One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious.” – Carl Jung
Many of us who are drawn to meditation have fantasized about meeting an ideal teacher—-a glowing Buddha-like figure who is able to transmit the light of awareness. When we sit down to practice we imagine ourselves transformed—free of the fear, sorrow, and longing that obstructs and weighs us down.
But eventually, we learn the hazards of what is now called “spiritual bypassing”—seeking to flee what is painful just mires us in suffering. Instead, we practice seeing ourselves as we really are, Practicing in units of moments, we offer compassionate acceptance to all our weird little ways of defending ourselves against pain.
Slowly, as we learn to be gentle in our seeing, the seeming darkness inside us—the patterns or parts Jung called the “shadow”—reveals itself to be a source of light.
We become enlightened not by imagining an ideal person or state out there somewhere, but by discovering the light inside the darkness. There is a deeper story—a deeper truth waiting to be found. Let’s find it together.
Note – As some of you may know, Wayne S.’s meditation teacher, Tracy Cochran, is also an author who has published an excellent book entitled ‘Presence: The Art of Being at Home in Yourself’. We used an extract of her book in the post ‘How Meditation Can Move Us From Conscious Separation To Conscious Connection’. Wayne also talks about Tracy in the Meditation section of the website.