The key to living a life of peace and bliss is truth, of seeing reality as it is. Truth is the first leg of dharma and one that is being assailed at the moment.
There are many flavours of shadow and fog that obscure truth. To discover what is real behind the veils and shadows, we need a few different tools in our toolbox.
These are also the common steps for us to recognize these dynamics.
The Shadow of Unknowing
For many people, what is real is the world around them and the thoughts, emotions and sensations of their direct experience. Everything else is concepts and beliefs.
But by adding an effortless meditation to introduce transcending, we begin to experience the deeper layers of our being and it expands our sense of self, which is eventually liberated.
Transcendence or samadhi also deeply settles the body-mind, allowing a lot of healing to take place.
You may find I go on about this sometimes. But this is not widely understood. Recently, I heard a popular Indian Jyotishi describe the limbs of Yoga as steps, saying you couldn’t achieve the later steps until you were established in the early steps.
From their perspective, samadhi was almost impossible for most of us, leaving liberation as a dream for a later life. And yet with effortless meditation, samadhi is easy and daily. It may not always be clear, but it’s certainly not hard.
Limbs are like legs of a table. You move one and the others come along. Samadhi, however, is the key to liberation.
The Shadows of Resistance
Resistance has many forms, creating different kinds of shadow. But in essence, we have a tough experience and don’t complete it. Perhaps it’s too much at the time or we didn’t know how to process it. So we park it away to deal with later. When it’s triggered and pops up again, we repress it and build resistance. This creates areas of unconscious or shadow. Shadow because it lacks the light of consciousness.
However, such unresolved experiences continue to influence us and take energy to suppress. Nature works to surface what is unresolved so we can complete it and restore balance. Yet we’ve often developed the habit of resistance, adding more and more layers rather than learning to process what is arising. The layers make them harder to see and resolve but do not end their influence.
Learning the basics of energy healing is very valuable here. Then we can practice processing what is arising, discovering it’s straightforward. They’re not the bogey-man we’d feared.
With transcendence we gain grounding in being and find it much easier to let go. Then we can handle pretty much anything life has thrown our way.
Over time, we shift the trend. Before we kept adding to our pile of resistance. Now we’re resolving the backlog, freeing up energy and improving quality of life. We cleanse our history.
The Shadow of the Collective
We’re not really separate beings. We store all those resistances in a collective space.
When we become more conscious on collective levels, we feel expanded. At some point, we notice collective shadows. Then we can apply the same healing principles. We become another peace warrior.
The flavours that are most familiar to us are the ones we’re most resonant with and best able to help resolve.
The Shadow Itself
For a long time, I’ve found the above very effective. We often experience energy subjectively as emotion. Feel into the shadows and find the emotional core to release. The shadows clear automatically with the light of attention.
But recently, I found shadow that didn’t seem to have a core. There was subtle unconscious reactivity without a defined emotion. I finally realized it was the shadow itself that was the influence. It wasn’t a layer of resistance; it was a quality in the space.
Shadow doesn’t have its own power. Rather, it mirrors and amplifies what it’s near. The moon’s nodes mark the point of eclipses. In Vedic astrology, these points are seen as shadow “planets.”
Several prominent countries in the world are currently in a cycle (dasha) where the moon’s north node is more prominent, including the US, UK, and EU. This was further amplified by a series of eclipses that activated that energy. Many are experiencing this as fear and reactivity.
It’s not that some virtual point in space or distant planet beams down on us, but rather that they are outward expressions of the cycles in the seasons of nature. We can watch the cycles to get a sense of when will be the most productive time for specific things. When is there the most support?
Such shadows have a role. They’re not something to resolve or heal. Instead, the key is awareness. Being conscious of the shadow means we’re not caught by it. Put another way, the key is truth – what is actually here without all our filters.
It’s like being conscious we get angry about injustice. Being conscious, we can avoid being consumed by the anger and can instead steer that energy in productive paths to do something about it.
A wonderful help with lifting shadow is mantra as sound flows deeper than shadow. I was steered back to something I’d heard recently. I found Shankara’s verses to a demon-slaying form of Durga effective, the Mahishasura Mardini Stotram. Durga is the destroyer of ignorance. A demon is a being that embodies shadow. You can just listen, letting the sounds wash over you. Or you can have the attention on the letters to focus more, but avoid any effort. The meaning is not important for the effects, although you can look them up if you’d like.
There is a time for every purpose. Rather than going into fear and drama, this is a time for turning within and reflecting. Time marches on and there is no going back. Only forward into the next adventure.
Davidya
Davidya, thank you so much for the insights you share. I’ve been lurking on your blog for some time, but not commented before.
There are posts here that have helped my own ongoing process of awakening these last months, after years of practicing tm. This one on shadows & truth was timely and apt indeed, both for my personal process dealing with a deeply entrenched hang-up, as well as the current world situation. It really does feel like in these times, some shadows which has been hidden for ages are now being brought out into the light in order to be seen and shorn away.
You have a way of discussing subtle and profound concepts in a very precise and clear way, that has helped me understand distinctions of principles that have otherwise been quite challenging, yet important to get “right”.
Thank you for shedding this light.
Thanks for commenting, Eir. Yes, it’s very much about what is unresolved rising to the surface to be seen, both personally and collectively.
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It does take time to become clear. I’m certainly not a fast learner. I share because it can help others become clearer sooner. Or just reframe it a bit to support their process better.
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You’re more than welcome. Thanks for the feedback.
The Mahishasura Mardini Stotram is lovely and soothing, and your writing is, as always, concise, informative, and penetrating. Clear expression from clear consciousness. Please keep it up. You’re doing us a great service. God Bless.
Agreed, Wadi & thanks. Blessings.
Lovely words David. Thank you.
Thanks, Aaron
D, I hope you never tire of receiving gratitude, because I never read a post of yours without sending it at least mentally, and sometimes here. And, though you say it’s not you doing it – that you’re just the throughput device, you’re the mark from this point of view, so THANK YOU (again).
Hi George
I do appreciate feedback. That’s how i know it’s been relevant.
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Maharishi offered everything he did back to his teacher. Here, I also offer everything back to the source. 🙂
Hi David, I am glad you found this great stotra to Mother Durga. She is indeed said to be the destroyers of demons. It took me a while to realize that the demons are just aspects of ourselves. One thing I always wondered about is in the Stotra Durga Saptasati – there is a verse which says “Ya Devi Sarva Bhuteshu Bhranthi rupena samstitha” which means “The Goddess who dwells in all beings as delusion”. The explanation in English I have notes “Truth and Error are just obverse and reverse forms of the Goddess”. Not sure how that all fits but agree that Mother Durga is the great Protectress and does lift one out of negativity.
Hi K
Yes, in our cosmic nature, it’s all a part of us. And each of us embodies aspects of that in this body-mind.
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Some of those aspects are light-giving, some are sustaining, and some are dark. The dark brings shadows. Shadows make it hard to see and can thus lead to mistaken conclusions aka delusion.
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Fear is generating a lot of craziness in people at the moment. Like masks becoming symbols of things other than mutual protection.
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We’re in polarizing times but remember there is a lot of grey area in all this. Shadows have umbras and delusion can be mild or life-threatening. Umbras make for unclear boundaries and undefined edges we can cross without realizing it.
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Within all this, we have choice in how we respond. Do we jump into the drama or take a step back, favour gratitude, and rest in presence?
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Yes, Durga is a light in the crown chakra, a light that can burn through any shadow. All is aspects of the one Divinity, different flavours to accomplish different results.
I felt the Devas dancing.
They are, Gina. What is taking place is a big deal, under all the appearances. 🙂
This was very helpful. Thank you
You’re welcome, Lynn. Thanks for the note.
Dear David,
I found this late, in a sense, from a link in your latest blog. On the other hand it’s perfectly timely. I love this Stotram. Thank you very much for all the help, all the clarification you have given in service to all over the years.
You’re welcome, Mary.