Jung cuts against the grain of much spiritual optimism here—the notion that growth comes from aspiration alone, from gazing upward at our best selves. What he's really saying is that the interior work demands we turn toward our own shadows: the petty resentments, the cowardice, the jealousy we'd rather not acknowledge. A person might spend years meditating or reading philosophy, yet remain imprisoned by an unexamined wound or a chronic pattern they refuse to name. Real change requires the uncomfortable courage to sit with what we've hidden, rather than the easier transcendence of imagining ourselves transformed. That's why therapy often feels harder than inspiration—it asks us to befriend the parts of ourselves we've spent years avoiding.