Darkness Within Darkness

The Gateway to All Understanding

“The mind craves for formulations and definitions…”

“If you don’t remember the source, you stumble in confusion and sorrow. But when you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused, kind-hearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king. Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you. And even when death comes, you are at ease.” –Lao Tzu

The title of this piece comes from the Tao te Ching and is misleading. In the Tao, ‘darkness’ can be understood as ‘emptiness.’ Our ability to be empty is the beginning/gateway of understanding. This is the essence of the Tao, of Stoicism, as Sri Nisaragatta Maharaj says:

“The mind craves for formulations and definitions, always eager to squeeze reality into a verbal shape. A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet.” –Sri Nisaragatta Maharaj

During such a time as this, when an obvious coup is taking place in our government, we are called to defend ourselves and our country and find ways to do that with strategy and consciousness. So far, the complete ‘cringe’ from the Democrats is unnerving and embarrassing. The ‘silent auction paddles’ at the SOTU? Embarrassing. Elderly leaders telling us people are “Aroused?” Embarrassing AF.

As we “Sail into the Mystic,” we leave the need to “squeeze reality into a verbal shape” and we create a collective strategy.

From where does the strategy come? Krishnamurti would argue that it comes from the same “Darkness/Emptiness” in which the Tao encourages us to be ‘immersed.”

“Emptiness comes as sunset comes of an evening, full of beauty, enchantment and richness; it comes as naturally as the blossoming of a flower.” –Jiddu Krishnamurti

Here’s the thing, T***p is wrong when he stated: “The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what people are going to get.” The people did NOT vote for government reform. They voted for lowering the cost of living, for affordable housing, for affordable health care…they did NOT vote for the destruction of their government by an unelected billionaire. We did NOT vote to align ourselves with the world’s worst dictator.

We cannot sit back (roll over and play dead) as James Carville (another octogenarian) says. Therefore, we must act. Misguided action will create more strife, more destruction. We are being asked to first assume a position of grace, collectively. Collective emptiness will yield productive revolution. Again, back to Krishnamurti:

“All great things start on a small scale, all great movements begin with individuals; and if we wait for collective action, such action, if it takes place at all, is destructive and conducive to further misery. So revolution must begin with you and me.” –Jiddu Krishnamurti

Emptiness as Grace

Frustrated search for purpose and meaning…

In one of Wayne Dyer’s lectures has talks about his strategy for the conflict in the Middle East and he suggests that he would gather 30 million people and surround the region and have the people send prayers and White Light into the Middle East.

I don’t think Dyer was envisioning 30 million people chanting the Om, I believe he was suggesting 30 million ‘empty’ people.

Emptiness is a challenge in the 2025 “Attention Economy.” We are trained from the time we leave the womb, to accumulate ‘stuff.’ The more stuff we acquire, the more ‘filled’ we are. Many modern Biblical scholars have accepted a more “Eastern” view of scripture, viewing the Biblical words as a path to the Mystic. In a post on Emptiness titled: “God Does His Best Work with Empty”, Biblical scholar Nancy Guthrie talks about what we seek from non-emptiness.

• Insatiable craving for things that don’t satisfy

• Relational disappointments and loneliness

• Frustrated search for purpose and meaning

• Relentless desire for comfort and security

Father Richard Rohr discusses this as “Grace” in a post titled: “Grace Is God’s Name.”

“Grace is not something God gives; grace is who God is. Grace is God’s official job description. Grace is what God does to keep alive—forever—all things that God has created in love. If we are to believe the primary witnesses—the prophets, the mystics, the saints, the transformed people—an unexplainable goodness is at work in the universe.” –Richard Rohr

In the Catholic Church, we sang; “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” The great teachers, from the Stoics to the Eastern philosophers, to Western mystics tell us the Revolution starts with the individual…born in emptiness. As Grace forms, we collectively rise up.

Years ago, I took a management class. Part of the class was a visualization that took place in two parts. In the first part, you are driving on a road, and in your rearview mirror you see a vehicle traveling far too fast and swerving in and out of traffic. The vehicle passes you at a high rate of speed and you see the driver is a younger person, mid-twenties. A little farther down the road, you see the same vehicle has gone off the highway and is stuck in a ditch. We are then asked; “What are your feelings? What are your judgements?” It serves the kid right. He was driving like a lunatic and endangering others. He’s an asshole for driving like that. Young people have no consideration for others, etc., etc. Then, we are told that this young man had recently learned that his mother was dying and on her last breaths and he was speeding toward the hospital where she was dying. “Now how do you feel? Now what are your judgements?”

Many were left with some of the very same judgements they held prior to learning of the dying woman. Others felt empathy for the young man. What are your judgements?

What are your judgements when you see the Christian Nationalists trying to destroy the science that allowed a woman like Emily Whitehead to live in 2012?

In conflict, we are conflicted. To rise together in unison, it will require “pre-action,” which is of itself ‘non-action.’ This is the paradox of Mysticism. “Tranquility nourishes the root of activity.”

“Devotees of quiet sitting made their case as follows: far from being a prescription for quietist introspection, their form of meditation was inextricably linked to action in the world. Sitting in silence had the effect of calming and stilling the mind, allowing it to return to its original pristine form. The Ruists, like the old Stoics, believed our nature to be essentially good. Spending time in silence was a way to recover that original nature, the principal aim of Ruist practice. When time came to return to the busy world of impressions, judgements and reactions, practitioners could act as centered and ethical beings. The great Ruist Master Zhu Xi (1126–1271) wrote: ‘Tranquility nourishes the root of activity, and activity is to put tranquility into action.’” --Quiet Sitting: A Meditation Style for Stoics?

Let me be clear, anger is justified, desire to make change is justified. A general does not go into battle without a deep understanding of their strategy. They will ‘immerse’ themselves first and foremost. Immersed in the emptiness…listening to the silence, from which the answers are revealed.

It can be argued that the only purposeful octogenarian right now is Bernie Sanders. Sanders has taken his “Fight Oligarchy” tour on the road, Bernie appears to be manifesting “Tranquility into action.”

Yes, we will need organized labor and economic strikes. We must and will, from that place of stillness, create “Good Trouble” in civil disobedience. In your individual place of emptiness, consider what we collectively are fighting for…fighting against. Here are some posts on these topics: