• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.27-64
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• 2010

The main focus of this article investigates Jung's analytic implications of the Spiritual Exercises by St. Ignatius of Loyola. The Exercises is referred to not only as the tool for transformation that transformed Ignatius from a soldier of the world into a soldier of God and led him to a completely changed life but also as a tool which galvanizes self-realization, i.e., individuation process, in which a faithful experiences the presence of God in his life and is in search for himself in a new way. The interest in the Exercises regarded as a Western version of Yoga of the East which is a tool for transformation led Jung to give a series of 20 lectures on the Exercises in a seminar held in Zurich from 1939 to 1940. Curiosity about Jung's understanding on the Exercises provokes my desire to step into this research. The Exercises is a book for spiritual exercises that prepare and dispose one's soul to rid itself of all disordered attachments and to order one's life. The Exercises is made up of four Weeks. The First begins with 'Principle and Foundation' which illustrates what human beings are created for. It leads retreatants to rid themselves of disordered attachments and to have a new perspective on life by the consideration and contemplation of sins as the subversion of the Principle and Foundation. The Second is the period in which retreatants accept Christ as the Master of their lives through the meditation and contemplation of the life of Christ. In the Third, retreatants take part in the salvation history of Christ not only by actively participating in the Passion of Christ but also by incorporating the Passion into their lives. The Fourth aids retreatants to undergo their transformation and experience it deeply in order to participate in the new life of Christ who by His resurrection overcame death. In conclusion, Jung viewed the Exercises as a Western tool which plays the similar role of Yoga of the East which engenders inner transformation. The four-week-long retreat helps retreatants to meditate on God who unifies everything and is Himself/Herself the perfect union or the unity so that imperfect retreatants are given opportunities to undergo complete metamorphosis into the immortal, indivisible, and impeccable God. Jung understood that this metamorphosis leads human beings to the totality, that is, the genuine self as the image of God. The author interprets that it is the transformation that the Exercises tries to attain, which resonates with individuation, the key element of analytic psychology.