I am not I.
I am this one
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget:
who remains calm and silent while I talk,
and forgives, gently, when I hate,
who walks where I am not,
who will remain standing when I die. – Jimenez
Physicists speculate about living out all of our possibilities in different dimensions. What would it have been like if you married your high school sweetheart, or took that job in Japan? In a parallel universe you did. Somewhere, unbeknownst to this you, you’re living that alternate reality. Now we don’t have to go that far into speculation about parallel universes because the fact is we live in them everyday of our lives. It’s the world of the interior, our inner world we live in alongside our exterior world. Jung calls it living the symbolic life because the ancient symbols and archetypes that have existed for millions of years live in and through us whether we consciously understand them and their effect on our lives or not. Jung also realized that most of what we live is unconscious. Although we may be unaware of the interior world that doesn’t mean it doesn’t shape the way we think, feel, and act. It’s presence has an impact on our decisions and actions in a million different ways. In fact many of our problems come from not having an outlet for this inner parallel universe of the symbolic life. It may be easier to reject or dismiss what we fear or don’t understand, but when we do it’s these very influences that end up running our lives. When we believe feeling and intuition are not as real as what we can see and touch we stay on the surface satisfied with the expected, never diving to the depths contained within us.
It is only by attuning to the finer music of the interior that allows us to experience the deeper and more meaningful layers of our lives. Contacting these deeper levels brings intense creativity and a deepening connection to the mystery. When we don’t acknowledge our inner universe we end up projecting all of the amazing or terrifying things within us onto others. Only by living the interior world can we honor and own all that we are and give expression to our inner universe. This is the road to greater awareness, it’s how we become more conscious of the many aspects of ourselves that seek expression. All of the psychological work is a way to become more familiar with this inner terrain, as is meditation, music, writing, or anything else that lets us plumb the interior. Living our inner universe makes all the difference in the quality and meaning of our lives. But it requires real work on our part, a delicate kind of work that doesn’t always make logical sense. Let’s not let fear or distraction keep us from taking a closer look. Although it may be far easier to stay on the surface of life, in the end it’s much less fulfilling. Navigating our parallel universe lets us discover the things we value the most.
There are innumerable worlds within waiting to be explored.
kb
