Thread: Calling All Dark Night Yogis! (This means you)

I am here
because I know
That so many of us
Either have been, are now,
or will become Dark Night Yogis.

A Dark Night Yogi is someone who is in
the 'Dark Night of the Soul'.
What are we talking about?
I am talking about the path of life we are all on.
Just like we all know about the 'mid-life crisis' and the hardships of puberty
we need to know about the 'dark night'.

This dark night is very familiar to all meditation traditions,
and to all meditators. It is also a common stage that lucid dreamers
stumble upon while refining their awareness.
Also, many psychedelic drug users are stuck in the dark night.
The problem with the dark night is that you cannot
go back and get out of it. There is only one way out
and that is forward. I spent close to twenty years in a dark
night since I got into lucid dreaming as a teen.

So first, here is the background:

When working with the mind there is a progression of the liberation of awareness.
If one is consistent in this process the progression is like a wave.
There is a peak experience, a crest, then there comes the trough, and the depression
and irritability and anger, etc... discomfort, accidents, bad luck, etc...
This wave form has been mapped out by every meditation tradition and mind tradition.
The tree of life in the Kaballa has the void you have to pass through to get to the top sephiroth.


In my tradition, Buddhism, has this territory mapped out to a science.
First one develops what is called 'access concentration' in which concentration becomes effortless and smooth and one is free from being sucked into thoughts.
This is kind of like lucidity. This is the first 'jnana'.
Here is a good link with a brief description of the wave: www.dharmaoverground.org - Vipassana jhanas - Wiki

But here is a list:

They are as follows:

1.Mind and Body
2.Cause and Effect
3.The Three Characteristics
4.The Arising and Passing Away
5.Dissolution
6.Fear
7.Misery
8.Disgust
9.Desire for Deliverance
10.Re-observation
11.Equanimity
12.Conformity
13.Change of Lineage
14.Path
15.Fruition
16.Review

Stages 5-10 are the dark night of the soul.
stage 4 is the peak experience into the nature of mind. The 'arising and passing away' (A&P) of sensations. It is high-definition. everyone who has had some experience with lucid dreaming has made it to the A&P
The thing about the A&P is that is the point of no return, the event horizon. You cannot go back. Now you enter the dark night. If you keep up and look into the sensations of the dark night, eventually you will pass through faster and you will emerge at equanimity. The rest are very pleasant. When you hit path you are completing the first path. Then you arrive at fruition, you have attained the first stage of enlightenment. Then review is you never go back below the A&P. Your default awareness is the lucid awareness of the A&P and dreams are lucid. And one knows life is also a dream. But you keep cycling from that through the dark night to fruition. That is review. This happens until you attain complete enlightenment. different traditions have a different amount of times you cycle through that before you are considered "completely enlightened". I think it varies from individual to individual.

But I want to share this, and point the way, so that you don't spend twenty of your best years in the dark night like I did. And many people spend their whole lives in the dark night.

Symptoms of being in the dark night:

Obsession with meditation, lucid dreaming, occult, paranormal.
Feeling like life is meaningless and seeking a higher calling.
Feeling like being on a quest but not finding what it is you are looking for.
Financial difficulties. Finding day to day life to be a distraction from what you
really should be doing. Irritability, depression, health problems, bodily pain.

It might not be intense, for some it is, but for many it is just a dull background that one gets quite used to and thinks that this is 'just life'.

There is only one way out! Keep investigating the emptiness and impermanence of subtler and subtler sensations. You can do this in your dreams and soon you will reach the first stage of enlightenment, if you haven't already. You would know if you have. Life would be a lucid dream for you.

So I am here to answer any questions and offer any guidance I can, or I can direct you to some other knowledgeable folks who have been through this ride over and over again and are very familiar with it.