Darkness, excerpt from Four Quartets by TS Eliot

East Coker

III

O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark,
The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant,
The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters,
The generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers,
Distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees,
Industrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark,
And dark the Sun and Moon, and the Almanach de Gotha
And the Stock Exchange Gazette, the Directory of Directors,
And cold the sense and lost the motive of action.
And we all go with them, into the silent funeral,
Nobody’s funeral, for there is no one to bury.
I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you
Which shall be the darkness of God. As, in a theatre,
The lights are extinguished, for the scene to be changed
With a hollow rumble of wings, with a movement of darkness on darkness,
And we know that the hills and the trees, the distant panorama
And the bold imposing facade are all being rolled away-
Or as, when an underground train, in the tube, stops too long between stations
And the conversation rises and slowly fades into silence
And you see behind every face the mental emptiness deepen
Leaving only the growing terror of nothing to think about;
Or when, under ether, the mind is conscious but conscious of nothing-
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.

You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstacy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.

Full text at: http://www.ubriaco.com/fq.html

Darkness and light

Theme: Solstice – Darkness and light

Heart qual: Honor/ awe/ wonder, connected to First Principles, IBB

Personalize: Winter solstice coming this week, darkest part of the year. The word solstice derives from Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still)- in the stillness and darkness we have time to turn inwards and be reflective. Through the contrast of darkness and cold in winter, we come to appreciate the warm and light of summer.

Universalize: In the philosophy of yoga, light cloaks or conceals itself as darkness just for the joy of revelation, for the beauty of contrast. It’s like this cosmic game of peek-a-boo- like a baby who pulls a blanket over its head for the joy and surprise of pulling it off again.

Chit/Ananda: The highest purpose of this practice is to live more fully- to honor, to be in awe, of the full spectrum of life, both light and darkness.

The light in the heart is like the sun behind a curtain, you may think that the world is in darkness, but really its just the room you’re in at the time, when you open the curtain and you’ll find that the sun has always been shining.

No matter the darkness or difficulties life brings, there is always a light burning in our hearts, let that light carry you through the dimness.

As you… open your heart to the full spectrum of life.

… with reverence, and awe at the capacity of your body to move and stretch. Honor the way that the practice is unfolding for you.

….honoring challenges and times of darkness in your life that have brought revelation and growth in your life.

Exhale and soften more, take a repose in the exhale and soften and feel the stillness inside.

OTG- Make you’re inner body bright and side bodies long with the intention to shine your light.

OTG- Let your inner body brighten, like the brightness of a baby’s face playing peek-a-boo.

IBB- let the whole inner body glow, soften, get into the back body and remember that you’re connected to something bigger.

ME- Draw in power to nurture yourself, to connect with a bigger source of energy. With every inhale charge the body so it gets brighter

ME- every time you hug in you choose to embrace yourself as an embodiment of spirit. You find the light inside and lovingly hug all of your cells.