Days of Light and Illusion

Summer. It’s the season of Sun, where everything is characterized by the light. The days are the longest of the year, the nights the shortest, and we rush outside to spend as much time as possible in the full light. It’s the time when everything is fully viewed : we see and notice the trees, the fruits, the flowers, the clouds in the sky. We even shed our own clothes and see and notice our bodies. In all this light, everything is revealed!! Which is, of course, total illusion.

In darkness form is impossible to distinguish. In darkness, everything melds into One.

The world began in darkness (Gen 1: 2). Then G-D began to separate form from the darkness by calling forth elements from within this darkness. First was called forth the light, and then light was separated from darkness and called Day and Night (Gen 1: 3-5). Next was separated waters from waters and called Sky (Gen 1:6-8). And then dry land from waters, and called Earth and Seas (Gen 1: 9,10). The entire first chapter of Genesis is an act of separating : light from dark, night from day, waters from waters, land from water, and so on until all the stars, the animals, the birds, the fish, and human were separated out and named.

All became separate. In other words, things became individualized.

With light came a certain clarity – the ability to distinguish one thing from another. And with it, the naming of the quality of each of these one things from the other. Individuation. Separation. Naming.

Clarity.

And yet, illusion.

In fact, in all this light the form we see so clearly becomes a veil. I see tree and say Tree!, but isn’t a tree so much more than that? What is behind this form I call tree? What are its deeper qualities, what makes it alive? What is its spirit, its energy? Can we see even beyond that to recognize the Creator that is pulsing Life into this Tree?

What is the ESSENCE behind all this FORM?

The illusion of form, the illusion of this so-called clarity. If I see tree, and stay just with that level, then I have fallen prey to the illusion of believing that the veil is All. In fact, the veil is simple an ASPECT, an expression. And we have to look beyond the veil.

How true is this with humans? We name, and then name some more : Female, mother, wife, real estate agent = Kristy. Kite surfer, hair dresser, single-father = Joe. Is this truly Kristy? Is that really Joe? Is “Kristy” even Kristy? Is “Joe” even Joe?

How much do we believe the veil that describes ourselves? “I’m just a ….”.

Behind all of these veils lies something so much more. Essence. Potentials. Becoming. Mystery.

And now the snake eats it’s tail. To understand Essence I must recognize each and all of the veils as Perspectives, as Expressions of that Essence. From Perspective we come closer to Essence. But if I stick to the level of perspective, the level of just veil – Tree, Sky, Mother, Kristy, Joe – then I forget that behind it lies Essence. I see things as objects, and people as simply people, and never discover the greater mystery behind it all. And if I stick to my own veil, then I forget what lies beyond my own characterizations and understandings of Self, within my very self. If I stick to my own external definitions then I will miss seeing the myriad potentials and mystery of Me. If I stick to what I see I don’t become.

If I stick to what I see, I miss to really experience.

So this summer, as you put on your sunglasses to diminish the brightness of all that clarity just a little bit, take that moment to look beyond the brightness, the clarity, of the illuminated veils to discover something so much more in yourself, others, and the world we are enjoying.

Happy Dreaming!

Bonnie