"Into the Heart of Darkness"

[irreverance]

"I wanna push people right into the heart of darkness because that's where you're gonna find the light."

I'm a big Peter Rollins fan. 

 

[PaulS]

I'm not sure it is necessary to enter the heart of darkness to find what gives you purpose, to 'find the light', but I can accept that many people who have entered such a heart of darkness have indeed come away with meaning and purpose.  Incidentally, I don't know much about Peter Rollins but do really enjoy much that I have read and watched from The Minimalists.  Thanks for sharing.

[JosephM]

I can relate to what he is saying in my own life , however, personally i found it very hard for me to follow his words because of his accent. 🙂

[irreverance]

20 minutes ago, JosephM said:

I can relate to what he is saying in my own life , however, personally i found it very hard for me to follow his words because of his accent. 🙂

Funny you mention his accent. I was thinking last night that his accent seems to be slowly disappearing compared to his earlier vids. Good luck with his earlier stuff!

 

5 hours ago, PaulS said:

I'm not sure it is necessary to enter the heart of darkness to find what gives you purpose, to 'find the light', but I can accept that many people who have entered such a heart of darkness have indeed come away with meaning and purpose.  Incidentally, I don't know much about Peter Rollins but do really enjoy much that I have read and watched from The Minimalists.  Thanks for sharing.

I think he's talking about completely accepting relativism. Acceptance that my truth is relative to me doesn't mean it can't also be absolute for me, yet open to transformation. That opens the door for a co-created reality, which I find liberating and empowering. 

[PaulS]

12 hours ago, irreverance said:

I think he's talking about completely accepting relativism. Acceptance that my truth is relative to me doesn't mean it can't also be absolute for me, yet open to transformation. That opens the door for a co-created reality, which I find liberating and empowering. 

Okay, listening to him again, I can see what you're saying, but still not sure one has to enter a heart of darkness to reach this understanding or acceptance.  But of course there will be those who do.  I think accepting that truth is relative to the individual, and further accepting that whilst it can be absolute to one that they can be open to transformation, is indeed liberating, and even brings a peace.  I try to remind myself of this when I come up against something or someone who I think is 'wrong' - I would hold the same opinion or understanding as them if I had grown up as they did and had experienced life as they experienced it.  Their truth is relative to them, as mine is to me, because of who we are and what we have been through in our lives.

[Kellerman]

M'eh.

Yes, coming through darkness can absolutely catalyze a move to a more spiritual or enlightened state, but I don't for a second believe it's necessary. 

Nor do most people who experience profound darkness come out the other side in better shape. 

On average, most will come out with severe psychological wounds, and it's the process of healing those wounds than promotes a heightened openness to the divine, not the experience of the darkness itself. 

What is true is that enlightenment, divinity, spirituality, whatever you want to call it, does generally require a certain degree of discomfort with the status quo, with the norm, with what society tells us we should care about. 

Many people won't engage that discomfort unless pushed past their limits, but one can be pushed past limits and out of their comfort zone in so many ways. 

Darkness isn't the only path to light. It's just the one that is easiest to understand.