The Dark Night of the Soul: Gateway to Higher Consciousness

“In the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God.”
– Saint John of the Cross

It was a 16th century Carmelite monk, Saint John of the Cross, who wrote a poem and a thesis titled “Dark Night of the Soul.” The text narrates the mystical development of the saint and the stages to which he undergoes on his challenging path towards union with God. Since then, the phrase has been used for a cathartic journey of self-discovery.

The dark night of the soul is a deeply disturbing experience in which intense suffering arises on a level never felt before. Such despair can continue for days, weeks, or even years. During this time, we may have feelings of abandonment by God or the Universe, and feel great anguish and inner emptiness. It can seem like life offers no security, no matter how many ‘good’ things there are on the outside. There might even be thoughts that one is going crazy and that there is simply no way out, no way forward. There could be a lot of fear about whether the future will remain dark in this way. The dark night is not just another low period in one’s life, it is the lowest of lows, it’s like there is no way to hide or dodge this. The intensity of the misery that is experienced is a background place, where the individual can see himself as insignificant, alone, empty and defeated.

The most important thing to understand at this point is that there is a deeper spiritual meaning to this situation. There is a hidden purpose in it. In these moments of darkness the Divine is touching us and purifying us. This can certainly be difficult to see and that is why help should be sought. It is very difficult for a human being to see the light in the dark night by himself.

The nature of human beings is such that it is often in the last hour, when things have reached an extreme point, that we muster the strength and stamina to do what is required for our own well-being and happiness. Therefore, it is not surprising that for some people the dark night of the soul occurs. Would we listen differently? Have we fully listened so far when things have gone wrong? Thus, with the depth of pain that the dark night brings, it becomes that much more difficult to escape from the pain.

During this night we are urged to learn raw honesty. We are called to awaken to the truth of our shadow or imperfections and are shown that vulnerability is an expression of our fullest humanity. We can begin to see how we continually inflict pain on ourselves and others. Realizing this is certainly uncomfortable, but if we openly examine our thoughts and actions, it will be found to be so. Embracing the darkness in ourselves makes it much easier to embrace it in others as well. Therefore, love, given and received, is also made much more possible through a greater acceptance of what is not love. Perhaps for the first time in this life we ​​begin to learn what Love, with a capital L, is really about.

The dark night is all about self-acceptance. This is very difficult to do, but not impossible. As Carl Jung said, “The scariest thing is to accept yourself completely.” But as we move into the night, our pain can be gradually understood and released, and the truth of one’s eternal Divine Self can have the space to finally surface.

The true despair in the human heart is a feeling of being separated from everyone and everything, including, and especially, God, or the Universe. The dark night represents an opportunity to discover that there is a wholeness, a unity within oneself, which even includes, and gradually dissolves, those feelings of separation.

As we see the truths about our own shadow or pain, the ego begins to be relegated from its main position. This relegation implies great anguish for the human being because we have not known another way of being up to this point. Up to this point we have been ego. The ego has run our life for us. You can feel sorrow and great sorrow for an identity that we are beginning to understand and that we must now let go of. As this darkness is allowed to stand without resistance, the torch of truth can bring the ego into the spotlight, and we can see the impact of a self-centered life on ourselves and others. The ego makes us into an empty shell, with no real substance, a secondhand life lived out of secondhand beliefs, which form a wall around us that keeps us separate from others and also keeps lasting love out of us. life.

In this space of honesty, we can experience an eerie nothingness, as well as the fear that arises because there is now no known or familiar path forward. We are essentially facing an unknown future, without ego (which does not serve us well but to which we are understandably attached), and simply with our Self, alone and aware. It is the experience of our own death in life.

The loss of the ego or personality is the rebirth of an individual. The state of ‘rebirth’ can only come through death to our conditioned thinking, be it religious, cultural, social, etc. The dark night can be the starting point of this journey of transformation. And it happens when we are ready.

The recognition of our false personality (ego) is what is poignantly made possible during the painful dark night. Otherwise this could take much longer. Human beings are prone to wanting an easy road, and although a life lived from an ego-based mind is indeed a life of suffering, it is nonetheless easy because it is what we know. It reminds me of the phrase ‘the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know’. But in this case the ‘devil’ you don’t know is the one who will eradicate the need for all other demons. We are entering the place of what we don’t know as opposed to everything we do know, and strangely enough, this is where the real Self will be discovered. If you could know your way to real and lasting happiness, then most of us would be ecstatic by now. That is why one of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s best known books is called Freedom From The Known, because the known (the ego, the beliefs, the relative knowledge) does not provide the freedom and joy that we seek. In fact, what we think and know are blockades.

If we can muster our deepest resources of courage and endurance right now, and allow the human ego to finally be abandoned, then pain and fear will quickly be replaced by That which is blocked by the ego. This is the peace and joy of our divine nature. It is only by recognizing the detrimental and insidious impacts of the ego in our own lives that a human being will take the challenging steps to let it go. Until we can take responsibility for our own actions and where they originate from, we cannot move on to an urge to come from an egoless place. But only the loss of the ego can give rise to reality, God or the real Self directly.

The dark night brings us face to face with our own suffering. His message is: we cannot know the light unless we know the darkness. It is the space where we first realize that life has actually been experienced as suffering, but we have played a constant game of denying it. By becoming more aware of the hidden and unfulfilling experiences in our daily lives, we gradually shed our attachment to such experiences, drama, despair, and need (for it is attachment in the end). This inauthentic way of life is no longer enough. The relief is enormous. It is the mind that gives rise to all our activities and it is the contemplation and liberation of the imperfections of the mind (ego) that allows actions to become pure, clear and effective.
When viewing the scope of the ego’s forms of control for what they are, beliefs, concepts, and judgments turn gray. What takes its place is an empty vessel from which to listen and speak, with innocence, focus, honesty and spontaneity. Sometimes it may seem that freedom is not really the freedom we had previously imagined; it is a strange feeling because there is nothing to talk about articulately. The truth has a way of surprising us.

When one sees things in this new way, the world can seem crazier than previously thought. But the psychiatric hospital that now seems like the world, is now also known to be perfect. Perfect in the sense that that is how it is. Universal laws are in play and things happen as they happen. How could it be otherwise? Arguing with reality is a lost cause. There is nothing wrong. There is nothing to change at this moment when one is alive. Saying that does not mean that things are necessarily beneficial or should remain the same, but that reality simply is, neither good nor bad. “Good” and “bad” now become values ​​that are null and void, pale in comparison to the brilliance of seeing reality, the Now moment, as it is. We do not stop acting to improve the world, but we do so from a place of acceptance of the results, whatever they may be. The action becomes joyous in itself without the ego providing a motive, such as desperate ambition or the pursuit of renown.

As the truth of our own Being is glimpsed, it becomes clear that going through the darkness does indeed lead us into the light.

The dark night is the wake-up call we feel to remind us of our true purpose on earth. The dark night of the soul offers a dynamic that can purify a person’s spiritual vision and resulting actions. Ultimately, it is a gift that reveals the real Self and returns one to the pristine, unadulterated state of bliss that is intrinsic, yet hidden, in all of us.