Dark Night, Elusive Mornings, Peace Not Absent

(Picture from http://www.intentblog.com)

What is the “dark night of the soul”?   A “collapse of a perceived meaning in life”, resulting in ” … a dark place … But people have gone into (the dark night of the soul) … with the possibility that (one will) emerge out of that into a transformed state of consciousness.”  www.eckharttolle.com/newsletter/october-2011

 

Mother Teresa’s dark night of the soul lasted 45 years: ” … in 2007, we discovered through a posthumously published book that Mother Teresa of Calcutta had undergone a severe, intense dark night that persisted through almost her entire ministry life (started in 1947?), right up until her death (1997).”  http://gratefultothedead.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/mother-teresas-long-dark-night 

One book that gave me much-needed insight on the dark night of the soul was Gerald May’s work, Dark Night Of the Soul.  

“Peace is not something you can force on anything or anyone… . much less upon one’s own mind. It’s like trying to quiet the ocean by pressing upon the waves. Sanity lies in somehow opening to the chaos, allowing anxiety, moving deeply into the tumult, diving into the waves, where underneath, within, peace simply is.” From THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL by Gerald May

 

St. John of the Cross (originally known as San Juan de la Cruz) wrote the “Dark Night of the Soul”, a long poem, during the 16th century.   

Here are my thoughts, on the dark night of the soul:  an ambiguous, desert-time that some sense they are going through; others don’t know about the dark night of the soul.  There are different descriptions, different names.  Community is crucial; and yet, the paradox of community is profound.  Blogging plays a part in community, and I don’t know what I think of that.  Maybe that is why I consider it a paradox.

You may be going through a dark night of the soul.   Or, you may know someone who is going through . . . something … that has the characteristics of melancholy, or depression, or despair, or hopelessness.  What you see may seem to be self-pity.  But unless you pursue them, you will not find out.  Thus, community.  The dark night of the soul is part of my own journey, and community is more difficult in my older years.  Mornings are elusive.  But I know that there is peace, here, and it will never be absent.

Related articles

• The Dark Night Of The Soul (wariscrime.com)
• Mother Teresa’s Long, Dark Night (http://gratefultothedead.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/mother-teresas-long-dark-night )