"My task, which I am trying to achieve, is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel -- it is, before all, to make you see. That -- and no more, and it is everything." -- Joseph Conrad |
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Home > Blog > The Sun
The Sun
Posted: June 16th, 2010 @ 10:28pm
Last week I had a fascinating conversation with a client who informed me about a relatively recent news story. About a month ago there was a decent amount of press about Indian holy man Prahlad Jani who claims to have lived for decades without food or water. At the time, he was being monitored by a team of doctors as well as by India's Defense Research Organization which was determined to unlock his survival secret.
Regarded as a "breatharian," Jani reportedly subsisted on "spiritual life-force" alone. Now, I am not here to defend or refute his story. To me, simple curiosity has always trumped the need to prove or disprove. I bring this up more as a point of intrigue, and because there were some interesting speculations about the "alternative" sources of nourishing energy. One such source was the Sun -- which led my client and me into a discussion of "sungazing," a practice with ancient roots.
Now, granted, this man's story is an extreme example (I am certainly not advocating a diet of solely solar rays!). But the fact remains that the Sun does hold incredible power -- perhaps more than we account for in our contemporary, mechanized world. While we may not seek to subsist on its energy alone, we can certainly honor its potency in other ways, especially during this sacred season.
June marks the arrival of the Summer Solstice, a time when the Sun is at its zenith. An emblem of brilliance, the Sun represents authority, hope, and cosmic power. Traditionally, summer was the time of year to honor light winning out over darkness and to celebrate abundance. In the Mayan culture the Sun was a symbol of ascension, clarity, and awareness; it was thought to facilitate enLIGHTenment, and the Solstice was a time of great productivity, both internally and externally.
Of course, in our contemporary world, we tend to focus, almost exclusively, on the external. But what we cultivate in our internal world manifests in our external world. Many spiritual teachers today are encouraging us to consider the idea that we create our experiences in the physical world not so much through action but through thought (in other words, a lot of what we "do" is to compensate for an inner misalignment and/or a vibration that is "off").
The implications of such thinking are huge. Consider what your life would look like if you were to focus as diligently on "inner productivity" as you do on outer "success"! (For one, you would probably find yourself much less drained...and you might even find yourself attracting more of what you want.) The point, more largely, is that enLIGHTenment is an "inside job."
During this season of splendor, I invite you to consider both the literal power and the figurative significance of the Sun. Think about its ability to nourish you in myriad ways; allow it to not only energize, but to ignite the inner fire of Consciousness so that your divinity might blossom fully from within. Then, go and radiate that Light outward!
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