Does night follow day or day follow night?

Years ago, when I was feeling so down and out in my spiritual journey, I had a talk with my spiritual director.

He said: “I have good news and bad news for you.”

The bad news is that life is a continuum of plateaus, peaks, and valleys that goes on and on and on until you die. And the good news is that life is a continuum of plateaus, peaks, and valleys that goes on and on until you die.

Regardless of how you choose to see it, life is a journey, a cycle of ups and downs and in-betweens, and you will never get to the ups without the downs. You are guaranteed to go through some valleys before you get to the mountain top. And in some cases, you may not even get to the top. That is reality; there is no way around it. The sooner you get used to that truth, hope will spring up in your lives.

The problem is that we like to stay on the peak all the time, living a life with no hassles, frustrations, set-backs, failures, disappointments, losses, or death. But the reality is that life is full of unpleasant experiences and painful feelings, such as despair, depression, isolation, loneliness, and fear. In spiritual language such experiences are called the dark night of the soul.

John of the Cross is the saint who made that phrase famous by describing his own strenuous spiritual journey. Mother Teresa, whom the world considers the greatest saint of modern times, talked about feeling abandoned by God and losing hope several times during her life.

My renewed fascination for Mother Earth, made me turn to her to find answers to this vexing issue of finding hope in hopelessness. What does the Earth teach us about hope? What is the earthly lesson about dealing with the dark night of the soul?

Study the surface of the Earth. It is true that unless we make a conscious decision to meditate about our planet, we don’t see more than what is around us. Our thoughts don’t go beyond our usual surroundings. Seventy percent of the Earth’s surface is water. Of the remaining thirty percent, one third is barren desert with no sign of life or solace.

As inhabitants of this planet, we should expect periods of desert-like experiences when nothing goes right: our plans are thwarted, our goals are undermined, dreams are lost, and we feel like spinning our wheels with no progress.

During such times we should remember that there are always oases in deserts and light at the end of the tunnel.

Which brings me to consider another truth about the Earth.

Every day, parts of the Earth become dark for several hours. We have the expression, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But, we only have about 12 hours of day, (and it varies depending on how close or far you are from the equator), but the remaining hours are called night.

Being in the dark on a regular basis is part-and-parcel of living on Earth.

Darkness is necessary for rest, regeneration, regrouping, and rejuvenation of life. We cannot avoid or get around it. It is necessary for our very survival. But the good thing about experiencing darkness is that the light is surely on its way. It is 100 percent guaranteed that the sun will come up and it will be day again.

As earthlings, we should expect nothing less when we face hopelessness in our lives. The clouds will move away, and the sun will shine again.

It is true that when we go through hard times, it feels like the sky is falling. When a tragedy strikes, especially on a national level, round the clock cable channels and pontificating pundits don’t help. The explosion of social media postings can be over whelming, troubling, and unnerving. The whole media sensation can exacerbate anxiety, fear, and hopelessness, but we know that the sky never falls. When the clouds move away as they always do, the sky is bright again.

We know that day always follows night — all the time, in all places.

For some reason, this scientific fact is often overlooked. Looking deeply at it can be life changing.

For example, ask this question: Does night follow day or day follow night?

It may sound silly to ask it, but stop reading, close your eyes, ask again, and think.

Deeper thinking will make you realize that day and night are not separate realities but polarities of the same reality. You will realize that without polarity, there is no reality.

This liberating insight should help us to detect the defectiveness of our duality thinking such as black, or white, right, or wrong, good, or bad. Our imaginary notions of separation, division, classification, and categorization of people, experiences, and realities will melt away and unity consciousness will set in.

When you expand your mind to embrace the entire globe, you will realize with delicious delight that night and day are seamless realities of a circular planet.

This insight made an exuberant Eckhart Tolle proclaim thus:

“What a caterpillar calls the end of life, we call a butterfly.”

(from Cosmic Kindergarten: Earthly Lessons for a Heavenly Life)