In my First-Second Degree of Illumination bubble awareness, I perceive “light” as a property of my physical universe – a sort of speed limit, warming agent, and illuminator of darkness. And, according to Einstein et al, that perception is relative to the observer. For example, in creating graphics for a web site, I occasionally set color to #ffffff – a digital equivalent to “pure white” where 100% red + 100% green + 100% blue = 100% white.
You’d think pure white would be terribly bright. It isn’t. It’s only as bright as the screen upon which it is displayed can produce. In a darkened room, that white may indeed look quite bright and pure white. In broad daylight, however, it could look dingy, less than white, even dark by comparison.
Could light depend upon perspective?
This reminds me of a certain family outing many years ago. We chose to do some caving. Down into the earth we trekked – deep into the darkness. We took along lanterns and flashlights, of course. After trekking to a certain point in the cave, we turned off our lighting devices and stood for a while in the inky darkness – waiting for our eyes to adjust. My eyes never adjusted to where I could make out anything – to me it was complete and total darkness. I may as well have been born without eyes in that environment.
Bring on the Light
And then someone turned on a flashlight, which by then had lost much of its brightness due to continuous use – low batteries. Even the brightness of that dim flashlight may as well have been broad daylight to me. It was so bright that I squinted my eyes! Later, as we slowly emerged from the cave, I was faced with full daylight. I can only imagine how bright full sunlight would have felt when I was deep inside the cave with the lights out.
Our caving experience was “enlightening” for me.
It prompted me to ask myself, “Could light be a subjective perception rather than an objective condition?” In the dark cave, ANY light felt like a flash of brightness in comparison. Could my flashes of inspiration be dim flashlight-level glimpses of Fourth Degree of Illumination awareness perceived from within the darkness of the bubble?
About Oneness
What is “100% pure light” then? Is it, like my computer screen, limited to the brightness of the presentation medium – in the bubble? Is it limited by my ability to perceive it? Just how bright and pure is the light of inspiration?
Suppose there was a source of 100% pure light – 100% pure and complete consciousness. Let’s call it “oneness” as it represents 100% (mathematically, 1.00). Within such oneness might reside all the “colors” of a consciousness rainbow – just as there are in different frequencies of physical light. Were I to comprehend oneness, I imagine like the sunlight that greeted us at the entrance of the cave, I might be “blinded” by over-stimulation of my metaphoric eyes. I might want to experience only the briefest of flashes of that light until I could adapt to its fullness.
Perhaps flashes of inspiration are happening all the time, the result of oneness experiencing separation in time/space. Like my first inclination deep in the cave when the first flashlight came on, enveloped in the subjective, relative perceptual darkness of the bubble, I might “turn my eyes away” to avoid cognitive blindness.
Glimpses of Separation
Rather than a separate being experiencing flashes of oneness, what if I am oneness perceiving itself as flashes of inspiration from within the perspective of separation?
Sensing myself as a separate being inside the dimness of the First-Second Degree of Illumination bubble, I feel a lack of and need to regain wholeness. This perspective motivates me to take action to “correct the inadequacy” of light by turning on any lighting device I can find. All the while BEING the light I feel I require. Dismissing that light as “inadequate” to satisfy the need – and isn’t need just that way, insatiable?!
Yet, what if my perception is simply incorrect? What if I were to realize that there is no separation, no darkness? That I am having 100% of my experience – in 100% light – 100% of the time.
Is the perception of separation a sensual illusion from which I occasionally awaken? Or is my perception of separation a characteristic of my belief in it? Within the dim light of my perceptual bubble-cave, even the slightest glimpse beyond it may feel like a flash of intense light.
I wonder what will happen when my “caveman” comes out into the light of day.
