Universally Human

Everything in us - sensations, emotions, thoughts - and our relationships to the inner and outer world, reflect universally human experiences. Although in each case, with its own distinct flavor.

Separation

When awareness is identified with the processes of the personality, it experiences the world in a dualistic way. There is not only an inner and outer, a me and it/you/they, but there is a strong sense of separation between them. Awareness then perceives the inner world, the personality, as very different from the outer world in general, and from the inner processes of other human beings in particular. We are special. This leads to awareness attaching itself to and fueling emotional/thought patterns that we label guilt, shame, pride, arrogance, etc. Awareness genuinely perceives these patterns as substantial and valid.

No Separation

When awareness perceives itself as distinct from the inner processes, it functions in a more transdual way. It has more of an overview, and sees that there is a distinction between inner and outer phenomena, but no separation. They are part of one fluid whole, mutually dependent and influencing each other. There may be a distinct flavor of the processes unfolding within a particular person, but they are also recognized as universally human. The additional strain of perceiving oneself as "special" falls away. What comes up is empathy - from seeing what's in this particular inner world also out there, and the other way around.

Jung

Jung's tremendously valuable work, focuses on this level - the universally human. How God manifests as a human. It looks at universally human experiences, reflected in the archetypes. It is transpersonal in the sense that it looks at the universally human (beyond each person), but still "personal" in the sense that it focuses on the processes of the human organism and personality (meaning inner processes of sensations, emotions, thoughts). It can lead to us towards wholeness as a human individual - wholeness within mind and embracing mind/body - and to the brink of something more accurately transpersonal.

Jung had a dream late in life where he went in to a cave, and saw himself sleeping and in a meditation posture. He knew that if he - as the sleeping meditator - would wake up, he - as Jung - would die. This is another indication that his work, and outlook, brought him to the brink of the transpersonal - although not quite over the edge.

If the meditator woke up, he would wake up to Big Mind, and Jung as a separate entity would cease to exists. There would of course still be a small self, but it would function within a larger context.