Illumination
published: May 30th, 2008
Illumination
image: marta p
Do you find that there are particular themes recurrent within your life?
Have you noticed how at times you tune yourself into particular issues, whatever they may be, and find books, articles, references et al concerning that issue? You may strike up conversations with people and discover it’s something they are an expert in or have given great thought to. You may catch bits of conversation, documentaries that relate to the area you are concerned with.
It’s like being a spider at the centre of a web. Consider the Universe as a multi dimensional matrix, composed of matrices that overlay and interact with one another. Your place within that is of being a pathfinder. Creating routes that join up seemingly unrelated areas and fashioning a web or net that trawls the dark matter of human consciousness in the hope of capturing sparks or flashes of light.
Have you ever wondered what being illumined means? Consider a light-bulb and the two states that it can occupy, switched on or switched off. Think of the difference between the two states. One is an inanimate and pretty limited contraption. The other is the bringer of light and the harbinger of opportunities denied by the darkness.
An illumined individual is no less than that. Where a light-bulb requires an electric current to heat the filament and start to glow white hot and thus radiate light an illumined person too requires an electric current. The difference being that a light-bulb needs electricity with wires from a generating station that is fed along a grid to the point of usage. An illumined individual draws their energy from what they become connected to, what they are ‘plugged into’.
In the same way that a light-bulb requires a particularly engineered structure, the filament, the power source and the glass bowl to isolate the process and allow the concentrated heat generation, so does an illumined person. The engineered structure is their level of accomplishment, they become the filament of their own lives and the things that they connect to empower their systems. The glass bowl, to extend the metaphor, is their own integrity and ability to maintain a cohesive process while not becoming subject to distractions that may inhibit or interfere with their process. It is this which allows illumination and the individual to radiate a light within the darkness. Clearly this does not refer to a person taking on light-bulb like characteristics but a light that engenders illumination in others when they are touched by it.
This is what distinguishes the truly great teachers from the rest. In the presence of an illumined individual the proces is contagious and it is possible to see the light and achieve new perspectives upon previously impenetrable areas. Problems are solved, questions are answered and darkness is banished. This is how true teaching happens, it is a process of contagion, in the presence of such an individual you ‘catch’ whatever they have. The significant thing is that unless you have the necessary structure within yourself to hold what you have caught it becomes merely a high point that is soon forgotten.
It’s like putting rocket fuel in an engine that can’t burn it, it may roar brightly momentarily but it is soon spent and useless. this is where development comes into the equation. Development is about engineering a circumstance in oneself that is capable of handling high grade material without becoming burned in the process.
So few do and the history books are littered with the tales of those who, like Icarus, flew too high, too soon. The imperative upon the individual who seeks enlightenment is to do the necessary groundwork beforehand and make the whole journey manageable.