In moving from one culture to another, one gains but also loses something. I am reminded of what happens, when we peel off each layer of ego consciousness – a profession, a role in a family, a societal position, race, gender, nationality and our name. What is left? The following is a story from India, that Hayao Kawai, a Japanese Jungian Analyst, relates, and which explores this idea:
Once upon a time, a traveler was resting in an empty house. An oni (demon) came in carrying a dead body. Then, another oni came in, and they began fighting over the body. The first oni asked the traveler which one of them should have the body. The traveler didn’t want to, but reluctantly answered that the first oni should own the body. The second oni became angry and suddenly pulled an arm off the traveler and threw it away to the floor. The first oni felt sorry for the traveler, so it attached an arm of the dead body to the traveler. Then, the second oni pulled off the traveler’s leg and the first oni attached the dead body’s leg onto the traveler. They repeated this fight for a while and finally the traveler’s body and the dead body was completely exchanged. The two oni stopped the fighting, shared the dead body and left the house, while the traveler was left alone wondering who he really is.
(Kawai, 2008, p. 27 Muishiki no kōzō無意識の構造)
As a traveler, something akin has happened to me, and I know both more and less about who I am. The traveler has lost his original body, yet he still feels who he is, and furthermore he is more conscious of asking who he is.