MM#17:

The Lights Are On or They’re Off

Welcome to another musing, midweek…

This is a simple but still profound concept and the basis for many other concepts I’ve written on already or will surely continue to write about.

The idea being that you can live your life in darkness, or you can live it in light. You cannot sit somewhere in between (unless of course you are aware of the choice and still deciding which way to go… still you’d be doing it from one side or the other.)

Think of being in a room at home. Perhaps you’re there now. You can turn the light switch two ways. Either the light is on, or its off.

Don’t tell me about dimmers. A dimmer means dim light, but the light is still on. The electrical current is still being connected.

This Is Bigger Than the Light Switch

Anyways, what I am getting at its a much more meaningful concept. I don’t wish to detract from it over small matters regarding the nature of light fixtures.

The idea is about your point of view on life. The idea is about living your life the way you choose.

If you are living a challenging life: always struggling, never at peace, seeming to find conflict at every turn, dealing with painful emotions… would you say that you are living in the light or in the dark? I’m sure that the answer is clear (not in the “clear as day” sort of clear, but rather in the “answer is obvious” sort of way).

I’m not going to call darkness evil, either, simply because that idea is too loaded. Plenty of people live lives in darkness but are not living in evil ways and are not evil people. The darkness I speak of, simply put, is being tuned out of the light. Mostly it’s just a place of not knowing what the light is or how to reach it. It’s not a flaw, but a lesson for growth.

What is the light then? Do you even know what life in the light is? I wonder if many people even know that, for it seems that those I meet “enjoy” life pretty much in a darkened state. I know I was there most of my life, as were those around me. I still strive to leave all that darkness behind, doing better every day. So I know that the struggle is real.

Choosing the Light

“A Course In Miracles” explains again and again that the choice for God is complete, and with it comes the wholeness of God’s Kingdom. That is a Kingdom of Heaven, of light, of being enlightened.

Many will teach that to be “enlightened” is simply to “be light.” And they mean just that: to be light and free about your life, not weighed down and heavy with burdens and struggles.

Be light about your worries: have none. Be light about your fears: they are illusions. Be light about conflict: there is no need for anything but peace in your heart. Be in the light, be light, be enlightened.

To choose to live in the light is to choose “against” darkness. To go back to my light switch analogy, it’s simply on or off. The light dispels the darkness as sure as the sun dispels the night. And how fitting that the “son of God” once taught us this.

You cannot awaken to God, to truth, to peace, to love, to light and still be in the darkness. You can’t even keep one foot in the darkness, or you will have it all. The darkness will always draw you back to look at it if you choose that.

But to choose the light, to step fully into the light, that is the teaching of virtually every mystic, religion, spiritual practice or otherwise. So many of us strive for this place of peace, harmony, joy, and love. That place is the light!

How blessed would you feel if you could flick that switch and enter that light now? How blessed to leave the darkness behind, not even a painful memory of it because the light would overcome that, too? How blessed to be at peace with the oneness of creation?

The choice is yours. Do you leave the switch off, thereby living in darkness and struggle?

Or do you swallow the pill, take the plunge, and jump into the light, fully and forever, to be free and happy and full of love?

Choose wisely, my friends.

Thank you for reading.

Please comment below, especially if you had an “Aha!” moment or leapt right into enlightenment.

Be kind and share with others who need the light in their life.

Blessings to you all,

Matthew