How To Find Light In The Darkness

One of my favorite places on earth is Naoshima island, one of 3,000 islands that dot the inland sea of Japan. 

It’s an island rich in art, from late Monet waterlilies to site-specific installations of contemporary art. Many of the buildings are designed by legendary architect Tadao Ando.

One of his buildings was a mysterious rectangle, black and windowless. It was clad in what looked to be charcoal — cypress burned to resist sunlight, water and fire.

A long serpentine hallway led me into a room that was jet black — Blacker than a moonless night, printer’s ink, or a hunk of coal. I was blinded in an instant. Disoriented, I shuffled into the vast and silent darkness. 

After a few minutes, as I crept forward, I saw a faint glow opposite me. The fuzz got brighter and brighter with time, until I stood in front of a wall-sized box of daffodil-yellow light.

The room was not dark after all. 

Its light was visible only after fifteen minutes, when the rods and cones in my eyes had adjusted. There was no way to rush, hack or shortcut this process. This James Turrell artwork could only be seen with eyes that had been opened with time.

As I watched the faint glow become as bright as the sun, I felt hope wash over me — art as spiritual experience.

What else are we blind to, that’s right in front of us?

We see only what we can process, both literally and spiritually. What we think we see is only a fraction of reality.

Without darkness there is no light. Without light there is no darkness.

Photo credit: 663highland, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons