A Dive into the Luminescent Abyss of the Mind

Series: The Summer of the Ocean

A Dive into the Luminescent Abyss of the Mind

Summer is back, and as always, I’m heading to our family home in southern Italy. I am so happy to enjoy their delicious cuisine and sun-kissed wines again ! I remember those happy years when my grandfather would take us to collect the fishing basket he had set out the day before. The catch was miraculous. There were also boat trips to explore the coast and countless days of farniente on the beach.

Carried away by this flood of memories, drifting between gentle nostalgia and solastalgia, I wake up from my nap in my old faded hammock. The scenery has changed. The pine trees, which were once protective, now look drained and powerless against the heat. The air feels heavier, almost suffocating. Overcome with vertigo, I realize that all these years spent on the Mediterranean coast, I have lived on the surface, in the comfort of the familiar. I realize it’s time to explore other dimensions of reality and go deeper.

 “At times, the direct perception of the emptiness of manifestation appears like a flash of lightning in the darkness. A shift occurs, and we clearly perceive that what we believed to be external is only a projection of the mind, without any existence of its own.” 

Suddenly, this vertigo becomes momentum: the call to dive into the unknown abyss of the ocean!

This is inaccessible to a distracted or attached mind. First, I must learn from a qualified diver how to cultivate attention, sharpen vision, and control breathing. By meticulously following his instructions and practising various approach techniques, I am becoming increasingly confident about immersing myself in the vast expanses of the abyssal plains.

Its depths are mostly unexplored and full of mysteries. The yogi, solitary diver, must leave his mental references and representations on the shore to encounter new dimensions.

Over the course of this dive, I realize that even in the inner depths of the ocean, manifestations are unceasing, with life and geophysical phenomena remaining remarkably active. Amidst this continuous dynamic, I lose myself, fascinated by these bioluminescent, translucent beings that feed on “marine snow.” Sometimes I find myself completely paralyzed following a seaquake that disrupts my apparent calm mind. At other times, frightening creatures appear to me: the common fangtooth *Anoplogaster cornuta,* whose fangs are so disproportionately long that it cannot close its mouth, and the fanfin angler Caulophryne jordani which hunts by lying in wait, using its filaments to detect the slightest movement. Feeling stalked and exasperated by these countless neurotic manifestations, I call upon all the gods to help me rise back to the surface, forgetting my Divemaster’s essential instructions.

Then, one by one, these bubbles of apparent reality burst in the vastness of the ocean and dissolve into their empty and luminous nature. By reconnecting with our teacher and following his instructions, we regain the momentum and confidence necessary to continue our immersion through the vast abyssal plain. Spanning more than 307 million square kilometers, we must remain vigilant and arm ourselves with patience. Many have witnessed their descent into underwater trenches, trapped for years in a closed space of murky water…

The deeper the absorption becomes, the more our reference points disintegrate, the substantiality of the body grows more subtle, and silence takes hold. At this moment, contemplation arises. At times, the direct perception of the emptiness of manifestation appears like a flash of lightning in the darkness. A shift occurs, and we clearly perceive that what we believed to be external is only a projection of the mind, without any existence of its own. These direct experiences become increasingly frequent and eventually stabilize. We then realize that the luminous radiance of the mind is revealed in all manifestations, even in the deep darkness of the abyss. Driven by the flow of primordial evidence, we embark on the oceanic ridges, ready for “the crossing of the peak”, where matter is transmuted into light…