The journey of awakening is never an easy one. It comes with a lot of pain, massive emotional turmoil which some refer to as the dark night as part of the process.
And I can understand why some people shudder at the journey because it is so daunting. For those who hear of it, they might think that it is madness and for those half way through it, few choose to cross the shore for the storm and the waves of the sea just seems so threatening as if it would swallow them whole. It is after all, a very lonely journey to begin with.
I was blessed this evening to be able to work with a loving soul who authentically cried his heart out. There were feelings of being lost, sad, angry and all of those that you could name under the no-good-feeling category. It takes much courage, bravery, courage and strength to go through such an intense process as if he wasn’t really sure if he was going to survive the turmoil. I am much grateful for his willingness to stay with the entire process and also for inviting me into his inner world.
The thing is, anyone serious about freedom or inner peace (they are not really separate, by the way) would walk this course because they are aware of its end. Although many have said that it is useless to aim or strive for a future but being aware of what is at the end of the yardstick and knowing clearly the goal keeps the seeker motivated enough not to allow ‘obstacles’ to get in his way. This is not very different from the saying, “If you are afraid, do it anyway” and this usually applies as a physical action of achieving something in the world, for example bungee jumping, riding a bike, public speaking, going for an audition or simply being on a path of a dream job; except that the journey of awakening works in the level of the mind instead of in the physical world so to speak.
It is important to be open minded enough to gather Right information as ‘protection’ for the journey. For we have learned too much of the opposite view that it is so ingrained in us that the tendency to fall back into the old patterns and redoing the same old things with the same attitude is highly potential and this cannot be taken lightly. And it takes much diligence and vigilance meaning the Right attitude to tread on this particular journey (or any other journey in particular) what more now we are working with the mind instead of anything physical outside of us.
And of course, support is very important too and I am not speaking of the outer support although it is also essential at the initial stage of the journey and probably somewhere along the middle or even end journey (if there ever is an end!). I am speaking of the inner support and the inner nurturing that we begin to give ourselves.
Awareness is one of the dearest and essential skills one can truly benefit from and embrace for the journey although it is not the ultimate. The journey comes very much with combination of endeavours and varied layers and stages where often, tools are introduced to ‘lightened’ the burden of the seeker. Yet awareness is always the one that grounds the seeker and thus the whole process and when I say skill here it is to refer to moments of remembering and ‘what’ is being watched.
I applaud those with integrity and persistence to journey on and rest assured, while the waves and waves of dark nights are often, very, very bleak, depressing and hollow… the dark night really, is just the dark knight. 🙂
“The night is darkest before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming.” ~ Harvey Dent, The Dark Knight (Batman), 2008
The Dark night ( Knight ) is here to rescue us.. YAY !
Without him, we would not know how ‘bright’ it is when dawn comes…
So bright, so bright… WOW !
😀