Eckhart Tolle describes his dark night of the soul as a self-created bad dream that felt utterly real. The suffering was genuine, but looking back, it appears dreamlike. He argues the darkness itself was necessary to trigger his spiritual awakening.
I was very unhappy and experienced a dark night of the soul. And when I look at it now, it's like a nightmare out of which I awakened. And so that's what the suffering is. It's a self-created bad dream, ultimately. On its own level, it's very real. When you're in the bad dream, that is your only reality. So I'm not denying the reality of suffering on this level. So on a higher level, you look back on the suffering and it is seen as a dreamlike thing, a nightmare. Now the paradox, the strange paradox, is you needed it in order to awaken.
Why alcohol feels like relief, and what it is really giving you | Eckhart Tolle
