Some of the uglier aspects of human behavior today arise from fear of the wholesale changes we must now undergo.
To let ourselves feel anguish and disorientation as we open our awareness to global suffering is a part of our spiritual ripening. Mystics speak of the “dark night of the soul.” Brave enough to let go of accustomed assurances and allow old mental comforts and conformities to fall away, they stand naked to the unknown. They let processes which their minds could not encompass work through them. Out of darkness, the new is born. (Coming Back To Life (by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown), p. 45)