Tao of Darkness and Light

You are mirrors of truth in which God Himself shines in perfect light. To the ego's dark glass you need but say, "I will not look there because I know these images are not true."
(A Course in Miracles)

Our spiritual giants have been telling us over and over again how to deal with our dark sides: don't look at whatever it is that pulls you down and just know that it is not there. The mind is like a fertile soil they say, keep the weed out otherwise you will have to do a lot of painful plugging ahead.

If you think about it, this is exactly how most of the recovering addicts are dealing with their issues; sometimes even when memories of the old addictive habits get triggered, the floodgates of their old passions are reopened. So to survive they effectively have to cut out every aspect of their previous addiction from their lives.

Yet the approach we suggest is different.  You don’t really need to cut anything out of your life.  You face life and all the things that come your way  and are mindful about everything that happens inside of you and in your environment. You in fact can see for yourself that if you try to cut something out of your life, you actually give more energy to it. If you just observe everything with an open mind and with open eyes, you will find that the dark side, fascinating at it can be, always says no to life. The Tao is the opposite. It is the divine force that encourages you to say yes to life instead and teaches you to recognize all the love that surrounds you.  Life invites you moment by moment to join, and if you do, the spell of the dark passions will naturally fade in the background. All you have to do really is to open your eyes and see what is happening in your life.

By being mindful you align yourself with Tao.  When you walk the Tao you get clear instructions how to proceed. These steps certainly require effort at times, but you will see that saying yes to life will lead you away from depression, which happens to be the playground of the devil's advocate. Something else will become apparent that way. These temptations and these activities that induce your mind to go to sleep are nothing but a facilitator to help you wake up. So instead of cursing them, accept them and see them what they are, milestones on your journey Home.

We are not advocating that you put blinders on. Quite the opposite, we want you to face openly whatever it is life brings your way. We also don't want you to abstain from whatever it is that gets your blood pumping only because some other spiritual authorities say so. Go and face the life that comes your way and experience it with your best intension to find your True Self.  Let the Tao teach you how the world really looks like. What we say, however, is that once you have recognized an activity to lead away from the Tao, reengage with the Tao. On the highway to God every roundtrip will hurt you a lot.  Don't waste your energy with these games and just follow Her lead instead.

By Christian and Su Zhen