Shadow Work: With or Without You

See the stone set in your eyes.
See the thorn twist in your side.
I'll wait for you.

Sleight of hand and twist of fate.
On a bed of nails she makes me wait.
And I wait without you.

(U2, With or without you)

For the U2 fans and the spiritual travelers alike, read this paragraph and understand its importance. It describes shadow work perfectly, the problem that your spiritual path appears to be clashing with something that seems to be really important for your soul. What can you do when you reach this fork in the road? Nothing! Just sit there and be one with the tension and let life find its way to help you transcend it altogether. Life is working hard in the background to make it work; welcome everything life brings to you with open arms and you shall be fine.

With or Without You

See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you

Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you

With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you
(U2, With or Without You)

When the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung went to high school he was incredibly poor, while most of his fellow students were quite well off. He was also introverted and was considered an oddball. One day someone pushed him out of the blue onto the cobbler stones and Jung bumped his head. As he was lying on the floor, slipping in and out of consciousness, he realized what an incredibly relieving feeling this was. From that day on he used fainting spells as a way to escape from things he was afraid off until the day when his father, who he considered weak, complained about it. From that day on he pulled himself together and overcame all his fears with pure willpower.

I read this story about Jung in Gary Lachman's excellent book "Jung the Mystic" and it made a deep impression on me. Of course, the way the big guys separate themselves from the ordinary folks is that willpower makes them accomplish what they feel is theirs; they "feel the fear and do it anyway", as Susan Jeffers demands in her same-titled book. Yet what exactly makes the big guys successful? Well, it is the drives in them, the unsolved conflicts, the tensions that have to be released for otherwise they would explode. Often successful people are really miserable deep down inside. It is this tension that makes them a lion.

The spiritual community has a problem. We be believe that Heaven on earth is a right that is ours to take. Certainly, Heaven on earth was created just for you,  but first of all you have a job to do. Accept the tension inside, don't wish it way. Accept the twist of fate, the thorn in your side and understand that your drive, your passion and your creativity depends on them. Dance with your driving force, and accept for a while that you can't live with or without it. Perhaps one fine day the tension will magically resolve itself, or perhaps it never will. But this tension, this darkness that you are afraid of in fact makes you the person you were born to be.