"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious" - C.G. Jung
All the yoga, meditation and fasting in the world will not matter if you do not work on your shadow. It is easy to achieve states of bliss, and altered states of consciousness.. those states feel really good, no doubt. but.. what will happen after the bliss wears off? what happens when you get triggered? or when your medicine; be it food, relationships, alcohol, shopping - is not available or gone?
If you do not dig out your shadow; your deep wounds, self sabotaging behaviors, your self loathing and self limiting beliefs, it will keep controlling your existence and feed your non-ownership of your pain, hence - your projection of your problems onto others. This is going to perpetuate suffering and enrich the silent addiction to bliss; or as the Sufis call it - Divine Intoxication.
The mainstream breath work, yoga classes, meditation groups, plant medicine ceremonies, ecstatic dance and other conscious shifting modalities have become popular, clearly there is a need for expansion and we are consciously and unconsciously creating this collective movement; of getting in touch with our truth, stillness and inner wisdom. But the real work lies in seeing and accepting our insecure selfishness and tyrannical nasty parts, which can be challenging. To take an honest look at your attitudes, behaviors, dark thoughts, and emotions requires courage.
Ask yourself - do you seek transient bliss as an escape? is it avoidance that you are hooked on? do you run away from the ruthless truth? the easy way out sounds so tantalizing; to act on your urges to overeat, to stay in that relationship that is not fulfilling you, to cater for others when it doesn't align with your beliefs, to show up and identify with only the good and evolved parts of you.... truth is; we can’t eliminate the shadow. It stays with us as our dark brother or sister. Trouble arises when we fail to see it. For then, to be sure, it is standing right behind us.
“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side also If I am to be whole.” - C.G. Jung
Bliss feels good, it is beautiful - but as part of the art of being alive; not as an escape. So yes, join the meditation group, have a summer fling, eat the chocolate bar - but with intention.
This quote by Carl Jung in The Red Book summarizes it all “Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life...If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature...Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life.”
Most of us go to great lengths to protect our self-image from anything unflattering or unfamiliar; all we deny in ourselves - whatever we perceive as inferior, shameful, unacceptable - become part of our shadow. Exploring our shadow can lead to greater authenticity, creativity, energy, and personal awakening.
As we integrate our shadow or disowned self, and come to terms with our darker half; your kindness, compassion, and creativity will shine through and inspire others to follow this path. You liberate a tremendous reservoir of energy you were unconsciously investing in protecting yourself from showing up fully and unapologetically. Only then you will find your purpose and experience real bliss.
Self honesty and integrity are the main prerequisites to self knowledge. The road to awakening is challenging, it will leave you feeling alone at times, it will test you to your limit and will often break you before you can put yourself back together. And the reality is our society and our own minds are often full of misinformation, misdirection, repression, unhelpful narratives and energy black holes where we lose sight of our purpose and power. Awakening to authenticity and leaving behind an egoistic, attachment-focused version of life is not easy. But it’s worth it, and it’s the inevitable next step of human evolution.
Accept, and love your humanness, cultivate a sense of unconditional friendliness with yourself. We all have a shadow, everyone is in the soup together; as Jung used to say.
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