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 Alcoholics Anonymous began with a patient in his office. On one of his visits, Jung confronted his alcoholic patient, telling 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 years later 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. (repeat)
But this is not only a problem associated with alcoholism. There is an underlying and troublesome hollowness in the Western psyche. That’s the result of an inability to access our fundamental, natural, and unchanging well-being, an ever-present wholeness in each of us. In response to this loss of our essential self and its well-being, we are mistakenly taught by an ill-informed culture to seek from the outer world that which is missing in our inner world. We seek possessions, fame, fortune, relationships, drugs and even healthy pursuits such as fitness, self-improvement, yoga, and meditation as remedies to this underlying emptiness. For periods of time, we may seem to succeed in these efforts, but because our efforts fail to address the underlying wound, the hidden soul at the core of our being, these efforts will each, in their turn fail. And even if they seem to succeed, they fail. A spiritual wound requires, as Jung so eloquently stated, a spiritual remedy, not a surface one. It requires spiritus.
Joseph Campbell, author and master teacher, offers us this short parable that characterizes our modern-day search for Spiritus. Early in life, he says, we place our ladder against a wall and begin the arduous effort of climbing to the top, seeking to find the magic elixir to life’s challenges. When those who arrive at the top of the ladder look over the wall, they too often tragically discover a barren landscape. They realize they have placed their ladder against the wrong wall. What they sought, the joy, serenity, and wholeness of Spiritus, is not to be found on the other side of the wall. There is only one enduring resolution, come down the ladder and find the right wall, the right direction to apply our efforts. If we are fortunate, we will realize that the direct path to life’s treasures, to Spiritus, requires an inner turn, a spiritual education through which we can discover and return home to our true essential self.
Joseph Campbell also 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 and unchanging contentment and joy found in our natural self at the center of our being. Here we find a timeless and abundant source of peace and delight. Here we find the authentic and trustworthy Spiritus.
We now know the remedy to the human feeling of emptiness and despair that arises from the lost self and the mistaken and fruitless effort to resolve this loss in the outer world. It is the re-discovery of our spiritual life, Spiritus. The remedy is a self-remembering.
When we return home to the center of our being our search will be resolved at the source. In the joy of simple being there is nothing further to seek in the outer world. The seeking is done and the seeker has dissolved in the expansiveness of being.