The Darkness Is Real; Not Light. But Not The Way You Are Thinking About It Now.
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The expression “ bringing into light” means to reveal the truth. Darkness is associated with concealment of truth. So, it might sound strange when I say, darkness is the real thing. Not light.
And when I say darkness is real, I don’t mean it in the sense of evil or satanic powers — a satanic prophesy that the dark will take over the light.
There is something else I am talking about.
The Dark Room
Let’s do an investigation here.
What do you think is the purpose of light? To make things visible? Isn’t it. To reveal. What does light reveal? Different shapes and forms. As you look around, light makes objects visible distinct from other objects. That’s the truth.
Now, imagine you are entering a dark room. It is so dark that you cannot see anything. You cannot see your hands or legs. As you wade through the darkness you are careful. Have you experienced this?
But, even though you cannot see anything, you continue to feel and hear. You can feel your body. You can feel your breath. You can feel an object when you bump into it.
And you will also notice that in this dark room, suddenly you become more alert. You can feel a close by object, even though you are not touching it.
If you are scared of darkness you might imagine goblins & ghosts.
All the while in the dark room, an anticipation will run in your head. Even though you cannot see anything, you will imagine things. You will create shapes and forms in your head — real or unreal.
Meditation
Some thing very similar happens when you meditate.
When you meditate, all sorts of images, shapes & forms start popping in your head. You start imagining people — people you don’t like; people you like; your friends; your family; strangers. You even imagine yourself.
Your attention gets divided into these forms and shapes.
From these shapes and forms you create stories and soon those stories start playing in your head.
But every once a while you feel a silence, a flash of darkness. In it there are no forms. There are no objects. All you sense is a feeling. A feeling of your body from inside.
If you have ever sensed it, you will remember that it is a unified attention. One solid attention without any divisions. No forms are visible. Just a feeling. People also call it awareness.
Maybe a hint of some light or abstract shape is there. But if you stay undisturbed and not give in to the temptation of bringing up a form, you continue to feel a consolidated feeling for long.
Though you don’t know what it is, in it there are no forms, no shapes, no light. All forms are dissolved. Just like in the dark room.
In this darkness, there is no anticipation either. You are not going to bump into anything. It is a continuous stream of darkness. And you feel alert, just as you were alert in the dark room.
Some people even call it light of consciousness. Light in the sense that it is awareness. Darkness in the sense that it is devoid of any form.
In this sense, darkness is more real than light. Shapes and forms dissolve into darkness. Darkness is unified attention. All you are left with is a pure feeling of life. Which is the basis for everything else.
So, next time when somebody says there is darkness inside you, you can turn those words into a meditation. You can look inwards and feel a unified sensation that is devoid of form, division or any judgement of sin, anger, lust, greed, hope, frustration, stress, excitement, etc.
