Light

Much like the scent of pine and peppermint, Jesus is in the air.  Whether you choose to believe in Jesus as God or not we might all agree he was a real man who rocked the status quo.  I’m not inviting discussion of his followers and those who created church in his name or where individuals stand on the God/Man/Both decision.  There is plenty of that around elsewhere!  I simply maintain in any case that Jesus was a revolutionary person of deep love, conviction, and grace.  The dude totally took his world by storm in his teachings about inclusion and peace.  I love that he strolled around fishing wharfs, town wells and gathering places using words and stories to bring change.  He sought no particular positions of power.  I think Jesus was a teacher who knew a lot about light.   

     

The noun light is defined at dictionary.com (I list the first two entries).
1.  something that makes things visible or affords illumination.
2.  (physics)
     a. luminous energy, radiant energy, electromagnetic radiation to which the organs of sight react 
     b.  a similar form of radiant energy that does not affect the retina, as ultraviolet or infrared rays

Light has been a topic of life since forever (often contrasted against darkness - see last week’s blog).  But we humans seem to forget over and over, generation after generation, again and again that light is ours for the seeing, for the fostering, for the remembering, for the accepting.  That which affords illumination exists from all time and has never stopped existing.  We just have to open up our physical and metaphorical eyes to it. We have to know light is there even at night when the sun has set.  Your light cannot be taken away.  Not by poverty.  Not by cold winter.  Not by injury.  Not by laws.  Not by another person’s anger.  Not even by death be it peaceful or in torture and execution.

I think what does happen is that we stop seeing our light and the light in others.  The more I have the gift of practicing and teaching yoga, the more I see its effectiveness in moving us into our luminous radiant energy, the energy that shows us the way to what is unchanging and infinite.  From this place inside ourselves we are able to clearly see the light in all. 

In yogic philosophy, the things which cause us to see incorrectly or not at all are named the Five Afflictions.  Wrong sight is rooted in ignorance (avidya), pride (asmita), unfettered desire (raga), extreme aversion (dvesa), and fear of death (abhinivesa).  Which of these do we fall into throughout our lives, throughout a day?  Oh, to cure ourselves of ignorance and pride!  Imagine freedom from attachment to or senseless rejection of things!  Joy, to see ourselves as infinite creatures residing in finite bodies!  How is this done – I propose meditation on light.

Illumination

Come Oh, Come E Man

you well know five holds blind us

love makes visible