Retrieving the exiled shadow promotes authenticity, humility, and a sense of relatedness. The humility that comes from "eating the shadow" becomes the ground of friendship, intimacy, and community. It may seem incongruous that individuals who achieve true greatness, not simply fame or power, are also humble. Yet it is so. Such individuals do not flee from their demons; they find a way to relate to them. Breathing in their own darkness, they are both humbled and transformed. The Dalai Lama describes this humility as a "courageous state of mind where you are able to relate to others, fully aware of what ability you have to help."
— Aura Glaser, A Call to Compassion