inflation or egocentricity

When you have earned your enlightenment at the cost of the deep inner journey, your first reaction is often to personalize this experience, to own it somehow. Faust tries to embrace Helen of Troy, to have a personal relationship with her, she vanishes in a huge explosion, Faust is burned and nearly destroyed by attempting to have the wrong kind of relationship to the archetypal world … a serious mistake, as do most people who travel this far on their inner road. Archetypes and archetypal energy are bigger than we are; we cannot try to embrace that energy without causing a psychological explosion.

The word ordinariness is derived from ordered, and ordinariness is the very best medicine for inflation or egocentricity. To embrace that which is ordinary can restore us to human dimensions and can purge the inflation. An iconoclast needs to learn that a little reason and discipline (Wagner) are not hindrances on his way to heaven.

linked mentions for "inflation or egocentricity":

1. holding onto helen’s garment

   It is the universal experience of one on the path to grasp at the tools of genius when he encounters these sublime realms. Pain often compels us to