light of pure sattva. When the mind is deeply absorbed in that quality,
then, indeed, does this condition of light which is free from all pain
follow. Vachaspatimisra remarks that in the heart there is a lotus-like
form having eight petals and with its face turned downward. One should
raise this up by rechaka (exhalation of the breath) and then meditate upon
it, locating therein the four parts of the pranava, viz., a, u, m, and the
point in their several meanings. When the mind thus meditating falls in
the way of the susumna, it sees a perfect calm light like that of the moor
of the sun, resembling the calm ocean of milk. This is the jyotis, light,
which is the sure sign of complete sattva. Some such practice is here
meant...." The similarity to the instruction of the Abbot Simeon is
evident.

The light and sun symbolism in alchemistic writings is everywhere used;
yet gold also = sun, indeed the same sign [Symbol: Gold] serves for both.
I should like to call attention incidentally to a beautiful use of the sun
symbol in "Amor Proximi," which differs slightly from the more restricted
gold symbolism. On p. 32 ff. we read: "See Christ is not outside of us,
but he is intimately within us all, but locked up, and in order that he
may unlock that which is locked up in us, did he once become outwardly
visible, as a man such as we are, the hard sin enclosure excepted, and of
this the [Symbol: Gold] in this world is the true copy, which quickly
convinced the heathens from the beginning of the world that God must
become man even as the light of nature has become a body in the [Symbol:
Gold]. Now the [Symbol: Gold] is not alone in the firmament outside of all
other creatures, but it is much more in the center of all creatures but
shut up, but the external [Symbol: Gold] is as a figure of Christ, in that
it unlocks in us the enclosed [Symbol: Gold], as its image and substance,
just as Christ does, through his becoming man, also unlock in us the image
of God. For were this not so, then the sphere of the earth would approach
in vain to the [Symbol: Gold] in order to derive its power from it, and
nothing at all would grow from the accursed [Symbol: earth]. [The symbol
[Symbol: earth] means earth.] So the [Symbol: earth] shows us that
inasmuch as it approaches near to the [Symbol: Gold] it is unlocked, so
we, too, approaching Christ, shall attain again the image of God; then at
the end of time this [Symbol: earth] will be translated int