The inner and outer light
There is an inner-light and an outer-light. Inner-light is the light perceived by you as your insight which includes what you can see in sleep. The inner-light is linked to your imaginations, ideas, and thoughts. The outer light is the unmistakable sunshine that you see and feel on your skin when you are fully awake. This is my simplified version of entry into a long lasting debate of philosophers over objective or subjective reality of the world. In other words, what we see of the world around us is perceived by us through the light? or is it brought to light by our perception? There can be a lengthy debate about which one of these inner and outer lights constitutes our reality. You are welcome to reconcile this in any manner that suits your intellectual and spiritual taste. I would subscribe to the idea that both are true. Meaning that our reality is formed by both the inner perception and outer physical reality and by virtue of our human existence we are bound to live in balance between the inner- and outer- lights, and to connect them.
The search for the meaning of the outer-light is a scientific endeavor, but at the same time it is a search for our inner-light. The way we describe light reveals something about the world and our reflection in it. How we describe light is not merely how we see the reality but also how we truly are. Language bounds us to the cave. Theories and descriptions talk about the shadows on the wall. If we go past the illusions into the realm of ideas we may discover the flame that is at the source of the shadows. Still deep inside, we know there has to be a way to the Primordial Light.
Heideger acknowledges that there can be a theory for the physical reality of light, and it might be ‘correct’ but it can’t be the Truth. Heideger’s view is reminiscent of the Aristotellian argument. The debate about the nature of light goes back a long time. What is light? How can we describe the mysterious phenomenon that gives us sight? There is hope that if we have a correct understanding of the nature of light, it should help us understand the entire nature. Physical nature of light might not answer everything but at least brings us closer to understanding the Truth by pushing away the edges of our expansive ignorance.
