What is the Meaning Behind Let Each Shine By Their Own Light

All is One. This is not merely a metaphysical axiom; it is indeed the underlying Truth of Reality. Despite the appearance of life being divided (as in you have a separate identity from me, or this exists independent from that), nothing and no one in the universe truly exists apart from anything else. Unity is the foundation of Reality. All is One.

Everything in the universe is an expression of one underlying thing - Life. And as Life is a thing of infiniteness, Life may and does express Itself in infinite ways. But even while Life’s expressions are many, there is only One Life. You, me, him, her, that and this are all different expressions of the same identity. We are all expressions of One Life / One Spirit / One Being. The diversity you perceive about you is not evidence of life’s miscellaneousness, but is in fact a testament to the One Life’s boundlessness. Life is magnificent! You are the unique embodiment of one form and practice of a Life expression; just as I am another unique embodiment of one form and practice of a Life expression. This screen you are now reading these words on is yet another unique embodiment of one form and practice of a Life expression; and that tree outside your window (and yes even the window and everything in between too, including the “empty space”) are also unique embodiments of one or another form and practice of a Life expression. Life is everywhere and Life’s expressions are limitless. And while you may embody a different expression of Life than the expression of Life I embody, the essence of both of us is exactly the same. The entire universe emanates from a single source. All of what we perceive in life is immanent in One Being.

I, as a unique expression of The One, state the above view of Reality as fact because I know and understand this idea to be an absolute Truth. But you, being another unique expression of The One, are free to reach your own conclusions. Each (expression of Life) is free to choose its own understanding; this is the basis of freewill. Since we all share the same identity, and this identity is boundless, there can be nothing else in existence but this One thing (which some call Spirit, some call God, some call the Absolute… and here I have mainly termed Life). By whatever name It is called, this underlying principle, which is the essence of All that exists, enjoys absolute freedom because there is nothing else in existence but It. Therefore, there is nothing else in existence which may counter It. And we, being different expressions of this thing which enjoys absolute freedom (the children of It, so to speak), by extension enjoy something which we call freewill. And it is by your respecting the freewill of All of Life’s expressions that you honor the infiniteness of Life, that you honor the infiniteness of your true and fundamental nature.

The honoring of freewill is the basic inspiration behind the title of this blog. Let each shine by their own light. It’s a paraphrase of a quote which I like coined by an early twentieth century mystic who went by the pseudonym Yogi Ramacharaka, “Permit each man to think according to his own light.” Each expression of Life will ultimately arrive at a clear and absolute understanding of Its Real nature, but in our honoring of the boundlessness of this Real nature, it is not up to you or I to dictate the course another expression of Life is to follow in reaching its Self realization. To do so would be to impinge upon another’s freewill. And in this violation, the thing honored is not the limitlessness of Reality, but rather the limitations of illusion. No one and nothing has the power to impose limits on that which has no bounds. And there are definite consequences which will play out in the experience of those who try to subvert this law. This is not a consequence in terms of a punishment, but rather a consequence which is merely an effect that follows a cause. In other words, it’s not personal, it’s simply spiritual law. Each must shine by his own light. And each must follow his own path to realize the presence of this light within him. Because this is the only way the grandness of Life (in all of infiniteness) may truly be reflected.