Swamplands of the Soul Quotes

“Thus we are forced into a difficult choice: anxiety or depression. If we move forward, as our soul insists, we may be flooded with anxiety. If we do not move forward, we will suffer the depression, the pressing down of the soul’s purpose. In such a difficult choice one must choose anxiety, for anxiety is at least the path of personal growth; depression is a stagnation and defeat of life.”
― James Hollis, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places

“Наша психика использует депрессию, чтобы привлечь наше внимание и указать нам на то, что где-то в глубине нас кроется ложь.”
― James Hollis, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places

“Again, we are daily forced to choose between depression and anxiety. Depression results from the wounding of the individuation imperative; anxiety results from moving forward into the unknown. That path of anxiety is necessary because therein lies the hope of the person to more nearly become an individual. My analyst once said to me, "You must make your fears your agenda." When we do take on that agenda, for all the anxiety engendered, we feel better because we know we are living in 'bonne foi' [good faith] with ourselves. Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the perception that some things are more important to us than what we fear.”
― James Hollis, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places

“The last form of guilt is existential in character; it is an unavoidable concomitant of being human. For example, we understand that the principle which underlies life is death. Not only are life and death the systole and diastole of the cosmos, but all life depends on killing. We kill animals to survive. If we choose to be vegetarian, we slay plant life. If we stop eating we commit suicide. For this reason our ancestors offered “grace” at
meals, that is, not only thanks but the acknowledgment of the principle that what we are about to eat has derived from an act of slaying. Ancient cultures, for the same reason, offered prayers before and after the hunt, and during consumption of the food, in order to acknowledge their participation in the death-rebirth cycle of the Great Mother archetype.”
― James Hollis, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places

“It is not given to us to grasp the truth, which is identical with the divine, directly. We perceive it only in reflection, in example and symbol, in singular and related appearances. It meets us as a kind of life which is incomprehensible to us, and yet we cannot free ourselves from the desire to comprehend it.—Goethe.”
― James Hollis, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places

“Люди, которые решили, что не хотят осознавать смысл и причину своих страданий, заходят в тупик в своем развитии и причиняют страдания тем, кто их окружает.”
― James Hollis, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places

“То, что пугает своей силой, исцеляет своей мотивацией. Войти в контакт со своими внутренними силами вместо того, чтобы постоянно рефлекторно адаптироваться к внешним силам, усиливая тем самым самоотчуждение, – значит ощутить основу скрытой в глубине истины, природу нашей истинной сущности.”
― James Hollis, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places

“Древние говорили, что религия нужна тем, кто боится оказаться в аду; а духовность – тем, кто там уже побывал. Пока мы не увидим существующую разницу между тем, что мы жаждем испытать, и тем, что мы испытываем, пока мы осознанно не поставим перед собой цель достижения высокого уровня духовности, мы будем всегда стремиться избегать, отрицать или воображать себя жертвами, малодушными и недовольными собой и окружающими.”
― James Hollis, Swamplands of the Soul: New Life in Dismal Places