Once something has outlived its usefulness, its purpose for being in existence is no longer needed. The leaf that captures a stream of sunlight and then transfers its energy to the tree serves one purpose in the spring and summer and another completely different purpose through the fall and winter. Its form first appears as an agent to help feed the tree and then, as it dies and falls to the earth, the same leaf becomes food for the tree.
Imagine for a moment that the leaves on a deciduous tree have the will to somehow hold on to their form and refuse to fall to the ground in their due time in order to nourish the tree that originally gave them life. Not only would the vibrant beauty of that tree soon fade, but in relatively no time at all the tree itself would starve to death and have no choice but to perish and pass from its present form. It's really quite clear there is nothing created that stands apart from this grand cycle of reciprocity.
Now to this knowledge about the invisible interdependence of all that exists, add this fact: all created forms are fractal, as is their purpose, their use, and their allotted time for existence. This Truth is readily observable in nature. Eventually the tree itself has no choice but to go through the same process, as do the leaves born from its branches.
Life is the ceaseless transition of energy. Nature is the instrument used to reflect and express this cosmic plan. In one respect, the consciousness of all natural creatures -- the leaves, the trees, and the myriad beasts sheltering in their shade -- are inseparable from the form taken, including whatever purpose that form serves as it passes through time.
These creations of nature have no self-awareness of such an order that allows them to be conscious of how their forms continue to transition from one purpose -- from one use into another. They travel in and out of their various forms oblivious to the stages of existence that they represent, as well as to the greater nature of which they are obligated to serve.
Yet somewhere in the complex matrix of his essence, a human being harbors a celestial seed -- a higher order of consciousness -- created with a possibility far greater than to merely appear and then disappear as some form in the river of passing time. More than just the innumerable temporary forms this consciousness may assume, this level of self is formless, timeless. It is endowed with a gift bestowed upon no other creation. It alone is capable of remaining present to itself, within itself, even as the temporary form it occupies passes through its designated purpose in nature's great plan. And this unique passage, this unique period of passage in the evolution -- the existence of a human being -- has a name. It is called The Dark Night of the Soul, and it represents this time of being in between two distinct worlds. It marks the always-in-the-dark transition that takes place as the consciousness of the seeker moves out of one order of existence and into another higher one.
The dark night of the soul is that terrible but required experience in the life of the aspirant when he sees beyond the shadow of a doubt that the purpose of his present nature -- all that he has desired and fought to become -- is as pointless as it is empty of anything real. His personality, with all of its cultivated pride and passion, is seen as worse than useless to him. It has become a stumbling block of pressing demands, impossible to please.
There is no place left within him to rest, even though he knows he cannot remain there, because now he is chased by his own dreams. There remains only one thing left for him to do. He must surrender himself up to the very light that is showing him, seemingly without mercy, all that he can no longer be. He must somehow choose not only to die to all that he has been, but he must also agree to remain there and be the witness to his own sacrifice.
You take all of this too lightly. And the day will come, if you are fortunate enough to decide that, in spite of all outcome, your wish remains true to that impossible birth of something within you that can never find peace on this earth.
