The dark night — suffering — is an indispensable gate through which we must pass to ultimately come into the fullness of our being. Our culture does not understand this crucial truth and prefers to wallow away in its constant search for pleasure and avoidance of pain. This denial of shadow is ultimately a waste of effort. The mystic is preeminently a realist, realizing there is no other way of navigating the dangerous waters of the mystical voyage but to pass through the storms — through pain and not around it. May we all have the courage to traverse these stormy waters.
— Wayne Teasdale, The Mystic Hours