There is an experience which grows in the soul out of the soul itself, without contact and without restraint, in naked oneness. It comes into being and completes itself beyond the commotion, free of the other, inaccessible to the other. It needs no nourishment, and no poison can touch it. The soul which stands in it stands in itself, has itself, experiences itself - boundlessly.
There is a term that the scriptures use to refer to something in us that separates us from God. It is called the "natural man," or at times the "carnal mind." What is this? And how can a correct understanding of it help us commune with and become one with God?
Crystal clear, sharp and bright, my mind has no opening for evil to roost. The morning sun shines in, My mind, too, is clear and bright;
A divine light is directed on me, penetrating this glow in which I am contained...
Though he has no form my eyes saw him, his glory is fire in my mind that knows
It pervades the entire universe but nothing pervades it. It is effulgent by nature, and its splendor illumines everything...
For it is a property of the Good that it becomes known to him who is able to see it... It shines forth much or little, according as he who gazes on it is able to receive the inflow of the incorporeal radiance... It is full of immortal life.
Will they ever return to me, those grandiose, immortal, cosmogonic dreams, in which one seems to carry the world in one's breast, to touch the stars, to possess the infinite?
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.
The Kena Upanishad says that the Self 'shines through the mind and senses,' which is a poetic way of saying that it is the power of the Self which allows the mind and senses to function. So the eternally conscious Self is what makes us conscious. Essentially, it is light.