‘’If everything around seems dark, look again, You, may be the light!” -Rumi
The Light, And A Cliché!
It may seem like a cliché to repeat that ‘we are all made of light!’
But, let us stick with this saying and think about it… Is it really a cliché? Where to find the roots of it? What ‘light’ are they talking about when they talk about the ‘light’?
For finding the answer, we can have a glimpse at the history… Knowing that when it comes to the history, we may hear or read that in many cases, the ‘history’ itself, was written or tailored by the people who had the ‘power’ of shaping it based on their own perspectives.
But not when it comes to some subjects, specially in subjects like this, the history has the ability to open our eyes to many unknown things, that adding them to one another, would give us a very good point of view of the subjects, for example the history can show us how our ancestors came our of their safe caves, became more social and made small villages near the rivers…And by studying that we can have a more clear idea about how the towns and cities as we know today were formed.
But when it comes to some subjects, studying the history can also give us the ability to transform our current point of view from what we ‘think’ we know and is ‘enough’, to a deeper level of insight about that subject. Specially in subjects related to the complex things such as the spirituality and the unrelated things to the darker areas of our existence such as harms, wars and any unpleasant thing that made an area doomed and dimed in its history for the mankind, history can give us the ability to see how things transformed for us based on the growth of our civilization, knowledge, transformation on our path of evolution.
If you could go back in time and tell our ancestors in the caves about light and reflection in a scientific way, they would not be able to follow you and be clear about what you are talking about. They were not ready to know that the light they see from the sun and the stars have travelled millions of miles with the powerful speed of light, to be seen by them. Or if you tried to explain to them that what they could see with their eyes even in the darkness of their caves was because of the reflection the light of their fire on things, that when the light of the fire reached their eyes the specialized cells in their eyes could then convert the light into electric signals that they got from the light that was absorbed by their eyes, they would still not know what do you mean by all that. But they knew light in their own way, even with their little to no access to the technology or science it had its own importance for them that was reliable for them and their way of life.
Putting a small amount of time in searching the history about a subject like the ‘light, can show us how important it was for different civilizations in many forms and for many reasons beside its important and crucial roles in our existence. And when we move toward the more recent history where civilization was formed, we can see the light transforming its shape and becoming more dominant in our lives, as where there is peace and peacefulness the pictures in the history books are light and bright and where there is dark age and disaster, humans usually gave us a picture of shadowed world with a sad amount of darkness in it.
And then as we evolved more, the guides in many nations showed us the light, its meanings, its importance and its huge role in our lives. Now that we can sit in a room lightened up with the technologies that we are blessed with, we can take a look at how the people who touched the light in a different way, described it to us. For the monks, the poets, the scholars, Sufis or mystics, and for the ones who saw something beyond our knowledge, there was much more to the ‘light’ that the light itself, and that is why many of them were enlightened.
Enlightenment
When we come to the world of spiritual enlightenment, we face a deep and complicated world.
On the surface of it we face a deep ocean, where we face ‘awakening’ to the knowledge that leads us to the ‘light’ of enlightenment, but while the small light that we found at this point is ‘all’ we have at the moment, its little flame will not be strong enough to brighten the whole path and therefore we only can see a very short distance from where we are standing, and it may make us remain at the same shallow level of brightness, in other words, if we risk to stay at this shallow level of awakening and don’t allow ourselves to go deeper and gather more light, we may loose the sight if the depth of what lies ahead of us, and think that we have completed our task of evolution with awakening and reaching that small light, and while awakening in its own is a very big step forward in our spiritual evolution, by not completing the process of evolution on its depth, we may have to ‘repeat’ the process. Until when? It may sound unpleasant, but… Until we complete the process, and learn!
“No mirror ever became iron again
No bread ever became wheat
No ripened grape ever became sour fruit.
Mature yourself and be secure from a change for the worse.
Become the light.” -Rumi
Overall, its not so pleasant for many of us to face the things that dim our inner light, we may have been used to have many of the things that affect our inner light in a manner that is not connected with our growth or enlightenment, and we may prefer to avoid facing them for any reason.
As an example, we sometimes do whatever we want without thinking about how our actions, or avoidance will affect others.
It is mostly because the human nature is based on survival mode as many of our ancestors had to make crucial and sometimes difficult decisions in times to survive,
But as we have evolved so much, we don’t need the survival mode of our ancestors when it comes to such decisions now… Most of us have the blessing on living in civilized societies, where we can live in harmony with others, and living in a balanced and harmonic way is possible for us in most cases, only if we learn or re-learn to put the light in the subject.
Often, people act on their desires without considering how their choices impact those around them.
When we tend to believe that we are the most important people in the world, focusing solely on our own needs, our inner light becomes dimmed.
Because this way of thinking is disconnected from reality, it can be selfish and ultimately brings unhappiness. We do things just for ourselves without really thinking about how it affects other people.
We might feel and think we are following the saying that we’re the center of the universe, that our needs are all that matters. But that kind of mindset doesn’t match up with how the world actually works, it’s pretty selfish and can make us unhappy in the long run. And it is like standing on the shallow waters of knowledge and avoiding its depth as it has been described earlier…
It has been said to us that we need to think that we are the center of the world and in some ways we are the center of our own world… But when it comes to becoming selfish it looses its meaning, we need to consider living in an harmony and peacefully with others, and ‘others’ is everything, ‘all’ beings the seen and the unseen by us, ‘all’ that exists and has a life in the universe….
Because when we make decisions selfishly in a way that would collide with the peace of other humans or beings, just because may we think that ‘we’ are the only person who matters, it will not be in line with reality of the goodness of ‘all’, and we are combined in the ‘all’ as everything is connected to one another in an invisible way, including the things that you are thinking that is not connected to other beings right now! And that’s why it would be selfish in a way that leads to unhappiness in the long run.
To become enlightened, we can start with:
- Understand the impact of our behavior on ourselves and others and refrain from destructive behavior
- Recognize everything as it is and stop letting our imaginations fool us.
- When we stop believing our mental imaginations, we also stop engaging in harmful behaviors such as anger, hatred, greed, and jealousy that are based on confusion. Then we will no longer have compulsive behaviors based on our negative emotions. This requires:
- Personal discipline based on morality, with the ability to refrain from unwise behavior,
- Concentration to avoid distraction and boredom
- Wisdom, to distinguish between what is useful and what is unhelpful, right and wrong
- Emotional balance, by developing positive qualities such as love and compassion.
But even if we achieve to enter and maintain ‘peace of mind’ by doing these things, it is still not enough for us to enter a deeper level of understanding, because we still do not recognize the dependence and connectedness of ‘all’ things and ‘all’ people ‘yet’, and reaching the level of alignment with all is not as easy as it seems at all!
Therefore, at this stage, we can not be sure of what is the best way to help others in an unharmful way when it comes to ‘all’.
To do this, we must become a fully enlightened, so that our mind does not create any unnecessary ideas. We will see the dependence of ‘all’ beings when we are enlightened and our level of enlightenment gives our ‘inner world’ and ‘outer world’ the same level of brightness, that enables us to go beyond reason and know how to help ‘all’ in a peaceful way and still contain a bright and mindful manner.
When we are enlightened our body gets connected to an amount of infinite energy that will be helping us to connect with ‘all’, everyone, every soul, every being… Our mind will understand each and everything without any limitation or hesitation, it will be aligned and brightened with the infinite power beyond our knowledge perfectly.
When we are enlightened our love becomes deeper than the understanding of many, our compassion goes beyond the limits, and our concern shifts from simple everyday chaos, to a more deep stage of meaningful concern for for every being, this concern is so deep that it is as if each one of the other beings were our only child, or were a part of our own body, we will be able to have a harmonized empathy with ‘all’… [click here to read about Kindness]. Enlightened ones, can strive to benefit others, without expecting to be understood or desiring anything in return.
When we are enlightened, it is impossible to lose our patience or become emotional in a harmful way. To become dependent on too many people or to ignore them because we are too busy or tired at the moment, as the light in us and in our life will be shining inward and outwards, will eventually brighten ‘everything’ that comes to us.
Enlightened people at higher stages, become like the Buddha. Yet they will become wise, and this wisdom will be inevitable for them, as the enlightened and the generous can never be less that the others, they still will not feel full of themselves or feel supreme to others with ego or any other form of ‘dust’ that may sit on their hearts. And if they -like any other human- come across a form of disturbance, they will not allow it, to put a shadow on their inner light for long.
For sure we cannot eliminate the suffering in the word in a high level, (unless we are one of the few, who become the world leaders), but we can teach the ‘good’ by becoming a living example for the people who are already wise and humble enough to see the ‘light’ in the goodness. And the people who can be deep enough to ‘think’ about such existence, can already receive the light themselves!
For sure it is not for everyone to follow the path of enlightenment, and when it comes to the reason for it, ‘being ready’ stand at the first line.
But beside ‘wanting’ and ‘being ready’, for a person to enter such level, some of the necessary things to do for it are:
- To create a source of our positive energies, becoming selflessly aligned with their inner goodness to benefit others as much as possible.
- To understand the reality and embracing the truth in its true form, and avoid false ideas.
- To know that as suffering in many forms has been given to us all, and we all face it in different shapes, times and forms, the possibilities, inner-will, and goodness have been given to us all in many forms and shapes too. We all have the resources to create the causes of enlightenment.
- To keep our minds and hearts clear from thoughts and unnecessary or harmful emotions, will help us to become much brighter in our core.
- We all are trainable, and that’s why we can learn and grow by persistence, patience and practice, and from any level of development and growth we can train ourselves to reach our full potential and move forward to a brighter level.
- For many of us enlightenment is like an unattainable goal and seems very difficult to achieve most of the time, but maybe it wouldn’t be affective enough if it was too easy to reach this level!
- Taking steps in the direction of light itself gives our lives tremendous amount of depth and meaning. As by reaching this light, we come to the level of understanding our inner dependence with ‘all’.
- Finding this light, somehow helps us to be immune from depression and anxiety that dims our life.
By reaching the inner light, our lives will be completely changed in a more meaningful way, because once we embark on the greatest adventure of our lives to attain enlightenment, and reach a level of inner growth and inner light that helps us to become the light, in any situation, we will become transformed.
The source of the light would not be dark itself, and just like any source of the light, our inner light will never be less bright by sharing it with ‘all’, and indeed, the light we bring to others will also brighten our own life and paths in one way or another… Just like the sun that has the light in it and shares it with ‘all’, by being enlightened, and sharing our enlightenment, we become a source of light, generous and bright enough to feel safe, to use our inner light for the benefit of ‘all’. As the frequency of goodness is always beautiful, bright and infinite.
Does This Mean We Can Reach The Level Of Embracing The Divine Illumination?
“Your defects are the ways that glory gets manifested… That’s where the Light enters you.” -Rumi
Enlightenment is combined with many things, reaching it is not easy and maintaining in such level comes with many responsibilities and insights. But when we try to look at it from a less complex point, we can see that it is the movement of human-beings towards the realization of ‘complete truth’. And this can be the beginning of human’s thinking without any constraints, in order to realize their own wisdom, the wisdom of the world, and use the light that is gathered in their presence, they need to align with the point of reaching awareness about ‘nothing’, ‘everything’ and ‘anything’…. And reaching this level of change, can be shaping a new meaning in their existence and brighten up their paths towards something more deep and more meaningful, beyond words, and beyond what they have known so far or have gathered in them before reaching that level of brightness.
Reaching ‘That’ Bright Light!
It is said that in Tibet and India, there are about 100 thousand documents of the transformation of the bodies of monks into a source of light and pure energy!
But how does this happen?
Have You Heard About The “Rainbow Body”?
You may already be familiar with this level of enlightenment if you are reading this article. This term which can be used for the physical state that some monks reach has been used for generations in different places and may come with different name tags. To achieve a rainbow body, the body and mind will need to be trained for years. The people who achieve such level of light, will have to reach such a level of deep unconditional loving thoughts in their minds, that in a way helps them to remove it from the shackles such as any oppress or limitation, of the world, and transform it into ‘light itself’, and then after reaching such high level of aligning with the light itself, they can reach the level of mastery by becoming in oneness with the ‘immortal light’, it is said that for such ‘light masters’ even after the death of their bodies, their inner light will be combined with the divine light or the universal light, as all their atoms become the light, that in an indescribable way, their body fades in the light! (If you search the internet, about the term ‘Rainbow Body’ or ‘Dzogchen’, you can find many related books, studies and even cases that researchers did on some of these light masters.)
But, if we take a step back from this ‘high’ level of connecting with the light which has been practiced in Dzogchen, one of the first question that comes to the mind of a normal person like me, is: ‘How is it even possible?‘
And the answer may simply be like everything in human actions, ‘wanting’, with all its complexities, is not only the starting point of reaching such state, but also the holder of it as well. And when we reach this state of light, we can see the ‘mystical affection’ and ‘pure love’ in such light, can not be easily described, as it is in a state that (unfortunately) many people of today’s age, have become alienated from its depth, meaning and beauty…
In people who reach the highest stage of light, it enters their ‘hearts’ and ‘beings’ in a degree of ‘purity’ that leaves the material state behind, and opens the hidden doors of the heart to a new realm, like an ‘invisible lever’ on the mirror of their soul. Mystics and poets have not been wrong for thousands of years, to tell us that, like many other beautiful things, the place of light can easily be in the heart. Especially if we look at the heart from the perspective that can show us its luminous green chakra, from a spiritual perspective. There, we can find that the ‘heart’ is a perfect place for the ‘light’ to remain and even grow in us! The heart can be the only strong -yet fragile- place to hold the light within it, and be its main place in our body, from which can flow to our entire being and even be transformed to other shapes, and be given to others!
When light enters the heart, it means that our soul has reached a level and a somewhat ‘purified’ position, that has made us able to get rid of what ‘blocks’ the path of light, to and from the heart. Impurities such as anger, hatred, revenge, resentment, giving reasons for anything harmful or any ‘thought’ and ‘action’ that distances us, from the deep and bright human (and maybe superhuman) values, can swallow the light like a ‘black hole’, without any reflection!
When Are We Ready?
‘Don’t you know yet? It is your light that lights the world!’ -Rumi
The light was always there, it was there before us, it is here now, and it will be here long long after we are gone from this life… Perhaps, when we are ready to receive the light, it will be a ‘new now’ for us, and perhaps in the first step, the light actually reaches us, then we become like a ‘clear crystal glass’ and allow the light to pass through us.
And perhaps, in the second step when we are already used to being that clear and receiving the light and embracing it in that form, the light will be transforming us, there we go higher, see the light differently, just like a ‘fine cut diamond’. We accept the light and the light has already been in our reality that helps us in the transformation to becoming a ‘source’ of its radiation on the outside just as a fine diamond would do! Then the light inside us gathers all the light that we have been receiving from an unending source of light from the universe, then our heart mixes it with our soul, and strangely takes us to another valley of understanding, beyond everything that we have seen, touched and known!
For sure reaching this level of spiritual enlightenment and spirituality or purity may not be everyone’s job, not everyone is made for it and not everyone needs it at the stage of life that they are in at the moment.
But when you see such people and look at their footsteps, or listen to the ones who have reached this level and are willing to talk about it, you can easily feel their difference, you can feel that they shine like light on darkness, and their shine does not change in the face of events, incidents, bitterness, sweetness, or even when they face people with lower capacity of understanding than them, or harassments, unpleasant gazes, languages, of acts… They know the universe sees all, while it embraces us all, and they know the -wheel of the world- is on move, and is not always the same for any of us… And all of that gives the the highest amount of ‘trust’ to the divine. The people who have achieved a pure connection to the ‘light’. Not only have they connected with their own soul and the soul of the world, but all the atoms of their being, have changed to a bright visible level of shine that never dims again, and for this reason, darkness in any shape or form, has no effect on them in any area of life, as ‘the light’ is now with them and within them!
“How does a part of the world leave the world?
How does wetness leave water?
Don’t try to put out fire by throwing on
more fire! Don’t wash a wound with blood.
No matter how fast you run, your shadow
keeps up. Sometimes it’s in front!
Only full overhead sun diminishes your shadow.
But that shadow has been serving you.
What hurts you, blesses you. Darkness is
your candle. Your boundaries are your quest.
I could explain this, but it will break the
glass cover on your heart, and there’s no
fixing that.
You must have shadow and light source both.
Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.
When from that tree feathers and wings sprout on you,
be quieter than a dove. Don’t even open your mouth for
even a coo.”
-Rumi
Click here to read about ‘The Law Of Acceptance’
*I wish you ‘light‘ as beautiful as you can imagine it to be… I wish you ‘peace’ as peaceful and safe as our world for all of us can be…And I wish you ‘happiness’ as much as sharing it with others can give your heart an amazing feeling of cheerful calm and brightness. 🙂
Copyrights@YasGorji.com