I use [Heraclitus’ discovery of] enantiodromia for the emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time. This characteristic phenomenon practically always occurs when an extreme, onesided tendency dominates conscious life; in time a powerful counterposition is built up, which first inhibits the conscious performance and subsequently breaks through the conscious control. – Jung

Although this quote is talking about our personal experience, this idea also applies to cultural experiences as well. The tearing down of the Berlin wall is a literal example of what can happen when we go too far to one side, what’s been pushed down eventually emerges. There’s a similar push and pull in all aspects of life. If physics can give us the unified field, a source from which everything springs, then religion can give us the numinous feeling this reality entails. If you’re thinking that physics is dry and boring, straight lines and axiomatic, then you’re missing the sublime and at times supernatural feeling it inspires. Likewise religion can offer up practical and grounded advice which at times can be quite linear. The fact is religion and physics need each other. Just like any other pairs of opposites they are drawn together, and when they unite what’s created is a deeper insight into a larger whole. Somewhere in that murky transformation from one extreme to another, one turns into the other. That is the nature of the play of opposites the above quote is talking about, going far enough in one direction insights its opposite to emerge.

This becomes especially important to remember when we pick definitive sides. Because the more fervent, or unforgiving we become to any particular stance, the more we edge closer to the thing that initially repelled us in the first place. This is one of the reasons why all of Asian philosophy talks about balance, to live in either extreme is to miss the point. And perhaps the underlying point is that everything is necessary, not just the parts we like or want, but the muck we try to run from turns out to be equally important. Our greatest difficulties often point a finger at what we’ve been missing. I wish I could tell you it’s easy to figure out, but the truth is it can be excruciating. Jung often said, “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” This may not inspire the search for the self, but what lies on the other side of all the hard work is gold, it’s the secret we’ve been longing to uncover but haven’t had the words for.

Greater consciousness arises when the opposites come together creating a new, and often revelatory, understanding. But it comes at a cost, usually that is our old way of living, doing, and being. Not knowing what’s coming or how it will play out is uncomfortable at best. What we can know for sure is that the things that are most rewarding require hard work. How we go about our lives, how we understand our self, one another, and how open we are to the people and ideas that are very foreign or frighten us matter most. We need the cold, hard facts and we need the unsolvable mystery. They are the opposite sides of the very same idea, that of a greater wholeness, complex design, and the interrelatedness of all things.

And the truth is all of it matters.

kb