ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the nature of the experience of the loss and recovery of transcendence from a Jungian perspective and from the perspective of the Hua-Yen School of Buddhism and offers some ways that this Buddhist perspective can be a useful therapeutic tool. At the beginning of 1916 Jung experienced a mysterious event in his house, which led to "Septem sermones ad morteos" and the third part of The Red Book, "Scrutinies." Jung's house was said to be filled with the spirits. Just the beginning of the "Septem Sermones ad Morteos," there are introductory words: "The seven Sermons to the Dead written by Basilides in Alexandria, the City where the East touches the West." The Hua-Yen School is situated between two extreme positions and can mediate both. Jung's idea in the sermons of Philemon also has an affinity to Gnosticism.