The other day, when I was coming out of meditation, I heard the phrase “passing on your light.” At first I heard it as an instruction: don’t keep my light to myself. Pass it on.
But instantly I realized it was actually a commentary on what I suspect many of us do: pass on our light. As in “Oh, I think I’ll pass.”
I notice this tendency in myself. I experience many insights and spiritual ahas, so many that I couldn’t begin to share them all, but always the first thing that springs to my mind when they come is, “How can I share this with others?”
One might think this is an admirable quality. But actually it can be a form of deflection, a way of avoiding owning the insight and accepting it as an emanation of my own light.
I remember as a child playing the game of hot potato, when I and my friends would circle around tossing an imaginary hot potato to each other.
It’s like that. When we give away our light without first accepting it as ours, we are passing on it. We’re playing spiritual hot potato.
I suppose we play this game because we’re afraid of the potency of our divine nature, afraid of the intensity of our light. Maybe we know if we accept it we’ll have to come to terms with the fact that we are something very different from what we have always believed. But we have to ask ourselves if being loyal to a false identity is more valuable to us than being true to what we actually are.
I’m aware that right now we are in the sign of Leo, which is all about discovering our luminous Self and allowing it to shine. The sign of Leo is also associated with the Sun, and one reason life here on Earth can flourish is because the Sun is simply being what it is: a body of light.
So let me ask you this, are you ready to stop passing on your Light? Are you willing to accept that even the Sun can’t hold a candle to the luminous Self you truly are?
Like what you read?
Patricia,
You can’t imagine how this blog hit me. I am reading A Novel of Rumi -The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak and it is touching me profoundly. A friend said it was an amazing book, so amazing that as soon as she read it, she read it again. I know I will read it again.
As I read your blog I had tears. I know the inside of me is awaking more and more. I also know it is hard for me to sit with my own light, I want to pass it on rather than accepting the incredible gift the universe has bestowed upon me. I look back at my whole life I know that light has always been with me, even when I wasn’t aware of it. It has been my guide always and here I am at 82 so totally aware of that inner light that at times I am scared…
Sometimes this fall, My oldest daughter and I will be visiting my sister in Upper Darby, PA. I understand it is not far from Philadelphia. Maybe there is a possibility of a cup of tea…
Much love,
Gretchen
Again, thank you for helping me notice this pattern. I realize too I’m
missing out out on deep joy within myself for not lingering and ‘taking in’ and enjoying my own insights and visionary ideas.
Similarly, years ago, I realized that every time I learned something useful in the spiritual education realm, I felt compelled to “ teach it” turn it into a workshop or offering for others. Once, as I was running to lead a dialogue group, I was stopped by an inner voice that said tenderly, “Sally, don’t you know this is just for you?” It was hard to accept the tender loving care bestowed just for me. It was a beautiful moment in my life!
Wow, what metaphors you are passing to us “the sun can’t hold a candle to the luminous self” I used to use a similar thought to reply to the “scientists” who call us humans vastly insignificant compares to even an average star like the sun.
The sun with its enormous mass and size completely dwarfs our whole world. The enormous energy of even the smallest flares on the sun out does the entire energy of the earth during the most violent storms, volcanoes, and all the power man has harnessed since the beginning of time. Yet the awareness of a child on this little earth does something the sun can’t imagine.
Passing the light like a hot potato sounds like sharing but it might be more like avoiding a lesson for ourselves. We are perhaps more afraid of the changes it requires of our self more than of some fearful power.
For me, I am more guilty of continually dealing with the rainstorms of life than dwelling in the sunshine of listening to our light.
This was soooo good. Even took it to my therapy session and used it as a many faceted way to address a variety of things that resonated for me. I carry it with me and will now look at and re-read the VERY thoughtful comments also.
Love how you had it both ways with this — you both owned your light and passed it on to us!