But it is only when all outward appearances are gone that there is left that one principle of life which exists independently of all external phenomena. It is the fire that burns in the eternal light, when the fuel is expended and the flame is extinguished; for that fire is neither in the flame nor in the fuel, nor yet inside either of the two, but above, beneath, and everywhere.
Meditation begins as most do. I feel as if I am a small stone sinking into an ocean of filtered light. The light seems to be coming from all directions. I slow, almost pause, at certain levels before my specific gravity increases again, and I sink deeper into this ocean of consciousness—no real experience of having entered this ocean—just being there and going deeper and deeper. It is beyond peaceful, beyond serene.
Many in the LDS Church may believe it was unique to Joseph Smith, but is it?
There is a curious detail in Joseph Smith's earliest accounts of his First Vision that may teach us more about this encounter with Deity, and the differences between the accounts. It is when God greets Joseph.
I suddenly entered the heart of a reality so blindingly obvious, so total, so enlightening, so luminous, that I wondered how I had never before realized how easy this reality was to find and how easily I found myself in it.
He lays asleep, unknowing
Black nothing
Emptiness and nowhere
No time, no space
How did Jesus say we are to love ourself? How could we know how to love our neighbor unless we first knew how we are to love ourself? It seems Jesus was referring back to something he previously said, so that we could love our neighbor likewise.
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.
Ann invited me to write a guest post for her blog, Enlightenment is for Everyone: Exploring Potential From Every Angle. I did so, writing of Joseph Smith's First Vision experience from a mystical awakening universal divine grace perspective, using the various firsthand and secondhand accounts. My blog post is titled "The Divine Light of a Lowly Farmer Boy." You may read it on Ann's blog.
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes