Short Story: The gentle darkness of emptiness needs light to make it full
By emptychair
@innertalks (23746)
Australia
January 4, 2022 10:05pm CST
Rabbi Abrakan Sousmerna, had been a Rabbi for well over 40 years.
He always said that there is nothing that separates us from God's light, but our own darkness.
This darkness is not something to fear, though, as it soothes you with a sort of gentleness, but though, which keeps you emptied of light.
Darkness becomes light to us, if we do not get weighed down by its apparent heaviness.
The light lives in us without ever going out, but we think it has gone out when we see darkness all around, caused in us by our pursuit of the world's problems, rather than our staying in the heart of love.
Love lightens our load, but problems darken our outlook, when we leave love's lightness to sit under the shady tree of a problem, that we have planted in love's garden.
In love's real garden, trees do not have shadows, and so, we can know that if we have left love's garden, we will see shadows, and darkness then, instead.
It takes light to both observe, and to be actively alive too.
"Only the dead require light no longer."
A student then asked the good Rabbi this question, at the end of his talk on light, love, and darkness.
"Will we really find out all when we get to Heaven, or is there continuing ignorance/darkness there for us too, and only God knows it all, as perhaps our soul can not bear to have all of the knowledge of God in it at any one time. We can access it, but not hold it all."
The Rabbi replied:
"God made soul to experience love, not to hold onto it, as then they are stealing it from God."
"All love must remain in God, as his ocean, which you can swim in, but not create separated ponds for yourself outside of his ocean. That is trying to go it alone, and doing this only ever muddies your waters from the pristineness of God's great ocean of light and love."
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
The Rabbi bristled with light and love. Darkness was not in him at all.
5 people like this
3 responses
@Deepizzaguy (122367)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
5 Jan 22
It reminds me of the saying which is "It is better to light a candle to curse the darkness."
3 people like this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
5 Jan 22
Yes, I have also heard it said that only light can remove darkness, and darkness can never remove light.
Light can be dispersed though, and so darkness can seem to get stronger, and so then we need to shine our own light more strongly too.
I have also heard it said that too much light shone onto us before we are ready for it, can increase our darkness, because we shut our eyes to it then too.
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
5 Jan 22
ah, how many Microsoft developers does it take to change a light bulb? None they will just declare darkness the new standard!
2 people like this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
5 Jan 22
I like that joke. It accurately describes how our world mostly works these days.
Just let's hope that God never decides to work in that way too.
We try to place the square peg in the round hole, by creating a new standard, a new rule, that makes its not quite fitting accurately, ok, now.
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
5 Jan 22
@DocAndersen Yes, Governments do this all of the time.
They force things into corners where they will not fit, and then are inflexible with the obvious unfit, never thereafter altering it. The new norm is now sacrosanct, until another new rule comes in to make it even more inflexible, and plug the loopholes found by clever loophole finders.
2 people like this
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
5 Jan 22
@innertalks it is one i have used many variations of - depending on who I was talking to at the time. It does sadly fit our modern world!
2 people like this
@Shiva49 (28402)
• Singapore
5 Jan 22
Darkness sits lightly on us unless we get overwhelmed with negativity.
When the sun sets there is darkness, but it shines its light on others down under to experience its light and warmth. Soon it is back again to light up our lives.
Everything is best shared including love and the more we spread it around, the more the brightness than the gloom and doom otherwise.
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (28402)
• Singapore
6 Jan 22
@innertalks Sharing and caring will lighten our load and burden, but we tend to pile them up on others and it has been a self-defeating lifestyle right through.
The learning curve has been long and convoluted but of our making.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23746)
• Australia
6 Jan 22
@Shiva49 It is hard for me sometimes to understand the need for a learning curve.
Most religions say that we have life lessons that we learn from, and that God, or our soul, is setting these lessons for us, or even that life/the Universe itself, sets lessons so that we might optimally live in it/with that life.
The way that we learn, and the speed of our learning, could be described as our learning curve, and so, yes, in a way it is under our control, and of our own making, and yet there are other considerations too.
We are given a mind, and a body, and we do not have that much control, over them, or the intelligence of our mind; some are born, retarded, for example, and so our learning curve, I would say, would be attached in a way to the incoming lessons, and so would be partly tailor-made for us too.
@Shiva49 (28402)
• Singapore
7 Jan 22
@innertalks I feel we are more led to experience life here, even like a picnic, taking in the sights and sounds to enrich our soul in its eternal journey.
We can still value add with positive intent.
However, we tend to lose it with self-preservation at the apex of our motives. It is more to extend our lifespan here with zilch altruism leading us. So we tend to self-destruct by going at each other's throats with myopic foresight.
1 person likes this
