Because I try, in my own inadequate but focused way, to do shadow work. doing shadow work is like spear fishing in dark waters. You have to be very alert to the stirrings of the shadow. you have to watch carefully for the crepuscular movements in your psyche that tell you a big fish, or even a little one, is close, close. Then you have it haul it up from the depths with the hands of your intention and look at it in the light of day. this is not easy and takes years of practice. But begin in your own small way and it will have exponential results. look for those subconscious thoughts/feelings that go on beneath your consciousness as you move through the day, going to your job or driving or just being in your home, and ESPECIALLY IN YOUR DREAMS.

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Yes, yes. much wisdom here. What is the point, you might say, of doing any shadow work

(Yes, that’s what the psychologists call it, especially the Jungian variety) if you can’t kill it or even tame or train it?

The only solution lies in befriending it. Embracing it. Loving it. Why? Because it comes loaded with gifts. I have already talked of humility. Even if humility is elusive and fleeting, it is as valuable as even a little bit of sunshine during the monsoons in these high, misted mountains where i live. It comes and goes, but when it comes, and you taste its sweetness, it is unforgettable.

but that was not what i wanted to speak about but befriending the shadow. I’ll tell you some of the gifts — no, just one of the gifts — it brings. When it attacked me three days ago I was wise enough to recognize its silent footsteps (how? I will talk about that, too). as soon as i heard it, I flung open my heart to it. I recalled the Sufi definition of Sufism that I mention in my book, PILGRIMAGE TO PARADISE, or RUMI’S TALES FROM THE SILK ROAD (the former name in the Indian publication, the latter in the USA): What is Sufism? A leap in the heart at the coming of sorrow.

why? because humility is in it. Because God is in it. As Guru Nanak says, dukh daroo: sorrow is the antidote, sorrow the tonic.

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and humility is the greatest of human virtues. Yes. I think it is the root of all virtues. there can be no love, no compassion, no kindness without humility. It is only when we are humble that we can connect truly with others. It is humility that makes us realize that we are no different from anyone else.

But don’t delude yourself. It is the hardest thing to be humble. A Sufi saying has it: more invisible than an ant’s footprints on a dark rock on the darkest night of all are the workings of the ego.

ever seen THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE with Al Pachino and Keeau Reeves? The ending is magnificent and says what I mean.

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