94. LOMAHAṀSA-JĀTAKA – Beyond the Knot: The Silence. Gerardo Santo, Jung and the Middle Way
From extreme renunciation to inner freedom: a journey through Buddhism, depth psychology and apophatic spirituality.
The cover: the knot of the two paths
The cover introduces the central theme of this video essay: the tension between two apparently opposite ways of seeking liberation. On one side stands radical renunciation, which can turn into spiritual pride; on the other, attachment to the world, to desire and to the images through which the ego seeks confirmation of itself.
The knot becomes the symbolic image of this opposition. Its golden threads evoke the invisible bond connecting the polarities: spirit and body, purity and desire, asceticism and worldliness. What seems to divide them may, in fact, arise from the same root.
The presence of Gerardo Santo, placed within a symbolic landscape between East and West, suggests a third possibility: neither choosing one extreme against the other nor remaining trapped between them, but moving through the contradiction until its nature becomes visible.
The deep blue, gold and shadows do not merely create a mystical atmosphere. They form the visual language of an inner journey, in which light does not defeat darkness but allows us to look at it without becoming its prisoner.
The video: five movements towards the Middle Way
The video consists of thirteen slides arranged in five narrative sequences, accompanied by narration and music. The Lomahaṁsa-Jātaka is interwoven with the symbolic story of Gerardo Santo, creating a journey from opposition towards silence.
1. The Knot of the Two Paths – The fascination of extremes
The journey begins with the figure of the ascetic seeking liberation through absolute renunciation. Yet renunciation, when it becomes an image of oneself, can turn into another form of attachment. Even the desire to be pure can become a prison.
2. The Body and the Shadow – False purity
The body becomes the place onto which inner conflict is projected. The shadow emerges behind the appearance of virtue, revealing what consciousness would rather conceal. Gerardo Santo recognises that even spiritual seeking can nourish pride and the need to feel different from others.
3. The Mirror of Two Profiles – The conflict of polarities
Two faces, two attitudes, two apparently irreconcilable images reflect one another. Through a Jungian reading, they can be understood as psychological polarities: the ascetic and the worldly person, renunciation and desire, light and shadow. Conflict persists as long as each side seeks to dominate the other.
4. The Middle Way – Letting go of renunciation itself
Gerardo walks through a landscape in which East and West seem to merge. The profiles lose their rigidity and the knot begins to loosen. Freedom does not mean conquering the world, but neither does it mean escaping from it. It means no longer being imprisoned by desire or by the image of one's own renunciation.
5. Beyond the Knot: The Silence – The symphonic reading
In the final sequence, the knot dissolves. There is no longer any need to choose between two opposing identities. The landscape opens, divisions fade and Gerardo stands before a space that does not need to be conquered or defined.
The video then reaches its symphonic reading, where the Jātaka, Jungian psychology and apophatic spirituality meet without being reduced to a single explanation. The final silence is not an intellectual conclusion, but an opening towards what cannot be contained in a definition.
The Lomahaṁsa-Jātaka: when renunciation becomes another prison
The Lomahaṁsa-Jātaka invites us to question the meaning of spiritual practice and the danger of confusing liberation with the mortification of the body.
External renunciation does not guarantee inner freedom. An austere way of life may conceal the desire for recognition, moral superiority or attachment to a spiritual identity. The appearance of liberation can become another form of dependence.
The Middle Way is not a superficial compromise between two extremes. It is a transformation of vision: no longer feeding the conflict between body and spirit, pleasure and renunciation, the world and transcendence.
Jung: recognizing the shadow without identifying with it
Depth psychology offers another key to this journey. The shadow is not simply what we consider negative and refuse to acknowledge. It is also a part of our psychic life which, when left unobserved, may act unconsciously.
The two confronting profiles represent inner division. The ascetic may project his shadow onto the world, while the worldly person may condemn in the ascetic what he fears to encounter within himself.
The path towards integration does not consist in suppressing one of the two figures, but in recognising the conflict and stepping beyond its demand for domination.
The apophatic dimension: not this, not that
The apophatic perspective takes the journey further. Even freedom can become an idea to which we cling. Even silence can turn into an image we seek to possess. Even renunciation can become a subtle form of ego.
The knot therefore does not dissolve through another achievement, but when the need to tighten it disappears.
The expression “not this, not that” does not mean escaping reality. Rather, it invites us not to identify being with any of the images through which we attempt to define it.
Gerardo Santo: a journey beyond images
In the story set in Muro Lucano, Southern Italy, during the first half of the eighteenth century, Gerardo Santo symbolically undergoes the same trial. He encounters the images of renunciation, discipline and the desire for purity, but gradually understands that even the pursuit of perfection can become a form of imprisonment.
His journey does not end in a victory over the shadow. There is no enemy to destroy and no new identity to conquer. There is only the possibility of looking without condemning, passing through without clinging, and letting go without turning detachment into another form of possession.
Final resonance
Freedom does not consist in conquering the world, nor in renouncing it.
It begins when even the desire to be free ceases to become a prison.
Gerardo no longer needed to choose a face. He no longer had to conquer the body or attain the spirit.
Silence remained.
Not this, not that.
Only what has no need to be named.
Video Essay 94 – Lomahaṁsa-Jātaka**\
An original work by Giuseppe Gugliotta\
Narration and original music, with symbolic imagery and animation.
**Themes:** Buddhism · Jātaka · Middle Way · Carl Gustav Jung · Shadow · Individuation · Apophatic Theology · Non-duality · Inner Awakening · Gerardo Santo.
