Carolin and I are hiking. Stunning weather. I'm not very much outdoors so the effect of beautiful nature is that much stronger for me. On the way back, there's a path with a small forest right beside it. The trunk of the trees are bare from the root and 3 meters up, where the foliage starts. This creates a natural roof and one can walk freely among the well-spaced trees under the foliage-roof. Under here it's dimly and comfortably lit - very little light is coming through the leaves from the top, but the bright weather illuminates the forest ground. A small distance into the forest there's a small trickling stream. Oh my god what a beautiful stream. It's so stereotypical fairytale-like that my head spins thinking about it. It's wide such that one can jump over it. On the other side of the stream there are some more trees, then a clearing. The clearing has knee-high grass and because of the surrounding trees there are many and very distinct god rays. I'm gripped by something, a recognition. Things start brilliantly glowing, glistening, glittering, glimmering, glinting, gleaming, scintillating, sparkling. I stop dead and gape at the sight. I'm standing on the path looking in, completely spellbound by what I just described. I'm speechless, yet filled with an explosive urge to express.
On the far bank of the stream, right before the hip-high grass in the clearing, there's a patch of ground where a ray of light is hitting the ground, illuminating it. That patch of illuminated ground,
that's what's doing it for me at this time. Something inexpressible about the contrasting, illuminated ground.
There's exceptional joy - immense and total, yet subtle and completely calm, still. There's nothing specifically causing the joy, hence I describe it as "inherent", or even "unconditional".
It's a very specific, exceptional and recognizable experience and it has happened only a handful of times. It's difficult to describe, but is always accompanied by the same kind of verbal thought:
- That is so there
- If I wasn't here, that would still be there
- Without me, that would just keep being like that
- With no one around observing, that would just keep doing that, by itself
I believe this is called luminosity, which I am aware is supposedly merely one side of the proverbial coin; the other side being emptiness.
In AF parlance, this thought is about how that thing is actually there, that it is actual, self-supported and independent, actually existing - in contrast with emptiness and dependent origination.
Walking closer to the illuminated ground, my eyes are drawn to the glistening of the water in the stream. The trickling sound is so sweet. The bed of the stream is partially lit by fascinating, fractal-like, playfully dancing water reflections. A ray of sunlight penetrates the canopy and illuminates the softest looking light brown pebble at the bed of the stream. The pebble has a vein-like pattern and is colored with an infinite number of shades of brown. It glows. I get the impression that I could watch the pebble until I wither and die. Time ends for just a moment.
