Forget the material, follow the light
For quite a while now, I have been craving silence. Not merely the quiet of an empty apartment. Not an undisturbed walk in the park. But absolute environmental stillness, where everything and everyone in it are suspended in a sacred hush.
Which was how I found myself in the adoration chapel of a downtown church a few weeks ago. The moment the door closed, I knew I was in the right place. Traffic sounds instantly cut off. The scorching midday sun kept out of the chapel. I was in the company of a few worshippers though we were all in our own bubbles.
No, I'm not Catholic. I'm in fact allergic to organised religion in general. But I do not discriminate locations when my entire overstimulated being is yearning for respite. Yearning for, dare I say, a more reverent experience with the divine outside of the humble bedroom where I do my quiet sitting.
The monstrance caught my eye at once, its elaborate sunburst design in gold and silver, its opulence contrasting starkly with the general austerity of the room - and at odds with my non-dualistic world view - I'm not sure I'll ever be convinced of the creator-made-creation narrative.
"Forget the material; follow the light," said a voice in my head. So distracted was I by the monstrance's shimmer and shine that I had allowed it to separate me from my original intent to rest in stillness.
I couldn't help drawing parallels with other facets of life. Knowing the right thing to do, but constantly getting led away by the ego's desire to have more, be more. Blinded by the capabilities and conveniences of artificial intelligence without seeing through the biases of its output, the triviality of most of its use cases and the cost to our next generation. In these examples, our innate wisdom gave way to the physical (material), the way my mind got led away by a glittery consecrated form.
Yet the paradox is, the monstrance, gilded by humans, helps us perceive "light". Formlessness requires form for our limited human understanding. Yin isn't yin without yang. Peace isn't appreciated without conflict.
We may not always "follow the light", but just knowing that there is always a choice in every situation is the mark of a mind that is expanded, a form that is closer to formlessness.
