Jacques Lusseyran, a writer who became blind as a child, led a resistance network at the age of 20, was deported and later became a university professor in the USA. He bears witness to the fact that joy and light lie within us, in his two books “Et la lumière fut”, followed by “Le monde commence aujourd’hui”. Here are some of his most memorable lines.
Joy doesn’t come from outside. It’s inside us, whatever happens. Light doesn’t come from outside. It’s inside us, even without our eyes.
[Speaking of a man he knew in the Buchenwald concentration camp ] :
We went to Jeremiah as to a spring. In this ocean of suffering, there was an island: a man who didn’t shout, who didn’t call anyone for help, who had his own complacency. A man who didn’t dream of anything else, who fully accepted the fact that he was in Buchenwald. His eyes were firmly open to our miseries, and he didn’t blink. He wasn’t afraid.
We kept dreaming of something else, we didn’t want Buchenwald, we weren’t there. And every time we returned to reality, Buchenwald was still there, and it hurt.
Joy in a concentration camp
Jeremiah found joy in the middle of block 56. He found it where we found only fear. And he found it in such abundance that we could feel it rising within us.
What joy? What do I know? Isn’t joy enough for you? The joy of discovering that joy exists, that it is within us, just like life, without needing any conditions, and therefore that no condition, not even the worst, can kill it.
Jeremiah was a living prayer. For him, and for us through him, the world was saved every second, the blessing never ending. And when it stopped, it meant we didn’t want it anymore, that we, not she, had stopped being happy.
What was supernatural about him obviously didn’t belong to him; it was meant to be spread around him. He had completely stopped judging what was happening to him. Jeremiah had reached deep inside himself and released the supernatural. Or, if that word bothers you, the essential, that which does not depend on any circumstance. That which can exist at all times and in all places, in pain as well as in pleasure. He had met the source of life. And, of course, he was immediately flooded with transparency and cleanliness. He had discovered that God is there, in every human being equally, every second of every day, and that we can become aware of this at any moment.
[Speaking of the America of the ’50s, in which he lives, discovering consumer society and its pleasures] :
Political freedom is good. Social freedom is good. But there’s another, even more important form of freedom: inner freedom. I mean independence from the material goods and services available to us. Fundamentally, independence from the outside world.
Objects are traps, which close all the faster the more perfect they are.
The only true wealth is that of the inner life
[Speaking of his way of perceiving the world]:
Light is my element. I’m done. But you too are made of light. We tell you that the light is not inside you, but outside you. I know from experience that this is not true. And that’s why I’ve been happy even in the worst moments of my life.
This connection between light and joy is the central fact of my experience. When I say light, I don’t mean the luminous objects and reflections that make up the visual world. I think of the source, which is inside. The source precedes the objects, which is why we can see it even if there are no objects to see. This essential current of light, this power of light, is not waiting for us to use it. It exists all the time, whatever our perception.
Accepting what is
There is no infirmity. That’s what I learned from being blind. If God, nature, life – as you like to call it – seems to be taking something away from us, it’s only ever appearances and habits that it’s taking away from us. The only infirmity is not blindness, deafness or paralysis – however hard they may be to live with – but the refusal of blindness, deafness and paralysis.
I’m not preaching renunciation, but common sense, i.e. love for what is, whatever that may be.
To believe that the only reality is external is to empty the world of its substance. Without the light we carry within us, our eyes would never be able to open to the objects and lights of the world. If the fundamental vibration were not within us, we would never be able to perceive sound. If God were not in us, we could never hope to become men.
Peace comes from within
Inner peace means being fully attentive to the world as it is, in communion with it, and without dividing it into what we like and what we don’t like. We spend our time preferring the judgments we make about the world to the world itself. Anything that makes you accept life is good. Everything that makes us reject it is mediocre and temporary.
Someone said to me: “You’re unreasonable, you only talk about happiness, joy and peace. But what about all the suffering in the world? What will you say if someone tells you about the possible death of our earth?”
I’d say I’m afraid of it, and I try to think seriously about it. But if we’re talking about death, let’s talk about life, because that’s what’s most urgent. To be at peace with the world and see what animates it and gives it life all the time, all you have to do is not oppose it.
Real life is inside
I’m hungry for something that has no end. For want of another word, I call it inner life. The inner life does not consist of the movements of my soul as opposed to those of my body, or of my reason as opposed to my instincts. Soul, instincts, body, reason, all of these age, decay and can go wrong, I don’t believe it.
Inner life means knowing that peace is not in the world, but in the way we look at the world. It’s knowing that joy isn’t in the outside world, as if it were candy in a candy box. It means knowing that joy is not for tomorrow, but for now. Knowing that no external event, no matter how peaceful, will give us joy. And for the simple reason that we already have it. All life is given to us before we live it. All life is given to us in every second. But it takes a lifetime – perhaps more – to become aware of this gift.
The reality is that we can welcome life. We have that right. Light comes knocking at our door, and if we don’t refuse it, we can use it to illuminate everything and everyone around us. We have love, and with it we can love beings, even the most peculiar ones.
I wouldn’t want to get out of my place. I’d like to learn never to leave. For I know my place is in joy.
Find out more about the amazing life of Jacques Lusseyran: https: //fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lusseyran
