Anne Marit Jacobsen Running Time : 1 hr 50 mins Somewhat confusingly, the first release from Dag Johan Haugerud's epic Norwegian trilogy is Dreams, this year's Golden Bear winner at Berlin, and the second film in the sequence. (Oslo Stories: Love and Oslo Stories: Sex will arrive in cinemas later this month.) A coming-of-age drama with novelistic underpinnings, this delightful bildungsroman follows 17-year-old Johanne (a luminous Ella Overbye, channelling Renate Reinsve), who falls in love with her similarly named arts-and-crafts teacher, Johanna (Selome Emnetu). She turns that infatuation into an erotically charged manuscript that unsettles her mother and grandmother in equal but unpredictable ways. As with the approaching Sex and Love instalments, desire is the quivering undertow here. But Dreams is more interior than its bedfellows, shifting between memory, fantasy, self-mythology and old-fashioned unreliable narration with arch ambiguity. Johanne's manuscript is either an earnest confession or an expertly veiled fiction; Haugerud never clarifies the author's complicity in its contested scenes or how much of the work is rooted in cynical and towering ambition. READ MORE The film's real concern is not what happened but what it meant to Johanne, what it means to write it down, and how that act shapes (and misshapes) her story. Much of Dreams unfolds in talk: sprawling, sharp conversations between generations of women about sex and artistic inheritance. Ane Dahl Torp and Anne Marit Jacobsen are excellent as mother and grandmother, whose initial shock at Johanne's memoir gives way to envy, pride and uneasy longing. Haugerud's delicate direction, paired with Cecilie Semec's gauzy cinematography, builds a world that's dreamlike but grounded. Knitwear is an unexpectedly titillating star. At its best, Dreams is intimate and contemplative, anchored by Overbye's dreamy voiceover and performance. The second half loses some of that purpose. An odd coda featuring an encounter between Johanne and a therapist meanders and goes nowhere. Still, creatives will certainly appreciate the fuzzy intersection of memory, identity and making stuff up that jollies Haugerud's lingering drama along.
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
On Vincent Van Gogh
Daily Quiz | On Vincent Van Gogh Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit YOUR SCORE 0 /5 RETAKE THE QUIZ 1 / 5 | Van Gogh had famously cut off his ear. While there are different versions of what prompted this, several historians say an argument by a fellow painter led to the incident. Name the painter. DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : Paul Gauguin SHOW ANSWER 2 / 5 | Japanese auteur Akira Kurasawa paid homage to Van Gogh with a segment in his anthology. Name the segment and the anthology. DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : Crows, Dreams SHOW ANSWER 3 / 5 | Name the hand-painted animated feature that came out in 2017 as a homage to the artist. DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : Loving Vincent SHOW ANSWER 4 / 5 | Where was Van Gogh staying at while he painted Starry Nights, one of his most famous works? DID YOU KNOW THE ANSWER? YES NO Answer : Saint-Paul Asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence SHOW ANSWER
Daily Record
3 days ago
- Daily Record
'Forever young': Lasting tribute to murdered Lanarkshire woman unveiled in hometown
A wooden memorial bench designed by local craftspeople in Strathaven pays tribute to popular and beautiful, Phoenix-Spencer Horn. A lasting tribute to a much-loved young Lanarkshire woman who was brutally murdered has been unveiled in her hometown. A beautifully handcrafted memorial bench has been dedicated to 21-year-old Phoenix Spencer-Horn in the grounds of the Strathaven Hotel where she worked. The wooden bench, designed by local craftspeople in the market town, pays tribute to the popular and beautiful young woman with a poignant inscription which reads: "Phe, the girl with the stunning smile. 21 'forever young'". In a nod to her favourite song, Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, the lyric 'thunder only happens when it's raining' is featured on the bench along with Phoenix's date of birth and the date she died. The words, 'love you, bye' are also carved inside a red love heart. The close-knit community has been rocked by the tragic events that happened on November 18, 2024 when Phoenix was stabbed, strangled, decapitated and dismembered in the East Kilbride flat she shared with killer boyfriend Ewan Methven. She had suffered a total of 20 stab wounds - the fatal one to the chest. Described in court as "the personification of evil", 27-year-old postman Methven is now carrying out a life sentence after admitting to the gruesome murder when he appeared in the dock at the High Court in Glasgow last month. Judge Lord Matthews ordered Methven to spend at least 23 years behind bars before he can be considered for parole. Commenting on the lasting memorial one local said: "It's such a lovely memorial to such a special person. "What happened to Phoenix was absolutely horrific and left many people shocked but the bench commemorates her life which was so cruelly cut short. "She loved working in the hotel and was very popular with the customers so it's appropriate the bench will be sitting in the gardens for many years to come. "Phoenix will never be forgotten by the people of Strathaven." A group of her friends and colleagues named 'Phe's Angel Fighters' are taking on the Kiltwalk to raise money for Glasgow Women's Aid in her memory. The 20-mile challenge will take place in September with more than £7000 already raised in Phoenix's name. You can make a donation to the Kiltwalk fundraiser for Phoenix here. *Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
