When the day is at rest and we are ready to retire we take with us more information and change than the day beforef. Life is constantly moving, we are always changing. In the process our awareness might turn inward as we seek self improvement, to become at one with the peace in our life and the circumstances life brings. But often we wish only for what we enjoy and which distracts and entertains us. Like a child at a zoo, we want to only be dazzled; desiring life to bring us only what we want and only to focus on the aspects of ourselves we wish to engage. But how do we wish to be whole, a real solid person when we cast away parts of ourselves that we feel are unfitting or undesirable? The mind pioneers into the darkness of the human psyche, pulling out ideas, intuitions and creation. It is for us to bring the feelings, thoughts and experiences left in the dark into the light. Things we may not have the courage to face but must in order to be whole.
If we do not we are choosing a harder road for ourselves. Imagine a parent never giving a child the room to face their own fears but instead always shielding them. As the child grows it will become harder to face those childhood fears due to years of habitual practice and possibly ridicule from peers. Some may avoid what is left in the dark out of fear of suffering from the past. But pain and suffering are not the same as you might have thought. Pain is an objective function of your nervous system. Mental or emotional pain are your subjective creations based on your meanings and interpretations. Every time you become angry, nothing outside of you has to do with that feeling. It is hard wiring through choices and perception. If we are angry at someone else, we are dependent on them to guide our emotional responses, this is why we cannot stop being angry. We are weak and are deeply subjugated by others, so we suffer. In order to be free and not respond to the whim of emotional flareups we have to face our own shadow.
Your shadow is the aspects of yourself that you have denied, devalued, and disowned. In other words, your shadow self is what you insist you are not. But no matter how much you ignore it, that aspect of you will always complete you as a whole, you cannot ignore it forever. Choosing to do so creates duality in the mind; when the mind is split we suffer duality. Once we move into duality, we suffer from reality because instead of experiencing it in whole, we experience life as we see it only.
You experience the world through your five primary senses; visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and gustatory. But you do not take in these impressions directly as they are. They pass through multiple filters, colored and often distorted by your interpretations, expectations, beliefs, associations, fears, desires and opinions. You also perceive through cultural, religious, professional, educational, and gender filters created by your own unique experiences.
For example, you don't just see or hear or taste. You see a barren or sad or interesting sight. You hear great or depressing music, you taste delicious or bland food that might remind you of your moms cooking. Reality becomes YOUR reality. What is becomes what you think it is, nothing more. So we get nothing more out of it. The principle for facing our shadow and bringing the darkness into the light of awareness is to know that reality is not what you think. Allow room for change and improvement, don't cast away feelings and thoughts expecting to feel complete; you will end up depending on others for completion. Never stop moving because you perceive something as bad. See where the road takes you and cultivate a joyful mind not matter what you encounter.
