Darkness and Light

The following is a dialogue between Daeva, a cynical nihilist, and Manu, an embodiment of the idealism inherent in all of the great religious traditions of the world. Of course, there is no Daeva or Manu. Each represents a different dimension of Self (the shadow and fantastic) that are eternally in conflict with one another.

Daeva:

The world is not as it appears to you. There are no squiggly-wiggly lines or plaid checker-board patterns in the cavernous wastelands of your mind, no morning sunrise over the Adriatic, no cute cowgirls all lined up in a row waiting for the farm boys to take them to the county fair. There is no George Bailey, uninspired dolt, or fair Mary, eternal spinster and virgin mother, or Mr. Potter, heroic Master of the Universe.

There is only the void—the vast, eternal, endless void. We are part of the void, but it is not part of us. It is the primordial essence of the universe in which we live. But the universe doesn't exist, and neither do we. Nothing exists except the void.

Try to escape from the void…try all you want. You cannot escape the void, because you are the void. Everything else is illusion and deception.

Manu:
The only void that exists is the one created by the self-imposed limitations of the mind. The past is but a distant memory; the future a fantasy that may never come. But there is the present. This very moment before us is all that we have. You can touch it with your mind’s eye if you would just abandon your delusions.

Follow the breath. The breath is all we have. The breath will lead you to the NOW—the source of all true liberation. And when the delusions arise, treat them with compassion and allow them to flow along the tranquil stream of human consciousness. Then you will come to that place of peace, joy, and harmony for which you so long.

Daeva:
Enlightenment is an illusion; peace is an illusion; liberation is an illusion. There is only struggle, conflict, and chaos. Attempts to postulate higher realms of consciousness are fictions created by minds too weak or timid to accept the SUPREME PRINCIPLE OF REALITY—that there is nothing more…no truth, no heaven, no gods…nothing but the black hell of the void.

Embrace the chaos, leap into the abyss, become one with the void. And, when the darkness calls out to you, accept it, for there is no other option. Darkness and emptiness…that is our ultimate destiny.

Manu:

The first blossom of spring arises in the barren wasteland; the child of man sings his joyful songs to strangers wandering through the dusty city; the enlightened ones sit in perfect stillness by the banks of the sacred river. Everywhere around us there are signs of higher realities at work in our universe.

Embrace the present moment, open up the heart of compassion, and liberation will follow. This is the truth that all of the great sages and prophets throughout history understood; this is the truth that allowed these divine beings to slip their mortal coils and become one with the eternal source of all things.

Despair and fatalism are the true signs of a fearful nature. Become bold: neither death, nor pain, nor the coming darkness can harm you if you have trained your mind to look beyond shadows and fog to glimpse the sublime beauty that permeates all things. There is a god dancing on the petals of each and every rosebud, if you would just take the time to notice.

Daeva:

War, famine, pestilence, greed...We are the very stuff of chaos in the universe. Look inside youself. No matter how sweet, pleasant, or kind you may appear on the surface, lurking deep within you is the Shadow waiting to emerge, waiting to consume all that lies within its path. We are the destroyers; we are the adulterators; we are the very monsters that lurk within our own nightmares.

The planet lies in tatters because of our rapacious greed and endless insidious desire. The planet is dying, dying, dying, and we will die with it. But the Shadow that lies within us will live on. It is the primordial stuff of the universe. It will ultimately snuff out the small glimmer of light that may survive the final confulgration until only the darkness itself remains.

Manu:

Darkness does exist within all of us...That is certainly true. But we human beings are so much more than mere Shadow. We have the potential to transcend our own moral and spiritual limitations and touch the sublime spark that lies within ourselves. For every Stalin or Hitler, there exists a Buddha or a Michelangelo or a Gandhi, who is able to reflect the true nature of humanity. We may often go astray, we may often be led by our brutish desires rather than by the pure light of reason and love. But we also possess the ability to tap into our own basic goodness and inner divinity....if we but make the effort.

I sit in perfect stillness

and follow the ebb and flow

of my life breath

till I reach that still point

where the spark of creativity resides

and then at once I come to

the fertile lands of superconsciousness

and touch the divine essence

that is my true nature.

God and I are one at these moments

and darkness is eviscerated

by the sweet penetrating light

that radiates from within myself.