Light So Small

Following that numinous call

A spiritual poem about this longing towards the light – a journey that will last a lifetime and potentially lead us through most remarkable pathways. It is part of that journey that this numinous other which we dub in terms of God or the Divine seems to be something very different from ourselves, far away and hard to reach, and hard to know. 

Following this path towards the light though has an effect on us. As with any pathway, perspective changes over time, as we progress along. Simple things may become complex, and complicated aspects may dissolve into great simpleness, as we find out, who we truly are.

Chapters:

• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:00:26 Light So Small – Solo
• 00:04:35 The Magic of Light
• 00:10:49 Light So Small – Remix
• 00:15:04 Outro

Shownotes, ein Transkript der Texte und mehr findest du auf lachenderbach.de.

Transcript

Light So Small

There is a light
So faint and small
It’s barely there
Against the dark

Most will just miss it
Pass by and go their way
For there is nothing
That attracts the eye

No one points at it
No one seems to care
Yet here I am
And I’m all stare

Something that stopped me
In my track
It made me turn around
And take another look

I hardly trusted
What I saw
Highly improbable
To be at all

Yet there it was
It would not go
Through all my doubting
Just know I know

And so I bowed
To look at it
I heard a voice
It spoke of truth
It spoke of love
It spoke of justice
It spoke of care
It spoke of life
A song so fair
It called
It said
I have a choice

One choice is many
For it’s a path
With every step
I grows to last

As I followed
It along
I saw it clearer
It made me strong

With every turn
Through every darkness
With every time
Completely lost

With every pain
My heart would bear
The light was there
A little brighter was its shine

Who would have thought
How long it lasted
And what was it
That made me trust

Until I finally turned
And saw it
Blazing bright
Against the night

It was so huge
Could barely bear it
Was loud and roaring
It was pure life

In it was not a trace of darkness
Yet through the dark
Is where it shone
And I don’t know
How I knew it
I just knew
I had found home

©️ Laughing Brook/Peter Mueller 2024

Intro

One of the most fascinating things in the whole of the universe is light. I once saw a TV show with the in Germany quite famous physicist Werner Lesch, where he spoke about light and almost fell into poetical language, touched by the mystery. 

You may wonder: What is so remarkable about light? Comes from the sun, or from my phone, and when I don’t need it, I turn it off. 

There are a few things about light that really can get your head spinning. For one, according to the widely accepted theory of relativity, as Einstein has proposed it, the closer you get to the speed of light, the slower time passes for you. Once you reach the speed of light, time stops. 

So if you are „in the light“, so to speak, you are at a place where there is no time. As trained theologian, which I am, I cannot help but noting that there is a very special theological technical term which is used for this environment where no time is passing, and it is called eternity. Eternity doesn’t mean something that keeps going on and going on, like a talk show host in a late night show. It is kinda the exact opposite of that, a stillness which is complete, an unhurried, effortless and all powerful being. And being not in the sense that there is someone to whom we give funky names like Jahwe, Allah, Buddha, Shiva, Shakti or what have you.  Yeah, all those names have their meaning. But with ”all powerful being” I mean a state of just being, which is in no way passive. It’s like the Zero in Mathematics, the weightless hub which carries the weight of the world. The nothing around which everything revolves, the endless possibilities of mathematical expressions.

Light is a potentiality which can be both wave and particle, and quantum physics has found out that its a mind that determines whether it will be this or the other. It is the consciousness of an observer which determines that. Again, as a theologian I cannot help but to think of the Buddhist teaching about the power of what Tibetan Buddhism calls Rigpa, pure consciousness. Everything, they say, is born out of this consciousness, and everything we call world and life happens within this consciousness. And the path to know is to realize that it is I who am this consciousness. Not the puny I with which I navigate through this world, but the I from which all Is that ever were and ever will be are but a spark. The eternal fire that the Bible relays as Jahwe – Jaaach-wheee, the breath of life, which can have no name and no image, because it is forever flow, not one thing, but everything.

Which then, as a hobby physicist, I cannot help but note that light is just like this Jahwe: It cannot be put in one place; you cannot box it, store it, conserve it. It is always ever only here now. 

The Irish theologian and inspiring writer John O’Donahue said it so wonderfully: Light is the secret presence of the Divine.

Spiritual ways of every shade and time speak of this divine light. And even if you are the most ardent atheist, there is a passion, a curiosity, a longing that draws you into something which is beyond yourself. If you ask me, I would say that following this light is the very essence of why – and how – we are alive.

Outro:

My name is Laughing Brook, I am a poet, dancer, mystic, nature coach and man whisperer. 

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