Earth Rebels Session 2 - The Gifts Of Darkness

In this second session, we will dive deep into our own shadows and see what treasures might wait for us at the bottom of the ocean of our unconsciousness. As it turns out, even our worst nightmares, our anxiety, and despair, can become gifts when we share them with our loved ones.

Transcript

There is a saying that we live in the age of Kali,

The Indian goddess of destruction.

The age of Kali is a dark age where humanity has lost our spiritual connection.

If we look at the state of the world with all the grotesque and rising economic inequalities and the mass extinction of species going on,

To call this age an age of darkness might not be too far away from the truth.

But if this is the case,

How can we find the gift in that?

His Holiness the Dalai Lama once made a joke when he was asked the following,

What could bring all of humanity together?

He replied jokingly that an alien invasion would make us put aside all our internal struggles and unite against a common enemy.

And perhaps this worldwide destruction of the earth we're witnessing all around us is that very common enemy we have been looking for.

The enemy of greed,

Of numbness,

Competition,

Mindless consumption that is driving us to the brink of collapse.

Perhaps we are all in the midst of the great battle of Rang Narok,

The Nordic mythology once spoke about.

The battle for life.

The battle between humans and giants of fire,

Oil and brimstone.

The one battle to unite all humans beyond our borders,

Our colors and creed.

And I do feel that we are uniting when I witness what's happening around me.

But this feeling in itself is not enough.

When we are smothered by our own suffering,

It is difficult to look beyond our own life to the great battle on earth.

That's why I will give you an important question to contemplate in this session.

Could there be gifts hidden in your own darkness?

In the midst of your anxiety,

Depression,

Exhaustion or illness?

The wise sages tell us there are hidden treasures at the bottom of the ocean.

That every experience of suffering is an invitation to these treasures.

Now we're going to have a look at the many ways we make it difficult for us in our modern culture by suppressing what we call negative emotions.

By suppressing rage,

Fear and grief.

These emotions that are not allowed to be felt can begin to fester in our nervous system and make us stuck in our head.

When we are facing depression,

When our body is full of pain,

When we are traumatized by violence,

Accidents or oppression,

It's very,

Very difficult to find the meaning and treasure beneath all the darkness.

I recently had this dream about a young boy in the Middle East who walked up to a mountain.

His parents had been killed and so had the parents of his friends.

All of the children had gathered on the top of this mountain around a big stone to discuss something very important.

Despite all the horrors of war they had been through,

They gathered in a calm manner to talk about how they could listen carefully to the omens and signs in their lives to somehow find a way through the darkness.

With their wisdom they could see how all these terrible events was an invitation to live a life in accordance with some even deeper truth.

Up to the mountain they had brought their holy book.

They took turns opening pages to look for answers.

Each time they opened a page,

The right answer was there,

But never in the way they thought it would be.

This dream was so vivid to me.

Even though my own life has been so far from theirs,

They really helped me to see the blessings of the dark experiences I've had in my life.

Our dark and difficult experiences can refine our intuition.

We can become less naive and more realistic.

It can really crack our hearts open.

Sometimes very painfully and teach us life-changing insights if we are willing and able to listen.

In Japan,

Old pottery that breaks may be remained with gold in the cracks.

This is known as kitsugi.

That's what your suffering can become.

Golden scars like emblems on your heart.

Through your heartbreaks and traumas you can expand your compassion and understanding of this world we live in.

Our darkness is never separate from the system around us.

Often we put the blame on ourselves and try to overlook that we do live in a quite oppressive system.

It's only me that's a failure.

I probably deserved it.

I should have known better.

This voice of the victim can keep pushing us down forever if we keep listening to it and believing in it.

We have to grow up from our naivety and realize that we are surrounded by oppressive forces.

Dangerous stereotypes and suppressive norms against skin color,

Gender as well as against nature.

These forces have been around us ever since we were born and as a result we are so used to them that we no longer distinguish them.

Just like a fish living their entire lives in water.

For a fish water becomes invisible to them.

As we will continue this journey you'll find again and again that your individual struggle is not separate from the struggle going on all around the earth right now.

This course will be very much about finding your power again.

All the challenges you've had recently can be seen as pushes in the right direction when we start to follow the flow of the water,

The Wu Wei.

If your relationship or job comes to an end,

If one door closes you can be sure that another will open for you.

A door that truly feels good in all parts of your being so that you can close all those doors that no longer serves life.

To stop in our tracks is a great gift that darkness can bring.

We face great suffering when we get burned out,

Depressed,

We can't keep running in the same tracks that we have done before.

These tracks led us here to this suffering so we have to do something differently.

And these are the tracks everyone around us continue to run in,

Striving for achievement,

Success,

Fame,

A big house,

A new car,

A corner office.

This is the flip side of all the depressions we are seeing around us in the world and experiencing inside of us.

If life is comfortable we have very little motivation for change,

But if life is a living hell we can become very,

Very motivated to make changes.

We can also feel a deeper compassion for all those suffering on earth.

In this way the darkness can truly help us stop our cycle of consumerism,

Of stress,

Competition and put a big break on our destructive lifestyles.

It can also make us bitter,

Jealous and judgemental,

But only if we choose to.

There is always a choice.

Even in the holocaust some of the prisoners would find in them the strength to let go of the vengeance and move on.

Or in the case of Nelson Mandela,

Who despite the harsh treatments and bullying from guards for years and years managed to forgive them.

In his own words,

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom,

I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind I'd still be in prison.

It takes tremendous courage to make this choice,

To not get stuck in the role of the victim but to rise above that.

Unwaking difficult experiences can give us this courage,

This inner strength that grows as we awaken the sacred heart of the warrior in us.

Warriors with very unlikely weapons,

Not weapons of war but weapons of peace.

Be it meditation,

Prayer,

Yoga,

Music,

Dance,

Rituals or art or whatever spiritual vehicle you use to connect you with spirit,

With light and the goodness.

With these weapons we can join the ranks of the light again,

This battle that has been going on for thousands of years.

I'm now going to present you with a real challenge.

It's in fact so difficult that you will likely fail hundreds or thousands of times over and over again and yet it is always worth it to take on this challenge again and again.

The next time your personal darkness shows its ugly face,

The next time you feel any kind of anxiety or pain in your body,

Shame or any kind of suffering in your experience be it some fear,

Isolation,

Loneliness,

Frustration,

Terror,

Hopelessness,

Despair,

Anything that feels bad,

Try to share this experience with a dear friend.

Call one of your loved ones and explain to them that they only have to listen.

They don't have to come with any advice or reassurance,

Just ask them to listen,

Just ask them to listen to you while you share whatever is going on inside of you.

It might not sound very challenging but many of us live with the subconscious belief that when I share my suffering and darkness with someone I'm pulling them down the drain as well.

So we keep holding this darkness to ourselves,

We linger in it and it keeps pulling us deeper down into the depression sinkhole which is without end.

Nah,

I'm not feeling that bad,

It's probably going to pass by itself.

Nah,

I don't want to weigh anyone down with these troubles.

I just keep on trying harder to fix it somehow.

We can be stuck in this loop for years and years and yet the darkness will persist.

The shame will only grow worse,

It will only get more and more difficult to share these ugly sides of ourselves.

I say ugly because it can really be ugly,

Twisted thoughts and shameful experiences we would rather hide from the world but it will just keep haunting us until we take that leap of faith and open up to someone about it.

The real game changer here is to do something that can feel so wrong at the surface level of your mind but which your heart knows the truth of,

To share your darkness with someone else's light.

We all have this light of awareness which inevitably creates our own shadows as well,

Our own blind spots.

Nobody is perfect or pure,

We all have our shit to deal with,

I mean we are born in the age of Kali.

Of course some of all the craziness we see in the world has infected our system as well.

Addictions,

Hopelessness,

Lethargia,

Self wounding,

It can take so many forms.

The good news is that with the help of the light of our friends we can shine light on this and when you shine light on a shadow it disappears.

Just like the moon light lights up the earth at night time your friends can be that moon for you reflecting your own light so that you can be seen in these shadows and truly heal but oh this is going to take some courage from you to be vulnerable,

To dare to take someone else's precious time in listening to your problems,

To trust in them taking you seriously being there for you.

However if you look at it from the other end,

If one of your closest friends or family members are suffering wouldn't you want them to call you so that you can be there for them and support them in any way you can?

And instead of draining you or pulling you down I'm sure that you would only feel a deep love and compassion and meaningfulness when you support them by listening to their problems.

So why is it so damn difficult to ask someone else for their support when we are stuck in the dark spot?

When someone truly listens to your sorrows,

Your confusion,

Your heartache and despair what do you think will happen?

Well they will probably feel that very same love and compassion.

They will feel that meaningful connection and in that moment of connection both of you will receive the gifts of your darkness at the deep bottom of that endless ocean of samsara and you will find your way back to your light again.

Reviews

All very true, my only concern is for those who do not have intimate enough friendships. It is so important to develop them somehow...

Thank you ❤️ I love your challenge and have practiced it but now try the opposite and challenge myself to work more alone with my dark thoughts and collect them in my journal if too overwhelming 🙃 it feels good and makes me strong 🙏

Thank you ❤️

Illuminating perspective. Hopeful🙏🌱🐦🎶