The Shadow stays hidden. It's a part of the human being that remains hidden from the Light, hidden from Awareness. When a human being is acting primarily from the Shadow, their conscious mind believes they are acting for a benevolent reason while their real reasons remain hidden in the Shadow, unbeknownst to them.

The Sankhya Philosophy¹ describes a sequence of events that was the beginning of everything. Before everything else, there was One.

अव्यक्त | Unmanifested | 
अचिन्त्य | Beyond thought |

Supreme Reality.

And then, emerged Desire. A Desire to be seen. A Desire within a part of the Supreme Reality for the entirety of Supreme Reality to be seen.

There came about a subtle split in the One, the part that contained the Desire, and the part that was aware of the Desire.

To fulfill the Desire, emerged a reflection. A reflection of what was seen. A reflection that attempted to capture the Supreme Reality. But because the reflection was from a part of the Supreme Reality witnessing another part of the Supreme Reality, it was incomplete. Yet, it pretended to be complete in an effort to fulfill the Desire.

In this pretense, emerged the primordial Shadow. The first instance of something pretending to be something that it wasn’t.

Abuse stems from the Shadow. When engaging in acts of abuse, humans tell themselves soothing stories. Stories that their conscious mind fully believes. The stories need to be strong so as to hide the real motive of the Shadow from the Conscious mind.

“I am asking my teenage nieces to sleep with me naked so that I can practice and strengthen my celibate instincts and become the spiritual leader that the Indian people need for our non-violent struggle for freedom” – Mohandas Gandhi.

“I would never hurt this little girl” – the father of a soul sister pointing at a young picture of hers on her fridge, the closest he came to accepting that he sexually abused her.

“She clearly wanted it” – a rapist.

“I am stroking his penis to relieve him because his erection is affecting the quality of his sleep“ – the mother of a soul brother who regularly masturbated him when he was a child.

How well do you know your Shadow? When you act from the Shadow, does your Whole Self spot it?

Mohandas Gandhi wrote an entire autobiography titled “My Experiments with Truth”. Did he mention his celibacy experiments? Was the autobiography edited, ostensibly in service to the Indian nation? How aware was he of his own Shadow? How aware was he of their possible lack of desire to engage in his “experiments with truth”?

We live in an age where there is such a dire need for spiritual wisdom, that people settle for spiritual gurus with heavy Shadows. Gurus that are so disconnected from themselves, from their bodies, that they can live on in the vast gorge of hypocrisy between their words and their continued actions of abuse.

The Buddha spent years wandering around amongst body–denying Samanas before separating from them to attain Enlightenment. On attaining Enlightenment, the first thing he did was to look after his body in caring, nourishing ways. His fellow Samanas thought he had gone crazy for taking care of his body, till he taught them the Dhamma.

Your Body is your Goddess. Your direct, ever present channel to Divinity. Gurus who deny their own Body, who abuse their own Body, disconnect from Her. The Shadow lives in thrives in the spaces of bodily disconnection. The Shadow turns their eyes away from the clear bodily No of the human they abuse.

To receive the fullness of Light that you are capable of, to dispel the Shadow fully, connect with your Body.

Connect with your own Body before you connect with another Body. Know and fulfill your Needs. Start with the simple Needs. Do you need water? Do you need to go to the toilet? Do you need to sleep? Once your Needs are fulfilled, remain still within your Boundaries till a Desire emerges. Follow the Desire as long as it lasts and then go back to Stillness. Know where you lie to yourself in service of Desire. Such knowing doesn’t need to come with self–castigation. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to your Body. Be kind to others. Be kind to other Bodies.