Are you familiar with Goethe’s color theory? Goethe observed that light seen through a turbid medium (e.g. air, dust, moisture) appears yellow, and darkness seen through an illuminated medium appears blue. In other words the colours of this world are created out of the relationship between light, matter, and darkness. There are so many rich teachings and insights that stem from his work with light and dark, but for right now I want to keep it simple; in the world of matter both light and dark are necessary to experience color.
Everybody knows if there is only darkness we see nothing. Our fear of the darkness is so traditional, pervasive, and unquestioned that we demonise the shadows, eclipses and night. Darkness becomes bad, dangerous, negative and unwanted. By necessity then light becomes good, safe, positive and wanted. However if there is only light again we see nothing!! Instinctively we lift our hands to shade our eyes because light, just as much as darkness, blinds us. Our attachment to light, good and positive is trending right now and validated ubiquitously. For instance, have you been instructed by a teacher, friend or yourself to only focus on the light, the good and the positive? While in the first few moments it might make you feel better, it merely blinds us to our suffering. What if Siddhartha Gautama just sat under the bodhi tree and kept repeating to himself ‘just think positive, just focus on the positive’?!? Countless stories remind us how suffering and pain become turning points but still we forget even our own discomfort, pain and suffering can be the key to our liberation or healing, if we want to live in the fullcolor, complexity and vitality we have to include both the light and the dark in our path of self-realisation.
In an increasingly polarised culture for positive change towards a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible, we need to invite the dark together with the light into the conversation. Can we learn to share our sorrows and suffering along side our successes and joys? It does require worthy formative effort to discover the positive of all situations, but it becomes superficial if it can’t live together with the acknowledgement of what has happened or what is hard or painful. Just as we have had the energy to heroically champion positivity, we have the power to be honest and kind at the same time. When brought together they are the most loving we can be.
As we move into eclipse season and towards the darkness of winter, can we take this time to invite both the good stuff and the hard stuff onto our yoga mat and into our practice? This act already starts transmute the dark pain of suffering into colorful jewels of insight and seeds for a vibrant future. Just like compost first stinks, rots and is gross before it becomes rich life supporting soil our practice transmutes our pain and our darkness.
So keep your heart up and your practice on!
with lots of love, Rachel
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