seeing in the dark

a woman i know, who spent years living among the people of Papua New Guinea, told us about how the people there can see equally well in the dead of night as on the clearest day. obviously, she herself couldn't do this, to the great surprise of the locals. the chief of the tribe took her out into the jungle in the middle of the night to investigate what he perceived to be her peculiar visual handicap. as she stumbled around in the dark, he guided her: here is a tree, there is a root,... he was truly puzzled by her blindness. 'what are you looking at then?' he asked her. 'i am looking for the light', she answered. 'but why would you do that???' he wondered 'when you are in the dark, you have to look at that which is darker than the dark. then you can see...'. and she did. just like that.

there is a deep lesson in this. when spending time in the dark night of the soul, i am always straining my psychic eyes, trying to find the light points. what if instead of doing that, i looked at that which is darker than the dark? what would i see then?