Meditation Technique- facing your dark side

Ah, i remember way back when I was curled up watching one of the Star Wars (tm) movies. This was the one where luke is training with the great Yoda and confronts what appears to be Darth Vader, whence luke defeats Vader, his helmet falls off revealing luke's face as the one he was battling. For me, this scene represents how many of us view our dark side, the part of our nature that we must vanquish if we are to walk the path of light and righteousness. I does seem on the surface like a good idea, to face our dark half and destroy it in one strike of our proverbial lightsabers. However in my experience if we are seeking freedom from our egos this is a counterproductive method.

Our egos are in fact strengthened by attempting to eliminate the negative aspects of ourselves. If we are to view our dark sides as something to be separated from, we are giving weight to our own identification of self as something that is 'not bad'. Also the reverse is true, if we are to ignore our positive qualities, preferring to view ourselves as a 'bad' person then we strengthen the ego in the other direction. At this point you may be asking yourself, "what's so 'bad' about identifying with a sense of self that is 'good'?" To this i reply there's nothing 'bad' about it per se, but if we are seeking to become elightened, we have to overcome viewing things as dualistic. It is a fact of the material world that there exists duality, within us we have been blessed with the gift to recognise the duality within us and around us. Kierkegarrd the famous existential philosopher in his work entitled, "The Sickness Unto Death" talks of how man is a synergy of duality, within us exists both the infinite and the finite and many other dualities he noted. So why is it that we believe we are anything less that both the light and the dark sides?

To truly be able to be complete we must embrace our dark sides, including our thoughts, feelings and opinions if we are to truly open up to the real reality that exists all around and within us. With this simple meditation i hope you all will be able to realise as i did, that everything is the same and that all duality is united through the Divine love of our hearts.

Ok so let's begin the meditation shall we?

Sit comfortable and focus on the breath, letting it seep deep down to your root chakra, and to every other chakra including those above the heart.

Now sit with your thoughts and simply observe, letting all thoughts just pass through you as though you were a sieve.

Call upon your own memories of the past, or perhaps present feelings of negativity and general darkness, everyone has them so don't be afraid letting them be there.

Now this part is a little hard to describe so bear with me. Open your heart and gently allow yourself to feel fully what your dark side feels like. You will feel an initial aversion to it, but just be there with the darkness and allow it to flow into your heart. Bit by bit allow it all into your heart and say to youself that you accept the inherent dark side of your nature completely and will always allow it into your heart.

Next reverse the situation and allow all the positive memories and present feelings to surround and then enter your heart. Don't worry, your heart can handle it! At first when this meditation is done, you may notice that the dark energy seems aversive and yet at the same time oddly powerful, remember at this point that clinging to either the light or the dark side will make your ego stronger and belittle your true nature. Now it may take some practice of this meditation before your heart becomes a large enough container that it can take it all in, i mean we are so conditioned to put barriers around our hearts that it becomes so difficult for us to open them.

After you become adept at this, you may take it to the final stage where you are to bring up both the dark and light sides of our nature and let them both into your heart at the same time, letting them becoming one. If you can do this you will find that this is a particularly powerful meditation as when any duality is allowed to be together they become one and it is at once understood that all they ever were was Divine love. Happy meditating! if you have any questions, comments or 'arguments' post a reply dont be shy eh!

Walking the path we are!

Personaly I don't find much backing up the theory of duality. This is because to know evil we must know what is holy, to know what is tall we must know what is short, and to know these things is to compare them to what it is we have to compare them to, ourselves and what we see. It is my opinion that man created evil and holy, light and dark, purely from his imagination and that the universe is in no way made up of negative factors or positive factors. It's kind of of like that saying "One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.", or "One mans garbage is anothers treasure.". I am not trying to say that you should not attempt to do away with all the parts of yourself that you do not like, for this is natural. I am trying to unlearn from myself everything that has ever been taught to me as absolute truth, for it is not the place for man to tell another what is right or wrong when man did not create the universe, the universe created man.

In my belief and knowing, the ego is a beautiful tool, and nothing more. It helps us understand what feels good and bad to us individually, and shows us our limitations and boundaries up close and personal.

There is no evil or good or righteous or sinful outside of the perception of man's ego. Yet the ego itself houses the possibilities for greater self understanding.

Battle your ego? Why? Conquer it? It is part of who you are, just as much as your spirit or your baby finger. Accept yourself.

Fully.

Light and dark? Polarity?

Just be who you are. Experience the good and the bad and the ups and the downs and in each moment of all of this experiencing, just be yourself.

Reflect upon God's creation but not upon His nature or else you will perish.

Prophet Muhammad, 570--632 AD