Accepting Our Shadow: Alan Watts on Carl Jung

One of my reasons for blogging The Morning Dew is to help inspire others to take a more active role in adding positive energy and Love into the world through helping others. The first step in loving others is to love ourselves first. The more love we have for ourselves, the more love we have to share with others. Today's Meditations relates to this by helping us understand the importance of ACCEPTING ourselves as we are - warts, farts, and all.

I post this to get us thinking outside of our safe comfy boxes. It is not an easy thing for me to accept this view of myself, but something inside me tells me it is true:

All the very best 

and all the very worst of humanity 

resides within each of us. 

Only by accepting our 'shadow or darkness' can we learn to fully accept ourselves and fully integrate ourselves in wholeness. It does not mean we act upon our 'dark' thoughts, feelings, impulses. It means that we accept ourselves warts and all. When we can fully accept our WHOLE self, then we can learn to accept, understand, and be compassionate with ourselves and others. Rather than judging and condemning ourselves and others because of our flaws, we accept them and see them as a natural part of our whole being - parts that have in their own way contributed in positive ways. As stated by Alan Watts in the quote below, "The manure is contributive to the perfume of the rose".

"The Recognition of the fact that behind the social role that you assume; behind all your pretensions to being either a good citizen or a fine scholar or a great scientist or a leading politician or a physician or whatever you happen to be - that behind this facade - there is a certain element of the unreconstructed bum. Not as something to be condemned and wailed over, but as something to be recognized as contributive to one's greatness and to one's positive aspect; in the same way that manure is contributive to the perfume of the rose."

~Alan Watts, discussing the work of Carl Jung

~*~

"We cannot change anything 

until we accept it. 

Condemnation does not liberate, 

it oppresses." 

“Only he 

who has accepted himself completely 

possesses  ‘unprejudiced objectivity,’ 

that ingredient without which 

he will be unable to help others 

nor even himself. 

~Carl Jung

~*~

Let us accept the "manure" within

Understanding its work in bringing forth

The fragrance of the roses within our lives

AOM Meditations: 040319

by Philip Gladstone

Thanks to our Friend, David, for sending us this beautiful art

~*~

As you know, one of my reasons for blogging AOMMD is to help inspire others to take a more active role in adding positive energy and Love into the world by helping others. The first step in loving others is to love ourselves first. The more love we have for ourselves, the more love we have to share with others. Today's Meditations relates to this by helping us understand the importance of ACCEPTING ourselves as we are - warts, farts, shits and all.

I post this to get us thinking outside of our safe little boxes that we feel comfy in. It is not an easy thing for me to accept this view of myself, but something inside me tells me it is true:

All the very best 

and all the very worst of humanity 

is within each of us. 

Only by accepting our 'shadow or darkness' can we learn to fully accept ourselves and fully integrate ourselves in wholeness. It does not mean we act upon our 'dark' thoughts, feelings, impulses. It means that we accept ourselves warts and all. When we can fully accept our WHOLE self, then we can learn to accept, understand, and be compassionate with ourselves and others. Rather than judging and condemning ourselves and others because of our flaws, we accept them and see them as a natural part of our whole being - parts that have in their own way contributed in positive ways. As stated by Alan Watts in the quote below, "The manure is contributive to the perfume of the rose".

"The Recognition of the fact that behind the social role that your assume; behind all your pretensions to being either a good citizen or a fine scholar or a great scientist or a leading politician or a physician or whatever you happen to be - that behind this facade - there is a certain element of the unreconstructed bum. Not as something to be condemned and wailed over, but as something to be recognized as contributive to one's greatness and to one's positive aspect; in the same way that manure is contributive to the perfume of the rose."

~Alan Watts, discussing the work of Carl Jung

~*~

"We cannot change anything 

until we accept it. 

Condemnation does not liberate, 

it oppresses." 

 “Only he 

who has accepted himself completely 

possesses  ‘unprejudiced objectivity,’ 

that ingredient without which 

he will be unable to help others 

nor even himself. 

~Carl Jung

~*~

Let us accept the "manure" that is within

So that it may do its work in bringing forth

The fragrance of the rose

AOM Meditations: 091718

by Tony Abeytal

Thanks to our Friend for sending us this beautiful art

~*~

“Life is a series 

of natural and spontaneous changes. 

Don't resist them; 

that only creates sorrow. 

Let reality be reality. 

Let things flow naturally forward 

in whatever way they like.” 

~Lao Tzu

~*~

“Understanding is the first step to acceptance, 

and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” 

~J.K. Rowling 

(Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

~*~

“For after all, 

the best thing one can do when it is raining 

is let it rain.” 

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

~*~

"...when you let go of your expectations, 

when you accept life as it is, 

you're free.

To hold on 

is to be serious and uptight. 

To let go 

is to lighten up.” 

~Richard Carlson, 

(Don't Sweat the Small Stuff)

AOM Meditations: 032218

by Ivan Aivazovsky

Thanks to our Friend for sending us this beautiful art

~*~

"Our very first problem is to accept our present circumstances as they are, ourselves as we are, and the people about us as they are.  This is to adopt a realistic humility without which no genuine advance can even begin. . . . Provided we strenuously avoid turning these realistic surveys of the facts of life into unrealistic alibis for apathy or defeatism, they can be the sure foundation upon which increased emotional health and therefore spiritual progress can be built."

~As Bill Sees It

~*~

"Therapists want to help us throw out what is unwanted and keep only what is wanted.  But what is left may not be very much.  If we try to throw away what we don’t want, we may throw away most of ourselves.

Instead of acting as if we can dispose of parts of ourselves, we should learn the art of transformation.  We can transform our anger, for example, into something more wholesome, like understanding.  We do not need surgery to remove our anger.  If we become angry at our anger, we will have two angers at the same time.  We only have to observe it with love and attention. If we take care of our anger this way, without trying to run away from it, it will transform itself.  This is peacemaking.  If we are peaceful in ourselves, we can make peace with our anger.  We can deal with depression, anxiety, fear, or any unpleasant feeling in the same way."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

~*~

"Acceptance is not submission; 

it is acknowledgement of the facts of a situation, 

then deciding what you're going to do about it."

~Kathleen Casey Theisen