Shining the Light

Written on February 18, 2008 by Tom Stine / 4 Comments »


As I have progressed along my spiritual path, I have felt at times as if I am being led to a better and better understanding of how the spiritual journey works. I started out, only naturally I suppose, wanting primarily to “feel better” both mentally and physically. As time has passed, I have moved a little away from that original goal toward feeling more and more as if I want to be helpful to others. Don’t get me wrong; I have always wanted to help. But the feeling I have now is a bit more selfless, a bit more “other focused” rather than self focused. It is, to say the least, a wonderful feeling.

But more importantly, what I am beginning to see is exactly what I read in A Course in Miracles years ago. Namely that the key to me “feeling better” is to freely and completely give to others because, as the Course would say, I only know what I have as I give it away.

If I want to feel happy, to feel love, to feel joy, these are the things I must give to others. And it must be a free gift with no expectation of return. Giving to get something back doesn’t work. But giving out of love always works.

Lester Levenson, the creator of the Sedona Method, talked about the discovery he made during the process of awakening that he underwent. Lester said that he realized that he was only truly happy when he was loving someone, when he was giving his love to another. And the more he practiced this giving of love, the freer and happier he got, until he experienced what is typically referred to as enlightenment. He woke-up by loving. He gave, and he was healed.

For me, this beginning step of truly giving is synonymous with an experience I have had off and on for a number of years. When I used to meditate, I would at times see a “light” in my mind’s eye, shining brightly just above my field of “vision.” This light wasn’t a worldly light, because I only saw it in my mind when my eyes were closed. As time has gone on, I have begun experiencing this sense of “light” more frequently, until now I can sense it in my mind’s eye at will. It especially is noticeable when I release using the Sedona Method or meditate by sitting in silence. When I release or meditate, I can feel my awareness shift to this light and the sensation I have is one of releasing into the light. The feeling I get is one of very clearly letting go of “myself” into this light, which is completely equivalent, at least to me, of letting go through loving or by the power of love. The light I perceive and the love I feel are one and the same.

Love and light seem to go hand in hand. They are one. The light that shines in our awareness is usually obscured by the vast quantity of subconscious junk that fills our minds. A Course in Miracles spends a lot of time discussing the contents of the subconscious mind, if you care to know more. But as we let go of these blocks to the perception of the light, we can experience greater peace, love and joy than we have ever known. The love that we give to anything by releasing our feelings about it is real, it is true, and it could even be described as holy.

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Guru Quotes

All of our thoughts are conditioned. We all are thinking exactly along the lines we are conditioned to think. Programmed like a computer. Anybody who thinks they are actually choosing of their own free will the line of thinking that they have is completely deluded by their thinking.

—Adyashanti


Behind most spiritual practices is the belief that you have to get someplace you’re not- a destination called realization or enlightenment. But realization isn’t someplace else; it’s the naturally occurring human state. It doesn’t belong to anybody. It’s who we all are. Spiritual practices also set up many pictures of what this state looks like. For example, when I described how much fear was present, people told me the fear meant that something must be wrong, because fear was an indication that I wasn’t in the proper state. But fear is just what it is, and it’s there too in the vastness of who we are.

—Suzanne Segal

In spiritual life there is no room for compromise. Awakening is not negotiable; we cannot bargain to hold on to things that please us while relinquishing things that do not matter to us. A lukewarm yearning for awakening is not enough to sustain us through the difficulties involved in letting go. It is important to understand that anything that can be lost was never truly ours, anything that we deeply cling to only imprisons us.

—Jack Kornfield

Those who awaken never rest in one place.
Like swans, they rise and leave the lake.
On the air they rise and fly an invisible course.
Their food is knowledge.
They live on emptiness.
They have seen how to break free.
Who can follow them?

—Siddhārtha Gautama, The Dhammapada

We always want someone else to change so that we will feel good. But has it ever struck you that even if your wife changes or your husband changes, what does that do to you? You’re just as vulnerable as before; you’re just as idiotic as before; you’re just as asleep as before. You are the one who needs to change, who needs to take medicine. You keep insisting, “I feel good because the world is right.” Wrong! The world is right because I feel good. That’s what all the mystics are saying.

—Anthony de Mello