Look
what happens to the scale
when love holds it.
It stops
working.
Kabir
translated by Daniel Ladinsky
Joyful brilliance! That was the feeling I had as I paused outside in the mid-summer light. Everywhere there was light, only light. It was as though the veil of existence had been pulled back, revealing the glimmering essence that is normally hidden to my human eye. Where there would have been a mountain, a tree, a person, or any other being, there were particles of light.
There were no boundaries to this ocean of luminosity. That included the disappearance of the horizon that normally serves as a demarcation of the surface of our earthly planet. Like a drop in the midst of this ocean, even the sense of I-ness had disappeared; i.e., the “I” that normally defines me as a separate personality, body, mind, etc., had melted into this glowing aliveness.
Of course, like the balance point of a scale, this was a fleeting moment. Still, I am grateful to the mid-summer sunlight for this momentary absorption in infinite brilliance. I have a lasting inner sense of immense and joyful peacefulness where dualities have lost their weight. Within that, neither/nor, right/wrong, and every other set of opposites has settled into balance. Instead, as the poet Kabir says, they are held in boundless love, freed from the need to compete or dominate.
The mid-summer light offered a potent reminder that this earthly embodiment is steadily held in the grace of equilibrium, or near equilibrium. After all, the normal state of our planetary home is just wholeness without partiality toward anyone or anything. The hemispheres seamlessly express the eternal marriage of darkness and lightness. Nighttime- and daytime come to approximate evenness at the time of spring and fall equinoxes. And, as our planet spins around the solar orb, all life is unceasingly tethered between the two fiery cores of earth and sun.
It feels admirable to live with an abiding awareness of all life as simply light making an appearance in endless ways – e.g., in shapes, forms, colors, sounds, smells, and textures, whether visible or invisible. Yet, this mid-summer light has sparked the inspiration of that possibility. I will listen a little more carefully, not only to the poetic voices of those wise humans who humbly faded into pure radiance, but also to the silent voice of stillness. I hope you will join me.
Practice
This practice supports awareness of inner radiance.
Prepare—
- Remove all digital devices from the space where you are, including watches. If you are using a digital device for reading this practice, please turn it to airplane mode. Overall, set the intention of inner listening during this practice (i.e., free of outer devices and inputs).
- Come to a comfortable seated position, ideally near a table. Then, if you are near a table, rest your elbows on the table’s surface.
- Place your palms over your face and invite your hands to hold the weight of your head. Imagine you are taking a mini break from thinking, planning and doing. Linger here for a few moments, perhaps until you notice a little more calmness in your breath.
Practice—
- Cross your forearms on the table, and rest your forehead on your forearms. Return to the sense of taking a mini pause from outward doing. (If you are not near a table, you might try taking your crossed forearms up to your forehead, and letting your brow gently press against the backs of one of your hands.). Linger here for as long as is comfortable – not only physically comfortable, but also for your mind and its patience.
- With your senses somewhat calmed, slowly sit upright. Invite your eyes to settle into a soft gaze or remain softly closed. Invite your hands to rest in any way that is comfortable for your shoulders and upper chest. (That might be on the table, a cushion on your lap, on your knees – take a moment to notice where there is the least tension for your shoulders in this moment).
- Slowly shift your awareness to deep within your heart center. Imagine you are sitting here in the very core of your being, i.e., there is a mini-you sitting inside of the physical you.
- Imagine this mini-you is pure radiance, radiating light everywhere. For example, rays reaching into infinity evenly in all directions – e.g., up, down, back, front, diagonally, to the sides. Perhaps add the feeling that these rays are infused with the joyful lovingness that holds all existence.
- Breathe –
- Exhalations: Anchor this sense of the radiant inner you by imagining that as you exhale, the exhalation brings more brightness and stability to your core. Perhaps pause a bit at the end of the exhale in that luminosity.
- Inhalations: If you wish, on your inhalations, imagine the light is glowing from deep within, outward. And that light not only carries joyful lovingness, but melts the binding cloaks of greed, anger, fear and delusion.
- Try this for at least three breaths. Add more if you feel comfortable physically and mentally. If your breath becomes strained or raspy, return to a normal breath.
- Allow yourself to slowly transition to a more expansive awareness, i.e. take your time transitioning from the intentional awareness of the flow of the inhales and exhales.
- Pause and allow yourself to be held within endless radiance.
Transition Back into Your Day—
- Continue to sit quietly for a few moments.
- When you are ready, return to your day.
This verse appears in Mala of the Heart: 108 Sacred Poems, edited by Ravi Nathwani and Kate Vogt, page 34, published by New World Library. Photo is by Kelly Galland. H E A R T H is posted each full and new moon. KateVogt©2026.
