This is one of the two lines I posted yesterday, from the reading, and I am still busy with them. I will say a little more, and in doing so, perhaps bring in some of what you have been writing in the last week.
The word ‘point’ is one that Rinpoche uses very often in TSK, and I think this is in part because it is a very rich word, used in many different ways. In this phrase it suggests at least two senses. The first is (roughly) that illumination is what gives being its purpose or significance. The other is that illumination is where being ‘comes to a head, like the tip of the sword being the point of the sword. Both suggest that if we explore light, we are getting very close to something fundamental about being (our being? the being of the world?)
Light is something like the medium for appearance. By focusing on light, we lose our usual orientation on the ‘what’ of what appears (“the flow of events,” in a passage Peter quotes). And we also strengthen the link between ourselves and what appears to us.
Peter, your post suggests to me that you are exploring exactly these concerns. For instance, what is the quality of illumination of a bad mood, and how is it connected to the intense light of the forest. Is the ‘bad’ of a bad mood intense? If so, when you discover within the mood a ‘warm moving’, does the experience become more intense? Less intense? More illuminated? Does the body live in a more ‘intensely’ illuminated realm? The exercise for this week gives an opportunity to explore this. Is it connected to David’s sense of ‘pooling’?
Intimacy and illumination seem to go together, as Arthur’s post suggests. There is a book about the artist Robert Irwin that has the title, “Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees.” But when one forgets the name, does light shine more brightly? And if you forget the name of what you see, do you also forget that it is the eyes that are doing the seeing? This seems to be what David suggests.
Gaynor has asked a very powerful question: can we find light within dark? DTS Ex. 21-22 (coming up in later weeks) explore this. So often we depend for good experiences on everything about our situation being right: for instance, the beauty of nature. And that is fine. But light is available everywhere and always, no?
It seems that in our explorations we are touching some deep insights/experiences. I encourage you to comment on each other’s posts, if you feel inspired to do so.
As for exercises, move on to TSK Ex. 34 if you like, but you can also stay with the previous exercises. They are rich, just as light is.
Jack