The traditional Western holiday season is here.

Hanukah, Christmas, New Years. They’re all back again…reunited like old friends. These are holidays of lights…lights on trees, lights on the menorah, the light of a new year.

Ironically, these holidays of light fall during the darkest part of the year. Why is this so?

Maybe these lights shine more brightly in the deepest darkness. I know this is a cliché of sorts, but it’s a nice image. Forgive me.

People seem more giving this time of year…more receptive to the needs of others. But there’s that perennial question – Why is it only this time of year? I’m often baffled at how this light, that seems to bright, is so easily dimmed the rest of the year. Or is it?

If we examine the soul in different traditions, it is often described as a light that burns brightly within all of us…always there, but hidden behind the veil of limitation and creation. The Hindu tradition describes the personal soul as Atman, which is part of the great soul, or Brahman. The goal of life is to become self-realized…to fully enter the reality that our Atman is really one with Brahman. What is lasting within us is that which is all of us.

How is this goal achieved (in a description that doesn’t do justice to the complex metaphysics)? Through personal effort and the will to get out of one’s personal, transient ego to identify with the eternal One. Worship, learning, self-discipline, and, not surprisingly, action (or karma), can get us to this place.

Enlightenment, or the extinguishing of the personal self for the victory of a greater self-realization, is a noble goal. And we can all achieve this goal, no matter the path. It is our birthright.

How?

The word enlightenment itself holds a clue; “light” is right in the word. At this time of year, this time of lights, we are presented a unique opportunity to allow our eternal nature…our eternal light…to shine forth. Worship your deity to the best of your ability, if you have one. Learn something new about your unique spiritual path. Discipline your speech and action to project love into the world. And, align your actions with actions you believe are for the highest good of your friends, family, and the stranger you meet on the way. Use these days of December to create intimacy with an inner light you could project all year.

This time of year is dark. But in that darkness, your inner light…well…you know how the saying ends.

-josh