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anitaashland's review against another edition
5.0
Given that Hollis is, through his writings, something of a psychopomp for me, his books get an automatic 5 stars.
I always appreciate how he weaves in literary references with his Jungian insights, such as:
"And how meaningful is Beckett's admonition is to me today: 'Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.' Rilke's paradoxical words also draw me onward still toward the unlived life that haunts all of us. Our task, he writes, is to be 'continuously defeated by ever-larger things.' While the ego is apprehensive about the idea of defeat, the soul welcomes such ego defeat and the expansion that comes from ever-larger challenges. And Rilke adds, each of us may find "room for a second huge and timeless life.'
The theme of his book can be summarized in two words: show up.
"All of us fail in so many ways to show up, to step into the largeness of the soul...Psychopathology, literally translated from its Greek roots, means 'the expression of the suffering of the soul.' Why would the soul suffer if it did not have its own will, its own desires, its own plan - all of which are thwarted by the ministries of fate, by the derailments of our adaptations, and by our complex-driven choices...The greatest haunting we all suffer is the lost relationship to the soul."
"As one of those exemplary figures who summon us to sacrifice the ego's petty agenda, Jesus, put it, "Not my will but Thine" (or Dante's phrase, in la sua voluntade e nostra pace, 'in his will is our peace'). All of this is much more than the ego bargained for, desires, or feels comfortable in confronting. But the alternative, the flight from individuation, is worse. Then we are stuck with our frightened, diminished selves, in love with possessions which disappoint, power which fails us always, and presumption which always proves in sufficient. To be stuck in such narrowed quarters is to bump up against our inauthentic being, over and over, which is a form of hell...When we observe and serve the mystery found in nature, in each other, in ourselves, in good work, we are living on the edge and grow inevitably, and we are thereby rewarded by the inherent richness of the journey."
I always appreciate how he weaves in literary references with his Jungian insights, such as:
"And how meaningful is Beckett's admonition is to me today: 'Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.' Rilke's paradoxical words also draw me onward still toward the unlived life that haunts all of us. Our task, he writes, is to be 'continuously defeated by ever-larger things.' While the ego is apprehensive about the idea of defeat, the soul welcomes such ego defeat and the expansion that comes from ever-larger challenges. And Rilke adds, each of us may find "room for a second huge and timeless life.'
The theme of his book can be summarized in two words: show up.
"All of us fail in so many ways to show up, to step into the largeness of the soul...Psychopathology, literally translated from its Greek roots, means 'the expression of the suffering of the soul.' Why would the soul suffer if it did not have its own will, its own desires, its own plan - all of which are thwarted by the ministries of fate, by the derailments of our adaptations, and by our complex-driven choices...The greatest haunting we all suffer is the lost relationship to the soul."
"As one of those exemplary figures who summon us to sacrifice the ego's petty agenda, Jesus, put it, "Not my will but Thine" (or Dante's phrase, in la sua voluntade e nostra pace, 'in his will is our peace'). All of this is much more than the ego bargained for, desires, or feels comfortable in confronting. But the alternative, the flight from individuation, is worse. Then we are stuck with our frightened, diminished selves, in love with possessions which disappoint, power which fails us always, and presumption which always proves in sufficient. To be stuck in such narrowed quarters is to bump up against our inauthentic being, over and over, which is a form of hell...When we observe and serve the mystery found in nature, in each other, in ourselves, in good work, we are living on the edge and grow inevitably, and we are thereby rewarded by the inherent richness of the journey."