This is so thought provoking and recently I have been noticing the light around me shift and change as the season unfolds. Now at notice it more it is mesmerising and becomes a meditation or mindful moment in itself. I love how you describe seeing and feeling the light within others a beautiful reminder. Thank you Josie.
Hi Josie, in the way of Substack, I have just found my way to you. And there is a odd coincidence. Last Saturday (15 March), I was with my family at Stackpole Quay (in celebration of my 60th birthday). At the top of the path down to Barrafundle Bay, a group of ‘older’ women walked past. One woman passed, went back for stragglers and then passed us again. Each time our eyes met and there was an exchange of a questioning light in the glance. We did not speak. Later, this same group of women gathered in a circle at the Quay and sang - a beautiful siren song in my ears. I was so drawn to the group of ‘crones’, but could not leave my family to go ask the questions in my heart. But it was there, the light in me recognised the light in them … thank-you for your illuminating post 🙂 Penn x
What a lovely experience, and thank you so much for sharing it. Stackpole is one of my favourite places, and I wrote about Bosherston recently in Circle of Frienship. Happy belated birthday, and welcome to Nurturing the Light. I'm so glad you found me.
Light to me captures the dual nature of immanence and transcendence. The sense of the divine, within and in the world, to me is experienced typically as a radiance, a light that is known but not seen, an illumination that is not visual but felt on the deepest levels of one's being.
When I was very young my allegiance was to science, not "religion". But when I was 8 an astronomer at a lecture explained that light we saw from stars had left that star millions of years ago; the star may not even exist anymore. But--and this is what blew my young mind--from the point of view of that light--if you could ride a photon of light, if you were somehow that light--there would be no experience of time or distance. Those millions of years, the millions of light-years of space--do not exist for light, for that which is free of mass. Our experience, embedded in time and space and causation, with light as a physical phenomenon allowing us to see, coexists with that of light itself, for which time, space, and causation simply are not. My heart both soared at that possibility, and broke at the seeming impossibility of sharing in that experience of light itself.
Since that time, and through the grace of an enlightened (!) master, I've glimpsed the experience of pure Awareness, in which at least the subjective experience of time and space vanishes like a dream.
In Vedanta, this is considered "reality" and our perceptual world a mirage of sorts, a superimposition of our senses and mind upon this reality. I like the Shaivite perspective, which seems more to mirror my childhood understanding and the lesson from what we know of physics...time and space are not fundamental, but emergent phenomena with the emergence of matter and substance...yet both of these dimensions of reality--the unity of light, and the diversity of matter--are simultaneous and interpenetrating; and living in one, we can yet breath and hold the recognition of our essential being as the other.
Thanks Rashmi for sharing your experience of light and bringing this contemplation up for me!
Hi Josie, your words here resonate, and I very much enjoyed them, and am inspired by them. I too joined Beth Kemptons Soul Circle last month, and the ritual I have created in my early mornings is something I relish, and am grateful to Beth for introducing to Soul Circle. Sometimes it's may be for only 30 minutes, however its always a time of peace and quiet, as well as feeding me my creative medicine. I'm finding my way around substack slowly, and enjoying so much.
Thank you for your lovely words, and welcome to Substack. I am new here too, and still finding my way around. So much to discover isn't there. Enjoy exploring, Lovely to connect with you.
This is so thought provoking and recently I have been noticing the light around me shift and change as the season unfolds. Now at notice it more it is mesmerising and becomes a meditation or mindful moment in itself. I love how you describe seeing and feeling the light within others a beautiful reminder. Thank you Josie.
Hi Josie, in the way of Substack, I have just found my way to you. And there is a odd coincidence. Last Saturday (15 March), I was with my family at Stackpole Quay (in celebration of my 60th birthday). At the top of the path down to Barrafundle Bay, a group of ‘older’ women walked past. One woman passed, went back for stragglers and then passed us again. Each time our eyes met and there was an exchange of a questioning light in the glance. We did not speak. Later, this same group of women gathered in a circle at the Quay and sang - a beautiful siren song in my ears. I was so drawn to the group of ‘crones’, but could not leave my family to go ask the questions in my heart. But it was there, the light in me recognised the light in them … thank-you for your illuminating post 🙂 Penn x
Hi Penn,
What a lovely experience, and thank you so much for sharing it. Stackpole is one of my favourite places, and I wrote about Bosherston recently in Circle of Frienship. Happy belated birthday, and welcome to Nurturing the Light. I'm so glad you found me.
Light to me captures the dual nature of immanence and transcendence. The sense of the divine, within and in the world, to me is experienced typically as a radiance, a light that is known but not seen, an illumination that is not visual but felt on the deepest levels of one's being.
When I was very young my allegiance was to science, not "religion". But when I was 8 an astronomer at a lecture explained that light we saw from stars had left that star millions of years ago; the star may not even exist anymore. But--and this is what blew my young mind--from the point of view of that light--if you could ride a photon of light, if you were somehow that light--there would be no experience of time or distance. Those millions of years, the millions of light-years of space--do not exist for light, for that which is free of mass. Our experience, embedded in time and space and causation, with light as a physical phenomenon allowing us to see, coexists with that of light itself, for which time, space, and causation simply are not. My heart both soared at that possibility, and broke at the seeming impossibility of sharing in that experience of light itself.
Since that time, and through the grace of an enlightened (!) master, I've glimpsed the experience of pure Awareness, in which at least the subjective experience of time and space vanishes like a dream.
In Vedanta, this is considered "reality" and our perceptual world a mirage of sorts, a superimposition of our senses and mind upon this reality. I like the Shaivite perspective, which seems more to mirror my childhood understanding and the lesson from what we know of physics...time and space are not fundamental, but emergent phenomena with the emergence of matter and substance...yet both of these dimensions of reality--the unity of light, and the diversity of matter--are simultaneous and interpenetrating; and living in one, we can yet breath and hold the recognition of our essential being as the other.
Thanks Rashmi for sharing your experience of light and bringing this contemplation up for me!
Josie, Rasmi, your words are wisdom, you are light. Thank you
Hi Josie, your words here resonate, and I very much enjoyed them, and am inspired by them. I too joined Beth Kemptons Soul Circle last month, and the ritual I have created in my early mornings is something I relish, and am grateful to Beth for introducing to Soul Circle. Sometimes it's may be for only 30 minutes, however its always a time of peace and quiet, as well as feeding me my creative medicine. I'm finding my way around substack slowly, and enjoying so much.
Dear Tracey,
Thank you for your lovely words, and welcome to Substack. I am new here too, and still finding my way around. So much to discover isn't there. Enjoy exploring, Lovely to connect with you.
With love,
Josie