Theory Of Reminiscence
3-24-06 Reminiscence & The Principle of Complementarity
According to the theory of Reminiscence we all know potentially everything but we have forgotten. I first encountered this theory in the writings of Plato. Now I am speaking more loosely & from my own experience. Still, that notion is wondrous to me-----the notion of Reminiscence-----that there is knowledge in the world & within us that only needs to be recollected, to be discovered. It is inside our amazing Memories. But somehow we have lost sight of these memories. As we make our way through life we experience Memory jogs that shock us into awareness of past experiences & truths that reveal the very essence of our lives & also the minds with which we perceive our very existences and whereby we give them shape & continuity.
There is another idea I came across In Jung that I am certain is already latent in Plato & has been expressed by other thinkers and that is the principle of Complementarity. The notion that while we make our plans and have our conscious intentions, our goals and our methods, there is within us at the same time a Counter Plan at work in our Unconscious that is totally inaccessible to our concious ego-minds. This is to me an equally wondrous idea. And I wish I had allowed this idea to have more space in my own consciousness through the years. For, of course, we plan this and that adventure and if The Unconscious which is autonomous has Other Plans then we are doomed to fail in our conscious wishes and purposes unless we admit The Unconscious to have adequate Place in our planning & thinking. This is a most powerful Reality---this principle of polarity that flaunts so many of our plans and adventures and can turn ecstasy into agony if we do not admit the negative into our affirmations. Heraclitus already had this whole idea in mind when he said "everything tends sooner or later to go over into its opposite." This is what Jung had in mind. That underneath all our planning lives The Unconscious which has its own independent wishes & desires and if they are not in some large & significant way taken into account by our consciousness then the organism will be thwarted from fulfilling its conscious plans.
Thus when we want something too much in our lives and that something is resisting our enjoyment or fulfilment thereof it usually means we have failed to listen to the deep and blind drives of the organism that are alive underneath our visible intentions. This calls for a relaxed attitude. It is akin to what Allan Watts once called THE WISDOM OF INSECURITY. I.e., Watts counselled us to quit hanging on and to stop squeezing and manipulating facts and people in order to achieve our goals. But rather to assume the Zen posture of watchfulness and careful relaxed attention as we go about the business of living. A constant sense of humor is called for in this situation. For the more we push or pull at things the more they resist our claim on them. While when we relax things also tend to flow naturally. Watts often put it this way: when we try to float we sink; when we try to sink we float. That is the wisdom of insecurity. Let yourself go & you will ride on top of the water in agreement with its pressure. Here is how Albert Camus put it in "The Myth Of Sisyphus":
"When the memories of earth cling too tightly to memory, when the call of Happiness becomes too insistent, it happens that melancholy rises in the heart of man."
RLG
According to the theory of Reminiscence we all know potentially everything but we have forgotten. I first encountered this theory in the writings of Plato. Now I am speaking more loosely & from my own experience. Still, that notion is wondrous to me-----the notion of Reminiscence-----that there is knowledge in the world & within us that only needs to be recollected, to be discovered. It is inside our amazing Memories. But somehow we have lost sight of these memories. As we make our way through life we experience Memory jogs that shock us into awareness of past experiences & truths that reveal the very essence of our lives & also the minds with which we perceive our very existences and whereby we give them shape & continuity.
There is another idea I came across In Jung that I am certain is already latent in Plato & has been expressed by other thinkers and that is the principle of Complementarity. The notion that while we make our plans and have our conscious intentions, our goals and our methods, there is within us at the same time a Counter Plan at work in our Unconscious that is totally inaccessible to our concious ego-minds. This is to me an equally wondrous idea. And I wish I had allowed this idea to have more space in my own consciousness through the years. For, of course, we plan this and that adventure and if The Unconscious which is autonomous has Other Plans then we are doomed to fail in our conscious wishes and purposes unless we admit The Unconscious to have adequate Place in our planning & thinking. This is a most powerful Reality---this principle of polarity that flaunts so many of our plans and adventures and can turn ecstasy into agony if we do not admit the negative into our affirmations. Heraclitus already had this whole idea in mind when he said "everything tends sooner or later to go over into its opposite." This is what Jung had in mind. That underneath all our planning lives The Unconscious which has its own independent wishes & desires and if they are not in some large & significant way taken into account by our consciousness then the organism will be thwarted from fulfilling its conscious plans.
Thus when we want something too much in our lives and that something is resisting our enjoyment or fulfilment thereof it usually means we have failed to listen to the deep and blind drives of the organism that are alive underneath our visible intentions. This calls for a relaxed attitude. It is akin to what Allan Watts once called THE WISDOM OF INSECURITY. I.e., Watts counselled us to quit hanging on and to stop squeezing and manipulating facts and people in order to achieve our goals. But rather to assume the Zen posture of watchfulness and careful relaxed attention as we go about the business of living. A constant sense of humor is called for in this situation. For the more we push or pull at things the more they resist our claim on them. While when we relax things also tend to flow naturally. Watts often put it this way: when we try to float we sink; when we try to sink we float. That is the wisdom of insecurity. Let yourself go & you will ride on top of the water in agreement with its pressure. Here is how Albert Camus put it in "The Myth Of Sisyphus":
"When the memories of earth cling too tightly to memory, when the call of Happiness becomes too insistent, it happens that melancholy rises in the heart of man."
RLG
posted by rlg at 1:40 PM
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