I've said it before and I'll say it again. To fully understand and appreciate the light one must also acknowledge and understand the dark. Enlightenment surely isn't fully reached until one understands ALL of the varied aspects of the self. This is a lesson in duality. It is about reconciling opposites. It is about understanding. If we only let ourselves be aware of the 'good' then we are absolutely in ignorant denial of the 'bad'. This isn't to mean , of course, to wantonly indulge in every base animal impulse that enters your mind. What it does mean is to recognize those portions of the self as being a part of the whole and understanding that in each of these ideas lies the opportunity to grow. Through understanding our darker sides we then are fully capable of understanding the light, the parts of ourselves that we cherish as sacred and nurture to fruition. I will illustrate this point with an example.

I was driving to work and found my mind drifting . It began to settle into a scene of violence and wasn't a negative experience, in fact it may have even been a guilty pleasure. At that point I realized what was occuring in my head. I was indulging in the shadow self, that part of the psyche which contains all of our repressed content. Those aspects of self that are shunned and banished for the good of the world. It is important to understand this facet of mind because it is a natural polarization of the self which we intend to display, the self we intend to be. It is the polar opposite of the socially accepted , normally functioning human being. These unsavory elements are repressed for good reason, however it is unhealthy to ignore these impulses, to push  them down deeper into the pit of your mind. These beasts become like trapped animals and become restless and yearn for expression.

It occurs to me that it may even indeed be healthy to watch a bit of violence on television now and then if only to placate and sooth the savage beast that hides within all of us. Of course this is not something to be taken lightly, conviction of purpose is in order because one can fall  prey to his/her own whims without proper strength of will. The idea here is to recognize when the mind is drifting into this ethereal no man's land and to realize that these parts of the self need to be worked through in order to gain acceptance of the self, which is of prime importance to self -discovery-.

Violence may be a bit extreme of an example for this scenario, perhaps sex would work better to illustrate this point. The idea of sex is considered taboo to a great many people. Religous dogma and social moral projections paint sex as a dirty, impure act that taints the sanctity of the moral self. So they then teach their young these moral restrictions and they build barriers in their minds around these concepts and now associate feelings of guilt and fear and a whole host of negative emotions that surface when confronted with the associated moral 'wrongdoing'.

So to fill this idea of sex as 'taking the low road' into the former example, one would then come to a point where the old barriers of self loathing come into play and then the person would start to feel guilty for even having those thoughts or perhaps feel fear of being impure or  becoming as some sort of heathen sinner. The most important idea that I am trying to convey by this is the point of acceptance, which itself is broad and far reaching, but in this case the acceptance is of ALL of the self.

Acceptance, acknowledgement, and understanding in order to work through the difficult layers of this world of duality. To see where the potentials come into play and to understand that to trancend the limting concepts of this subjective polarized world we have to understand it in total. We have endless opportunities to learn about ourselves and our world and our lessons are constantly relived until we adequately work through them . Life is about experience and experience comes when you are properly attuned to that potential. When the student is ready the teacher will appear ... in whatever guise it may wear.

"For the sake of experiencing the true and the false, the great Self has  a dual nature. Yea, the great Self has a dual nature. Yea, the great  Self has a dual nature!" Krishna Yajur Veda, Maitreya Upanishads 7.11.8. Thirteen Principal Upanishads, 458