Exploration of Darkness

If we lift up the rock, if we start to look at unconscious dimensions of mind and reality—we may discover things that are surprising to us. This is of considerable importance, because the darkness is associated with the unconscious mind, and unconscious processes dictate a large part of our so-called conscious lives.

The exploration of darkness reveals to us subtle and insidious discrimination. Whether we know it or not, we have a wake-centric bias. This is largely based on ego and egocentricity because the ego is only fully online and operational in the waking state and the alive state. When we fall asleep or when we die, this operating system goes offline.

Darkness is a very convenient place to hide the things we’re afraid of: all our fears, our projections, and our rejected, unprocessed, or unwanted experiences. Unbeknown to us, darkness becomes laden with all our spiders and snakes. All the things we don’t want to face, we toss into the darkness of night, the darkness of the mind.

Our relationship to outer darkness—how comfortable we are with literal, physical outer darkness—is an indicator of how comfortable we are with inner darkness, the darkness that covers our heart. 

How many lights do we need to leave on at night to feel comfortable? How many motion detectors do we have? How addicted are we to these light forms, especially artificial light, that tend to pull us out and away from what it is that we truly seek?

With the light of wisdom, we’re trying to illuminate the darkness of ignorance to eliminate the associated fear. We’re always afraid of what we don’t know. Fear, darkness, and ignorance are deeply intertwined.

There is no darkness within. Only light unseen. Deep within you is this great eastern Sun that never sets. By exploring the darkness, we’re exploring endings as well as beginnings. Because laden within this darkness is light, and that’s fundamentally what we are trying to illuminate.