dark night of the soul

Hi all,

I have always figured the dark night of the soul to be when the seeds of doubt/fear appear, more so than usual.. of course this could last longer than a night.. I remember reading a book on the life of st. Therese where she recounted her long night of the soul also

Originally Posted by in progress

It's even surrendering all your hopes and dreams.

like as in the ultimate trust?

i have no idea what dark night of the soul means.
Things have appeared dark for me, not just dark but shadowed, when i am not willing to let go fully and sacrifice myself completely, which sacrifice is a pretty harsh word but it feels like it, to spirit, where i could grasp at oneness and ultimate trust, but there is resistance on my part, where i refuse to unlatch from the world as i know it, there crawls fear and darkness in my soul because i can't always figure out how to completely surrender.

[in progress]

Ciqala, we hate to give up some things in our lives. People like to call them attachments. Most think of the bad things but we have to give up the good things too. People are striving to clear out bad habits, things that pain them but they want to attract good things. We also have to give up our attachments to the good things too.

It seems like a cruel joke in a sense but good and bad, ecstasy and pain are two ends of the same stick in the duality we live in.

I'm finding it hard to imagine what it's all like on the other side, when one finally makes the leap into enlightenment or unity or whatever.

Why did I sign up for this again? I've been finding it pretty frustrating and that will continue as long as the ego is in charge!

[7luminaries]

Originally Posted by God-Like

For me In progress what I felt was that I had nothing left...I had nothing to give up. All that was left In essence was myself. I felt alone, naked (lol) stripped bare from all what "I thought was Important".. from all that I thought defined me..

What many do not realize - Is that all that Is needed - Is the self lol.

There Is no-thing other than..

x daz x

Daz...you are right on this...and yet...something I wanted to add...

I keep thinking of the analogy of the fellow travellers...walking alongside one another...arm-in-arm, or hand-in-hand, or what have you.

For example...even whilst there was no one else who could walk my soul out of the dark back to the light...still, as I found my way, I knew that others were there...that someone else was there for me, waiting to give me a hand back up when I was ready and able to reach out.

At first...I couldn't even relate to why anyone else was there...too deep in it. And yet, knowing that I wasn't alone, even though I sure felt it for days on end...it did help. It did matter. More than I could ever say.

And I think (?) the difference between taking lifetimes to work through some things in (perceived) total isolation of the soul, vs moving fwd in any one lifetime...

...may lie in recognising the love of others and acknowledging their importance to you...and our human need for the love and support of other(s) on the path.

I've been at the edge of sanity...yes me the one who always thought my sanity was rock-solid...I'll never say that again btw...and only the love of others saved me from my fears (that and a meditation & prayer strategy)...God for me was acting through that person, that love.

I've also been there when I and/or others were staring death in the face. In what may be the last moments, what sustains us? Yes we find our own truth, our own hearts. But to a dying man, God is the love of another soul. We all need to be seen...to be unveiled before ourself and others...ideally *before* we die.

Well, your sig says it all...

peace/blessings,
7L

[God-Like]

Originally Posted by 7luminaries

We all need to be seen...to be unveiled before ourself and others...ideally *before* we die.
7L

A Great few lines 7L.

What I see In your quote Is that each of us needs to express ourselves.

Even If It's to pick up a pencil and draw, or pic up a microphone and sing.

Can a bird express It's self without It's singing call?

Can a butterfly express It's self whilst It's wings are clipped?..

x daz x

[7luminaries]

Originally Posted by God-Like

A Great few lines 7L.

What I see In your quote Is that each of us needs to express ourselves.

Even If It's to pick up a pencil and draw, or pic up a microphone and sing.

Can a bird express It's self without It's singing call?

Can a butterfly express It's self whilst It's wings are clipped?..

x daz x

hey now, lol...my wings are coming along just fine
(just have to practise a bit more btw flying is v cool!)

Yes...it is about realising your core, your heart's essence. When there was nothing else, I could literally feel the divine spark in my heart chakra...

Even though I was "locked out" of it for a while...still, I knew that the core of me was still intact...that divine core, that's who we really are...

Without recognising the true self (the divine essence), yes, we are like a butterfly with its wings clipped...we are lame or "challenged" spiritually...

I agree we all need to express our true selves...it's the key...
Then there is also the collective aspect I was also trying to get at...even whilst we each strive to find or unveil our own true selves...

To me there is something about being human...there is a missing link...call it the the ojas, the intrinsic vitality or spiritual "glue", of the collective soul...that finds completeness in our mutual validation of who we really are.

Not validation of our beliefs or worth per se...because we are endowed with free will and a divine spark by God/One...but mutual recognition of our respective humanity and our inherent respective divinity.

I think what I'm trying to say is that there is something very healing, and liberating, when you can lay your soul bare before not just yourself and God...but also before even just one other human soul...with complete trust and love.

peace/blessings,
7L

[Miss Hepburn]

Maybe this is too obvious and why no one mentioned this.
The Dark Night of the Soul is of course a study written by St. John of the Cross while in prison in the 16th c.

It is a text on the journey of the Soul to Union with God.

There are many many stages and steps in the mystical experience of the Soul
returning to God, as you must know.
Withstanding the amount of searing Divine Love is not the only endurance that must be prepared for, whew.

There can be profound times, tho rare - when the Soul is in a place of such aridty that it is lost.. alone... without even a hint of love, guidance, light or even the Presence God.

When in deep meditation it is almost a hell so profound you can't see you're way out of it ----Where is the Love? Where is my Father? Where am I?
Where do I turn? What do I do? What is this place where my soul can't even breathe it's so 'dead'? I am in a place where the ground is cracked and arid!!

It isn't fun.
It doesn't last.

The steadfastness practiced and resolutely set in your mind from the start
is what can get you through this Night...sure it is the Grace of God --but it
is your determination to reach your Goal that pulls you
through, imo, (and personal experience in the 70s) ---it's behind me now.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Ciqala

I have no idea what dark night of the soul means.

Things have appeared dark for me, not just dark, but shadowed, when I am not willing to let go fully and sacrifice myself completely. Sacrifice is a pretty harsh word, but it feels like it, to spirit, where I could grasp at Oneness and Ultimate Trust. But there is resistance on my part, where I refuse to unlatch from the world as I know it, there crawls fear and darkness in my soul, because I can't always figure out how to completely surrender.

What a sweet position you are in. I corrected this like an Eng teacher sorry - because it deserves to be preserved like a poem of the Soul on it's Journey.
It describes the classic Torment of the Soul surrending the ego, the false sense of separate self, taking off it's paper chains.
What a delicious struggle you're in. And all to get to Divine Love and Union.
Ahh, it's like watching a Romance Epic Movie, Cigala.
Your pain is my pleasure.
Please continue to share your struggles to the Ultimate Goal.

Keep pressing on, soldier,
Miss Hepburn




.

[Perspective]

I read something about this in "Putting on the Mind of Christ."
Jim Marion (former monk, mystic & attorney) discusses various levels of awareness...
which are generally experienced in the following order...

1. Archaic Consciousness of Infants (ruled by sensations & impulses)
2. The Magical Consciousness of Children (believes outside world revolves around self)
3. Mythic Conciousness - Pre-Adolescence (conformists - religious wars based on)
4. Rational Consciousness (analyze & criticize conventional rules)
5. Vision-Logic Consciousness (can think from many different perspectives)
6. Psychic Consciousness (extra-sensory perception, becoming in tune with the "still small voice within")
7. The Dark Night of the Soul (could be seen as depression, or confronting the dark side of us)
8. Subtle Consciousness (reborn in a new, finer inner world)
9. Christ Consciousness - The Causal Level
10. Nondual Consciousness - Ascension into the Kingdom of Heaven

Hopefully, I explained them correctly in parentheses - I'm forever learning.
I'm curious - have those of you who've experienced the dark night of the soul also experienced psychic abilities?

Originally Posted by Perspective

I read something about this in "Putting on the Mind of Christ."
Jim Marion (former monk, mystic & attorney) discusses various levels of awareness...
which are generally experienced in the following order...

1. Archaic Consciousness of Infants (ruled by sensations & impulses)
2. The Magical Consciousness of Children (believes outside world revolves around self)
3. Mythic Conciousness - Pre-Adolescence (conformists - religious wars based on)
4. Rational Consciousness (analyze & criticize conventional rules)
5. Vision-Logic Consciousness (can think from many different perspectives)
6. Psychic Consciousness (extra-sensory perception, becoming in tune with the "still small voice within")
7. The Dark Night of the Soul (could be seen as depression, or confronting the dark side of us)
8. Subtle Consciousness (reborn in a new, finer inner world)
9. Christ Consciousness - The Causal Level
10. Nondual Consciousness - Ascension into the Kingdom of Heaven

Hopefully, I explained them correctly in parentheses - I'm forever learning.
I'm curious - have those of you who've experienced the dark night of the soul also experienced psychic abilities?

I had the dark night of the soul which correlates with your list of levels of consciousness, i had reached the last stage of depression, wanting to commit suicide and i nearly did. I have had psychic visions throughout throughout my life while in the spirit world. My best example is that one night I went to sleep and had a dream about an NHL player named Kevin Bieksa who played for the vancouver canucks and it was in playoffs and I had this dream that he was going to have an ankle injury and be out for a few weeks. The next morning before school, this was in like grade 6 and was my first psychic experience, I was watching the sports network and i was stunned to see that kevin bieksa had the ankle injury and the exact ankle and time, i was so happy I ran upstairs and told my parents and my friends and it was a very weird tingle down my spine when that realization happened. What I have concluded was the purpose of this first yet seemingly insignificant psychic experience was that it was to give me confidence if I can actually stay on that tough spiritual path long enough

I also wanted to say that I think it is freakin sweet that you know about the causal level of consciousness, I have never known anyone else that knows about it, from what I understand is that it is some type of electronic world which is an ego-less (inner defect) stripped place where authentic peace and happiness is achieved.

Willaru Huayta, A Quetchua shaman from the amazon who is a spiritual messenger for the GWB ---

"...In the sixth dimension is a causal world. It's a world of
spiritual essence. In the physical world there are forty-eight laws. In the fourth dimension there are twentyfour.
In the fifth there are twelve, in the sixth there are six, and in the seventh there are three laws. The
Universal Christ emanates form the seventh. We can reach the sixth dimension through meditation. Our
spiritual essence gets fed there through love. We reach authentic peace and love because there is no ego."

"...Faculties and powers are given little by little. Many of you have some of these
faculties. For example, many of you have intuition, and some of you can already hear the messages of the
masters. Some can already see with the third eye. That's a faculty which was sleeping, but is now awakened.
Some of you already fly in the astral plane and play there. Many of you have already reached ecstasy in the
Sixth Dimension, and have enjoyed the authentic peace, love, and happiness of the superior worlds."