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I am trying to pack for a trip right now, but I wanted to recommend two books by Jacques Lusseyran, especially for us Universalist’s in the crowd. The first is “And There Was Light”, it is his autobiography during WWII, as a blind leader in the French Resistance. The second on is “Against the Pollution of the I”. These are six lectures he gave after the war. They are spiritual, very non-denominational, and insightful. When I get home I will add some of my favorite quotes. Thanks. I’ll put them on my reading list 
I want to give some back narrative about the author before I begin sharing his quotes. Jacques Lusseyran lived in Paris, France all his life. He was born in 1924. At the age of eight he fell at school and was completely and permanently blinded. His parents though never pitied or felt sorry for him. His dad’s response was, “Always tell us when you discover something.” Discover he did, he learned to see. Not like we see, those eyes were still blind and would remain so – but seeing happened inside. He could see tree’s, faces, souls, landscapes all by the sensory of “a light” inside. Eventually WWII struck and France fell to occupation. This blind teen, set up a resistance group. That group morphed with others and he became the official who determined who was let in and who wasn’t. He made a mistake, that cost them. They were captured, imprisoned and brutally interrogated by the Vichy, eventually sent off to Buchenwald Concentration camp. Remarkably he lived through it. Most did not. He spent his post war life, lecturing and spreading the lessons he learned about sight, inwardly and outwardly. He died in 1971.
Quote:Barely ten days after the accident that blinded me, I made the basic discovery. I had completely lost the sight of my eyes; I could not see the light of the world any more. Yet the light was still there.
Quote:It’s source was not obliterated. I felt it gushing forth every moment and brimming over. I felt how it wanted to spread out over the world. I had only to receive it.
Quote:There was only one way to see the inner light, and that was to love. When I was overcome with sorrow, when I let anger take hold of me, when I envied those who saw, the light immediately decreased. Sometimes it even went out completely. Then I became blind. But this blindness was a state of not loving any more, of sadness, it was not the loss of ones eyes.
He discovers some fantastic life principles in the process of learning to work with the light. For a few days I’ve tried to focus on other light than my eyes and I have a sense that something more does exist. And not just for the blind.
Quote:I have a sense that something more does exist.
Amen. As his story shows, other ways of “seeing” can be deceptive, as well, but they do exist and are valuable.
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