Inhale love, exhale gratitude. Think positive. Radiate your highest self. These popular spiritual quotes are very much appealing, but today I am here to tell you that no spiritual growth happens without a certain degree of struggle. In fact, the more growth you seek, the deeper into the darkness you will need to go. It sounds frightening, I know. The darkness still scares the shit out of me sometimes. There have been times I thought I would go mad. I’ve gone on emotional rampages - I’ve even curled up in a ball on my bedroom floor, crying & shivering with fear & sadness. But I have learned to love the darkness, because many beautiful things have come out of it. In fact, some of my biggest insights of bliss & happiness have come immediately after those moments of darkness. It is just a shedding of our old selves - the ego always puts up a fight to stay alive. The mind always wants to hold on to its beliefs, no matter how unreasonable they may be. But think about it for a minute: without our struggles, we would never be where we are today, we would never be the persons we are, we would never know the things we know. To learn a new skill, we must go through the hardships of learning. To advance to a higher level & rescue the Princess, Mario has to defeat all sorts of turtles, mushrooms & ‘bosses’! Spirituality is also a learning process. A learning to unlearn all the unnecessary knowledge we have accumulated. Oh, my dear friends, you don’t know how much junk we have covered ourselves with! If you are going through a tough time right now, gather courage. Salvation is near. Light & darkness are both necessary. Without the darkness, we would never know what light is. We would not be able to marvel at the beauty of light. There would be no nuances in life, everything would be bland, monotonous. Darkness allows for varying degrees of light, it creates shadows which brings depth to everything. Great pains need to be experienced in order to be born anew. It is like the pains of childbirth. The pain is the stimulus for the mother to push. & she tries with all her might, going through much hardship, because she knows that this is necessary. She knows that the pain is temporary. & after the baby is born, the pains of childbirth wither away. Looking at it from another angle: without pain, there would be no motivation, not even a slight indication that anything is to be done, & subsequently the baby dies in the womb. If you are going through troubled times, gather courage, dear friend. It is good. Go totally into it. Do not deny yourself this darkness. It is a blessing. As long as you are not hurting anyone. Pain is the trigger which sparks the process of rebirth. What you do with that pain, & how you choose to process it, determines the outcome. & no one can remove your pain but you. Because any external influence willonly hinder your growth. You may choose to escape these pains through various methods of distraction. But it will not help, mere jaan. It will only delay the very same pain, only to be repeated again. Better to deal with it in a single, swift blow, once & for all. Life is there for the living, beloved! Are you going to deny yourself the great joys of life? For real transformation to happen, you have to look within. It is not a matter of the other person, the situation, or any external stimuli. Don't throw your trash onto someone else. Go within, find the source of this pain. & sooner or later you will find that there is no pain. & what is left is freedom. Freedom is not a forgoing of responsibilities. On the contrary, it is the biggest responsibility you will ever carry throughout your life. Begin by accepting, loving & embracing your darkness. You got this. ;) ;) ;)
2 Comments
Gaurav
12/10/2017 01:57:54 pm
Superb...too Deep.. too true......smiles become more precious when it come after tears..
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About Prabh LehriI am a yoga teacher based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I am passionate about yoga as a form of healing on the physical, emotional & mental level. I have been on a yoga journey for almost a decade and have been formally sharing my experience in the last 4 years. Archives
December 2017
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