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Born in The Swamplands
An old saying has it that religion is for those who are afraid of going to Hell; spirituality is for those who have been there. Unless we are able to look at the existential discrepancy between what we long for and what we experience, unless we consciously address the task of personal spirituality, we will remain forever in flight, or denial, or think of ourselves as victims, sour and mean-spirited to ourselves and others.
The thought, motive and practice of Jungian psychology is that there is no sunlit meadow, no restful bower of easy sleep; there are rather swamplands of the soul where nature, our nature, intends that we live a good part of the journey, and from whence many of the most meaningful moments of our lives will derive. It is in the swamplands where soul is fashioned and forged, where we encounter not only the gravitas of life, but its purpose, its dignity and its deepest meaning.
— James Hollis
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The children of the Hopi had already lived ‘in Relativity’ before they met Einstein, given the world they were experiencing and the limited exposure they had to Western education. They had not been exposed to any Western education from birth until their encounter with Einstein, a Westerner. Again, one can only imagine how much more Einstein could have learned if he had met with more than one “Original Nation”.
