The Shadow is outlined with Light

and why darkness appears after a spiritual opening

Dear friend of the living moment, beloved reader,

In this weeks Soul-Letter I want to speak about one of the most misinnerstood parts of the spiritual path: the moment when light rises, and shadow appears with it.

Many imagine the path of awakening as something golden, soft, peaceful, and radiant all the way through. They imagine that once a deep realization comes, once a peak experience opens, once the heart touches the vastness of The Great Mystery, everything heavy will disappear.

Yet life does not move in fragments.

Life moves in totality.

Whenever you will have any great experience, you will have a very dark experience lurking around you along with it. Not as punishment. Not as failure. Not as a sign that something has gone wrong.

Simply because existence expresses itself through the whole spectrum.

If there is sun, there is going to be shadow.

You cannot deny the existence of the sun because you trust a shadow.

This is where many become confused. A beautiful opening happens, a moment of clarity, a glimpse of unity, a sacred inner expansion, and then, soon after, fear comes, anger comes, sadness comes, old patterns come, negative thoughts come.

Then the mind says:
"Something is wrong."
"I lost it."
"I am falling back."
"I am not spiritual enough."

Yet this is not falling back.

This is the whole field showing its face.

The light did not create the shadow as an enemy. The light made the shadow visible.

And when you appreciate a shadow, you will see it is outlined with light. It is floating into light, that dark shadow. And your presence is creating a shadow.

"Love even darkness! And remember, someone who loves light will start hating darkness. Someone who loves darkness will naturally still love light."

The shadow is not an enemy.

A negative thought comes. A heavy feeling comes. A contraction comes. It is still energy. It is not separate from the One-Mind. It is not outside of life. It is not some mistake in the design of your being.

It is you only creating another thought.

This does not mean you should believe every thought.
This does not mean you should act from every feeling.
This does not mean you should identify with the darkness.

It means: do not judge it.

All are energy forms.

Light and dark, positive and negative, expansion and contraction; these are movements within the same field. The mistake is not that darkness appears. The mistake is to believe darkness has power over the light that reveals it.

The shadow has no independent existence. It depends on light. Without light, there is no shadow.

So when a difficult emotion appears after a beautiful opening, pause. Do not make a story out of it. Do not call yourself unworthy. Do not imagine that you have lost your path.

Simply see:

"This too is appearing in awareness."

This is the great correction.

Not rejection.
Not suppression.
Not spiritual decoration.
Not pretending to be golden when the inner weather is stormy.

Presence.

Pure, steady, spacious Presence.

Most people do not innerstand the totality of spiritual experiences. You will experience both. If you are having a peak experience, you are going to come across a very down experience as well. Do not take it as failure on the path. That means now it is showing you her face.

Life is not asking you to worship only the sunrise and deny the night.

Life is asking you to become wide enough to welcome the whole sky.

"Seeing into darkness is clarity. Knowing how to yield is strength."

So what is the solution?

The solution is to stop dividing yourself.

When the shadow comes, do not fight it.
When the negative thought comes, do not crown it as truth.
When the fear comes, do not feed it with imagination.
When the darkness comes, do not make it your identity.

Sit with it as energy.

Place one hand on the heart.
Take a slow breath.
Feel the body.
Let the feeling be there without becoming the feeling.
Let the thought pass without becoming the thought.
Let the shadow reveal where the light is standing.

Ask softly:

"What is this shadow outlined by?"
"What light is making this visible?"
"What part of life am I still refusing to welcome?"

And then allow.

Allow the emotion to move.
Allow the body to soften.
Allow awareness to stay open.

This is how the shadow returns to light.

Not through battle.
Through Presence.

Not through judgment.
Through spaciousness.

Not through pretending to be holy.
Through becoming whole.

You have to really welcome her in all her forms.

The joy.
The grief.
The radiance.
The fear.
The clarity.
The confusion.
The silence.
The storm.

All of it is part of the same great movement.

The Great Mystery does not arrive only dressed in white. Sometimes it comes as a shadow at your feet, asking you to look more deeply and re-member the light that makes it visible.

So next time darkness appears after light, do not bow to fear.

Bow to the totality.

The shadow is not proof that light is absent.

The shadow is proof that light is near.

Final Prayer

Great Spirit,
teach me to welcome life in all its forms.
May I no longer fear the shadow,
nor mistake it for the absence of light.

Help me remain present when old thoughts arise,
soft when heavy emotions move through,
and steady when the mind tries to divide what is whole.

May I re-member that every shadow is outlined with light,
and that nothing appearing within me is outside the embrace of the One-Mind.

Guide me into wholeness,
where nothing is rejected,
nothing is worshipped,
and everything is returned to Presence.

In gratitude, in silence, and in truth.

O-hey-O

Bear Saorin
The One Mind Sanctum

P.S. When the shadow appears, do not assume you have lost the light. Look closer. The shadow can only be seen because light is already here.