Introduction to Various Meditations: The Dark Night of the Soul
The Dark Night of the Soul isn't a meditation in itself, it's a passing mood that may accompany regular meditation practice. Meditation is necessarily a truth-seeking exercise, even if you may not participate in it for such a reason. This is because in a calm state, your mind will perceive things closer to their more inherent realities, or closer to their true states in relation to your own. Because of this, a degree of turbulence can occur when our original ways of thinking do not align with what these newly discovered truths may be.
A typical example for a cause of Dark Night of the Soul is the consideration of materialism. When one discovers that owning a Lamborghini does not inherently deliver happiness, the disparity between the expectation and reality can cause a period of depression and loss of perceived meaning in one's life. This is a natural reaction that should not be feared, and in fact it should be embraced for the benefit of better attuning oneself towards true feelings of happiness.
The Dark Night of the Soul can be considered the sharp edge of meditation. As humans we naturally have many misconceptions as a result of enculturation. Participating in meditation will cause you to see past these misconceptions. Although it may be difficult, ultimately it's for the better. The Dark Night of the Soul shouldn't be feared, because it's a temporary mood that results from a positive realization. Many realizations are difficult to embrace. If you find yourself dealing with difficult feelings as a result of some insight gained by your meditations, try to focus on the cause and not the effects of that insight. Remember that ultimately you are doing yourself much better by diving into the Dark Night of the Soul than you would be doing yourself by remaining ignorant to the truths found within it.
Previous Introductions to Various Meditations:
Why Practice Meditation?
Body Scan
wooow nice original post my friend i like it thanks for sharing nice photo
I think people go into meditation looking for peace and happiness. What I found was a very messy room with some scary closets. I had to clean up my life and face those dark closets if I was going to progress on the path of a Bodhisattva. I took bodhisattva vows from my first teacher a Korean Son Monk.
Since I was a kid into my adulthood I had an irrational fear of dark closets. After 5 years of retreat work and integration I no longer fear the dark, especially dark closets and my room is clean.
Cleaning my room, that is cleaning up my life choices took 20 years and a lot of work, depressing work sometimes. But my teachers stressed strong determination and keep watching what happens, don't move. That is what I learned in meditation and have integrated this into my life.
Now I pick up my stuff before I go to bed at night and I don't close my closet door ;)
I did hit a very dark place during my retreat work but I applied the same motto, watch and don't move, it will pass.
One word of warning don't samadhi when you are sleepy and listless. It will strip your HD and make you a drooling idiot if you keep it up!
Many thanks for your story!
Been going through this dark night a while now! Haha, it's been interesting to say the least, very revealing
interesting post i did not know the term the dark night of the soul
Powerful and so true, very well written. There's no biological free lunch, even with meditation.
Thank you! Agreed, meditation would be too good to be true without this symptom.
I love the way you described this phenomanon. I'm relatively new to meditation and don't really know the lingo, but this is exactly what I experienced yesterday, meditating on gratefulness and realizing that its my selfhisness and impatience that robs me from a lot of happiness, and keeps me from daily presence and gratitude.
it was a hard pill to swallow, but as they say the truth shall set you free, and so I'm thankful for the realization regardless
Awesome post @jspots!
Thanks for your reply, it’s good to know you aren’t alone in having to confront such tough realizations! Please re-steem if you have other meditators in your audience, and maybe more will be able to find some relation.
Thanks friend, we're never as alone as we tend to believe we are <3
What a beautiful concept-
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Its all part of the practice, hey! There is definately sharpness to it, but also such sweet reward. Loved this post, resteeming and following 🖤💚
A very sweet reward! The re-steem is appreciated, thank you!
Pleasure 🤗