Synchronicity
Since we are surrounded by several kinds of writing task, once we have gotten busy with some writings such as emails, articles or business letters, we have missed some other wrings such as blog diary, private poetry and so on. In my case when I have received a lot of emails, then sometimes I have spent most of my writing time just to reply to them. Of course it is also enjoyable in one way or another.
One interesting thing is that such email responding task tends to come to me not randomly but more "periodically." I do not know why, but it is like this: When I receive emails, I receive them more and more at the same time; and I get busy to reply to them. On the other hand, when I receive very few emails, I really tend to receive fewer. It seems that there must be a weird law behind – if I generalize it, looks like when you are busy, you tend to get really busier and busier, while when you are not so busy, you are not really so busy.
If I use somewhat a silly example, when you receive a job offer, only in this timing you receive some other job offers, too, and you have to choose one of them. However, when you are trying hard to look for a job and yet cannot find anything, you really feel that any kinds of job are escaping from you as if they know you and they really avoid you. Even the courtship has the same tendency. Suppose you are female and one guy starts courting you, and you are shocked or pleased, and then mysteriously only in this timing some other guys who had not seemingly interested in you, has also suddenly started courting you. Or else, when I am invited for dinner, again mysteriously enough some other friends whom I have not met for a long time have suddenly called me up to invite for dinner. When one needs my help, somehow only in the same timing some other persons also need my help. Or when I need this person's help, somehow only in the same timing others also need this same person's help and this person gets stuck.
I am not sure if we can also call this synchronicity. But one thing I am sure is that when one thing has happened, the similar things additionally tend to happened at the same time, and yet the first happening does not necessarily and even not logically triggered the other additional happenings. They have just come together at the same time – probably it might be called a kind of synchronicity.
Incidentally, the right definition of synchronicity is like this: if both "A" and "B" happened at the same time but both are not necessarily connected in a rational-logic sense, this is called synchronicity. For example, when an old priest passed away, at the same time the old clock in the church that he worked in his whole life was also stopped. There is no logical relation between the old priest and the old clock; hence, this relation manifests synchronicity. Although the term is named by Jung, this way of thinking has been well-known and even authoritatively practiced in our society especially as inherited from the legacy of pre-modern values such as fortune telling and horoscope, etc.
We also call this way of thinking the magico-mythical membership. For, in the pre-modern period the tie of the community was maintained by the magical sorcery and the mythical legend. And such narrative can also enforce the membership of the people in the community – in this case community means tribal groups, ethno-religious entities, etc. Thus, if the members want to see their origin such as where they come from, then what they can do is to see their mythic legend that is shared by all the members.
If they want to see the future and the fate of their community including themselves, then they tend to rely on the magical sorcery. As we can easily see, both mythical legend and magical sorcery are not rely on the rational-logic thinking, but heavily on the synchronistic way of thinking. The mythical legend of the community is the symbolic miniature of the community itself. And to read the fate of the community the magical sorcery to see the omens from diverse natural routines and phenomena was so important, which cannot work without believing in the synchronistic way of thinking.
Such way of thinking is surely inherited and practiced in our lives. As described above, we have the tendency to be amazed by such synchronistic happenings. We are not surprised by the rational-logical causations, but really amazed and feel a certain mystery on the so-called synchronistic causations; we even tend to consider it as so-called divine intervention.
It looks God's manipulation. He did something miraculous for us; that is why it looks unnatural. We tend to think so. But such way of thinking may lead us just to a superstitious belief. Probably God might surprise us with a certain miraculous happening, but what God has done for us is that which make things rather "natural" – not unnatural. If you really understand the meaning of miracle, then you can see a lot of miracles in the natural happenings, not in the unnatural happenings. If things look unnatural, then it is because our shallow expectations bring us such distorted view. While God controls everything, He never does so in the manipulative way that we humans can easily expect. His control is always beyond our expectations.
Thus, if we appreciate the synchronistic happenings because of our expectations, then we have failed to appreciate what is truly happening on earth since such things have been contaminated by our expectations. We call such things probably superstitions. In the premodernity, people used to confuse the true divine controls with the superstitious causations. Probably in the truly deep recognition we can see the truth that everything is connected, but it is NOT such way that we can easily expect and manipulate things with some magical devices. Probably everything has its own "time" to be revealed, and everything has its own "reason" to happen, and also everything has its own "purpose" to be here, but such "time," "reason," and "purpose" can never be manifested in our superstitious expectations and ego-oriented beliefs. I think we really have to keep us from such premodern tendency.
Because of this confusion, many people are still relying on the diverse kinds of fortune-telling, religious fundamentalism, and new age occultism, etc. It is true that we can see God in reflecting and contemplating on the everyday happenings and their interrelation including ourselves; however, this does NOT mean that we indulge ourselves with the pseudo-synchronicity. The true synchronicity is what teaches us that there is certain happenings that cannot be seen based on the rational-logic causations and yet at the same time can keep us from the shallow, ego-oriented, self-indulgent superstitious expectations. We can see God in the everyday happenings, but we cannot put Him down on the ground as the magician / sorcerer / fortune-teller who practices superstitious miracles all the time to deal with our shallow expectations and disappointments.
One interesting thing is that such email responding task tends to come to me not randomly but more "periodically." I do not know why, but it is like this: When I receive emails, I receive them more and more at the same time; and I get busy to reply to them. On the other hand, when I receive very few emails, I really tend to receive fewer. It seems that there must be a weird law behind – if I generalize it, looks like when you are busy, you tend to get really busier and busier, while when you are not so busy, you are not really so busy.
If I use somewhat a silly example, when you receive a job offer, only in this timing you receive some other job offers, too, and you have to choose one of them. However, when you are trying hard to look for a job and yet cannot find anything, you really feel that any kinds of job are escaping from you as if they know you and they really avoid you. Even the courtship has the same tendency. Suppose you are female and one guy starts courting you, and you are shocked or pleased, and then mysteriously only in this timing some other guys who had not seemingly interested in you, has also suddenly started courting you. Or else, when I am invited for dinner, again mysteriously enough some other friends whom I have not met for a long time have suddenly called me up to invite for dinner. When one needs my help, somehow only in the same timing some other persons also need my help. Or when I need this person's help, somehow only in the same timing others also need this same person's help and this person gets stuck.
I am not sure if we can also call this synchronicity. But one thing I am sure is that when one thing has happened, the similar things additionally tend to happened at the same time, and yet the first happening does not necessarily and even not logically triggered the other additional happenings. They have just come together at the same time – probably it might be called a kind of synchronicity.
Incidentally, the right definition of synchronicity is like this: if both "A" and "B" happened at the same time but both are not necessarily connected in a rational-logic sense, this is called synchronicity. For example, when an old priest passed away, at the same time the old clock in the church that he worked in his whole life was also stopped. There is no logical relation between the old priest and the old clock; hence, this relation manifests synchronicity. Although the term is named by Jung, this way of thinking has been well-known and even authoritatively practiced in our society especially as inherited from the legacy of pre-modern values such as fortune telling and horoscope, etc.
We also call this way of thinking the magico-mythical membership. For, in the pre-modern period the tie of the community was maintained by the magical sorcery and the mythical legend. And such narrative can also enforce the membership of the people in the community – in this case community means tribal groups, ethno-religious entities, etc. Thus, if the members want to see their origin such as where they come from, then what they can do is to see their mythic legend that is shared by all the members.
If they want to see the future and the fate of their community including themselves, then they tend to rely on the magical sorcery. As we can easily see, both mythical legend and magical sorcery are not rely on the rational-logic thinking, but heavily on the synchronistic way of thinking. The mythical legend of the community is the symbolic miniature of the community itself. And to read the fate of the community the magical sorcery to see the omens from diverse natural routines and phenomena was so important, which cannot work without believing in the synchronistic way of thinking.
Such way of thinking is surely inherited and practiced in our lives. As described above, we have the tendency to be amazed by such synchronistic happenings. We are not surprised by the rational-logical causations, but really amazed and feel a certain mystery on the so-called synchronistic causations; we even tend to consider it as so-called divine intervention.
It looks God's manipulation. He did something miraculous for us; that is why it looks unnatural. We tend to think so. But such way of thinking may lead us just to a superstitious belief. Probably God might surprise us with a certain miraculous happening, but what God has done for us is that which make things rather "natural" – not unnatural. If you really understand the meaning of miracle, then you can see a lot of miracles in the natural happenings, not in the unnatural happenings. If things look unnatural, then it is because our shallow expectations bring us such distorted view. While God controls everything, He never does so in the manipulative way that we humans can easily expect. His control is always beyond our expectations.
Thus, if we appreciate the synchronistic happenings because of our expectations, then we have failed to appreciate what is truly happening on earth since such things have been contaminated by our expectations. We call such things probably superstitions. In the premodernity, people used to confuse the true divine controls with the superstitious causations. Probably in the truly deep recognition we can see the truth that everything is connected, but it is NOT such way that we can easily expect and manipulate things with some magical devices. Probably everything has its own "time" to be revealed, and everything has its own "reason" to happen, and also everything has its own "purpose" to be here, but such "time," "reason," and "purpose" can never be manifested in our superstitious expectations and ego-oriented beliefs. I think we really have to keep us from such premodern tendency.
Because of this confusion, many people are still relying on the diverse kinds of fortune-telling, religious fundamentalism, and new age occultism, etc. It is true that we can see God in reflecting and contemplating on the everyday happenings and their interrelation including ourselves; however, this does NOT mean that we indulge ourselves with the pseudo-synchronicity. The true synchronicity is what teaches us that there is certain happenings that cannot be seen based on the rational-logic causations and yet at the same time can keep us from the shallow, ego-oriented, self-indulgent superstitious expectations. We can see God in the everyday happenings, but we cannot put Him down on the ground as the magician / sorcerer / fortune-teller who practices superstitious miracles all the time to deal with our shallow expectations and disappointments.
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