Here in the spiritual community, we share a conglomeration of teachings. Each one stemming from a teacher speaking about his or her experience. No one perspective is right, nor is one perspective wrong. This leaves the true seeker in a very solitary place, where he or she must find their own Truth and bring it to life. Furthermore, all teachings move in and through one another and are deeply connected via their source, which is neutrality or awareness.
One of the greatest misconceptions to spirituality is that it’s source is beautiful and blissful. This is farthest from the truth. The real spiritual life is one that stems from the darkest trenches. Darkness and light are equal forces that can only be unified through pure awareness. The more darkness one is in, the more light one can see. This is why most profound teachings come from sources that are struggling with lack of self-love, which often manifests as deeply sated fear, control, anger and great suffering.
Society as a whole has romanticized spirituality and bypassed the need for suffering. One cannot experience awakening without suffering, otherwise what would there be to awake from? As the masses continue to follow teachings and teachers such as this blog, they depart into a glorification of the spiritual life. It is true that us spiritual teachers live a deeply connected life full of devotion and faith; however, we do so through exposing the inner most recesses of our soul. We bare to the world our wounds, and bleed openly and deeply so that those on our path can observe our inner journeys and struggles. These beautiful teachings and words are a cover up to the real journey that we are on, which is one where two very opposing forces dark and light struggle for power. We live such a life and run the risk of being misunderstood and rejected, becoming outcasts and even revolutionaries.
I speak for myself and for my experience. What I am saying through this post today is purely that we cannot disown the parts of ourselves that are not very pretty and bypass our true and authentic experience for the sake of keeping everything on the outside appearing beautiful. Those of us that live with dark pasts, debilitating false beliefs and difficult experiences, are torches of light. The more you open up to your darkness, to your faults, the more you will recognize the deeply inner connected healing that is happening throughout the network of life that is moving in and through you. You cannot be an ideal. You cannot be more peaceful, more joyful, more beautiful, more liberated, more abundant, more loved. You already are all those things, in spite of your faults. I call my readers to explore their suffering and to bring their dark side out into the open, to stop hiding it, disowning it and pretending it’s not there. Stop being afraid of it, of the rejection that might come from it, the lack of safety, the loneliness. Suffer openly dear readers, do not be afraid of your darkness, it is the source of your light.
