I struggle with polarity a lot. I generally feel like I have to be 100% this or 100% that. Lately this had been a problem for me in figuring out a career. For some reason I have always felt like I should either run an orphanage in Afghanistan or become an investment banker, no option in between the extremes. This kind of thinking has caused me a lot of stress, especially because no one else has ever seemed to understand it.

As usual, one of our favorite bloggers, Steve Pavlina, came to the rescue. I happened upon his poston polarity in lightworkers and darkworkers. He says:

If you polarize as a lightworker, you are dedicating your life to serving the greater good.

If you polarize as a darkworker, you are dedicating your life to serving yourself.

Neither lightworkers nor darkworkers are inherently good or bad. They just are. Society has a tendency to idolize both: think Gandhi (light) vs. Walt Disney (my personal favorite darkworker). Both the lightworking path and the darkworking path lead to enlightenment in the end by seeing that all truly is one.

The way I see it, lightworkers feel compelled to pour their internal energy out into the world, turning outward to make the world better and more in harmony. Darkworkers, conversely turn inwards, drawing energy into them to put themselves and their goals in harmony. For example, if darkworkers wanted to break free from an oppressive foreign power (say, England) their revolution would like the American Revolution, they’d be willing to kill for their goal. However, take a similar scenario headed by a lightworker, Gandhi, and you find someone willing to die for the goal, but not to kill. This is not to say that lightworkers are necessarily pacifists, it’s more to illustrate that for a darkworker the ends would justify the means, while for a lightworker they would not.

On further investigation of lightworkers I found mostly New Agey sites like this and this. I also found an interviewthat says that lightworkers are the precursors and often the parents of the Indigochildren. You’ll also notice from that Indigo link that Laura and I frequently refer to a 1% of humanity which is what Steve Pavlina calls lightworkers and darkworkers.

As for darkworkers, the best site I’ve found is darkworkers.org. Perhaps not surprisingly, this site is much more well written and informative than anything I could find on lightworkers. The site’s owner seems like Nietzsche channeling Howard Roark, a calm visionary. I like him.

Why polarize? I’m very glad to have Steve Pavlina backing me up on this one. When you are waffling around, not committing to yourself or to the universe, you get very little done. Clarity of vision helps you achieve great things, whether it’s nursing refugees or building your real estate empire. Most people let guilt stop them from darkworking or let societal pressures stop them from lightworking. If you’re drawn to a path, commit!

Good vs. Evil?

Some darkworkers and lightworkers seem to be in a battle against eachother. Ayn Rand and Nietzsche thought Christianity had an overall negative influence on the world. Although Gandhi and Mother Teresa seem to have been very accepting people, I doubt they would have praised the self-serving work of various titans of industry. I don’t think it needs to be this way. If polarity eventually leads to unification and acceptance of both paths, we should have respect for those that have chosen a different route. One thing lightworkers and darkworkers can agree upon, hypocrisy is bad. Whatever their ideals, they stick to them.

A Middle Path?

Some people are very uncomfortable with this idea of polarity. Some traditions emphasize balance detachment from either path. Asmoday says, “Buddhism teaches one to really do both Lightwork and Darkwork. While through compassion they might be operating with Lightworker ethics, the path to Liberation is entirely inwardly directed energy.” That’s really what Buddhism is all about, a Middle Way, between the extremes. If that works for you, great. If light or darkwork, works for you, great.

Lightwork and darkwork are important because they give us more paths towards enlightenment. No one path works for everyone, not even the middle path. Choosing the right route on your journey towards enlightenment can make the difference between a miserable, bumpy ride and a smoother, fulfilling one. The best path is the path that you feel comfortable and energized following. Whether making money, caring for the sick, or meditating on a hilltop, you should feel good in your work. That is how you know you are on the right path. Good luck!

(Since discovering all this polarity stuff, I’ve discovered that I’m a lightworker who has been trying desperately to be a darkworker for years, thus making myself miserable and accomplishing very little.)