Essay Edition
The Nature and Experience of Light
The light is the most precious thing because it renews our spirit. It washes us of past impressions. It heals us in ways that are nearly impossible to remember. It usually surprises us, and there is a familiarity: oh, wow, that is how I used to feel as a child, or when I was deep in sadhana at some point in my life, or when I worked with that teacher, or when I was in love.
You start to feel: wow, this is a beautiful state of mind. Perhaps I did not even realize I was missing it. With light, we reveal ever greater potentialities of consciousness, and it can happen on a daily basis. I wish for all of you that we grow into the light experience. What could be more valuable than a community centered on light?
The light washes us of the dissonance that one can have with another. It turns us into love. It naturally causes harmony between people because people are so full of their own sufficiency, full of their inner wealth, their inner enrichment, that they do not fight over silly things. They do not fight over egoic ideations, things they do not need. They live in abundance, inner abundance and wealth, where you are just so benevolent, but not because of some idea or some obligation. You are just full of your own richness. That is what light does.
This is why I call it an uncaused happiness. It is a happiness that does not come from getting a pony, a car, or whatever it is that you want. You just are happy because you made contact with light.
Light is a rare thing. It is not simply imagining light. I hesitate to use the word light sometimes, but I am just going with it. You can imagine the light. You can bring pink light into your space. It has a nice effect because you are imagining something, and what you focus on shifts your state of mind.
But we are talking about a phenomenal physics. It is physical. It is not physical in the sense that matter is physical, or even that energy is physical, Einsteinian energy. It is physical in the way that the fabric of mind is made up of a phenomenal substance. We could talk about this for millennia, just like yoga has, because this is a subtle part of the cosmology of self.
You can imagine the light. You can focus on the brightest points in the room until this thing emerges. We are trying to get it to emerge. When it emerges, it is kind of like breaking a dam. You break into it, and it is there. Then you start focusing on it, and it grows.
If you see the light, focus into it. Feel into it with your mind, with your spirit. Let your heart open to it. Let it wash over you. Let yourself merge a step into it.
There is a skill in dancing with the light. We learn to allow its brilliance to wash over us. We find where we hold back. We learn to use it to transmute us.
Guided Meditation
The first thing we do is really relax and open our field.
Eyes open. Look at everything at once. Allow yourself to calibrate. It takes a few minutes. Using your peripheral vision, allow your field to open. Sometimes it happens slowly. Sometimes it happens easily.
Notice the colors of the light, the movements, the textures. Feel into it. Allow it to dissolve you. Feel its power.
This is the ambient power of the universe, like riding a tsunami. You are not the wave, but you are the wave. Let the wave's energy run through you. Let it happen. Get out of the way. Accept.
If you see a light that looks black and clear, that is actually a very, very deep state. Go into that too.
Allow yourself to be washed away by the currents of enlightenment, the essential substance of mind.
No matter what you are experiencing right now, accept it. If there is no light, that is okay. Be present. Be patient.
Take a deep breath. Acknowledge the meditation with gratitude.
Reflections on the Light
If you did not experience the light today, do not worry about it. You can keep practicing. Sometimes it requires some clearing, perhaps a lifetime of clearing. Once that clearing happens, it can start.
With any sort of luminosity, any sort of visual perturbation or mistiness, you can see the light, but you can feel it a little bit too. Sometimes it is your eyes, but when you are really connecting with the light, you recognize it is not just your eyes. If you stare at something and blink, certain things happen. But this is a psychedelic experience. You make contact with an energy.
The light empowers us to live our lives and to be loved.
What else do you call it? Shakti is the name that I used for a long time to name the light because it is the essential energy in the universe. Another word for it is Jyoti, which actually means illumination or brilliance, inner brilliance. It is the actual Sanskrit word specifically pointing to the light. Shakti, as an energetic deity pointing to the energetics of something, is really my word for it. Jyoti is another word for it that you can use.
Jesus had a few words for it: the Holy Ghost, the rapture. What we just did was rapture. That is the rapture, the actual, real rapture.
Every religion has it. It is an esoteric practice, meaning you cannot just read it in a book. The book can talk about light, light, light, light, but you have to have a direct encounter with it. You have to do something to have that experience. The words point to something.
How many people have ever experienced the light? They say that when you die, you see the light. I actually think it is the same light. Usually, you just experience it between incarnations. We want to keep experiencing it. We do not want to become so dense that we are so impure. Rapture is one of my favorite words for it.
It is the substrate. Think of it as an ocean with waves. The formations of self are waves, but we are the substance of the water, the ocean. No waves. We are the light. That light is the water.
Full Transcript
Opening and Preparation
Adam Wes Well, since all of you are on time, I don't want to waste a moment. I'm sure more people will join shortly. Oh, there's one!
That was a really special meditation we had yesterday. I loved that. Good job, everybody. That's amazing.
Debbie P Yeah, you're welcome.
Adam Wes Let's wait a few minutes for people to join. It's a good moment to bring your attention to your space. A little premeditation clearing.
Would you like to contact your bunnies? Those are your buddies.
David, you have a bunny who's not here. So do you, Debbie. So do you, Praveen. So do you, Kira. Nice.
Thanks, David. I like your energy right now, David Spurry. Equipoise. Beautiful. Powerful.
Harrison, find a tree.
Harrison M I'm on my way. I'm literally in the park looking for a tree as we speak.
Adam Wes This is not a walking presentation.
Harrison M I'm on my way. I'm about 30 seconds away from a tree.
Adam Wes Sorry. Namaste, everybody.
Who are we missing? Molly. Molly and her mom. Maybe wait one more minute, and I'll start.
Welcome, everybody. Namaste.
The Nature and Experience of Light
This week, we're focusing on the light. The light is the most precious thing because it renews our spirit. It washes us of past impressions. It heals us in ways that are nearly impossible to remember. It usually surprises us, and there's a familiarity. We're like, "Oh, wow, that's how I used to feel as a child, or when I was deep in sadhana at some point in my life, or when I worked with that teacher, when I was in love," or whatever it might be.
You start to feel, "Wow, this is a beautiful state of mind. Perhaps I didn't even realize I was missing it." With light, we reveal ever greater potentialities of consciousness, and it can happen on a daily basis. I just experienced that today, personally.
I wish for all of you that we grow into the light experience this week. What could be more valuable than a community centered on light?
The light washes us of the dissonance that one can have with another. It turns us into love. It naturally causes harmony between people because people are so full of their own sufficiency, full of their inner wealth, their inner enrichment, that they don't fight over silly things. They don't fight over egoic ideations, things they don't need, or Greenland. Slight political jab, right?
They live in abundance, inner abundance and wealth, where you're just so benevolent, but not because of some idea or some obligation. You're just full of your own richness. That's what light does.
This is why I call it an uncaused happiness. It's a happiness that doesn't come from getting a pony, a car, or whatever it is that you want. You just are happy because you made contact with light.
Light is a rare thing. It's not simply imagining light. I hesitate to use the word light sometimes, but I'm just going with it. I've chosen that from a long time ago because you can say, "Oh, imagine the light. Yeah, okay, bring pink light into your space. Imagine it." It has a nice effect because you're imagining something, and what you focus on shifts your state of mind.
But we're talking about a phenomenal physics. It's physical. It's not physical in the sense that matter is physical, or even that energy is physical, Einsteinian energy. It's physical in the way that the fabric of mind is made up of a phenomenal substance.
We're going into that. We could talk about this for millennia, just like yoga has, because this is a subtle part of the cosmology of self.
You can imagine the light. You can focus on the brightest points in the room until this thing emerges. We're trying to get it to emerge. When it emerges, it's kind of like breaking a dam. You break into it, and it's there. Then you start focusing on it, and it grows.
If you see the light, focus into it. Feel into it with your mind, with your spirit. Let your heart open to it. Let it wash over you. Let yourself merge a step into it.
There's a skill in dancing with the light. We learn to allow its brilliance to wash over us. We find where we hold back. We learn to use it to transmute us, all these things.
I'm changing the music up a little bit because this is a little more exciting. This feels like jumping into a galaxy. Imagine you're on a ledge, and there's a galaxy, and you're jumping into a galaxy. It's cosmic, man. It's Hans Zimmer. I like Hans Zimmer because he feels like that.
In fact, is the song we're going to play Hans Zimmer? It's not Hans Zimmer. Oh, it's M83. M83 is actually a star or a galaxy, I'm not sure, but it's a band named after cosmic things.
Ariella, put on your seatbelt. David, maintain that austere position. That'll help you. He's actually got a seatbelt right there.
All right, let's do it. Then I have a little announcement afterward about a new community that I'm creating centered on light, and there's a link for you guys to take a look at.
Oh, man, I'm excited. Can you hear the music fine? David is my audio technician. Thanks, David.
Guided Meditation
The first thing we do is really relax and open our field.
You don't hear anything, Joe? I think that's just you. No one's left behind.
It's the beginning of the sun. Look at that.
Eyes open. Look at everything at once. Allow yourself to calibrate. It takes a few minutes.
Using your peripheral vision, we're allowing our field to open. Sometimes it happens slowly. Sometimes it happens easily.
Let's take it even further. Each time we iterate through the song, we build to the next level. We stand on the state that we achieved in the prior iteration.
Notice the colors of the light, the movements, the textures. Feel into it. Allow it to dissolve you.
Feel its power.
This is the ambient power of the universe, like riding a tsunami. You aren't the wave, but you are the wave. Let the wave's energy run through you. Let it happen. Get out of the way. Accept.
If you see a light that looks black and clear, that's actually a very, very deep state. Go into that too.
Fantastic. Seeing an opalescent sheen.
We'll do the song one more time. It'll be the meditation for today, so really give it your all.
Allow yourself to be washed away by the currents of enlightenment, the essential substance of mind.
No matter what you're experiencing right now, accept it. If there's no light, that's okay. Be present. Be patient.
Try to feel what I'm experiencing. I'm very much in the light right now. Listen. That may be a finger pointing to the moon.
Good. Take a deep breath. Acknowledge the meditation with gratitude.
Namaste, everybody. Wonderful.
Wow. That felt quite amazing. How was that for everybody?
Kira, this is what you call the afterglow right there. Kira laying back like that, afterglow.
Did anybody have an experience in the light that you'd like to share?
Yeah, let's hear it, Harrison.
Reflections on the Light
Harrison M Yeah, wow. I'm still kind of in it. It feels like everything's alive, almost. Everything's kind of buzzing, and I've not really experienced this kind of visual before.
I'm in a park, and there are people walking directly in front of me, perpendicular to me. There was this dog that I think was white, but it was blue. The dog was blue, walking past me, and then its owner was pink. I imagine there's obviously something happening, maybe in your eyes. I don't know.
Even now, it feels very different from yesterday. I was in a very different location, and I'm outside in nature.
Like you said yesterday, I'm outside and there's a little bit of a breeze, so I tried to keep my eyes open as much as possible. But the second you blink, it diminishes a little bit. Then you focus back in, and it increases. It's still enough that you're experiencing it, but I imagine the more you're able to keep your gaze steady in a humid room with no breeze, that would be the most optimal place to do it.
Without oversharing, that's what I will say.
Adam Wes Wonderful. Thank you. Nice work.
Anybody else? Did you guys experience the light? I hope you were experiencing it.
Aman, perhaps you want to keep it to yourself, but there you are.
Aman N I came across something on social media that Richard Feynman, the MIT professor, said: light does not move, and there's nothing beyond the light, or that's the upper limit.
What I've realized in my experience so far is that I'm experiencing that, which is the essential, fundamental part of who I am. Everything else is just sitting on top of it: my personality, my insecurities, my nervous system, my breath. Everything else is just laid on top of that. In this practice, I'm experiencing that fundamental. That's my contribution.
Adam Wes Exactly. It's the substrate. Think of it as an ocean with waves. The formations of self are waves, but we are the substance of the water, the ocean. No waves. We are the light. That light is the water.
If you didn't experience the light today, don't worry about it. You can keep practicing. Sometimes it requires some clearing, perhaps a lifetime of clearing. Once that clearing happens, it can start.
Any sort of luminosity, any sort of visual perturbation or mistiness, you can see the light, but you can feel it a little bit too. Notice, "Okay, can I feel that?"
Then, when you have a doubt, like Harrison did, "Well, is this just my eyes?" Sometimes it's your eyes, but when you're really connecting with the light, you recognize it's not just your eyes. If you stare at something and blink, certain things happen. But this is a psychedelic experience. You make contact with an energy.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions. I really want to support all of you. This is very special to me, spreading the light, sharing the light, helping you access it and use it for your own well-being in whatever way you see fit.
The light empowers us to live our lives and to be loved.
What else do you call it? If you look up Shakti, Shakti is the name that I used for a long time to name the light because it is the essential energy in the universe.
Another word for it is Jyoti, which actually means illumination or brilliance, inner brilliance. It's the actual Sanskrit word specifically pointing to the light. Although Shakti, as an energetic deity pointing to the energetics of something, is really my word for it. Jyoti is another word for it that you can use.
Jesus had a few words for it, actually: the Holy Ghost, the rapture. What we just did was rapture. That's the rapture, the actual, real rapture.
In Judaism, there's a word for it. I forget what it is. It's a Hebrew word.
Kira Shekinah.
Adam Wes Nice.
Every religion has it. It's an esoteric practice, meaning you can't just read it in a book. The book can talk about light, light, light, light, but you have to have a direct encounter with it. You have to do something to have that experience. The words point to something.
It's amazing because there are seven or eight billion people. How many people have ever experienced the light? They say that when you die, you see the light, right? I actually think it's the same light. Usually, you just experience it between incarnations.
We want to keep experiencing it. We don't want to become so dense that we're so impure. Rapture is actually one of my favorite words for it because it's an English word.
I love Sanskrit, but English is very accessible to the world. If Sanskrit were the main language of the world, that would be amazing. But English tends to be one of the most common languages, along with Spanish. Most of the planet speaks those languages.
The Love Light Sangha
I'd like to announce the Love Light Sangha.
This is 10 years in the making, literally 10 years in the making. I just put together the page. You're the first people, other than a couple of friends and family members I've shared it with, whom I'm telling about this program. It starts next week.
If you look at the first link I shared, go and take a look. I'd love your feedback. If you have any questions or comments on how I can improve it, let me know.
Andrea is so sweet. She sat with me for two hours and went through the website with me, helping me improve it. Thank you, Andrea. That's commitment and giving. Thank you. Very beautiful.
I made some really big changes because of that. Did you see them? It helps, right? Major, major changes. I spent another 12 hours on the website trying to do what Andrea said. Thanks a lot. No, just kidding. She had a very good pointer, and I did need to make those changes.
Take a look. A community is a co-creation. It exists because of people who are resonant with it.
It's called the Love Light Sangha, first because it's for people who love light, but also because it centers on love and it centers on light.
It's really deep. It's a very long page. I encourage you to at least skim to the bottom.
I also made a founder discount code. It starts next week, but if anybody can sign up today, it empowers me. It gets the momentum going, gives me a little less financial stress, and I might even be able to use it to promote it and things like that.
If you're interested in participating but don't know yet, that's fine. But if you're all about it, there's a 10 percent discount code. I'll write it here: Love Light Founder. You can enter that at checkout.
Also, if you're in India, there's special pricing to account for the disparity of the currencies in India, and that should actually be working. It uses IP address detection, so let me know if that's working. It should come up in rupees. If it doesn't come up in rupees, I didn't want to pay for a proxy server just to check that, so I figured somebody could tell me. Proxy servers allow us to check from anywhere in the world what a website looks like.
Hi, Harrison.
Harrison M Before I speak, have you finished sharing what you need to share about that? Because I was very interested in it.
Adam Wes Yeah, I think so. I could talk for an hour about it.
Ariella, did you intentionally try to share your screen? Oh, no, she's reading something. Okay.
So, Harrison, hi.
Harrison M Thank you, Adam. That sounds beautiful, and I feel like this is, again, super serendipitous. I wasn't going to share this, but now that you've shared that, I feel like sharing and adding to this.
Yesterday, after the meditation, I shed a tear at the end because I had such a visceral understanding of the light and love. I wrote a poem straight after my meditation in Insight Timer, and it's called "Love and Light."
Adam Wes Oh, yeah!
Harrison M I don't even know how that's possible, but it is. I'll read it to you. It's not even that good of a poem. I just wrote it in one go. It was more like a note for me to make an artwork or to extrapolate on it. I'll read it to you anyway. It's called "Love and Light."
Love and light. I look over to them, our hands grip tightly. The hill is steep.
We leap forward together into the abyss of light, tumbling into infinity.
Carried by love and light, we're all together. I see them. I feel them.
I now know they were there all along. They never left. I have joined them on the path of love and light.
Adam Wes That is magnificent. Love it. Oh, wow.
Harrison M Yeah, wow. That feels... I don't know how that's possible.
Adam Wes It's alignment. It's synchronicity. Can you send that to me?
Harrison M Of course.
Adam Wes I might even want to post that. Premonition. Please. I would love to. Beautiful. That's very much it, yes.
Harrison M Please. Anyway, I just wanted to share that. That's all. Thank you.
Adam Wes Thank you.
This is 10 years in the making for me. It just had to be the right time. It's evolved and developed over all that time. There were a few times when I started the community in a small way, but now this is happening. I'm very excited about it, and hopefully some of you will attend. Just read about what it is.
Love and light. Nice.
All right, everybody. Thank you for being here. Namaste.
Community Format and Participation
We usually meet on Tuesdays, and it starts at six. We've been doing the Tuesday meetings for years now, and they didn't really have the full Love Light Sangha context. I was actually trying to decide whether we should do it. I think maybe this is a little bit of the meeting right now, and we'll just end early.
Any feedback? Andrea, you saw the changes I made. Do you want to speak on that? Everybody else dropped off who had to go. Feel free to go if you need to.
Andrea P It looks great. I think it's exactly what we talked about, and I really like what you did in the first part. The scheme has everything in one view, the architecture. That's pretty amazing. That way, you can see what it's about.
Adam Wes Yes.
Andrea P It's not so long.
Adam Wes I worked really hard to get it clean, sleek, and beautiful, with a snapshot right there. I'm like, "Wow, I just like to look at the webpage now. Let's just keep looking. Oh, that's nice!"
In HTML and web development, there's something called CSS. CSS is the styling, and the styling is just precise. Lots of iterations.
I like web development.
All right, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Please sign up if you're ready or interested. You can always wait if you like, but it does help, so that's why I'm giving the extra 10 percent.
Harrison M Sorry, one last thing, Adam. Where is this link? Is this in our emails?
Adam Wes It's in the chat right now, but I'll send it to everybody over email right after this.
Harrison M Okay, cool. Thank you.
Rachna S This starts on the 21st, right? Or the 20th?
Adam Wes It's the 21st for India, and it's the 20th for Canada. You're in Canada, right?
Rachna S Yes.
Adam Wes Yeah, so it's the 20th. What time is it where you are right now?
Rachna S It's 9:15.
Adam Wes It'll be from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. on Tuesdays for you. Well, 9:00 to 10:15, actually. Hopefully that's not too late for you.
Rachna S No. Okay. And it's every Tuesday?
Adam Wes It's every Tuesday. It also includes guided meditations. I give a sermon. It's the full expression.
We're doing the 15 minutes a day, which is an initiation. It's an installation of the habit. In this, we meditate for 30 or 40 minutes. We talk about karma, dharma, or so many other things.
Rachna S Okay.
Adam Wes Then we have the Circle space, where you'll have access to all the guided meditations. You guys already have access to this. There's also the chat.
Then, of course, there's the in-person part, which is extra. That's a separate thing. If you ever wanted to fly out for a sabbatical retreat, we'll eventually do that sort of thing.
Imagine the autumn solstice. We'll rent out a house and spend four days with no phone, eating vegetarian, and that sort of thing. Harrison, you could fly out and come to Malibu.
Harrison M I would love to.
Adam Wes I feel like that would be super cool. This is the beginning of it, starting with Tuesday and then building out with those things.
You guys are just so great. It would be so special to continue with you in that way, if it feels aligned. There's also no pressure. For some people, it won't be aligned. For some people, it will be. Some people will be aligned later on. But it helps to do it now if you're ready.
Good to see you. Thank you, everybody.
Rachna S Thank you. Bye.
Adam Wes Bye, Harrison.
Harrison M See you, Adam. Thank you.
Adam Wes Namaste. Thank you. Love the poem. Love the poem.
Harrison M Thank you. We'll see you tomorrow.
Adam Wes See you tomorrow. Bye.
Harrison M Bye-bye.