The most alluring of religious symbols is the light, the light that radiates everywhere within and without.In spiritual traditions light stands for many different things. It stands for the original goodness and purity. It also stands for the Truth as well as the joy and delight and bliss associated with enlightenment. It appears that Light, Truth and the Divine One are synonymous in some respects.
When we experience higher state of consciousness, we tend to try to describe it in terms of divine light. So light can also refer to Supreme Consciousness.
In every tradition, light symbolizes the Divine One, or, more specifically, the energy of the Divine One, that Being who is the Ultimate Reality and Source of everything. It is called by many names depending upon the person’s religious or spiritual orientation. In Christianity and Judaism, it would be God; in Sufism, the Beloved; in Hinduism, Bhagavan or Shiva or Brahman or Vishnu.
Usually Buddhists deny the existence of a personal god. However, when a person has done extensive spiritual practice and emptied even the emptiness, there is still a presence in the void that Zen Buddhists call the Transcendent or “Faceless One.”
ISLAMThe famous verse of “light” in the Qur'an is the Ayat Al-Nur. ( Nur is the word for light). Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.The parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche,and within it a Lamp; the Lamp enclosed in Glass: The Glass as it were a brilliant star: Lit from a blessed Tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West,Whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it. Light upon Light! God guides whom He will to His Light: God sets forth parables for men, and God knows all things. (Islam. Qur'an 24.35)
This parable of light of God in Islam does not express His reality which is inconceivable to any created being and therefore inexpressible in any human language but only to allude to the illumination which He, who is the ultimate Truth, which bestows upon the mind and the feelings of those who are willing to be guided.
CHRISTIANITY
Light is the first of the Creator's works, manifesting the divine operation in a world that is darkness and chaos without it. While light is not itself divine, it is often used metaphorically for life (Psalm 56:13), salvation (Isa 9:2), the commandments (Prov 6:23), and the divine presence of God (Exod 10:23). In the first creative act, "God saw that the light was good" (Gen 1:3).
Light represents the presence of God. God is light, who dispels the darkness of this world. Jesus came as the light of the world, breaking through the darkness of sin by his work on the cross. It follows that believers are a light to the world as well. Jesus describes his disciples as light and light-bearers (Matt 5:14-16). When Jesus spoke to the people, he said,”I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” ( John 8:12)
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. (John 1:5)
Light also represents the direction and guidance of God. Psalm 119:105 says God's Word is a lamp to the) and a light to our path. Jesus was called the “Light of the World” because He taught us how to see the truth.
HINDUISMThe "Brahman-OM" is "the highest light, the foundation and sovereign lord of all...." Brahma is light, says the Maitri Upanishad, and the mystic symbol OM is "a leader, brilliant, sleepless, ageless [and] deathless...." Brahma, "the limitless One," is that "shining form which gives heat in yonder sun.... Unending are the rays of him." Brahman is "self-shining," "self-luminous," and "shines by his own brightness." As He shines "does everything else shine after."
Brahma is the Light of lights.He is Self-luminous. He is Supreme Light. He is ultimate light. He is an embodiment of Light. By His Light all else shines. (Maitriya Upanishad)
"There, where there is no darkness, nor night, nor day, nor being, nor nonbeing, there is the Auspicious One, alone, absolute and eternal. There is the glorious splendor of that Light from whom in the beginning sprang ancient wisdom" (Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4.18).
God Almighty (Brahman) resides within all humans as Light,
"the light which shines higher than this heaven... is the same as this light which is here within a person." The Taittiriya Upanishad spells out that "the knower of the unity of the human person with the Universal Being attains unhampered desire."
The Upanishads say that God and the human soul both have characteristics of light and bliss because Brahman and Atman are essentially the same. In a famous commentary on the nature of truth, the Chandogya Upanishad relates the following: This point is made even more explicitly in the Maitreya Upanishad: I am free from space and time. Mine is the joy of the unclad... My form consists of total light; The light of pure consciousness am I.44 The same Upanishad goes on to say that "the light which shines higher than this heaven... is the same as this light which is here within a person."
BUDDHISMShakyamuni Buddha said, 'This light of lights is not blue, yellow, red, white, or black. It is not matter, not mind. It is not existent, nor nonexistent. It is not a phenomenon resulting from causes. It is the source of all Buddhas, the basis of practicing the Way of enlightening beings, fundamental for all Buddhists.' . .
This spiritual light is unbroken from the infinite past through the infinite future, this is called perpetual energy. Utterly free of senses and objects, the essence manifests, real and eternal, this is called permanent stability of radiance
Just as when those born blind don't see the sun It is not because there is no sun appearing in the world -- All those who have eyes can clearly see it, Each doing their work according to their occupations, So it is with the lights of the Great Being -- Those who have wisdom all can see, While ordinary folk with false beliefs and low understanding Cannot perceive these lights at all... So it is with the Great Being's lights: Those of deep knowledge are all illumined, While the ignorant, with false beliefs and poor understanding Are not able to see these lights at all.
Flower Ornament Scripture
Hindu: Lead me from the unreal to the real, From darkness lead me to Light.
Jewish: Lift up the light of thy countenance upon us, O Lord!
Buddhist: Hold firm to the truth as a lamp and refuge.
Christian: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
Islam: God is the light of the heaven and the earth. Shinto: She lights the far corners of Heaven and Earth – the great Kami of the Sun
Sikh: There is a light in all and that light is the Ultimate One.
