Yes it interests me how people are drawn to different paths and even differences in some aspects paths have as well. For instance although Uwe and I share similarities in the practice of Kriya we do follow some different gurus in our practice. I have yet to learn what differences and similarities our paths may have. While, I do know that Yogananda discussed the importance of dreams, I do not feel that as a general rule he supported a view as strong as for instance Carl Jung or the Sufi’s approach. And though I love spending time with Amma and her activities to help humanity I don’t see her spiritual approach as disciplining as for instance Yogananda’s approach to meditation. Hers is more a path of karma yoga, where as, Yogananda’s is a combination of his own spiritual disciplines, he created and the Kriya teachings of Lahiri Mahayasi and Babaji. Sri Yukteswar was more of a Jyana yogi.
I have more of an interest in dreams than say Amma or Yogananda in their teachings. Perhaps it is because I have an interest in psychologists who have had the most interest in using dream analyses to help others in their unfolding understanding of conscious and unconscious manifesting in living life with others. Paramahansa Yogananda has told us that the dream life we have at night is to remind us that when we return from our nightly sojourns, there is yet another dream to wake up from which we share in an amnesia state with the others we face in our day to day lives. I believe the psychological concept that we are all fragmented to a larger or a smaller degree in our conscious approach to experiencing life. This is because of unconscious parts of our personality which are submerged and fragmented from us, as we limit our awareness to those personality quirks we have become accustomed to express. Supplementing our consciousness with dream analyses from the unconscious can help us integrate a larger consciousness.
Although all approaches lead to the one goal. Let us look at the unique process and features of Carl Jung’s approach…
Steps of the Individuation Process
The individuation is an autonomous process of accomplishing of the individual wholeness experienced as a psychological completeness. In Jung's terms, the individuation means the realization of the Self , which is the conjunction of the conscious and the unconscious. In the practical accomplishment of this goal, the interpretation of the dreams plays a dominant role because dreams are the expression of the unconscious, both of the personal and of the collective one.
In regards to the collective unconscious; I believe this concept more closely fits the Masters we are familiar with in their views of what enlightenment, self realization, samadhi and satori represent.
I can’t say that I agree in totality to Jung’s approach to psychology because as you know I’m more focused on meditation to ‘actualize’ all unconsciousness activity but certainly dreams can help in this process.
It is possible to establish a set of steps which take us to the final goal. See link below…
https://carl-jung.net/individuation_steps.html"Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation, and the personality too desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions and to experience itself as a whole". C. G. Jung - Memories Dreams, Reflections, Vintage Books, 1989
