Light and the darkness that follows...

[Chance Cunningham]

 Ring the bells that still can ring 

Forget your perfect offering 
There is a crack in everything 
That's how the light gets in.” 
 ― Leonard Cohen 

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” 
 ― Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches 

“Pointing to another world will never stop vice among us; shedding light over this world can alone help us.” 
 ― Walt Whitman 

“May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” 
 ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring 

“Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to light.” 
 ― John Milton, Paradise Lost 

“We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.” 
 ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 

“There's a sorrow and pain in everyone's life, but every now and then there's a ray of light that melts the loneliness in your heart and brings comfort like hot soup and a soft bed.” 
 ― Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem for a Dream 

“When you get to the end of all the light you know and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.” 
 ― Edward Teller 

“PHOSPHORESCENCE. Now there's a word to lift your hat to... to find that phosphorescence, that light within, that's the genius behind poetry.” 
 ― Emily Dickinson

“We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.” 
 ― E.M. Forster, A Room with a View 

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” 
 ― Plato 

“But it is the same with man as with the tree. The more he seeks to rise into the height and light, the more vigorously do his roots struggle earthword, downword, into the dark, the deep - into evil.” 
 ― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Edited February 23, 2021 by Chance Cunningham
.......

[blackchair]

darkness in my mind is scary as hell and i love it. its part of me.

[Zigzag Idiot]

@Chance Cunningham   I deal with insomnia a bit myself.

I posted this poem in my journal recently by one of my favorite philosophers, Arnold Keyserling.

Sharing it because I thought it relevant to the title of this thread,

 

Sorrow

No one would make the decisive step without sorrow and doubt.

But taking that step has nothing to do with sadness.

It is shed like the skin of a snake.

The darkness is able to generate the right reason, one more difficult, but also better, than the next.

But it will not always be so.

Some day love will shine upon you.

Then sorrow will simply be the undertone of the resulting harmony.

The path is there from the very beginning.

Sometimes it is easier, sometimes harder.

But one thing is essential: the depth emerges from the strength of sorrow.

Without sorrow there is no course; without the course the path is not passable.

Mourn – not over the self – but over what is yet to be done.

Each day brings further sorrows, and eventually you will reach the original cause of sorrow.

Then you can finally begin the ascent back.

Rejoice in your sorrow, for the darkness will not remain with you much longer.

[Chance Cunningham]

8 hours ago, Zigzag Idiot said:

Zigzag said...

The path is there from the very beginning.

Sometimes it is easier, sometimes harder“

.......

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by Chance Cunningham
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[Zigzag Idiot]

Brings to mind Castaneda-

Condensed at this site. https://www.prismagems.com/castaneda/donjuan1.html

 

Death is the only wise advisor that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you're about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you're wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your death will tell you, 'I haven't touched you yet.” 
― Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan

 

For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have a heart, on any path that may have a heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length. And there I travel--looking, looking, breathlessly

[Chance Cunningham]

11 minutes ago, Zigzag Idiot said:

“For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have a heart, on any path that may have a heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length. And there I travel--looking, looking, breathlessly”

Yes...