“Knowing honor, but clinging to disgrace, you become the valley of the world.” – Tao Te Ching, Chapter 28
Food is grown in the valley. Animals find water there and thrive. A town in a valley benefits from the lush environment of the lowlands and the protection of the mountains.
In symbolic language, scaling a mountain can mean achieving a goal, overcoming a problem, becoming someone. This is ego development.
Going downhill, and even being injured or killed, can symbolize ego diminishment.
If understood symbolically, the Taoist quote above expresses a meaning similar to the ninth Beatitude in the Christian Bible:
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” – Matthew 5:11
The interpretation of these images in dreams all depends on a person’s individual growth process. Sometimes development of the ego is the best course. Sometimes sacrifice of the ego opens doors.
The degree to which Western culture overvalues ego development creates confusion for modern people. Carl Jung wrote that ego development is most often a psychological task for the first half of life. Development of relationship with the Self is for the second half of life (Jung, 1933). There are exceptions of course.
Jung characterized the Self as the wise core of each psyche. The Self is the part that knows your greatest potential and guides toward achievement of that (Jung, 1968). When you’re young, it’s important to get a foothold in life. It helps to feel good at something, to achieve things, to be praised and recognized.
But at some point, the ego is strong and you may be able to make the common good a higher priority than ego development. This can involve a radical change in psychological orientation. For instance, if Stephanie trained as a speed skater and won nationals, she would have become very competitive. If she later ran a training school for skaters, she could collaborate more effectively by sacrificing competitiveness. A new form of success would involve cultivating supportiveness for the success of others.
This sounds simple. But sacrificing the winning aces of the past creates inner conflict. The inner champion yells in her mind, “After all we’ve done, you’re going to be a doormat now?!” The expert in her mind shouts, “Don’t listen to them – tell them what you know!” The inner survivor gets anxious, “If you act like this, your business will fall apart. People will think you’re weak.”
A different person could have started life with an idea of collaboration as success and then be called to do the opposite in later years. Development processes are highly individualized.
If we look at the ninth Beatitude as a form of psychological judo, it shows how to change dynamically. It coaches toward the radical shift in orientation: ‘Be prepared for internal resistance against change; endure the voices of resistance and don’t give in to them. This will foster good fortune.’
Works Cited
Jung, C.G. Analytical Psychology: Its Theory and Practice (The Tavistock Lectures). Vintage Books, 1968.
Jung, C.G. Modern Man in Search of a Soul. Harcourt, 1933.
May, Herbert G. & Metzger, Bruce M. (editors). The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha: Revised Standard Version. Oxford University Press, 1977.
Taoistic: Taoism Explained. “Tao Quotes on War and Violence.”https://www.taoistic.com/taoquotes/taoquotes-19-war-violence.htm. Accessed January 25, 2021.