The Soul of Awakening, the Awakening of Soul: Meditations on Archetypal Psychology and Koan Zen

Abstract

In the last century, ideas and practices related to Zen Buddhism have profoundly influenced Western culture, shaping not only psychotherapeutic, self-help, and mindfulness movements, but wide-ranging marketing initiatives promoting wellness, ease, and peace of mind. C. G. Jung revered Zen’s wisdom, finding deep parallels with his own work transforming consciousness, yet also feared its appropriation by a Western mindset that conflates enlightenment with transcendence and seeks purity at the expense of psychic wholeness. This dissertation takes up Jung’s concerns anew while also arguing that archetypal psychology offers an invaluable perspective by which the West may be able to receive and integrate Zen more deeply, meaning as alive and generative in its own culture rather than in strict adherence to its recent Japanese roots. Focusing on the image- rich Zen koan tradition and how the perspective of soul in archetypal psychology is uniquely poised to help us better understand koan wisdom, this study seeks to understand both traditions’ nurturing of imagination and creativity, as well as each tradition’s cultivation of intimacy with both the phenomenal world and the Unknown. A dialogue is opened between them in service of renewed meaning, belonging, and joy. It is a qualitative study, in which Jungian and archetypal perspectives were used and an archetypal-hermeneutic method was applied. Guiding literature included Jungian and archetypal foundations, foundations of Zen, Jung’s view of the East, and contemporary koan scholarship.