What we’ve been doing is visualizations. It’s not yet meditation. Because for it to involve the whole being at all levels, we have to cleanse our thoughts and our emotions. So it’s a metaphor, taking a shower of light.

So cleanse, actually it’s really cleansing our aura from the shadows of the world. That means thoughts which might start with dislike and become resentment, or then dishonest thoughts, ploy. So that the condition of our soul reflects upon the light that we radiate through our eyes. Otherwise, this light is what one calls Luciferian light. And there are people who do have Luciferian light in their eyes and it’s very impressive. I won’t mention the organization but there’s an organization that is working with looking at each other and unless one is very careful that one’s glance doesn’t carry one’s ego, it becomes Luciferian light. And I would say it’s very dangerous so be careful about that. So it means cleansing one’s thoughts and one’s emotions. And it means of course being up front, absolutely.

So cleansing, well let’s do this first. So that as you inhale, instead of just thinking about building up light in your brain, you are cleansing your aura with light. In fact, we have been concentrating on the brain but it is true that this light does infuse your whole aura not just your brain. It was just a certain step that we took to work with our eyes, but yesterday we already started working with your whole aura.

Now to pursue this furthur, although I’m anticipating on the further steps, I'll just quote a word of Pir Murshid Inayat Khan who says, as one evolves, one looks towards the heaven instead of towards the earth. What we mean by the heavens perhaps needs to be clarified, otherwise, as I say what we are doing is based on experience rather than beliefs. So I’m not suggesting that you believe in angels. But if you look into the eyes of a young baby, not all babies but some babies, it is a clear demonstration of what one means by heavenly light. It’s a pity that they grow up.

But the ideal of course is to combine the purity and innocence of a child with the wisdom of an adult without losing that lovely, how can I say, candid spontaneity of the child. The fact is that the child is still in you, in the depth, covered over by a lot of veils. And so in a sense, that purification is accompanied by lifting one veil after another to uncover the immaculate core of our aura which is like heavenly light.

That is, as you see, I am very very careful about the use of the words heavenly light. You see, scientist say, physicists say, well what we know about light is what we perceive through our eyes and the way that light interacts with the apparatus in our laboratory. But we don’t know what light is like when we aren’t interfering with it. So you can’t reduce light to physical light. And so when I say heavenly light, that’s what I mean.

So it looks as though the shadows, there has been a spillover of the shadows of the world upon our soul. In fact, it is, and I’m using a strong word, sacrilege, defilement, departure from the sacred core of our being. Or, you know, honoring and being aware of the sacred core of our being, alienation from the sacred core.

And therefore, I don’t want to reduce the practices of light to visualizations. It has to do with a whole realization of who we are, which will in turn affect our body, our mind, our way of handling problems, dealing with obnoxious people with light instead of with a sword. Or let’s say the lance of Parsifal which is a lance of light. So it involves everything, it’s not just working with light in the eyes.

And so maybe it seems to be a quantum leap if we while holding our breath, if we think of a way in which we deal with people who let’s say make themselves distasteful to us. So I’ll just choose the most difficult case like in this case, while you are holding your breath, can you think yes, I am conditioned like monkeys are conditioned to have hatred. But as a human, I hope I am a little more evolved. And that kind of thing takes away my light, so there’s no use visualizing light because what I’m doing is counter-productive. On one hand, I’m trying to be more luminous. On the other hand, I’m destroying what I’m trying to do by just this very thing. Like this very person here who’s like a grain of sand in that oyster that is my heart and whom I have to transform into a pearl. Then it is less gritty.

So somehow light is associated with a smile. It’s a Sufi tradition, the smiling forehead. And as I said yesterday, it is very difficult to smile when people are so mean and life is so hard but still, that’s a saving grace. And as I say, one can suffer terribly, in agony, and at the same time smile. And you smile for the sake of people. You know, there’s a famous Chinese saying, “Cry and you cry alone. Laugh and the world laughs with you.” So even though your heart is bleeding, you smile for the sake of the people whom you are communicating with.

And otherwise, one is wallowing in self pity. And self pity will encapsulate you in that slither of your being which is our self image. And this is exactly what we are trying to overcome in meditation. That’s what meditation’s about. So now we are dealing with the real issue. So that meditation is really an authentic experience that involves your whole being instead of wishful thinking.

The secret is love. I know it sounds like preaching, I know. There’s a word of Pir Murshid Inayat Khan to the representatives in the Sufi Order and that is, “We are tested in our love.” That is the way we are tested. Not in our mind. As I said yesterday we are our realization. Well, we are our degree of love.

Of course unconditional love, of course. If you say to a child, if you are naughty, I won’t love you, that’s not unconditional love. It’s a ploy. Say, I love you even though you are naughty.

So I don’t know whether this is going too far when I say that the secret of being luminous is being in love. And when I say that I’m not talking about being in love with a person, I’m talking about being in love with love.