Why the Dark Stuff

          Last week I wrote about projection. Whenever discussing projection, we discuss the darker aspects of ego, even though it also projects the lighter stuff. This is because the darker stuff is what triggers us emotionally. We see outside ourselves the dark stuff within that we don’t want to see. Sometimes, we are triggered purely by what we project and what we see is coming only from our mind. Sometimes, what is outside ourselves mirrors the dark stuff in our mind and we are triggered because we’ve been trying to avoid seeing it. Last week’s article was about the latter.

Some readers are uncomfortable talking when I discuss the dark stuff. If you are familiar with Ken Wapnick’s teaching, then you have probably heard a term he coined for students of A Course in Miracles who do not want to face the hard and dark stuff in their minds: Blissninnies. Blissninnies insist all is always good and there is no dark stuff or they think they are to ignore the dark stuff in the pretense that they know it is not real. But what they really end up doing is repressing their belief in the dark stuff.

Here’s the thing: If you want to learn the central message in the Course that the light is in your mind and you are capable of perceiving it—extending it from your mind so that there is no longer an “inner” and “outer” world but just one world—then you also have to accept that the dark stuff that you see is also in your mind. It must be that either all you see is your mind or nothing you see is your mind and you are at the mercy of some other mind. It cannot be that only the good stuff comes from you and the bad stuff comes from someone or something else.

If you are to see the light, you will see the dark stuff within your mind, too, not because you are guilty and are to be punished, not because you are being tested and must “earn” the light, but because it is there. However, only ego believes the dark stuff is real. This is because it is the dark stuff and it believes in itself. If ego falls away, the dark stuff is seen as just something appearing and it has no teeth. So, in a way, it’s not really seen as “dark” at all.

Ego does not want to see the whole truth about itself. Oh, it might admit to some of the dark stuff, but not all of it. It can’t cope with what it really is, it wears a mask even with itself. It denies truth and in the process denies all that it is, too. It projects away what it does not want to see in itself, yet it is triggered when its own truth is seen or mirrored in the world.

So, if you want the “good” you must accept the “bad” with the “good”. It is just what happens. It is not an indication that something has gone wrong, you are just seeing all that appears in consciousness. If you remember this, you can ride out the “bad” and let it pass so that the “good” can continue to emerge from behind it.

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