Deeper Stories

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious.”

—C.G. 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.

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