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Author
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Topic: Dark night of the soul
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26taurus
Knowflake Posts: 13514
From: *
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted July 09, 2005 11:13 AM
 
I think everyone goes through one.......or more.How else would you know Light? IP: Logged |
Lialei
Knowflake Posts: 1893
From: blank canvas
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted April 18, 2008 02:06 AM
nicely injected compassion, 26   IP: Logged |
Lialei
Knowflake Posts: 1893
From: blank canvas
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted April 18, 2008 02:45 AM
I Am That IP: Logged |
Charlotte
Knowflake Posts: 1287
From: USA
Registered: Apr 2004
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posted April 18, 2008 03:30 AM
A rememory...IP: Logged |
silverstone
Moderator Posts: 2734
From:
Registered: Mar 2006
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posted April 18, 2008 05:37 AM
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Heart--Shaped Cross
Knowflake Posts: 7277
From: 11/6/78 11:38am Boston, MA
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted April 18, 2008 11:09 AM
The true Dark Night of The Soul comes after years and years of disciplined and devoted spiritual practice. Only when the aspirant has done all that is in his or her power, and has still reached a wall or dead end, and is forced to rely entirely on God's grace, which is slow in coming, does the soul really experience the ultimate depth of true remoteness from God. We are talking about a condition of utter desperation and helplessness, which is only possible after all avenues of escape have been explored and thoroughly tested. Imagine you have overcome yourself in a thousand ways, and you meditate ten hours a day and there is absolutely nothing more you can do to encourage the awareness of God's presence in your life. You are totally powerless to do anything but, either go backwards, or persist without experiencing any new awareness or rewards. Gradually, your soul is plunged into the darkest ignorance, which is only compounded by the fading memory of past experiences of mystical union. Nothing you do seems to help, and, in fact, everything you do to hold on to your progress may in fact be causing you to lose ground. If you have not experienced this, you have not experienced the true Dark Night of the Soul, of which saints and mystics speak. You may have experienced profound depression (who hasn't?), but you will have to find another romantic phrase to describe your experience, because what you experienced was not technically the dark night. IP: Logged |
Heart--Shaped Cross
Knowflake Posts: 7277
From: 11/6/78 11:38am Boston, MA
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted April 18, 2008 11:42 AM
I wanted to voice my own perspective on one of the issues raised by oldephebe. Regarding "truth", and the power to train the mind to see only love and light... Personally, I don't much care for these idealistic teachings that deny suffering or the world of matter. To me, they deny the soul for the sake of the spirit, and this is unwise, because the soul is the only path to the spirit. Forced dissociation from our longing and suffering is not the answer. I think people who follow these teachings are repressing things, and cultivating a psychological condition of denial, which ultimately alienates them from their souls, and from the deepest truths regarding the human condition. I dont relate to these teachings, and I think anyone who does relate to them is either kidding him/herself, or unconsciously agreeing because they think they should. I believe we can recreate our realities, but it is a complex process of balancing and harmonizing opposites. I dont think we can accomplish it just by superimposing some idealistic vision onto a soul that carries with it billions of years worth of karma, and an infinite variety of thoughts, feelings, and experiences. The ancient mystery teachings, and the mythologies of antiquity, all recount tales of people who singlemindedly pursued some ambition, only to discover that this does nothing more than create an imbalance in the soul which precipitates a condition of over-compensation, whereby other, neglected and/or repressed drives, surface in the most unconscious and unmanagable ways. The answer is not to superimpose some narrow, idealistic truth, over this vast ocean of soul. The answer is to become increasingly aware of our condition as it presently exists. Only then will it pass organically, and according to the immutable laws of metanature. The soul cannot be sacrificed to the spirit. Rather, we must arrive at the deeper awareness, that soul and spirit are ultimately identical; not by a purely exclusive method, which denies all that does not reek of perfection, but, by a method of profound inclusivity and Self-acceptance. "When that which is seen is known,
that which is unseen shall become manifest." "Why do you speak of heavenly things
when you have not understood earthly things?" ~ jesus of nazareth
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Heart--Shaped Cross
Knowflake Posts: 7277
From: 11/6/78 11:38am Boston, MA
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted April 18, 2008 11:43 AM
"Whether you are interested in Moksha, Liberation, Freedom, Transformation, you name it,
you are interested in happiness without one moment of unhappiness, pleasure without pain, it is the same thing." "You are not ready to accept the fact that you have to give up.
A complete and total 'surrender'. It is a state of hopelessness which says that there is no way out.
Any movement in any direction, on any dimension, at any level, is taking you away from yourself." "We don't want to be free from fear. All that we want to do is to play games with it and talk about freeing ourselves from fear." "When the movement in the direction of becoming something other than what you are isn't there any more, you are not in conflict with yourself." --U.G. Krishnamurti
("the anti-guru")
http://www.well.com/~jct/  "I became enlightened in spite of my spiritual practice, not because of it." "All these godman, gurus and flunkies are offering us a new oasis.
You will find out that it is no different from other mirages." "My teaching, if that is the word you want to use, has no copyright.
You are free to reproduce, distribute, interpret, misinterpret, distort, garble, do what you like,
even claim authorship, without my consent or the permission of anybody." - U.G. 
http://www.ugkrishnamurti.org/ IP: Logged |
26taurus
Knowflake Posts: 13514
From: *
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted April 18, 2008 11:07 PM
Lia ~ HSC, you are a Gift.  IP: Logged |
Heart--Shaped Cross
Knowflake Posts: 7277
From: 11/6/78 11:38am Boston, MA
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted April 19, 2008 10:42 AM
 YAAAYYYY!!!!!!!!!!
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ListensToTrees
Knowflake Posts: 3997
From: Infinity
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted April 19, 2008 11:15 AM
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Lialei
Knowflake Posts: 1893
From: blank canvas
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted April 22, 2008 10:15 AM
I was feeling nostolgic for what
seemed such an innocent time.
~ Heart&Soul
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Heart--Shaped Cross
Knowflake Posts: 7277
From: 11/6/78 11:38am Boston, MA
Registered: Aug 2004
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posted April 22, 2008 11:08 AM
"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
and a little child shall lead them."~ Isiah 11:6
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Lindaland
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