Suffering Caused by the Dying Ego-The Dark Night of the Soul
First time I heard this spiritual phase, it was an article on Mother Terresa’s dark night of the soul experience, the emotion I felt was “fear”. The misinformation that creates a false impression in our minds about this phase which can occur in anybody’s life makes it something that intimidates us.
This post is prepared with an intention to give you a clear idea about this stage because with proper information you can use it as a ladder to achieve higher consciousness.
When and How It Happens to a Person?
Usually, everyone lives their life by flowing with it wherever it takes them, forgetting the impermanence of everything that exists in their current reality.
Relationships, material possessions and all worldly pleasures is only what a person wishes for when he is lost in the game of life.
When, a person who has been too much dominated by his ego has to face some unexpectedly sad life situation due to some loss or emotional trauma like a sudden demise of the loved ones,life becomes meaningless and the victims of such situations lose their craving for worldly pleasures that is when they start to question the existence of the higher power.
In another case, those who are already on the path of spiritual growth starts to feel “abandoned by god’ because they too stop feeling that divine presence.
There is no specific criteria to know if someone is suffering through the dark night of the soul or not, but if one is struggling to feel that “inner peace” for a little longer time period than usual, then there is a chance that he is passing through this particular phase.
This stage occurs when the false sense of self that is “ego” of a person is threatened as he realizes that it is separate and unreal mind made identity based on external appearances of life either through spiritual wisdom or sudden unexpected mental trauma.
When a person comes out of this stage with the power of his faith in god, he gains the higher level of consciousness and he starts to love everything unconditionally –Accepting the life as it is,which is the nature of the enlightened ones.
Mother Teresa’s Experience
Saints from various places and sects have talked about their transformational experience in different tones but the story of Mother Teresa gives us a comparatively clear insight about the spiritual struggle.
The book “the love that made Mother Teresa” highlights that she has suffered a lot during this phase that we know as “the dark night of the soul” and while trying to come out of this stage an inner voice guided her to serve the poor.
Mother Teresa describes her experience as the “pain of loss of god in her soul” which is similar to the one felt by many other spiritual masters in which one feels deserted- A constant state of depression without any apparent reason.
The Death of the Mind Made “False Self”
The struggle and pain are the result of the ego clinching to the soul.
In his book “the power of now” Eckhart Tolle mentions that when a person separates himself from the “identity or mind form” which can also be called as one’s ego which he considers to be himself due to the mental prison created by his own mind, this mind created form tries its best to pull a person back to his identification with the thoughts in his mind.
In the path of enlightenment a person is said to undergo four stages of clearing the layers of his ego, one can experience extreme emotional pain and negativity in these phases.
Due to the layers of old leaving patterns in the energy field of a person he may invite cruel treatments from others, dogs may bark at a spiritually transforming person because of those unusual patterns in his aura.
Yoga, meditation and other spiritual activities can help a person going through such phase.
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