The shadow

[Benj]

OK so while studying Jung and talking to my Kabbalahist friend, it is so evident that there is a huge part of the spiritual journey missing form the suttas. This journey we are on is painful, confusing, littered with highs and lows as we continually transcend then plummet back down into the reality of the shadow and we are often confronted with dark visceral experiences as we develop the fruit. How are we meant to learn how to relate to these things from the suttas. This aspect of the journey is handled in other traditions, but in the suttas, where is the darkness? Is it all summed up in the Buddha's fight against Mara? Did the Buddha make others reach the goal so quickly that they bypassed the gut wrenching struggles of developing the consciousness? Are these suttas missing or lost? Have I not read enough? Did the Buddha just want us to meditate through everything?

Whats the deal? coz this shit hard man and I have to rely on other traditions to learn how to navigate the darkness. This does not seem right.

[Naman]

I think i have never told this on here that im not a buddha follower. I got connected with Jeffery over a discussion in which we were comparing different samadhis with Jhanas in youtube comments. Frankly till that time i didn even know what jhana was. But i found the analytical approach of Jeffery very promising, that helped me alot.
 What im trying to say is that i m already deep into hindu ways. In my own experience i have found that to be free of suffering we face on this path quickly, we must transcend and grow quickly throw the phase.
The struggle is mainly due to our own mind juggling two world at the same time.. Having desires of both worlds. We have partially left one and havent yet fully entered another. There is no recluse in world for sure, only thing prolonging struggle is our delayed surrender to the process. That can also be attributed to karma, since we have some debts to be settled in world as well thru relations, jobs etc etc.. So in a way we can say that goong thru all the suffering in actually negating the accumulated karma.
But then there are various degrees of karma. Some of it can be burnt without having to live thru it.
We cant just leave it all on life to settle the karmic debt for us. That kindof natural evolution to enlightenment may take many many lifetimes (i doubt if that even can happen).
Best thing we can do is try and drop the worldly endeavours be it anything relation job etc. And save time and energy from it and put into the practice. Afterall only the mind which is devoid of all worldly entanglements (from.inside) is blissful one.
I rembr reading abt Jeffry that how at one point of his life he was depressed because failed business venture and marriages. Given the fact that he achived all that depth in 20s itself. He realized at 45 that meditations goal is to make mind free of all compulsions n entanglement. Correct me if i got it wrong.
I cant really say the suffering i have been thru even after being deep in meditation was actually my karma unfolding which was from "must come to pass" category or it was the result of delay caused entirely by my negligence and feeling the state of being in "between".
Because i cant access akashic records:/

Hope i gave some useful thoughts.

[Jhanananda]

I moved this topic to the thread on the Spiritual Crisis, where people will see that this mission recognizes the Spiritual Crisis as a necessary transformational experience.