Jeannie invites participants into the simple felt experience of being here. She talks about the prescribed solution of looking on the bright side through using the will and the mind as having very little value when it comes to actually addressing darkness. Generally that kind of prescription is naive at best and often shows an ignorance of the deep nature of the psyche. It factors out befriending the dark and learning to walk there, to be fertilized by its blessings and to meet the demands of a world that is begging for a full perspective. The true "bright side" is the existence of the Holy, which is an ever-present resource whether or not we perceive it in the way we expect to.


Exchanges


Exchange 1: Participant is concerned about staying focused on the “wrong” part of life. Jeannie shares that we can feel more vulnerable shining than we do weeping -- and that people learn to not see their own shine because of fear we are going to be blindsided if we turn toward the light and embrace it. Jeannie reminds them that humans are not broken for our blue moods and that all of the beautiful people we revere throughout time have gone deeply into the dark.


Exchange 2: Participant asks Jeannie about what her relationship is to pain and suffering today. Jeannie says that she doesn’t suffer -- that sometimes there are things to digest that have no name or not much thought, and that her experience is that there’s no difference between that and noticing that the wind picked up. She talks about the dark night, the pull of the psyche to repress things, and the nature of the spiritual heart.


Exchange 3: Participant talks about their laundry list of problems and wonders about being a victim and about the power of will. Jeannie shares that our greatest ally is simply to notice and to turn toward what nourishes us. That as she turned toward the Holy evermore deeply, her will was decimated and another force took over. Jeannie shares that what was profoundly seen in the dark was the utter helplessness and ineffectiveness of mind and will to solve her life.