Delirium, Despair & Dharma
Pursuing enlightenment through darkest days and nights
By Susan Caba
I was caught up in one of my dark nights of the soul — which generally involve the special hell of redundant paperwork — so I found my copy of Pema Chödrön’s “When Things Fall Apart,” nudging readers toward spiritual equanimity when life turns sour. Coincidentally, I had just finished Lauren Groff’s “The Vaster Wilds,” featuring a young woman — the book’s only character — escaping toward an unknown destination.
Whether it was serendipity or synchronicity, I recognized that the two books mirror one another.
Both describe what I call a dharma quest, a drive to overcome difficulties in pursuit of stability, security and serenity. In other words, a life of ease and contentment. The fact that it was Good Friday when I experienced this insight did not escape me. I always say, “I’m Catholic by birth, Buddhist by choice, and ‘Oh God’ in an emergency.”
Each author puts fear of death, and our desire to avoid it, at the root of our spiritual quests. In her 2016 classic, Chödrön quotes Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki Roshing: “Life is like getting into a boat that’s just about to sail out to sea and sink.” In her compelling 2023 novel, Groff’s character says: “I run toward living, I run toward living. … Away…
