=kit110.txt

KIT 110 - Stalking the Light: Transmuting Fire into Light, Anger
into Compassion

Light is a particularly important factor in our lives because it
acts as a bridge between matter and the ineffable, beyond our
perception. At the psychological level, we all know how it feels
to be hot under the collar, burning with rage when abused,
insulted, repressed, or when we are outraged with righteous
indignation at witnessing an injustice or a blatant lie. It seems
wise to contend that we condemn an ignominious act, not the
person, but how real is it? Surely the action we condemn must
reflect something of the person. We can intervene to counter evil
like a noble knight, without hatred. That a gesture of compassion
can transform the fire of anger into the radiance of our
countenance by the generous feeling of love is perhaps the
greatest miracle of life. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan told those
training for leadership, "We are tested in our love." Being able
to love a person who is obnoxious and unkind faces us with an
almost unrealistic challenge. How strong is our love? I mean a
wholesome, all-embracing, cosmic, unconditional love, not a
sentimental love. One can be judgmental while protective. If we
try to wean ourselves from our reactive ego, which is our defense
system, we will suffer from psychological withdrawal symptoms,
unless our love is very strong.  

The phenomenon of light hands us a number of clues which convey
realizations that open some escape from the enigma posed to our
understanding when we discover that we cannot account for things
on the strength of what we perceive. For one thing, light behaves-
according to the test devised by scientists in laboratories-either
as though it were constituted of particles (photons), or of waves.
Particles collide-like what we understand by particles of matter-
but waves compose, forming a network (a wave-interference
pattern). We imagine that particles occupy a definite location in
space at a given moment, and collide if vying for the same space,
whereas matter cannot be locatable as a wave. 

Our human behavior follows the same principles. Our psyches can
clash in conflict, or cooperate by completing each other. Waves
can configure themselves in such a manner that they build up-like
a kind of knot, called a solliton; this is called a standing wave.
Such is also the case for us humans when, in the course of
cooperating, somehow a conflicting situation arises. If we
consider our consciousness as a focal point located in space,
light seems to radiate from a point located in space: the sun, the
stars, a candle, an electric bulb. But when we turn within in our
meditation, our consciousness, as it gets inverted, is diffused.
Consequently our representation of light has shifted-it is
diffused. Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan calls it "the all-pervading
light." We find the same in the words of Ibn 'Arabi.
                                                                 
"Light is of two kinds: a light having no rays, and radiant light.
If self-disclosure takes place through radiant light, it takes
away our inner vision. As for the light that has no rays, it is
the light within which self-disclosure takes place without rays.
Then its brightness does not go outside of itself and the viewer
perceives it with the utmost clarity and  lucidity...."
IBN 'ARABI (FUT III 274 23, CHITT P 213)

Physicists never cease to be amazed by the paradoxical way light
behaves when they try to track it down in laboratory experiments.
They can only ascertain and measure what happens at the instant it
interacts with their instruments, but light eschews giving any
clues as to its behavior before, after or between the
measurements. It seems a misnomer to call light matter, even
though it is an electro-magnetic phenomenon, because, unlike any
other form of matter, it does not have mass. It provides us with a
useful model of the relationship between reality and actuality-the
universe and the cosmos. Reality escapes any efforts on our part
to track it down beyond the existential, perceptual world we
commonly know. This familiar world looks like the cross-section of
a multiple, multi-dimensional, and many-tiered universe of which
we only know what intersects it. This paradox becomes even more
bewildering, because when we stalk it, reality appears as a
virtuality that becomes an actuality in the existential condition. 


"We are a condition of God." 
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

We are baffled by the unknown, stymied, ever wishing to decipher
the secret of the mysterious unknown that affects us in such
uncanny ways. 

"He takes you from perplexity to perplexity." 
IBN 'ARABI

Reflecting upon the wave-like / particle-like antinomy, we ask
ourselves whether our known world is not the crystallization of
the reality beyond our understanding, just as we imagine waves to
have crystallized as particles, or photons having crystallized as
electrons to form a crystal. Just stop to ponder the miracle
whereby our thoughts or emotions configure the muscles of our
face; more so, how we may fashion the fabric of light of our aura
into the countenance that transpires through our face. To stalk
reality beyond actuality, we would then have to reverse this
process and transmute the electrons of our bodies into photons (as
is the case with fireflies in the process of phosphorescence) or
transmute the particle-like photons of our aura into wave-like,
ineffable light. This would represent an ingratiating prospect for
life after life. Perhaps we could already start preparing for this
right away, now. It would mean trying to stalk light as far as we
can reach beyond its perceptual existential condition.  

Should we attempt this-for example, trying to shift our
consciousness into that of a master, saint or prophet, or an
angel, or departed loved one-we would reach a point where, the
light that escapes our grasp, intangible yet luring us ever
further, does not seem to be any different from the light of our
intelligence.  

"Light is perceived; and through it perception takes place. Were
it not for the light that belongs to the souls, there could be no
witnessing since witnessing only takes place when two lights come
together."
IBN 'ARABI (FUT II 485 29 CHITT P.226) 

What would it be like to live bereft of the body? Our advanced
meditations "beyond existence", as Buddha coins it, may offer us
some clues. Imagine brain-storming creative ideas, while
interfacing and interacting with the minds and attunements of
other disincarnate beings, and fashioning these ideas into forms
without substance-as an architect, or tuning to a bountiful
symphony of emotions without translating them into musical notes
and rhythms-as a composer, discovering new modes of meaningfulness
without manipulating objects, working at the software of the
universe, knowing that your programming will, if viable and
meaningful, be intuited by those on Earth who will carry them out
concretely and practically, then updating them by being receptive
to the feedback from the Earth. The feedback of experience
upgrades the feedforward of creativity acausally. The clues to
soar into worlds of celestial light are, first, in overcoming
resentment and shifting our notion of light from its physical
underpinning to its ineffable dimensions beyond the existential
state, and then, rather than identifying ourselves with our aura,
identifying ourselves with the light of our intelligence. Then we
bring heavenly light to Earth through the glow of our eyes. This
is the "Light upon a light" of the Qur'an.  

'The light that can be seen' and 'the light that sees,' according
to the Sufis, now seem like two poles of the same reality rather
than being separated-like the horns of a dilemma-as they appear to
our commonplace thinking. Therefore to stalk the light of those we
yearn to reach beyond this limited world-to be inspired-we need to
transcend our commonplace thinking and allow our minds to be
overwhelmed in what the Sufis calls "the consternation of
intelligence." Our ordinary thinking sees 'otherness,' whereas our
peri-personal thinking sees similarity, likeness, in a process of
resonance. Pir-o-Murshid calls it the thinking of the soul, rather
than of the mind-the state of bewondering, and more so,
glorification will spark our souls to ecstasy.

We do not have to condemn ourselves if we cannot forgive, but it
is the clue to being luminous and radiant. It is our choice.
Resentment traps us in our personal dimension, forgiveness will
make us free to stalk light beyond its constraint at the
existential level. In life after life, if one has not found
freedom, one will be stuck in one's thoughts, regurgitating
acrimony, and fail to interface and interact creatively with
wonderful beings in skyscapes of light and splendor. The message
of Christ, "forgive those who offend us", is hard to follow, but
it carries a great secret - perhaps the greatest secret - the
sublimation of our human nature, like the way infra-red light can
be transmuted into ultra-violet, (passing through the spectrum).
Our incandescent aura becomes diaphanous: we have transmuted the
fire of truth into the light of love.  

"When the unreality of life pushes against my heart, its door
opens to the reality."
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

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SOS OK
THIS IS THE LAST SOS THAT I NOW HAVE -- sa

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