And There was Light by Jacques Lusseyran

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Challenges
In Their Shoes
Back to History
Non Fiction Five
Jacques Lusseyran wrote his autobiography about the first twenty years of his life. Unusual as that was, there are many unusual aspects of this unique man's life. Blinded at the age of eight, Jacques found an inner light that enabled him to develop his remaining senses as well as other senses most people do not have access to. He could see objects through the force fields they projected. He became an astute judge of men by listening to their speech. In the first half of the book, Jacques describes the inner light and how profound a blessing his blindness became. At the age of sixteen, he forms a resistance group to the conquering Nazis and talks about their triumphs as well as their seeming defeat. He spent the last eighteen months of the war in the concentration camp, Buchenwald; and still maintained a indomitable spirit that encouraged other prisoners. His story ends after he is released from the camp and reunited with one of the few remaining survivors of hte resistance group. I read on Amazon that this book is included on a list of the top 100 Most Spiritual Books of the 20th Century. Although, he doesn't discuss too much organized religion, he and his fellow resistance fighters followed the Christian creed. Regardless of religious belief, Lusseyran was able to develop his inner light in such a way that strengthened and sustained himself as well as those around him. I love the final two paragraphs of the book where Lusseyran talks about himself in the third person: ". . .wanting to show his gratitude, he could find no better way of expressing it than in these two truths, intimately known to him and reaching beyond all boundaries.
The first of these truths is that joy does not come from outside, for whatever happens to us it is within. The second truth is that light does not come to us from without. Light is in us, even if we have no eyes."
Rating: 4
Posted by Framed at 5:17 PM

5 comments:
Carrie K. said...
Psst! I nominated you for a blog award. :)
7/22/2008 8:08 PM
Bookfool said...
That sounds amazing. I just added it to my wish list. Thanks!
7/22/2008 8:42 PM
Booklogged said...
I bought this a couple of years ago but haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I like that quote.
7/23/2008 4:24 PM
Cassie said...
I'm just commenting for support of your blog. And another challenge? Wow.
7/24/2008 1:40 PM
Framed said...
Booklogged, this is the book you had me return to Pam. She talked me into reading it. I thought you had already read it.