About the paths of Light and Darkness

The human mind is a neutral tool. It can lead you to freedom or to bondage. A person can reach toward the highest point of spiritual development, or make an effort in a negative direction toward the lowest point. By accumulating virtue and wisdom, we reach for the Divine. By plunging ourselves deeper in ignorance, we strive toward crudity. Human beings have free will—they can chose to go higher or lower.

As there are gurus who can teach you the way up—to God—so there are teachers who (not necessarily intentionally) teach the way down—toward Darkness. On the surface, especially in their initial stages, the paths of Light and Darkness are quite similar—both require self-discipline, sincerity and an effort at a certain practice. In fact, distinguishing one path from another can be difficult for an immature person.

A great Tibetan saint and poet, Milarepa, trained as a Black Magician when he was young. As a revenge for the terrible injustice and hardship that his uncle’s family brought on him and his family after his father’s untimely death, he killed many people with his sorcery skills. He caused the whole house collapse where his uncle was celebrating his son’s wedding and everyone perished, except for his uncle and aunt, who were destined to "enjoy" the fruits of Milarepa’s magic. His mother was still vengeful and forced repentant Milarepa to conjure several hailstorms—a favorite Tibetan Black Magician’s pastime.

Milarepa was deeply troubled with the expected karmic consequences of his deeds. He searched and found a White Magician—the great tantric guru Marpa, the Translator who helped Milarepa purify his mind of guilt and karma. Through enormous effort—40 years of meditating in mountain caves, Milarepa became the towering saint of Tibet—a living Enlightened One who delivered most of his teachings in verse.

Engagement in Black Magic, sorcery and witchcraft or tantra yoga meditation for acquiring occult powers is always based on self-centeredness and is steeped in spiritual ignorance—the mistaken notion that one is not intimately connected with the web of life. People travel the Dark path always for selfish purposes. Consciously or unconsciously, they desire revenge on someone, are angry at the world for not giving them what they want, or covet money, power or sex—the three principal obstacles to spiritual development.

As a rule, people who are attracted to the path of Darkness harbor resentment toward those walking authentic spiritual paths. They envy happier and purer people and desire to cause them pain—from small troubles to terrible cruelty. For spiritual people, however, these attacks are a life-long school by which they can learn how to maintain a calm, patient and compassionate attitude in the face of the expression of these and other kinds of ignorance.

If you entertain even a tiny desire to engage the forces of Darkness, you must be aware of the consequences. Broadly, the path of Light leads to the highest summit—toward blissful satisfaction and peace—while the path of Darkness leads to the lowest gully—toward suffering, anxiety and agitation. If the first path leads to authentic happiness, the second leads to a protracted torture (not in some imaginary hell but right here on earth).

How can we recognize a person who has turned off the highway of goodness? He or she will gradually become more and more sad, fearful, isolated, deceitful and restless, in other words—unhappy. Increasingly, he or she will have bizarre nightmares. His or her body will literally suffer overheating—it takes tremendous energy to contain lies necessary for the path of Darkness.

One can take the path of Darkness without realizing it, even while on an authentic spiritual path. If we lose track of an authentic spiritual perspective (service, wisdom, love and compassion), we can enter the Dark gully even while seemingly on the path of Light. It does happen to some people in every spiritual community—one just needs the eyes to see… The best (but not guaranteed) protection is strict emotional discipline and the supervision of a competent guru who is not overwhelmed with the demands of too many of students.