u/Altruistic_Hope_2559

>"Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise." — Samuel Lover.

I used to spend way too much time blaming my surroundings for why I wasn't getting anywhere. Lately, I'm really trying to shift my mindset and actually use these challenges as tools instead of relying on them as excuses.

How do you guys handle tough moments when you're just trying not to lose momentum?

The waiter looks at him sternly, "No sir, I'm very sure he intends to eat it himself."

Full quote:

>“Remember, it is not enough to be hit or insulted to be harmed, you must believe that you are being harmed. If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation. Which is why it is essential that we not respond impulsively to impressions; take a moment before reacting, and you will find it easier to maintain control.”

― Epictetus, The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness and Effectiveness

>“There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.”
― Carl Gustav Jung

C. G. Jung, "The Stages of Life" (1931; in German *Die Lebenswende*), in "The Collected Works of C. G. Jung", vol. 8: "he Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche", trans. R. F. C. Hull, Princeton University Press, 1969, § 787.

It seems cliché, until you look closely, sadness.

The instinct - at least mine - when faced with sadness is to treat it as something that isn't right: something that needs to be fixed quickly. Jung changes the perspective: darkness is not an error of the system, it is part of the structure of the whole system. Just as a year made only of days is unthinkable, a psyche made only of light is not a complete psyche: it is a incomplete psyche, because sadness is needed to understand happiness.

And I don't think Jung's quote is superficial, but behind it there is an entire structure that supports the psyche:

>Compensation: The human psyche regulates itself, this mechanism acts equally on both a conscious and unconscious level, generating a form of self-regulation: someone who appears introverted on a conscious level will be extroverted in their unconscious part, on the contrary, a person who appears very extroverted on a conscious level will have a strongly introverted component in their unconscious.

>Enantiodromia: As the manifestation of our unconscious opposite at a given moment. Many of us will demonstrate behavior contrary to what has been our way of being.

>The importance of opposites: C.G. Jung takes opposites into consideration starting from the principle that psychic life is a self-regulating system that cannot reach equilibrium except through a contemperation of opposites which can express themselves either in the form of enantiodromia or in that of coniunctio oppositorum

Note: My ideal night would be a night of spiritual wealth, not of material wealth. And my ideal days, currently, are sad days: referring to Jung, I understand that they serve precisely this purpose - to understand what true happiness is.

The questions I carry with me and turn to you:

Was there a "night" in your life that, looking back, gave depth or meaning to a later phase?

Where does the line lie between accepting sadness as significant and resigning oneself to suffering? Does Jung trace it somewhere, or not at all?

How can this vision be reconciled with the obligatory positivity of today's culture?

For you, in the end, is this phrase a comfort or a challenge in life?

Note: No use of Ai - written and edited by me, forgive me for some errors in English.

>“Understanding does not cure evil, but it is a definite help, inasmuch as one can cope with a comprehensible darkness.” — Carl Jung, Psyche and Symbol (1958)

What grabs me here is that Jung isn’t claiming understanding makes evil disappear. We don’t wipe out the darkness by knowing about it - it just shifts our relationship with it.

This makes me think of the whole Shadow concept: we don’t really control what’s buried deep in our unconscious, but we can notice our own thoughts and actions, and own up to them.

That’s probably why a “comprehensible darkness” is something we can handle. We’re never going to clean out every bad impulse or weird urge inside us - but if we know what’s driving them, we’ve at least got a shot at stopping ourselves before we act them out.

Still, there’s a pretty thin line between understanding and making excuses, and the quote sort of sidesteps that. Just because you get why those darker parts are there, does it ever really make them okay?

Where do you draw the line between “understanding our nature” and just dodging responsibility?

I have come across a modern interpretation of Kierkegaard’s work recently, and wanted to share it with you all:

“I see it all perfectly; there are two possibilities – one can do this or that. My personal opinion and advice to you is – do it or do not do it, you will regret it either way.”

This is, of course, a paraphrase of Either/Or, in which Kierkegaard wrote “Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it…” referring to his own thoughts on women and marriage.
I think this quote captures the existential dread of having to make conscious decisions beautifully – one regrets what one does, and one regrets what one does not.

It encapsulates the feeling of loss and of wasted potential that comes with every choice, since choosing one option over another generally means abandoning the other, and regretting the loss. Is the thought of “doing the right thing” as Kierkegaard suggests even comforting?
Is it a relief to admit that no matter what choice you make, you will always regret it (because what you did not choose will always be there, a ghost of the possibility you gave up on)? Does it free us, or does it constrain us?

“We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same. We are united by the reality that all colours and all cultures are distinct & individual. We are harmonious in the reality that we are all held to this earth by the same gravity. We don't share blood, but we share the air that keeps us alive. I will not blind myself and say that my black brother is not different from me. I will not blind myself and say that my brown sister is not different from me. But my black brother is he as much as I am me. But my brown sister is she as much as I am me.”
― C. JoyBell C.