The Colourful Shadow

Posted September 2nd, 2009 by Linda Hollier

Acknowledging and coming to terms with one’s shadow is an integral part of an integral life practice.

Sometimes, however, the danger exists to see the shadow only in terms of darkness – weaknesses, shortcomings, negative characteristics, etc.

Carl Jung believed that “in spite of its reservoir for human darkness – or perhaps because of this – the shadow is the seat of creativity”.

This post is just a reminder to look out for those aspects of creativity that you have not yet recognized within yourself. I would like to call this the “colourful shadow”.

Art, writing, and humour are only a few of a multitude of abilities or characteristics that could be lurking within, waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.

Take a moment and ask yourself: “What part of my/our shadow is colourful?”

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yes, in so many ways

Posted September 2nd, 2009 by Anne Tyler Lord

Yes, yes & yes - I agree in so many ways - I love the pictures, too

As an artist, I see this as one of the greatest sources of creativity and motivation. Through history, artists did this in the darkest hours of alcoholism, even insanity finding some reason to live for the expression of their art - today Integral artists can find the good in shadow through sanity and find motivation through truth, our own path, and all that is beautiful - including the "negative" and "ugly" as defined by society.

As a psychotherapist, I used this concept - I called reframing in every session, with every person - Looking for the gems inside the distress - reframing with the client their stuck perceptions that told them that they are all bad, all to blame, and stuck in their situation. It was the experience of gaining more flexibility in perceptions, finding the motivation to move to a more healthy place, and realizing that positive can be found in everything - a very healing exercise.

As a Zen practitioner, I am learning to find beauty in all states, all emotions, all shadow elements that are revealed to me, no matter how dark. This role and this practice, I find the most challenging. In the other two roles (artist and psychotherapist) finding the positive aspects in bad situations, finding the creative gems inside distress and reframing them, or going into the more positive parts, I find to be a good exercise to develop more healthy translation within stage, at least in most cases.

In the Zen practitioner role, I find it also good to grow in healthier translation, but often, it can be more of a transformational practice. I find it necessary to go deeply into the negative emotions, go into the dark shadows, the dark places - not to make them grow, but to witness and observe them more deeply - turn them around in my mind, see the small nuances of how they behave, what they do, what they can tell me about myself, others and what truths they may hold. In so doing, I observe my own resistance, my repulsion to certain life experiences and feelings, I observe even closer with non-judgment and see the suffering I add on to them for myself and for others. I see death in all things coexisting with life. When I am able to hold the darkness long enough, without judgment, the color of the deep dark shadows (my own, others, the collective) comes forth and are radiated with released resistance, with stillness, serenity, peace beyond comprehension - the illusions are revealed and the color of bliss, oneness, and no-thing pop forth in no-color brilliance! I think this is the ultimate color found in shadow!!

I think the Zen approach is by far the hardest, and a practice I would never promote for others to do unless supported in this practice and/or do not have a heavy shadow. This is the our most misunderstood paradox and difficult practice -not judging negativity - our culture is saturated with it, and we are all trained up well. These are the extremes I am currently working on holding, and holding deeply, without judgment. I know some of my current poems are hard for some people to read because they sound dark (but they are a series and the gems are not all yet revealed - but will be in the DeepWater portions), but this is the exercise I am going through - on the Zen side. I do this because I feel it is the right thing to do. The rewards are not expected, but have been immeasurable.

Let's all die into brilliant, blazing, no-color bliss, - then return to shine in technicolor,

Anne Tyler Lord
Storytelling from the space of Integral Consciousness
Integral Poetry, Prose

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"In Praise of Shadows"

Posted September 2nd, 2009 by Linda Hollier in response to yes, in so many ways

Hi Anne

We often forget that light needs darkness. Obviously, if there was no darkness, we would still in a sense have light, but we would not be aware of it as such as it would be the only thing around. The existence of darkness gives us the concept of light.

I can remember as a child sitting in the room all day with my sister who had measles. According to the customs of the day my mother had darkened the room. Later that afternoon I was sent off to the shops to buy something. My memory of that occasion is one of being almost blinded as I walked down the street because my eyes could not cope with the sunlight after the long exposure to darkness.

The light hadn’t changed but the exposure to darkness had made my experience of it more intense.

This speaks to me of the holding of darkness you mention which eventually leads to no-color brilliance – the “ultimate color found in shadow!” A beautiful description.

This got me thinking about light and colour, how colour comes about and particularly about white light – what I see as being your “no-color brilliance”.

White light is made up of all the colours of the rainbow. When we see light from the sun or from a light bulb, all the colours are in there. As this white lights shines on an object, that object absorbs all the colours except one. This one bounces off the object or is reflected. We see what is reflected.

Everything has a certain chemical makeup that makes it reflect some light and not other light.

The way you have described it I can picture this no-color brilliance of the state of bliss as being like white light. As it “shines” on us we are enabled to reflect a colour – our own form of creativity, into the world.

It is interesting to me that you have had this experience during Zen practice, as I believe that the East and the West have different attitudes with regard to darkness and light.

Whereas the West tends to favour light (think about Gothic cathedrals with the altars bathed in sunlight) the East is not distressed by darkness (many of the temples display statues in dark alcoves).

I have not read the whole essay (only found out about it while researching this topic), but in “In Praise of Shadows”, an essay written in the 1930s on the oriental perception of beauty, the Japanese novelist Jun’ichiro Tanazaki reflects upon the different attitudes between East and West with regard to darkness and light:

“Darkness does not distress us; we surrender to it as inevitable. If light is scarce then light is scarce; we will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty. But the progressive Westerner is set upon always to better his lot. From candle to oil lamps, from oil lamps to gaslight, and on to the electrical one. His quest for better light never ends, he spares no pains to eradicate even the slightest of shadows.”

He argues that the Japanese ““find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing another creates.”

An integral outlook will be open to taking on the perspectives of both the East and the West and the result in my opinion will be a new appreciation for both darkness and light and therefore the resulting shadows brought about by their interaction with each other. And with an integral approach, I suspect that these shadows will be colourful.

Thanks for sharing.

Best wishes

Linda

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colorful shadows

Posted September 3rd, 2009 by Anne Tyler Lord in response to "In Praise of Shadows"

Linda,

That is a very insightful post. I love being reminded of the physics of light - so much there to ponder. And,the East and West view of shadows is very well described in your post!! I like the Integral label you provided of "colourful shadows." That is something we could really develop. It deserves more thought!

Thanks for such a thoughtful post. It illustrates a broad range of views on shadow that we all should consider - what side of the shadow fence are you on? How does that effect how you view your own shadow? How does that effect how you deal with your own shadow? These are concerns of mine, and I think the Western view of only going for more light may hinder growth and doing shadow work. That is the reason I am currently showing a different way - a little more Eastern, to integrate into our cultural experience. I think we are all very well-trained in the West to go for more light and be afraid of our shadow, to hide it so we don't look bad, or fear it taking us over. I think a more integrated approach is called for - to remove some of the shame, the fear, and anxiety of shadows.

Thanks again,

Anne Tyler Lord
Storytelling from the space of Integral Consciousness
Integral Poetry, Prose

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beautiful

Posted September 3rd, 2009 by Ambo Suno

Wow, Linda, these scintillating colored spherical pieces with background and with shadow are delicious, immediately evoking a primitive desire in me, something like to consume them, to deeply have them, or be them. A child's wonder and awe. To enter that world.

ambo

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