One of the frames of reference for interpreting reality that I adopt is the Jungian theory of the four psychological functions (sensation, feeling, intuition, and thinking), which I have paired with the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality (via positiva, via negativa, via creativa, and via transformativa). As we have seen from Matthew in Tuesday’s DM, these also overlap very well with Joanna Macy’s understanding of life. It is, in my view, an archetypal frame that is extremely helpful.
If we explore this fourfold archetype a bit deeper, we discover that Jung never described thinking as merely abstract, but always as paired with social and political action, which is the same, with compassion, as via transformativa.
Also, both Jung and Fox identify a profound subterranean link between via transformativa/thinking/compassion and via negativa/feeling/pain.
Fox explains that those who do not feel the pain of others are unlikely to ever act in their favor. Compassion —he writes — is often born of a broken heart, and all persons who live fully have their hearts broken… When our guts turn over, passion for justice-making begins.*
But Jung discovered through his psychological practice that a person whose dominant function is thinking finds it hard to deal with feelings, and likewise, a person whose dominant function is feeling finds it hard to think and act clearly. He also says that the key to wholeness for all people resides in their lower function. This means that if I am mostly feeling, I must learn to think in order to be able to act coherently in the world; but if I am mostly thinking, I must delve into feeling in order to find motivation and values to energize my actions.
One of the takeaways from this is that values are born not in the head but in the heart. More precisely, although values can be discussed through verbal language, they don’t originate from the intellect, but from feeling. Values need then to be implemented and realized in the world by means of thinking/action.
When Albert Einstein was saying that values do not originate in thinking, but in intuition, he was likely operating out of a dual construct. He was right in maintaining that no amount of rational discussion can ever generate values. His fight for a more comprehensive understanding of the human being, then, too often reduced to “his” ideas, was very valuable. But the best name for the source of values, in a quadripartite scheme, is feeling.
All of this matters a lot in our present circumstances for a number of reasons:
- the current attack on empathy amounts to attacking the source of values, making it impossible to act for justice;
- the aim of the present regime is to make the population become unfeeling;
- rational conversation is very important, but it cannot make up for a compromised feeling function;
- feeling by itself risks to become sentimentality — which is a travesty of feeling — but unless we restore its proper function to feeling, both in the self and in society, all our efforts will be in vain.
*Quote from Matthew Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth, p. 25
Banner Image: “Four Paths” Via Positiva: “Sunset Radiance” by Artem Sapegin on Unsplash. Via Negativa: A firefighter and koala confront a bushfire, South Australia. Photo from Eden Hills Country Fire Service . Via Creativa: Dancers, Istanbul, Turkey. Photo by Hulki Okan Tabak on Unsplash. Via Transformativa: A vicar is arrested during the Extinction Rebellion protests. Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you consider yourself more leaning toward thinking or toward feeling? Can you think of strategies to bring back feeling and empathy to their proper place in society?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ
Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
2 thoughts on “Feeling(s) as Source of Values”
Learning Nonviolent Communication has truly transformed me. I’ve shifted from thinking-driven strategies to connecting more deeply with my own and others’ feelings and needs. Seeing actions as expressions of fundamental needs now grounds my empathy—for myself and those around me. This shift has led to richer, heart-centered relationships and pursuits. My strongest training in these practices came from Baba Tree International, whose inspiring vision is a world where everyone can foster peace within themselves and others, sharing this wisdom across generations.
Feeling is an important function in Jungian psychology along with thinking, sensation, and intuition for a wholistic development of our unique spiritual Self archetype, awareness/consciousness of Our True Heart Self/Eternal Soul. The mystics, saints, and prophets remind us by their lives and universal teachings that We’re All Sacred Unique Parts/Sparks and incarnations of Our Living Compassionate Source~Co-Creator’s Spirit of Divine Love~Wisdom… PRESENT in All physical/nonphysical Spiritual Beings and dimensions of Our Evolving Cosmos Creation and Subtle Spiritual Realms of LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….