Brian’s Reflection: Friday, June 24, 2011

If a [person] wishes to be sure of the road he treads on,
he must close his eyes and walk in the dark.

San Juan de la Cruz


“Darkness and Light to You are both alike.” One of the Hebrew psalms I think. Juan de la Cruz had what is called a “dark night of the soul”, where he knew intellectually that God loved him, but did not feel or experience it. He “knew” that the Christ was the Light of the World, the still-point of his Being, but his senses were “dead”. I wonder if, for San Juan, the Dark was to know without knowing, or, to put it another way: the surest path is Trust, when our senses and feelings desert us.

I imagine that it is hard to walk the path of Trust when deserted by sensory evidence or solace. But I must say that I have never had the “feeling” that I was loved by “God”. On the other hand, I haven’t needed it, or expected it. What I have needed to know is that I am an integral and essential part of Existence, of Being. This has been proposed to me in my Life, I have pondered it, and I made my decision to accept and to trust in it. Every one of us is taught many things, and every one of us must take responsibility for the path we choose. From that center flows my Peace and my sense of self-worth and my confidence.

The Journey has been circuitous! I believe that it is of the essence to claim a very high doctrine of the value of oneself and of others and of all that Is. To let no one demean or devalue us.

The Dark and the Light are, I know, One.

Brian+