The Clear Light

are there unclear lights?

there are things about which no one knows jack. only the ego demands we pretend to know all.

 

Clear light is a name for a state of awareness. It is a name like irrational fear. It is a translation from tibetan meaning luminosity or radiance referring to the intrinsic purity of the substratum of the mind stream. The reason the clear light is not normally experienced is that it is not normally practiced although it may be experienced as a result some fundamental trauma. I say it is not normally practiced because it is the result normally of practice. In yoga it is a sadhana or state cultivated for the purpose of learning.

Although some would not debate the claim preferring to describe the state as beyond the senses and therefor beyond our capacity to discuss, you cannot report on what you do not apprehend.

This is the practice as described in commentary,


"Wherefore it is far removed from the nature of the one and the many, the nature, or essence, of Mind, being unoriginated, is clear Light" for the darkness of all conceptions of being is destroyed."

 

As far as who apprehends what the closest language I can come to is we do and we apprehend everything or how things appear before or in the absence of certain kinds of distinctions being made. As far as it being reported as experienced at death we might regard it as a transitional awareness but we can also regard it as transitory awareness and get the same effect. The diversely emerging emerges from a singular or undivided impulse or you could say that physical manifestation is an expression of distinct possibilities emerging from a soup of all probabilities. To transit the soup of all probability is a subtle awareness. To preserve a distinct possible emergence transcendent of temporal expression it is necessary to develop a subtle awareness or subtle body.

 

My own exp was a spontaneous thing - I had no expectation of anything of that nature when I took my first LSD. My interest in mysticism and so on developed afterwards as a response to it.

Subsequent attempts to return to that particular state have proven unsuccessful, as I mentioned above. So maybe it does just slip further away the more we reach for it.

I think a great many people go through life without ever having this kind of experience, so obviously it isn't necessary to have it in order to function in the ordinary world. Having the exp though may ultimately lead to a life where one has a deeper awareness of things in general. Perhaps a different sensitivity - I'm not expressing what I mean very well I'm afraid.

There is though a whole range of 'spiritual experiences' which exist within the body consciousness and the mental consciousness. Probably they are easier to get to, and easier to talk about.

One other point I'd like to make in the general context of this thread though. Some schools of philosophy, such as Advaita Vedanta, say that only the Light is real, and this world is mere Illusion or Maya.
That's not my own view, but it illustrates that there are different ways in which people have understood or reacted to the Clear Light.

 

Yeah I haven't found it helpful to go on about the illusory nature of experience and seems more practical to examine the malleable nature of experience. To claim illusion is an effort to make illusion real when clear vision dispels illusion.

 

how can the clear light be useful ?

it's not useful to self . that'd be irrational . selfishness is what's beyond rational . the beautiful light is very rational .
yet how can it be rational as it casts no shadow ? it is a logical wholeness ... designed so ... and it can shatter nothing .
it is useful to peace , artful , and extends effortlessly from the artist of peace .

 

One way to look at is that 'that' which apprehends the experience is something deeper than our ordinary mental consciousness.

One reason all this is difficult to discuss is the nature of our dualistic mode of awareness. Its always 'me' looking at this or that object. I see myself as separate from the object of my awareness. But in that ultimate flash, there is no such separation. You don't just see or feel it, you become it. I can't say 'you live it' because there's no sense of any individual who lives.

I'd tend to agree with what you propose in the second part of your post. And I'd say that the possibility of such experience has been at the heart of a great deal of human culture since pre-historic times.

 

Leaving the Advaita question aside for now

A lot of people were very enthusiastic about the prospects opened up by LSD and other psychedelics back in the 60's. My feeling is that some got a bit carried away. But some interesting things were done and it seems it is only now that research is starting up again. And some of what is being done now is yielding some interesting results.
There's also a lot more info available to westerners now about traditional shamanic use of psychedelics. There seems to be almost an Ayhuasca craze going on........

Myself I don't consider psychedelics to be a 'path' in and of themselves, although I have taken them many times since my first experience.(there have been periods of up to a decade where I didn't do any) I think of them more as an aid, and actually an 'acid test'.

And I have never been able to get back to that first exp. A ball bounces highest on the first drop. Also, there's the sheer shock/novelty value the first time.

But one day, hope that I'll return to That. Maybe not until I shuffle off this mortal coil...

 

Is this clear light thing something good and ideal? is it upon the discovery of of a new awareness of epistemology and enabling humanity to have a common understanding for their old beliefs hindering of the progress with futurism?

 

I think how you get there plays a role and it is psychedelics that are violent to the system. It is like being thrown into the sun instead of being warmed up over time by it. Violence doesn't necessarily do damage but it may not be necessary either. I have known people who recovered badly from such shock. Having said that I don't think psychedelics are not useful and I think they might be preferable to some of the traumatic episodes that seem to contribute to the appearance of such visions such as the moment of death.

 

If you value ease of being. To be able to see makes having sight easier to incorporate.

 

One thing to consider, what is there to return to?

I started seeing better when I stopped trying to conceive the form of the thing I was looking for, i.e. my meditation is beyond symbols.

 

my 3 LSD trips have each been visionary - two at age 20 and the other 20 years later . it's now another 20 years hence .
the visions were of no violence whatsever , however the first events shattered the nerves and split the brain hemisperes .
by the time of the age 40 trip i had healed ; to be much stronger as well . these days , revelations of reality roll along easy
such as in a gnome stops by for a midnight snack and the teleportation reality thing is so very curious to experience . that's
how life can go , if maybe no one ever told you .

 

This seems to be similar to the state of non-duality , stated in Advaita Vedanta. This is a state where time ceases to exist, and one feels one with all. It comes with an highly expanded consciousness, probably the outcome of diligent spiritual practice , or when the prana or chi, has come to a very high level through certain factors .

 

It is a valid experience, and as per Advaita, reality as it truly is. Enlightened masters are in this state perpetually.

The mind always have a tendency to oppose this state of the no-mind by intellectualizing. It is the very intellect and uncontrolled thought process that is the barrier to this state being permanent.

 

Thinking is the problem. Because with thought, this state ceases, and we come back to the ' Ordinary everyday reality' , boring as usual. And complete with duality, ego and unconsciousness.

When you are in this state of non-duality, you are actually swimming against the current of unconsciousness and karma, in a sense. The current here tends to pull you ( and everyone else) into duality and constant thinking/intellectualizing, and only those who have strengthened themselves by proper spiritual practice can overpower the current to attain this state, even if it is for a certain time period.