Why “Light Seeking Light”

“Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile…” is a phrase from William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost, but it’s not where the name of this site came from. In fact, the name was inspired by this quote from the 13th century Sufi mystic Najm al-Din Kubra, also known as Najm Kobra:

“There are lights which ascend and lights which descend. The ascending lights are the lights of the heart; the descending lights are those of the Throne. Creatural being is the veil between the Throne and the heart. When the veil is rent and a door opens in the heart, like springs towards like. Light rises toward light and light comes down upon light, ‘and it is light upon light.’

Each time the heart sighs for the Throne, the Throne sighs for the heart, so they come to meet…. Each time a light rises up from you, a light comes down towards you, and each time a flame rises from you a corresponding flame comes down towards you…. If their energies are equal, they meet half-way…. But when the substance of light has grown in you, then this becomes a Whole in relation to what is of the same nature in Heaven: then it is the substance of light in Heaven which yearns for you and is attracted to your light, and it descends towards you. This is the secret of the mystical journey….”

When I read the second paragraph, the phrase “light seeking light” immediately came to mind, and it was only later that I remembered the phrase was Shakespeare’s.

Here’s my very slight re-wording of Najm Kobra’s text. It contains in essence almost everything I’ve written about:

“There are lights which ascend and lights which descend. The ascending lights are the lights of the heart; the descending lights are those of the Divine. Body-mind is the veil between the Divine and the heart. When the veil is rent and a door opens in the heart, like springs towards like. Light rises toward light and light comes down upon light, ‘and it is light upon light.’

Each time the heart sighs for the Divine, the Divine sighs for the heart, so they come to meet…. Each time a light rises up from you, a light comes down towards you, and each time a flame rises from you a corresponding flame comes down towards you…. If their energies are equal, they meet half-way…. But when the substance of light has grown in you, then this becomes a Whole in relation to what is of the same nature in Heaven: then it is the substance of light in Heaven which yearns for you and is attracted to your light, and it descends towards you. This is the secret of the mystical journey….”