I spent years trying to climb out of my darkness. God kept pushing me back down. Thought He hated me. Then I realized He was drowning me in it on purpose. Like baptism but backwards. Under the black water something grows that can't grow in sunlight. Seeds need soil not sky. I kept reaching for transcendence He kept shoving me into my shadow. Now I understand. The light that matters doesn't come from escaping darkness it comes from darkness eating itself alive until only light remains. God doesn't want me to transcend my darkness He wants my darkness to birth something luminous. I am not climbing out of the pit I am becoming the fire that burns at the bottom of it. The real light grows in places where ordinary light dies
I spent years trying to climb out of my darkness. God kept pushing me back down. Thought He hated me. Then I realized He was drowning me in it on purpose. Like baptism but backwards. Under the black water something grows that can't grow in sunlight. Seeds need soil not sky. I kept reaching for transcendence He kept shoving me into my shadow. Now I understand. The light that matters doesn't come from escaping darkness it comes from darkness eating itself alive until only light remains. God doesn't want me to transcend my darkness He wants my darkness to birth something luminous. I am not climbing out of the pit I am becoming the fire that burns at the bottom of it. The real light grows in places where ordinary light dies
“I think the essence of spirituality is once you’ve gone through the first part of your life adding stuff, adding more knowledge, adding more skills, adding more context, adding more wealth, you sort of realize the most profound thing cannot be added because it was always there. Like, I sort of think kids are born into the world enlightened, and we... See more
Let there be pain, let there be suffering. Go through the dark night, and you will reach a beautiful sunrise. It is only in the womb of the dark night that the sun evolves. It is only through the dark night that the morning comes.
Osho • Love, Freedom, and Aloneness: On Relationships, Sex, Meditation, and Silence
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
Describe the image of God in the darkness:
Caleb Azumah Nelson • Open Water
We can see our suffering as noble if it is part of our movement toward our essential selves, toward the truth.