Accepting the existence of the shadow means accepting this bitter truth: if something we call darkness, evil, or the demonic has an external existence in the world, it is not an alien being. It is we human beings who, cell by cell, have constructed the being of this demon and continue to sustain its life.

Most of us think we know what is wrong with other people and what ought to be corrected in them. Jung believes that we must take this battle inward, because only by winning this battle can the wars outside us come to an end. This begins when we stop for a moment and accept that everything in the external world that disturbs us also exists within ourselves—and that this is precisely why we are able to see it.

In the story of the Buddha’s awakening, he first encounters Kama, or human desire, and passes beyond it. He then confronts Mara, the embodiment of fear, and passes beyond that too. Finally he faces the last temptation, that of moral duty toward others, and does not surrender to it either. The Buddha’s journey toward enlightenment can be understood as a journey through darkness, just as the lotus must pass through the heart of the swamp in order to reach the light and turn toward it in the splendour of blossoming.

Aydin Areta