In the past, people were exposed naturally to many more hours of darkness.
In the darkness, emotions become larger and more terrifying. Shapes and shadows form in the corners of our eyes—huge, menacing, outside the realm of rational mind. Our emotional heat grows stronger and our conceptual mind proliferates these shadows and emotions into monsters, demons, boogey creatures.
And we had a relationship with these creatures (often of our mind) in the past. We had to deal with them in some way.
Now, we chase them away with light. But the darkness is always there, underlying the light. And if we don’t look into it we remain, to some extent, trapped in fear.
Practices for reconnecting to the shadow
Befriending our beautiful monsters
How to Make Friends with Your Beautiful Monsters
A term from Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s Fully Being course and Open Heart, Open Mind book.
Beautiful because its nature is awake energy.
Monster because it appears frightening, messy, scary.🔗Please stay here, beautiful monster, and practice with me.
I will not put the dharma on top of you.
I will just come alongside you and be your friend.
~Lama Willa’s meditation, “Befriending Feeling” from The Wakeful Body
Feeding your demons
Highlights
🔗
- No matter how many demons we try to destroy, more appear in their place; no matter how many terrorists we kill, more fill their ranks. (Location 128)
- But when I teach I have found it effective both to transmit the traditional teachings and to use methods that have made the teachings practical in my life as a Westerner. I believe that deemphasizing the culturally specific aspects of this ancient wisdom will make it more accessible and will benefit many who might be put off by the complexity of the Tibetan tradition. (Location 134)
- Gandhi used the medium of tea, an English ritual that implies civility and mutual respect, and literally fed this enemy until he became an ally. (Location 165)
- the personal is at the root of our global demons, (Location 235)
- Carl G. Jung, the famous Swiss psychologist, described our dark side as “the shadow,” which might emerge in dreams or be projected onto others. The shadow he described consists of those parts of ourselves that the conscious mind deems unacceptable. The shadow is the repressed self, the unwelcome aspects of our personality we disown. It might be our shame, our anger, or our prejudices. It is that which we don’t want others to know about us, and it often appears in dreams doing things our conscious self would not consider. (Location 246)
- “What we call demons are not materially existing individuals with huge black forms, frightening and terrifying anyone who sees them. A demon means anything which hinders liberation.” (Location 510)
- Fears, obsessions, and addictions are all parts of ourselves that have become “demonic” by being split off, disowned, and fought against. (Location 568)
- We need to give our demons form and to give voice to those parts of ourselves that we feel persecuted by. (Location 572)
- Realize the ally is actually an inseparable part of you, and then allow yourself to dissolve into emptiness, which naturally takes you to the fifth and final step. (Location 787)
- When the mind takes a break for even a few seconds, a kind of relaxed awareness replaces the usual stream of thoughts. We need to allow this and not fill this space with anything else; just let it be. (Location 818)
- Making use of unfavorable conditions Was taught by venerable Machig. To consider adversity as a friend Is the instruction of Chöd. — Machig Labdrön (Location 1018)