An introduction to Zen Buddhism

FOREWORD

pletely unspecified. As psychiatric experience with insanity

shows, peculiar relations exist between the contents of the

consciousandthedelusionsanddeliriathatbreakinuponit.

Theyarethesamerelationsas existbetweenthedreamsand

theworking conscious ofnormal men. Theconnection is in

substanceacompensatory^relationships:thecontentsoftheuncon-
sciousbringtothesurfaceeverythingnecessary^inthebroadest
senseforthecompletion,i.e.thecompleteness,ofconsciousorientation.
Ifthefragmentsofferedby,orforcedupfrom,theunconscious
aresuccessfullybuilt intothe lifeofthe conscious, apsychic
existenceformresults, whichcorrespondsbetterto the whole
oftheindividual personality, and thereforeabolishesfruitless
conflictbetweentheconsciousandtheunconsciouspersonality.

Modem psycho-therapy rests upon this principle, inasmuch

as itwasabletobreakawayfromthehistoricprejudicethat

theunconscious harboursonly infantile andmorally inferior
contents. Thereiscertainlyaninferiorcomer,alumber-room

ofdirtysecrets,whicharehowevernotsomuchunconsciousas

hiddenandonlyhalfforgotten.Butthishasaboutasmuchto

dowiththewholeoftheunconsciousasahollowtoothhaswith

thecompletepersonality.Theunconsciousisthematrixofall

metaphysicalassertions,ofallmythology,allphilosophy(inso
farasitisnotmerelycritical) andallformsoflifewhichare
baseduponpsychologicalsuppositions.
Everyinvasionoftheunconsciousisananswertoadefinite
conditionofthe conscious, and this answerfollows fromthe
wholeoftheidea-possibilitiesthatarepresent;thatistosay,
fromthecompletedispositionwhich,as explainedabove, isa

simultaneousimageinpotentiaofpsychicexistence.Thesplitting

upinto the single, the one-sided, the fragmentary character

suitstheessence oftheconscious. Thereactionfromthedis-

positionalwayshasthecharacterofcompleteness,asitcorres-
pondswith anature whichhasnotbeendivided upbyany

Moreprobablethanonethatispurelycomplementary.
ForthisImustreferthereadertomedico-psychologicalspecialistlitera-
ture.
*This"necessity"isaworkinghypothesis.Peoplecanbe,andare,ofvery
differentopinionsaboutit.Forinstance,arereligiousconceptions"necessary"?
Onlythecourseoftheindividuallifecandecidethis,i.e.individualexperience.
Therearenoabstractcriteriaforthis,