Life Challenges

Creative Ways to Transform Challenges:
Simplifying Your Life

Getting in touch with basics: A story about C.J. Jung Tyra Arraj with James Arraj

C.G. Jung, the famous Swiss psychologist, bought a piece of rural land on the edge of Lake Zurich and built a tower for himself out of stone. In the middle of a successful career he would leave the city, chop wood, start up a fire and cook a simple meal. Why? Because to be modern was not enough. He needed to return to the basic elements of life, and by "going back", by leaving technological sophistication behind for a while, by becoming a friend of the simple life, he became friends with quieter, subtler, whispered melodies and harmonies. In letting civilization loosen its physical hold on him he found that its mental chains would fall away as well. By walking in the woods and stoking the fire while he listened to the wind whistle around his tower, by gazing at the stars and hearing animals scurry about he felt a new peace with himself, and he did some of his most serious work there as well. To go to his tower became a special time for him where he could enjoy simple pleasures, and it was an excellent opportunity for deep conversations and new discoveries. His tower grew over the years as an expression of his inner voyage towards wholeness that embodied both nature and psyche.

Jung's work meant a lot to us even before we moved to the forest. It had helped us understand each other and weather the stresses and strains of trying to carve out a new life. It eventually let us see a deeper meaning to what we were doing. We were not simply working with wood, fire, soil and water. We were working on ourselves as well. Even the buildings we made have a symbolic dimension. Without us consciously intending it, like Jung's tower they have grown as an expression of this inner work.

From The Treasures of Simple Living: A Family's Search for a Simpler and More Meaningful Life in the Middle of a Forest by Tyra Arraj with James Arraj, Tools for Inner Growth, Chiloquin, OR, 1987, pp.125-126.

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