A meditator friend of mine tells me of her divorce from her then husband years ago. "He was part of my sangha. He was such a narcissist. One day I realized I was angry all the time. That's when I decided to split. I have never regretted it."
A well-known dharma teacher displays surprising unskillfulness during a critical life event.
A man who speaks at length about mindfulness throughout many communities, is everything but mindful and kind in his dealings with his co-workers.
Two men and a woman, each wrongfully convinced of their own wisdom. Each one with a shadow looming large behind their back, and clearly visible by everyone but them. Each using mindfulness as a shiny front for a not so pretty truth. Sitting on the cushion every day, even for long periods of time, is no guarantee of evolved consciousness. That much, I know.
Last night's dreams shed light on my own shadow. Parts of myself that I too easily project on to those who are closest to me, and now thrown back at me. I am not as loving as I would like to think. I've got work to do . . .
How big is your shadow? What parts of your personality are not obvious to you? Would you like to ask your honest friends? Your mate? Your children?
'The experience of the self* is alway a defeat for the ego.' ~ C.G. Jung
* Jung's notion of the self is very different from one referred to in Buddhist view of not-self. Rather it refers to the experience of a higher state of consciousness not bound by limitations of the small 'I', the ego.
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