Scientifically, light doesn’t need matter to exist, though it often interacts with it. 

It’s the same with divine light. It exists and does not need anything to exist. But sometimes it interacts with us, our souls. 

Illumination literally means light, and here we are referring to illumination as the divine light or consciousness. It has many names, forms, theories. But it is one. It is absolute and everything exists in it and nothing is outside of it. 

These are big words and statements. But what is Illumination on our level? How can we experience it?

Illumination on our level is the experience of consciousness, which can be of different degrees. According to Gurdjieff’s Ray of Creation, Worlds 6 and 12 are the higher energies we can experience humans.

And in order to experience that, we need to work on ourselves. Imagination, negative emotions, suffering, judgement ‘I’s, etc., are areas to work on. By transforming suffering and negative emotions, we can create something that can interact with the light. We become part of the light when we are present. It takes time to be in that state permanently, but we can experience moments of higher states. That is illumination for us. 

Light exists without matter. But in order for light to enter something, there needs to be a crack or opening. 

“The wound is where the light gets in.”

⁃ Rumi

Suffering is the wound, and its transformation is the opening. To get something, we need to pay for it. Transformation of suffering is the payment. It is the nature of evolution.

It is difficult but not impossible. Every crack is painful but it is through these tiny cracks that one day the pot breaks open and then there is nothing else. It is just light. No pot. No cracks. And no suffering. Only the divine light, illumination. But in order to attain that, we need to work through every crack, every little suffering and friction and negative emotion. 

The light is always there. It has always been there and will always be there. We only need to remove the unnecessary in order to see it and become it. 

One by one, you let go of everything but uncreated light. 

⁃ Robert Burton

Though illumination is immense, it is through this life, this body, and these small and big situations that we can attain it. It is our responsibility to use everything for this aim to awaken. And it is our luck that we are allowed to do so.

Dhruvi Chavda practices the Fourth Way in India. For other articles of hers, see: https://fourthwaytoday.org/author/dhruvi-chavda/, including her recent article on transformation of suffering.

See also: https://hindu.mythologyworldwide.com/the-upanishads-the-journey-beyond-suffering/  for how the Hindu myths describe the uses of suffering.