What is a Glimpse?
November 17, 2019 3 Comments
William Samuel recommends adding glimpses to your journal, and I’ve been doing that for about half a year when I review the day. If I haven’t had a glimpse I write down something I appreciate… or can appreciate.
A direct glimpse example: 11/1/19: The source of love is what’s alive – almost by logic.
But what is a glimpse? Is there a “true” glimpse? What voice does it speak for?
Once the wonder of Glimpses is understood, it isn’t long until we’ve examined them carefully enough to see that they come from two seemingly separate sources. First, there is the direct Glimpse, as when we’re writing in our journal or when an answer comes out of the blue from NOT thinking. Then, there are the indirect Glimpses as when we see the beauty of a galloping horse or the grace of a new rose in the garden or the tender smile of a stranger. One glimpse is direct, the other indirect, as if delayed in the world’s time while it developed for the receptive awareness to see it.
…Glimpses arrive in both ways, and their Origin is the Same Light beyond ordinary light. This is in part what Jesus meant when he said that the stones would minister unto us. “Cleave a piece of wood, I am there; lift up the stone and you will find Me there.” Yes, there is Light beyond light; there is a significance in everything, quite beyond the values given by men.
An indirect glimpse from 10/17/19: The moon looks so big…because it is big. – somehow this makes me cry, release, hope, like believing in God, that the universe is OK – it can take care of itself.
If a glimpse comes from reading a spiritual book, I think that leans towards an indirect glimpse. For example, these three while reading Richard Rose’s 3 Books of the Absolute on 10/19/19: “I is dead. Death is dead and life has no living…All that remains is all” – a feeling he’s seeing something true and real. This implies unconscious knowledge of this.
“and I saw the voices of men…and I saw the beautiful patterns of motion…but the world was as still as death” – still as death, this feels important – an issue I turn from and not faced yet. To face these could be a path.
The poem, in general, feels honest, true, and says there’s more than I’ve seen yet.
What should I do with these? Sit with them; pick one and sit with it, asking what do I hear? What message is it saying? It has a life to it – could change me a bit. And would be safe to let in. I have let it in a little – but not fully.
Source: Nostalgiawest
As one lets go, it becomes natural to have more Glimpses. They come in greater strength and regularity—provided we know what to do with them when they arrive. Among many things I do with my Glimpses is to look for their confirmation out in the tangible world of people, places and things. Direct glimpses are precursors of knowledge breaking into the community of mankind. Presently my Glimpses tell me that a new clock is soon to begin ticking in the guts of people everywhere. I anticipate seeing these insights confirmed as Good in the affairs of men.
Yes there is a time to withdraw from the world and think of other things, but there is a time to come back and see the mountain again—and commence to do on the mountain what that seeing commands.
It sounds like the question I need to ask myself is, what action does this glimpse request?
10/16/19: self-definition is something you get to do. You get to define yourself. You already do. This one seems to suggest taking up the reins and being my own authority about what I am in a way that can choose to exclude what anyone else says. After that, I did allow a self-definition as an individual observer with limited will. But have I really done everything with this moment of light I can?
Can glimpses become more, or do they stay enigmas? Like abstract art that seems to have some message, but it’s not clear what I’m supposed to hear? Like a dream that feels important but its message is unclear. Glimpses do seem like dreams – the mind projected something on what it heard.
Once upon a time I wanted the glimpse to bring information to this old sense of myself and work a wonder for it. Hear this softly now: The Glimpse doesn’t just bring the truth like a messenger; the Glimpse is the Truth; the Glimpse is the Light; the Glimpse is our genuine Selfhood emerging!
The value of the Glimpse itself eludes everyone until precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, slowly it dawns. Most remain unaware that it is the Glimpse of Light that matters and does the work in the phenomenal world.
Or maybe it’s just a matter of saying “thank you.”
Ignoramuses Anonymous 
I really like this idea of recording glimpses. It appeals to me; something simple, specific, and significant all-in-one, for someone who has great difficulty keeping a regular journal.
“The source of love is what’s alive – almost by logic.” This strike me as a most profound glimpse. Nothing above and beyond, but right there where you live.
It seems that a lot of glimpses can be archetypal in their form and function, but I think that Samuels has it right that they are also of the very thing itself.
He suggested keeping a section in a journal marked “Glimpses” and making a list of notable glimpses that have happened. He defines them broadly, “…the flow of Glimpses from Godhead pertains to EVERYTHING good, true and wonderful.” In a letter to a friend, he included it as part of a specific journaling technique along with, “sit down and ask God a question – and then to be still and listen for an answer.”
From: http://www.selfdiscoveryportal.com/arWmSamuelJournaling.htm
Yeah, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around how a glimpse is not about the information the mind can use, but about the “glimpse of light itself that matters.” Maybe it;s about the mind stepping back and admitting it doesn’t know?
Oh wow, so that is what they’re called. Glimpses. Yes, a leaf falls and for an instant you know something has changed and your spirit soars and you cuddle it in your heart all day and hug it to yourself as you fall asleep. Despite the lonely path, it gives one the sense for an instant, Im not alone, what I seek and yearn for, seeks me lovingly too.