Bodhidharma
Why do I think you might not be interested in more experiences like Krishnamurti’s? (1)
Krishnamurti’s was one type of entry-level spiritual experience found in all spiritual traditions. Why not hear other words about it since we’re headed that way ourselves (in the Ring of Fire). (2)
Since writing the last column, I realized why I only look at visions of the Light as fourth-chakra experiences in From Darkness Unto Light database.
The heart opening happened in 2015. I created the FDL datatbase in the 1990s. I didn’t know about heart openings back then. The only fourth-chakra event I was aware of was the sight of the Self, the sight of our Light as if it were outside ourselves.
Notice one tendency in approaching this subject: To talk about its impact on us rather than the thing itself, as the Master Hilarion says here:
“It cannot be described by any metaphor. But it can be felt after, looked for, and desired.” (3)
The thing itself is beyond the reach of our third-dimensional language. All we’re left with is describing how we felt during the experience and what its impact on us has been. Us, us, us, but nothing on the cause of that experience.
Bodhidharma: If, as in a dream, you see a light brighter than the sun, your remaining attachments will suddenly come to an end, and the nature of reality will be revealed. Such an occurrence serves as the basis for enlightenment. (4)
Ralph Waldo Emerson: No man ever forgot the visitations of that power to his heart and brain, which created all things new; which was the dawn in him of music, poetry, and art. (5)
Meister Eckhart: When God touches the soul with truth, its light floods the soul’s agents and that man knows more than anyone could ever teach him. (6)
John Ruusbroec: In the abyss of this darkness in which the loving spirit has died to itself, God’s revelation and eternal life have their origin, for in this darkness an incomprehensible light is born and shines forth; this is the Son of God [Steve: the Self, Atman, Christ, pearl of great price], in whom a person becomes able to see and to contemplate eternal life. (7)
Probably Master Hilarion: To have seen the soul in its bloom is to have obtained a momentary glimpse in thyself of the transfiguration [Ascension] which shall eventually make thee more than [Third-Dimensional] man. (8)
Probably Master Hilarion: Look for the flower to bloom in the silence that follows the storm [clearing our core issues], not till then. … Then will come a calm such as comes in a tropical country after the heavy rain, when nature works so swiftly that one may see her action. Such a calm will come to the harassed spirit. And in the deep silence the mysterious event will occur which will prove that the way has been found [hence the Buddhist term “stream entering”).
Call it by what name you will, it is a voice that speaks where there is none to speak — it is a messenger without form or substance or it is the flower of the soul that has opened. It cannot be described by any metaphor. But it can be felt after, looked for, and desired, even amid the raging of the storm. The silence may last a thousand years. But it will end. Yet you may carry its strength with you. Again and again the battle must be fought and won [Steve: until Ascension]. (9) [My emphasis.]
Paramahansa Ramakrishna: The fourth center of consciousness (anahata) is in the region of the heart. Spiritual awakening comes when the mind rises to this center. At this stage man has a spiritual vision of the Divine Light and is struck with wonder at its beauty and glory. His mind then no longer runs after worldly pleasures. (10)
Paramahansa Ramakrishna: Now and then man catches a glimpse of his real Self and becomes speechless with wonder. At such times he swims in an ocean of joy. It is like suddenly meeting a dear relative. (11)
That’s a good selection from the database. As I said earlier, notice that all that can be said is the experience’s impact on us.
I’ve always held that the Bible is a treasury of enlightenment motifs and metaphors.
Tomorrow I’d like to give selections from the Bible which are really referring to this fourth-chakra experience of the Self, which we may have when the Ring of Fire or Solar Flare hits us. That probably will happen when we as a planet are at our lowest point (that’s how it’s been with me). (12)
Footnotes
(1) See “God-Intoxicated? On the First Enlightenment?”, July 17, 2025, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/?p=368213
(2) See Ring of Fire, Wave of Love at https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Ring-of-Fire-Wave-of-Love-Compilation-9.pdf
(3) Ascended Master, probably Hilarion, channelling through Mabel Collins, Light on the Path and an Essay on Karma. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974, 22.
(4) Bodhidharma in Red Pine, trans., The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma. Port Townsend, WA, Empty Bowl, 1987. 16. What Bodhidharma here calls “enlightenment,” we might call Ascension or Buddhahood. This first enlightenment he would call “stream-entering” and Buddhahood, “the other side.”
“Remaining attachments” also suggests he’s describing Ascension rather than a fourth-chakra event, which our attachments would survive.
(5) That’s for sure!
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Essays. First Series. London: Routledge and Sons, 1898; c1841, 166.
(6) Absolutely!
Meister Eckhart in R.B. Blakney, trans., Meister Eckhart. A Modern Translation. New York, etc.: Harper & Row, 1941, 105.
(7) John Ruusbroec in James A. Wiseman, John Ruusbroec. The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works. New York, etc.: Paulist Press, 1985, 147.
(8) Hilarion, Light on the Path, ibid., 22.
(9) Ibid., 16-7.
(10) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Brahmacharini Usha, A Ramakrishna-Vedanta Wordbook. Hollywood: Vedanta Press, 1971; c1962, 25.
(11) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Swami Nikhilananda, trans., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 392-3.
(12) On the one hand, the heart opening came after depressing personal matters. On the other hand, the sight of the Self saved me from a deep funk, coming as it did a day after I’d watched parts of Frazzeldrip.