Tami Simon puts a question to Mark Nepo that she has been turning over. She has a view that nothing is inherently dark, that what looks like darkness in people is really confusion. Others in her life see it differently, as something simply to be avoided. So which is it? Are people bad, or just confused? Nepo will not pretend the darkness is not real. There is cruelty and unkindness in the world, he says, and every one of us carries the capacity for both. But he answers with a line from Kabir, the fifteenth-century poet and weaver, as he renders it: wherever you are is the entry point. Not only where you are standing. Wherever you are in your mood, your confusion, your brokenness. There is no ideal state you have to attain before you can open the door. Spiritual practice, in his framing, is simply the devotion to opening it from wherever you find yourself. Working with light and dark, he suggests, is the same as working with what is pleasant and unpleasant. We are only half alive if we stay only with what is light. And we are only half alive if we stay only with what is dark. That, he says, is how we are mysteriously and beautifully made. Asked why we are made this way, he says he has no idea. He is not sure our job is to figure that out, only to follow the way we are made and cooperate with it. He borrows a line he attributes to Ram Dass, that why we are what we are is above his pay grade. And when Tami describes the difficulty of holding that view toward someone who is a nightmare in her life, he says simply that he has felt that too. The dark night of the soul is real. What he keeps returning to underneath all of it is that this is what it means to be alive, this is what it means to be human. Not as a defeatist statement, but as a kind of wonder. On the state of the world, he is candid. We are in a dark time. We have never learned to be one tribe, and the unfinished business of being a person is learning to be interconnected. He is often in despair about it. He also feels great hope, because this is the hard, humbling business of being human, and it is not going away. It will not happen in his lifetime, he says, but his job is to work on it. We are challenged not to bring healing to the world, but to stay open and true to it. Want to go deeper with Mark Nepo? Join Sounds True for more teachings like this. Get your first month FREE at https://bit.ly/4ctecMn Subscribe to Sounds True's YouTube Channel ► https://bit.ly/SubscribeSTYT Sounds True is a mission-driven learning and media company, and a recognized leader in wellbeing, personal growth, and spiritual transformation. Partnering with the world’s foremost wisdom teachers and best-selling authors, the company reaches millions worldwide with its unique programs, digital learning experiences, and worldwide events. The company also features a variety of original series, weekly shows, and live online experiences on Sounds True One, its global platform and community with members across more than 125 countries. Sounds True is a Public Benefit Corporation and also the home of the Sounds True Foundation. Connect with us: ▪️Facebook: http://bit.ly/2XFIIeE ▪️Instagram: http://bit.ly/2UlEoiH ▪️Website: http://bit.ly/2tOl02d