Transcending the Light of Reason

Spiritual life is not only about emerging from confusion, but about recognizing that even clarity can become a limitation. Between obscurity, agitation, and balance — the gunas — the human being seeks stability. The light of sattva, linked to clear reason, illuminates and guides, but it can also become a golden chain if one becomes attached to it.

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When clarity becomes a golden chain

Summary: Spiritual life is not only about emerging from confusion, but about recognizing that even clarity can become a limitation. Between obscurity, agitation, and balance — the gunas — the human being seeks stability. The light of sattva, linked to clear reason, illuminates and guides, but it can also become a golden chain if one becomes attached to it. True freedom does not lie in settling into this clarity, but in transcending it. Practice makes this turning possible: moving from dependence on states to a stable presence, lived through one’s actions.

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It happens that we move from one state of consciousness to another without really understanding what is taking place.

At times, everything feels confused, heavy, without direction. At other times, something becomes clear. Things feel simple, obvious, almost peaceful. One might think progress is being made. And in a way, it is true. But this movement contains a trap.

Light and its variations

What we experience inwardly is not stable. There are moments of obscurity, moments of agitation, and moments of clarity. In certain traditions, the gunas are used to describe these variations:

– tamas, that which weighs down and obscures
– rajas, that which agitates and drives action
– sattva, that which illuminates and brings balance

These forces are not ideas. They are directly experienced.

One may feel caught in a form of inertia, or on the contrary swept up in constant agitation. And sometimes, more rarely, clarity appears. A sense of balance, of simplicity. This is what is recognized as a right state.

What seems to be an attainment

When this clarity is present, everything feels easier. The mind is calmer, perception is clearer, a form of peace settles in. One feels aligned, in harmony with what is.

One might think this is the goal. And this is often where one stops.

The subtle trap of the golden chain

This clarity, as precious as it may be, can become an attachment. One gets used to it. One seeks it. One prefers it over everything else. Little by little, without realizing it, one identifies with this state.

A more subtle “self” appears: calmer, clearer, more “spiritual.” And yet, it is still a form of attachment. No longer to agitation or obscurity, but to the clarity of reason itself. This is what certain texts have called a golden chain: finer, more pleasant, yet still a chain.

A necessary distinction

Seeking the light is natural. Becoming attached to it is natural as well. But this light still belongs to the domain of the gunas. It illuminates, soothes, and guides — but it is not freedom.

The clarity of sattva should not be confused with that which lies beyond all conditions. It is the clarity of a reason that has become lucid, capable of seeing rightly. But it remains a quality of the mind. It is not the inner light that can be perceived in deep meditation.

Some experiences go even further, to a kind of fusion where all distinction disappears. But this, too, is not Realization.

Realization is not a state, nor an experience to be attained. It is a way of living, an understanding that has become stable, expressed in one’s actions, in the present moment.

Sattva can serve as a reference, a direction. It can point toward what is right. But becoming attached to it is to remain within the field of conditioning.

Transcending the gunas

To break the golden chain, one must realize that it is the soul that must find peace, not only the mind.

As a great sage once said: “One uses a thorn (sattva) to remove another thorn (tamas/rajas) embedded in the skin. Once the thorn is removed, both are discarded.”

Trying to fight rajas directly is futile, for it is part of prakrti, the original nature.

The purpose of Observance is to reach a state of consciousness illuminated by the light of day. One does not erase the night; one simply changes orientation.

Our aim is to be happy with a true happiness: to live as it was meant for us to live.

The role of practice

This is where practice takes on its full meaning. Not to produce a particular state, but to no longer be dependent on states. On The Path, it is not about becoming better, purer, or more luminous. It is about recognizing what is already there, even before states arise.

Practice does not create this recognition. It simply allows one to stop preventing it.

Conclusion

Seeking the light of sattva is a passage, a stage. Becoming attached to it is an obstacle. Freedom does not lie in remaining within mental clarity, but in no longer being dependent on the mind.

Then, night and day cease to oppose each other. They simply become variations within something that does not vary. But don't forget: "Bhakti is the pearl of The Path"

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