What Are the Great Rays?
by Robert Perry
Question: I have a quick question. I have found in A Course in Miracles quotes referring to the Rays and seven Rays (about eight times). Why did Jesus refer to this concept of metaphysics (the Rays) but did not comment on other aspects of form in the so-called physical world? Are not the Rays just as unreal as any other aspects of form, or is this just another metaphor?
Answer: The Great Rays are a source of curiosity and confusion for nearly every Course student. They are only mentioned a handful of times (as you point out), but they certainly grab one's attention.
The first thing to point out is that the Great Rays in the Course are completely unrelated to the Seven Rays of Theosophy. The Seven Rays (as best as I can make out) are the primal energy of spirit broken down into seven divine qualities that radiate throughout and compose the physical universe. Each ray has a different kind of occult energy and different color, and is associated with a different cosmic master and a different chakra. The first ray, for example, is often associated with the will, the color blue, the master Morya, and the crown chakra. The only relationship this has to the Course's concept is the word "ray," which is to say there is no relationship. The Course never talks about "seven" rays or gives its rays any number at all.
Another common misunderstanding is that the Course's Great Rays emanate or shine from God. Within this view, they have been likened to the ten Sephiroth of the Kabbalah—ten divine attributes that emanate from Ain Soph (God), through which the physical universe is manifested. However, this is not the Course's view. The Course depicts the Great Rays as shining from us, not from God. We can see this in the following passage:
As the ego would limit your perception of your brothers to the body, so would the Holy Spirit release your vision and let you see the Great Rays shining from them [your brothers], so unlimited that they [the Rays] reach to God. (T-15.IX.1:1)
So what are the Great Rays? Quite simply, they are rays of holiness that shine out from each person. Their closest parallel, therefore, is found in the various traditions that speak of rays or halos of light shining from holy men and women. The following comes from The Encyclopedia of Religion:
The Buddha…practices a variety of magical powers, the most notable of which is the issuance of rays of light from his body. Touched by these rays of light, all beings become intent upon enlightenment. (Vol. 3, pp. 133-134)
Light symbolism is also conspicuous in religious iconography: saints or divine figures have a halo surrounding their head or their whole body or a flame above their head. This is particularly conspicuous in Buddhist iconography, especially in its Mahayana forms. Amida is easily identifiable by the halo of "infinite" rays emanating from his head. (Vol. 8, p. 549)
This light shining from religious figures is very similar to the Course's Great Rays. The Course even speaks of the Rays extending from us "in quiet to infinity" (T-13.VII.13:7)—similar to the above quotation's reference to "'infinite' rays" shining from the head of Amida (often called Amitabha Buddha).
The key difference, of course, is that the Great Rays in the Course do not just shine from religious saints or masters; they shine from everyone. Think what it would do to your view of someone if you saw vast pure white rays shining from that person and reaching all the way "to infinity" and "to God." How would that affect your opinion of that person?
This, in fact, is the focus of the Course's discussions of the Great Rays. Those discussions are primarily about how to see our brothers truly. Out of the nine discussions of the Great Rays in the Course, five are about how to see our brothers. A consistent pattern can be discerned in those five, one that is composed of three stages.
First, we see our brothers primarily as bodies, which also means we see them as sinful, for bodies, as we know, do a lot of misbehaving. Second, we begin to see the "little spark" in them. This suggests at first seeing just a tiny spark of the divine light in them, just a tiny gleam of holiness. This is how we heal others: "Perceiving the spark will heal" (T-10.IV.8:4). The Course asks you to "put all your faith" in this spark in your brother (T-10.IV.8:7).
The process doesn't end with seeing the little spark, however, for "the little spark…holds the Great Rays within it" and therefore "this spark cannot be limited long to littleness" (T-16.VI.6:3). As you look on it, it will inevitably grow into the Great Rays. You will begin to see the Rays shining out from it. Now the light you see in your brother is no longer a tiny spark but rather immense Rays. "If you but see the little spark you will learn of the greater light, for the Rays are there unseen" (T-10.IV.8:3).
This is the third and final stage, in which you look at your brother and see (in your mind, not with your eyes), Great Rays of holiness emanating from him in all directions. At first you will still see the body—meaning that your mind will still regard it as a part of the picture of who he is. "For a time the body is still seen" (T-16.VI.6:1). But eventually, "the Great Rays replace the body in awareness" (T-15.IX.3:1), "For in seeing them the body would disappear" (T-16.VI.4:6). Eventually, the Rays are all that your mind will see as you look upon your brother.
The Great Rays in the Course, then, are not an esoteric concept like the Seven Rays or the ten Sephiroth. They are not a set of divine qualities or attributes that emanate from God and manifest the physical universe. They are a much more practical concept than that. As such, they lay before us a choice, one that goes to the heart of our existence here: Will we see our brother as a misbehaving body, or will we see the divine spark in him, and then let that spark grow into luminous rays that reach to infinity? Will we see our brother as a petty human wrapped in a dark haze of sinfulness or will we see him as a living saint radiating a vast halo of holiness?
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