Unseeable Light that Knows All

 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light we shall see light. – Psalms 36:9

Science teaches us that less than 1% of light is visible to humans, while the rest (the entire electromagnetic spectrum) remains beyond our perception.

Denese and I recently watched a Netflix miniseries titled "All the Light We Cannot See". We were struck by the irony that the main character, who is blind, was able to perceive situations more clearly and truthfully than the sighted antagonist, who was morally and spiritually blinded.

While pondering on these paradoxes, I realized that we often overlook the existence of another kind of light, which is responsible for all our experiences. This is the “light of consciousness” in which all experience is made knowable.  Some have called this the “silence of the mind,” tantamount to the blank screen which is both the container and the substrate of all that is knowable. In metaphysical terms, it is a capacity for knowing that runs deeper than the mind’s perception and is ever-present, apriori to all phenomenal experiences.

This capacity for knowing itself is our true nature. It is what is most essential to who and what we are. When we undertake a self-inquiry process and strip away all that is temporary and changeful, we arrive at this realization of the pure state of being itself, uncolored by past or present circumstances or conditions. It’s a shift in identity from the TV set with all its drama to the silence of pure awareness, the blank screen, a shift from content to context, the light of awareness by which all that is knowable is known.

This is a shift in identity from being at the effect of objective experiences to the subjective witness, the observer that is invulnerable to the shifting tides of circumstances.  This is what is sometimes called “enlightenment” or spiritual “awakening,” though those labels suggest some mystical happening that is not accurate.  When we come to recognize the pure subjectivity of our being, we see that this is a reality check, a clear seeing of reality that is familiar and now again remembered.  As Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you” and “it’s closer than breath.”

How does one come to know this essential being?  I share the following from a previous post the time-honored process of “self-inquiry”.

A realization of who and what we truly are, which is pure consciousness (or in religious terms, God’s infinite being) can come about by sudden, spontaneous insight but that is quite rare, and more typically breaks through from a “practice” of self-inquiry. In Sanskrit, such inquiry is called Atma Vichara, which means deliberating or inquiring into the self. This is an ancient Yogic method that was revived by the venerable Indian sage, Ramana Maharshi in the 20th century and has been touted as the direct path to self-realization or spiritual awakening. It is sometimes called a non-practice since instead of seeking something that one feels is inaccessible or building up one’s faith in the Absolute, self-inquiry simply turns the light of attention inward to one’s true identity. It is in this no holds barred intense looking that one realizes one’s true nature. It is guided by the existential question, “Who or What am I.”

At first blush, the personal identity responds with “I am this body’ or "I am this" role or this history, or "I am my thoughts, feelings and memories." However, when these presenting images of oneself are looked at closely we find there is no substance to these beliefs and that there is something prior to these objective qualities that observe them. While the body can be perceived through sensations it is constantly changing and can be changed, even one’s name and gender can be changed but that which is the “I” sense preexists and remains present and unchanging. Likewise, thoughts, feelings and beliefs that we humanly identify with are just as transient. Thoughts come and go, same as feelings and beliefs, but the awareness that observes them does not come and go. So self-inquiry is the practice of becoming quiet and becoming aware of awareness itself or putting attention on attention. When this is done with one-pointed attention one cannot find the “person.” There is no “me. A personal me is a fictional character we have come to believe we are but the light of truth (scrutiny) reveals no such separate distinct entity. In this internal investigation, experience trumps beliefs, and the Truth of our essential being is revealed. And in this revelation is the clear seeing that you have always been this pure awareness or consciousness. So the practice, is not a doing so much as a seeing of what you are not, a negation of the false self, the consequence of which lays bare the true and only Self there is. And this is not a personal self but rather a universal Self that is one with all of life.

It has been said, quite rightly, that the cause of all human suffering is ignorance. Properly understood, such ignorance does not connotate dull-mindedness but rather suggests that we “ignore” or overlook the truth of our being and live inside a darkness where we feel like victims of what happens.  To awaken to the light of truth transforms our sense of being to the light of pure awareness, and “in that light, we shall see light,” and experience a “peace that surpasses human understanding.”

Namaste,

Rev. Larry