When you die, you don’t suffer.
Death is an end of all suffering.
People that suffer are the ones that are living. To chose your suffering is to face your suffering. When you intentional face your suffering, which is developed by your division, the inner wall collapses and suffering ends. It’s the pain of facing the “thing” in our way and the emptiness that follows that scares us. By not facing the “thing” in our way, (which explains why people hate uncomfortable conversations or tasks they have to do, but don’t feel like doing) we continue to suffer. The shadow of our unresolved thoughts begin to creep into our body, which dictates our behavior and controls our body language. The first issue is that we don’t recognize the weight of the shadow. That energetic weight robs our energy. We have been so consumed with our outer vision, we lack inner vision. So we lead our lives divided from ourselves. We take on responsibilities half heartedly, losing the inner flame that we had as youth. The shadow is the area of our consciousness we have not faced. It’s the cause of our suffering. If we faced it everyday, we might feel initial pain, but we may begin to diminish its shadow, become more whole human beings. Our inner and outer light would shine brighter and fuller. But when we avoid pain, we continue to carry weight and lose our sight, which brings lack of clarity, fear, and suffering. The dark from within has taking the steering wheel, rather than the full spectrum of light. We become burdened to learn new, because we are spending energy saving our shadow. In the shadow we are comforted with our pleasures which eventually numb our pain.
The cliche “if you are not learning, you are dying” illustrates this. The shadow is suffocating us into an echo chamber of familiarity. Have people always been more concerned with “looking right” than finding out what is right? Probably, it’s the dominance of the ego, that as humans we all possess. Perhaps it’s more exacerbated and prevalent in the day of social media where appearance of looking right is more important than being right. We wanna look happy, but are we actually happy? We wanna be right, but are we actually right? We don’t ask questions or dig deep because it may risk our ignorance, exposing our shadow. We don’t want anyway, including ourselves to witness our shadow. We become superficial or narrow minded in our understanding to protect this shadow and prevent pain. The emotional pain of misunderstanding feels overwhelming. Because in that misunderstanding we risk a death to what is known to us. And if what we “know” is holding us together, we might not have the courage to find our way back. A shortsighted mind can only see so far. As far as its shadow allows. A narrow mind can only see from the range of its narrowness. The bigger the shadow the narrower the view. This mind doesn’t feel safe to look to where it hasn’t looked before. It only looks to validate what is already within its view, keeping its shadow alive.
If your mind is divided, you cannot truly observe. A part of you is guarding what you already know. This a self protecting mechanism is based on fear, and is an energy sucker. There is much division in the world. When we have less division within ourselves, we will have more unity throughout the world. It is more convenient to see the outward division. It requires humility to notice the inward division. Society is made up of other people, and those people are you and me.
When you are callously joyful for the death of another it’s because that person represented a part of you, that you haven’t faced, this is the shadow celebrating. In the shadow hell is created. And the devil arises from hell. When you hide from those painful feelings, you are letting toxins build inside of you, mentally and physically. By not facing the shadow you fail to exercise your spirit. You lose faith, letting the devil run the show. No one ever does something because they think it’s evil. They always think they are right, at least in the moment. Of course we may regret later on. But at the time of action we think we are right. The bigger the shadow the more difficult it is to recognize what is right or true. The hiding from the shadow creates disconnection and phoniness. To be fully integrated, I must pursue my shadow, which is the work of my life. This death to shadow, brings light and ends suffering. The person or people that provoke that shadow part you avoid or simply create an act while you are around them, which is a form of avoidance. So that your narrative which lives in your shadow, can remain alive. You hide within that narrative creating a bigger shadow cultivating a state of delusion. If you can’t see fact from fiction, you are delusional. You have no internal separation from the narrative, which becomes your identity. And when you are confronted in a way that challenges that narrative which is now embedded in your identity, it inflames your suffering (because it’s burning the shadow you falsely lust over), which is why you become emotional reactive and triggered. The emotional heat will expose your default setting, which is set by your shadow and based on all your previous narratives and memories. Some people’s narratives are extremely clever, and they are spineless they may be able to maneuver and articulate well. They can slip and slide around the shadow with sophistication. They will fool a lot of people that are stuck by their own personal shadow. If you don’t face this inner “dark” your suffering and your emotional triggers (when your mother triggers you, your coworker, your spouse, your ex, your political opponent, etc. etc.) will control you, creating more suffering. You do everything to keep this emotional bondage alive, because its give you pride, which is a sense of emotional pleasure. And the opposite of pride is shame – which delivers emotional pain. When someone threatens those belief systems, your self worth shrinks. The death of your old self (shadow), is the beginning of something new. To die to this self, is to be free of suffering. When you are divided by the shadow you are in fear. When you are face the shadow, you become one, undivided, unprotected, fully alive and in love. A death to the shadow is new and bigger life. And life is love.
Steve K.
