Kundalini Splendor

Saints and bodhisattvas may achieve what Christians call mystical union or Buddhists call satori — a perpetual awareness of the force at the heart of things. For these enlightened few, the world is always lit. For the rest of us, such clarity comes only fitfully, in sudden glimpses or slow revelations. Quakers refer to these insights as ‘openings.’ When I first heard the term, I thought of how, on an overcast day, sunlight pours through a break in the clouds. After the clouds drift on, eclipsing the sun, the sun keeps shining behind the veil, the memory of its light shines on in the mind.

Scott Russell Sanders, A Private History of Awe

Note:  I fully agree with this quote.  However, I have often wondered if we were indeed perpetually in such exalted states of consciousness, would we then be suited to be active in a practical way in the world.  As it is, we are indeed nourished by our occasional moments, our "glimpses" of that transcendent reality, and this propels us forward.  My personal view is that this is the state we will enter when we transit to the other side of the veil.