Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Relax your will during the soul's dark nights

Moon Day Journal blog values Thomas Moore's book, Dark Nights of the Soul, in the similarly titled post, "Dark Night of the Soul" at the beginning of this month:
 "It has been just a little over two years since my last post to this blog.  This has been a difficult time for me, a time of wanting to get free of my marriage and yet so not wanting it to end. A book by Thomas Moore, Dark Nights of the Soul, helped me by naming what I was experiencing in the grip of these conflicting impulses. 'Sometimes a dark night begins to brew when you are caught between incompatible wishes,' Moore writes. 'At one level you want change, but at another it’s the last thing in the world you want.'   
Moore encouraged me to accept that what I needed to do was sit with this dilemma until my internal conflict resolved itself and allowed me to move on.  This sitting with the feelings that arise and accepting 'what is,' is, of course, what Buddhist practice and yoga practice are all about.  So, I have been practicing intensely but not feeling much like writing about it."
The post ends with a quote by Moore that includes, "The relaxing of your will, however desperate, allows life to proceed.  It may not go according to your plan, but whatever it makes will be more secure and ultimately more satisfying than anything you could force into existence."