Part Six:

All the ugliness and suffering we see in the world are the products of the lives of countless generations of our fathers and mothers in the past, and of our own lives today. We transmit our darkness from one generation to the next and tell our children the myth of a demon that exists outside humanity. In each generation we learn to point our finger toward everyone and everywhere except the darkness within ourselves.

Every human being who undertakes the inner journey—who courageously and honestly travels the dangerous path inward, passes through the darkness within, awakens the luminous side of the self, and realises the inner light—shakes the stillness of the world and the pillars of darkness in the external world.

The more clearly we see and confront our shadow and dark side, both individually and collectively as a nation, the less that shadow will rule us and our destiny.

Philo of Alexandria, the Greco-Egyptian philosopher, counselled us centuries ago:
Be kind to everyone, for every person you meet is carrying a great and painful struggle in their life.

Such an outlook gives us the capacity to live with compassion. Confronting the shadow is a perspective on life, not a fixed step-by-step prescription, because it is an individual path travelled differently by each person. This perspective begins with the first step of accepting responsibility for the existence of a dark shadow within ourselves and remains with us throughout the journey, preventing our fall into darkness.

No one will attain illumination merely by thinking about light; this path is travelled only through becoming conscious of darkness. Until you bring the unconscious into consciousness, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. “Jung”

Aydin Areta