Why is psychology the youngest of the empirical sciences? Why have we not long since discovered the unconscious and raised up its treasure-house of eternal images?:
Simply because we had a religious formula for everything psychicand one that is far more beautiful and comprehensive than immediate experience. Though the Christian view of the world has paled for many people, the symbolic treasure-rooms of the East are still full of marvels that can nourish for a long time to come the passion for show and new clothes. What is more, these imagesbe they Christian or Buddhist or what you willare lovely, mysterious, richly intuitive
CW9.1 ¶ 11SYMBOLS BECOME BANAL AND
SUPERFICIAL WITH CONSTANT USAGE
Naturally, the more familiar we are with symbols the more does constant usage polish them smooth, so that what remains is only banal superficiality and meaningless paradox. The mystery of the Virgin Birth, or the homoousia of the Son with the Father, or the Trinity which is nevertheless not a triadthese no longer lend wings to any philosophical fancy. They have stiffened into mere objects of belief
CW9.1 ¶ 11So it is not surprising if the religious need, the believing mind, and the philosophical speculations of the educated European are attracted by the symbols of the Eastthose grandiose conceptions of divinity in India and the abysms of Taoist philosophy in Chinajust as once before the heart and mind of the men of antiquity were gripped by Christian ideas
CW9.1 ¶ 11There are many Europeans who began by surrendering completely to the influence of the Christian symbol until they landed themselves in a Kierkegaardian neurosis, or whose relation to God, owing to the progressive impoverishment of symbolism, developed into an unbearably sophisticated I-You relationshiponly to fall victims in their turn to the magic and novelty of Eastern symbols
CW9.1 ¶ 11This surrender is not necessarily a defeat; rather it proves the receptiveness and vitality of the religious sense. We can observe much the same thing in the educated Oriental, who not infrequently feels drawn to the Christian symbol or to the science that is so unsuited to the Oriental mind, and even develops an enviable understanding of them
CW9.1 ¶ 11I can best illustrate my meaning by taking as an example the Swiss mystic and hermit, Brother Nicholas of Flüe, who has recently been canonized. Probably his most important religious experience was the so-called Trinity Vision, which preoccupied him to such an extent that he painted it, or had it painted, on the wall of his cell
CW9.1 ¶ 12