The Enemy That Needs Love

"Perhaps, I myself am the enemy who needs to be loved."

~Carl Jung~

When I engage in an illusion that others are the enemy it is time to look inward and see what my outer world is reflecting of my inner self.  I often find this difficult to do, but if I stay my course of honest inner reflection I realize that, as Jung points out, I am the enemy who needs to be loved.

There are times when if I am avoiding this inner awareness my dreams begin to stalk me.  I may dream I am being followed and the landscape can range from an urban street to a jungle.  The landscape is alive with other presences that I sense hidden in the shadows and foliage.  I cautiously move through these dreamscapes as I try to understand the danger.

 

I am being followed by jaguars, cougars, tigers, bears, eagles, and hawks.  Wild animals that are waiting for me to recognize them and merge with the wisdom they hold for me.  It is so easy to see these as an enemy just as I do with what is being reflected by my outer world; when they really are aspects of me that only need to be loved and accepted.

It is amazing how the mind so quickly and effortlessly transforms these things into the enemy.  The mind and the intellect hold their power through fear, but the heart changes fear into understanding, acceptance, and love.  Maybe the only enemy I face is ME.

Buddha is to have said that what we think, we become, and it is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.  So by conquering myself and my fears my enemy no longer has the power to hold me captive.  A gentle transformation through the loci of my power from head to heart frees me from fear, and now I can freely move through my waking and my dreaming space.

As this happens I stand at the center of myself and realize how each aspect from within is reflected in both the outer waking and the inner dreaming place.  Each thing reflects my fears and offers me a way to resolve these fears if I chose to.  I must face them both in my dream time and in my waking space. As this happens I realize that my fears are products of the illusions that the world presents to me.  When I do this this illusion created by the smoke and mirrors evaporates in the light of truth. 

I realize that my enemy is only a part of me that I have yet to integrate.  Integration of these unrecognized parts of self lets me reach peace with enemies, inner and outer.  

Fear keeps us locked away from our authenticity.  Many have been told that they are the product of original sin when, in fact, they are the result of original blessing.  If we are really created in our creators image then how are we a product of sin?  And if we don't believe in the concept of a divine being then there is no sin to be a product of so we can enter life guilt free.

But, and this is the caveat, being guilt free does not leave us free from fear.  The moment of birth is filled with trauma; when we each must leave the womb and become a living breathing being on our own.  We are born helpless and completely dependent on others for our survival, which was guaranteed while we were in the womb.  This original fear can follow us our entire lives.  This fear can cause us to be the enemy that Jung says needs to be loved.  

We are a product of original fear, not sin, and until we can know and accept this we cannot offer ourselves, the enemy, unconditional love. We must sit down with our fears, begin a dialog with them, and welcome them into our lives.  They are not the enemy; they are merely the discarded and non  assimilated parts of self; they are fear.  When welcomed into our being and accepted as a part of us they lose their frightening qualities.

The stalking animals of my dreams as with the people and situations in my outer life are symbols of my inner states of emotion that I must make peace with.  As long as I am afraid of these symbols or situations I will not be able to integrate these as a part of me.  So I fear the stalking jaguar or the bag woman on the street and I attempt to avoid merging with what these symbols represent for me.  I remain separate surrounding myself with barriers that fear creates hoping to retain the edge of my being me.  In time I come to understand it is my fears that support and sustain my self illusions.
  
Rather than an external enemy we all are really engaged in the struggle from within.  It is time to sit down with this enemy and understand that it is as Jung points out: "Perhaps, I myself am the enemy who needs to be loved."