Dark Night. A Matter of Growth
Life is a roller-coaster and in Zen, practitioners are encouraged to accept all, not try and change anything, and to be in the moment of now. To be wherever you happen to be on that roller coaster, because to “put on the brakes” as you are descending down into the trough, is to slow your momentum down, making it harder and slower to get up to the top of the peak at the other side.
In his excellent book, *The Dark Night of the Soul, Thomas Moore uses an excellent analogy of Night and Day. He says “To be sad, grieving, struggling, lost, or hopeless is part of natural human life” and “By riding the wave or your dark night, you are more yourself, moving toward who you are meant to be”.
This could not be more Zen-like without using the word, Zen. Moore, who to me, is very Zen-like, goes on to suggest that we all have a story to tell about our dark night, and I can accept that. If we are to look at some of our most tortured actors, poets, writers, and musicians, we tend to learn of some emotional problem or other that they have wrestled with most of their lives.
This brings me to the value of sharing. When we can share, whether it be artistically or just talking things through with a friend or confidante, we reach a resolution for whatever is bothering us much quicker than if we just lock it up inside ourselves and display the “stiff upper lip” as we Brits call it.
In conclusion to this post, zazen (meditation) is an excellent way of allowing the roots of our conflicts to emerge into consciousness, and communication is an excellent way of resolving these conflicts, seeing them for the illusions they are and moving on with our spiritual growth.
