'If he does not shine, he is darkness.'

"Jesus concludes that passage in the Gospel of Thomas by saying 'If he does not shine, he is darkness.'  That's the challenge.  That's the Jesus who tells it to us straight, who doesn't water down the message.  Either we are in light or we are in darkness.  That's a teaching meant to shake us from our slumber.  In order to come into our full potential and to embody truth and radiance of what we are, we must come vitally alive; we must lean once again into presence; we must pour ourselves forth into life, instead of trying to escape life and avoid its challenges.  Then our lives themselves become expressions of love, of overflow, because we have compassionately given ourselves to life, to our incarnation, as a means to redeem it-to bring everything back home, back to its source, to the eternal radiance within each and every one of us."  (Resurrecting Jesus. page 34-35)

If we want to become vitally alive and become  expressions of love then Adyashanti is telling us what to do: "lean once again into presence; we must pour ourselves forth into life, instead of trying to escape life and avoid its challenges."

This statement might require some contemplation.  What does 'leaning into presence' mean?  What does being 'vitally alive' look like?  How might I be escaping life or avoiding challenges?

I ask myself at various points throughout my day:  Am I aware of what is happening in
this moment or am I off thinking about the past or the future?  In other words, am I living in my life or am I living in my head?  Am I aware of presence, right here and right now?  What is happening in my heart space right now?

Whatever is happening in each moment we have an opportunity to experience and express eternal radiance.  We do this by being in our lives in a very real way.  I find that staying very focused on what my heart is experiencing (open versus closed, in pain or in love...) helps me to stay out of my head and grounds me in the reality of the moment.

May we all compassionately give ourselves to life and allow Spirit to awaken us to our eternal radiance.