Your Dark Thoughts

How many gurus or yogis out there do you know of that say shit like, Just feel good feelings! Think happy thoughts and your life will manifest itself into one giant happy bubble of goodness and gluten-free wholeness…

There is a track by Freedom Fighters, one of my favourite psytrance producers, called ‘Subconscious.’

I’ve been pondering the noticeably robotic line in the track lately:

“Let us not become enlightened by imagining figures of light…but by making the darkness conscious.”

Weirdly, this concept is something I contemplate often. Your darkness is what gives way to the light (and vice versa). Without darkness, there is not light. The Yin and the fucking Yang of life my friends.

Reading Jordan Peterson’s book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos earlier this year, reinforced this further. As a society, by trying to head for egalitarian equality — perfection at all levels (don’t confuse this with equal opportunity of which I completely agree needs to happen) we are paradoxically doing a disservice and potentially doing great harm.

This is indicative to our minds, too. By trying to be ‘perfect’ and please everyone all the time and not have bad thoughts and raise beautiful children, you may be forgetting the powerful driving force behind nature.

The very nature of the mind — and Nature itself! — is predicated on the energy shift between chaos and control.

I’ve been through some fucking dark times in my life — as I’m sure is the case with you. Those dark moments make me savour the good. They make me kind — because I know the opposite. They make me grateful — because I’ve embodied the opposite to the point where envy takes over and my body literally feels like it’s malfunctioning.

Sit and Observe your mind

To push away your darkness is not the path to enlightenment. Observe that motherfucker. Don’t judge. Observe.

Observation is a common practice in meditation. When you observe your dark thoughts and potentially fucked up fantasies, they paradoxically go away.

Some of the worst times of my life have come from periods of Forced Happiness. Trying to be happy for the sake of it (read my post on Mark Mason’s book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck).

So, I say don’t listen to anyone who tells you to just think happy things. No, I say: sit alone with yourself and observe what comes up. Feel it. Embody it. You could learn a thing or two — I certainly have.

Oh, and here’s the song. It’s pure power 🔥