Let there be light.
You might have heard this phrase many times.
Can I tell you what I understand from it?
I have experimented with a lot of different types of meditations, affirmations, and visualization techniques, and even though I can’t say with full confidence that I succeeded in all of them, I can certainly tell you that I have found an underlying current—a common thread.
All the techniques (at least most of them) are designed to bring light to the dark corners of your mind.
Let’s take, for example, your basement, attic, or a room that’s not frequently used. Let’s suppose this room is your mind. Now whether you practice a certain type of meditation, affirmation, or guided meditation, they all work on the same principle: getting things out in the open.
And it’s logical.
Unless you bring out the content of your mind into the open, no healing is possible. And with it comes confusion that first you need to bring out the negative content of your mind and then do something to heal it.
No, it doesn’t work that way.
I have found that acknowledging our feelings (negative or positive) is the first and only step. The moment you see how you feel about a certain issue or challenge, the entanglements start withering away.
Bringing Light to Your Mind is the FIRST (and the LAST Step)
Have you watched a “vampire” movie?
Do you remember the moment a vampire comes out into the sun, it “evaporates” without anything else being done to him?
All the protagonist does is bring the vampire out into the sun. And the sun does the rest. That’s exactly what you need to do with your mind.
As Osho explains in many of his discourses, we accumulate a lot of waste in our minds, (thanks to the centuries-long emotional suppression). And the only way to get free of all that crap is to take light into the dark corners of our minds.
But it’s easier said than done.
Why It’s So Hard to See the Reality?
The question is, why is it so hard to bring light to the darkness? Well, because doing anything out of our comfort zone makes us go “cuckoo,” to say the least. No matter how much garbage we have in the basements of our houses, it always feels awkward to take light in the filthy nooks and corners.
We don’t want to witness the garbage lying in there, right? Doing so shatters our self-image that we are “clean” and organized. Seeing what is, is hard.
So What to Do?
Start small.
Just like you won’t go into your basement and throw everything out to overhaul it, likewise, you don’t need to “bring the light inside” in one go.
Take one step at a time. Be gentle. Go slow.
When I first started meditating back in 1995, I went with full force. I did whatever I could to get rid of the suppressed emotions, and it was hard. I suffered a lot. Later, I realized that forcing meditation to happen is not the answer. On the contrary, the solution is to let the meditation happen on its own with as little intervention from your side as possible.
Spiritual growth is unlike fast food. It takes its own sweet time. So, there’s no need to rush.
Rushing things when embarking on a spiritual journey is counterproductive. It’s like getting into too much too soon. You’ll run around in circles and will make little to no progress.
Let there be light. Gradually.