Krishna Loka, Brahma Loka, the world of Krishna, the world of Brahma. These are locations. The Sanskrit "loka" is the root of the English "local." In the end all spirituality, like all politics, is local.
When we first begin to transcend and experience divine emptiness, boundless awareness free from thought, that purity of consciousness may seem to be cosmic, diffuse, universal. But as the experience deepens, consciousness solidifies into a jewel.
We also know from quantum physics that the vacuum contains "virtual electrons" of energy and "virtual photons" of light. These waves or "fluctuations of the vacuum" each express the infinite field. Yet in a paradox which lies at the heart of matter, these non-localized waves also behave as local particles, "lokas" in the grid of the void.
Spirituality is the paradoxical union of the particular and the boundless. We enter cosmic consciousness through a breath, a body, an atom of focus. We become universal as we fully individualize. The formless sea in a ripple. The infinite dancing in a fractal of the finite. "To see a world in a grain of sand," as Blake wrote. The Upanishads declare, "Ano ranyan mahato mahiyan: one atom of the smallest is greater than the greatest."
We are not just Buddhic emptiness, not just Eckhartian spaciousness. We are this body in this moment in this breath. As we continue to practice transcendental deep meditation, the abstraction of our pure consciousness becomes as solid as diamond. Emptiness free from thought becomes adamant as a marble floor. We touch the Philosopher's Stone, sought by alchemists. We realize "chitta mani," the Wish-Granting Jewel of the Vedas. We raise the Diamond-Pointed Sword of the Buddha, and discover Jesus's Pearl of Great Price. Only this solidification of pure consciousness explains the mystical symbolism of Exodus 24:10, where the elders of Israel received the vision of God:
"They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky."When we enter the deepest transcendental consciousness, we too stand upon that gem-like azure radiance, the very ground of the I Am. We make the abstract concrete, compared to which the material world is a mirage in desert air.
Your inner solidity is your "loka," your location in the cosmos. It is the unique jewel of your individuality, condensed into diamond light from pure consciousness. So stand your inner ground. Don't look for it on earth, or on any other world. The ground of your world is within you, as You.
Painting: Alicia Hayes
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