In 1961 Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, wrote a letter to Carl Jung, the famed Swiss psychologist. He conveyed to Jung how the origin of AA began with a patient encounter in Jung’s office. It was there, years before, that Jung confronted an alcoholic patient, informing him that there was no medical or psychological cure for his problem. The patient asked if his case was indeed hopeless. Jung replied that the only cure was a spiritual cure. Writing to Bill Wilson Jung further explained, “His craving for alcohol was the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness,” … “You see,” Jung said, “Alcohol in Latin is "spiritus" and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison.” The turn toward alcohol is a mistaken effort to experience the wholeness that is naturally experienced through spiritual development.
But this not only a problem associated with alcoholism. There is a profound and deeply troubling hollowness in the Western soul, an absence of a fundamental sense of well-being. Its source lies in the uneducated psyche that mistakenly seeks, under the influence of materialism and unbridled egoism, to remedy this hollowness through the pursuit of outer pleasures. These include possessions, fame, fortune, relationships, drugs and even healthier pursuits such as fitness, self-improvement, yoga, and meditation. The single identifying characteristics of these pursuits – even those that are health oriented – is that they seek outer pleasure, comfort, or security as an antidote to an underlying emptiness. They may succeed in this effort for periods of time, but because these efforts fail to address the underlying wound, the empty soul at the core of our being, they will each, in their turn fail. And even I they succeed, they fail. A spiritual wound requires, as Jung so eloquently stated, a spiritual remedy, not a surface one.
We can easily understand how those who are unsuccessful in their pursuit of worldly pleasures fall into despair. But, we cannot as easily understand why those who seem to have achieved all that is dreamed of in worldly life would similarly fall into despair. Whether one fails in the outer search or succeeds, the same hollowness remains. For some success is illusive and the wound shines through early on. Others who have achieved everything, equally fail to heal this wound, as at some point the pleasures and false antidotes are exhausted. There is no further transient escape. The resulting despair, equal in both instances, can lead to a tenacious depression, isolation, and hopelessness.
Joseph Campbell, author and master teacher, offers us this short parable. Early in life, he says, we place our ladder against a wall and begin the arduous effort of climbing to the top. Those who fail to reach the top suffer the sense of failure with its accompanying emotions. Those who years later arrive at the top of the ladder, look over the wall and to often tragically discover that they have placed their ladder against the wrong wall. What they had sought is not to be found on the other side of the wall. There are then have two choices: collapse in despair or find the right wall. Finding the right wall requires an inner education, a spiritual education, in which we discover the true nature of the inner wound of hollowness and its precise remedy. Then we realize there is no wall and there is no ladder, what we sought has been there, right inside us, all the time.
There are two aspects of the inner wound of hollowness. The more apparent aspect is the unique Western effort to achieve serenity, happiness, security, and the avoidance of suffering through the pursuit of outer pleasures. Rather than learning to reach inward we are taught to reach outward. It is as if we are told to go East from New York if we wish to get to California. Because all outer experiences are transient, impermanent, and thus subject to loss, whether we succeed in the short term or not, we will fail in the long term – and then we are told to try harder, advice that can only lead to the same outcome.
The second aspect of the feeling of hollowness is a bit subtler. It is the underlying “mistake” of consciousness that early on thrusts us out of the heavenly garden of a pure and free awareness into the world of objects, separation, and constant seeking. We forget who we truly are and believe we are our thoughts, feelings, and endless mental activities, and search for our lost home in the outer world. The poet William Wordsworth reminds us of this loss of our authentic and naturally serene and healthy self. In his words:
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There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, |
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The earth, and every common sight, |
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To me did seem |
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Apparell'd in celestial light, |
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The glory and the freshness of a dream. |
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It is not now as it hath been of yore;— |
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Turn wheresoe'er I may, |
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By night or day, |
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The things which I have seen I now can see no more. |
We have all tasted this experience of wholeness and well-being in our adult life. We have caught glimpses of that “glory and freshness” in nature, beauty, intimacy, dance, music, and the extremes of exercise, yoga, and meditation. We experience a sense of flow, presence, beingness, and heart. For a moment we have lost the “I” we believe we are with its endless mental commentary and touched into the truth of who we are with its deep stillness and aliveness. We have transcended our ordinary world and dropped into our true and essential self. In that moment we realize that the only true antidote to the fundamental wound lies within.
Joseph Campbell famously offered the following advice when asked for guidance, “Follow your bliss.” He didn’t say follow your pleasures. He didn’t say follow the endless desires of your ordinary self. The bliss he spoke of is the deep contentment and joy found in our natural self at the center of our being. When we access that “bliss” we find a timeless and abundant source of peace and delight that then allows everything in common experience to be “appareled in celestial light.” It is not that our inner discovery then causes us to leave day-to-day life, much the opposite, it causes us to see the infinite beauty in others and all daily experience as well as the confusion and suffering that covers this beauty for many. This seeing evokes a deep compassionate desire to use one’s life to be of service and benefit to others.
So now we know why people who lack everything and others who have everything are vulnerable to the same human despair and hopelessness. And, we know the precise antidote. It is the re-discovery of who we truly are through a process of inner education resulting in personal transformation.
In T.S. Eliot’s words:
We shall not cease from exploration,
and the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.
And when we return home, what we once perceived as a fearful hollowness, will be experienced as a reservoir of serenity, happiness, wisdom, love, and freedom. Our search for “spiritus” will be resolved at the source, and suffering will naturally come to an end. In the joy of a simple being the seeker ceases and there is nothing further to seek in the outer world. It is done.