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Surely, even as the eyes, when one has just walked out of darkness, has to adjust slowly to the light, so we are ever adjusting to the Light. And to rush into the Light, without respecting its Power, this is a mistake some make. The Light that clarifies can blind, so to speak. One is unwise in matters of Spirit to seek to go where Spirit has not prepared him or her to go. This, again, is why using any artificial means to attain so-called transcendent states I strongly urge against. If one could go to a heaven on such a trip, that is not the way to live in heaven, for sure. And a trip is only a trip. Wiser would be the one who pilgrimages to heaven, rather than trips to heaven. Yet, human pride can led one to a disrespect of the Light by trying to manage a conquest of the Light. This will not work, and the consequences can be immense. The Light prepares us for more of the Light. Our role is humble submission to the Light, to be the conquest of the Light. In this, we learn the fear of the wise.
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As to this coming close to the Light, when one feels this awe, what are we to do? The happening that evokes awe leads us to the Fount of awe; phenomena that elicit wonder are not the first cause of it, only means. This process is like feeling gratitude when we receive a gift, the gift being the means for the elicitation of appreciation. Thanksgiving is before and free of a gift. So, we are not to become attached to any happening or object that has evoked awe within us. The attachment blocks communion with the means, and this prevents the arising of wonder.
We release the identification of the object with the reverence. The object - happening, person, site, ritual - cannot sustain the wonder, only elicit it. Releasing the identification, we rest in the awe, feeling it, letting it go when it goes, for we cannot sustain the awe either.
In the release, we learn, as we do in meditation, awe is an experience. Experiences are born and die; they are impermanent, the ever-morphing flow of Life. Experience is tied to the body-mind, while non-experience is not. The release of the object leads us to the Source of awe, What does not come and go, being in time and outside time, within space and space being within It. The experience of God leads us to God - this is one and two.
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