Light Within and Without

You have no doubt noticed that among people there are those who seem very devout, outwardly ‘spotless’, radiating light and grace, yet, on closer inspection, are cold inside. There are also people who do not outwardly display piety and righteousness, yet are filled with a light not apparent to most.

Are these differences merely psychological traits?

Kabbalists think not.

To understand the difference, we must make a brief digression.

According to the Kabbalistic view of the universe, there are two primordial principles — the Giving (“Or” — the Light issuing from the Creator) and the Receiving (“Kli” — the vessel, the creature). As mentioned, this is also present in pagan notion of the the Great Father and the the Great Mother. Just as the nature of Light is to give, the Kli’s nature is to receive, and the meaning of the cosmic process is seen as the gradual filling of vessels with Light.

Light is an essential, present form of consciousness, combining and integrating its properties. The vessel, similarly, is an essential form of being.

By admitting Light into itself, the vessel also takes on its property — expansiveness. Thus, when filled with Light, the vessel begins to pour it out; that is, it manifests expansiveness. As this develops, expansiveness leads the vessel to desire to be solely expansive, to give only and not receive. The vessel thinks that in this way it will resemble the Creator.

However, by expelling the Light from itself, the vessel becomes empty.

At the same time, the vessel rejoices in feeling similar to the Light. If this state persists, we have an empty vessel that thinks it is like the Creator merely because it does not manifest its nature — receptivity. Unfortunately, very often people get stuck at this stage, filling themselves with a sense of their own importance and superiority over others. But, let us recall, we mean an empty vessel.

A different picture is observed in the case of a more developed awareness, which understands that, since the nature of the vessel is to receive and the nature of the Light is to give, the best course of action is conscious reception — receptivity.

In this case, on the one hand, we have the fulfillment of the Creator’s design — the Absolute’s awareness, the Great Spirit, of itself in its reflection within creation; and on the other hand, we have the vessel resembling the Light not by renouncing its nature but precisely because the Receiving enables the manifestation of the property of Filling — the poles of the binary are equally necessary to one another.

In other words — the best way to resemble the Light is, paradoxically, to receive it properly, since such proper reception can be regarded as granting it the opportunity to enter.

Therefore, the most important skill of a developed awareness is precisely to be filled with Light, with power; this is not an emphasis on “piety” and “righteousness,” but on self-improvement. Instead of exhorting others to follow the true way while remaining an empty vessel and indulging in the illusion of your own greatness, it is, from the point of view of the cosmic process, more correct to walk the Way yourself, and then the influence on those around you will, to some extent, occur automatically. In the words of Seraphim of Sarov, “save yourself, and thousands around you will be saved“.