As for the transformation into “pure luminosity” which Heidegger refers to as the goal of Indian thinking, this “pure luminosity” is a translation of “reine Helle” - a phrase not only resonant of but also an etymon of the English phrase ‘pure hell’. For both the German Hellen and Hallen, and the English ‘hell’ share the same root - though the German adjective hell means simply ‘bright’ or ‘light’. Both Indian and Wagnerian thinking associate the human being’s transformation into pure luminosity with the power of fire (fire and light being twin aspects of Shiva), hence the association of Wagner’s neo-Norse god of fire (Loge) with the burning of Vallhalla, Brunnhild’s Indian-style self-immolation in the burning pyres of her husband Siegfried, not to mention the contradictory Christian association of light, not just with Christ but with also ‘Lucifer’ the light-bringer, and with the fires of hell. Yet what must strike the reader with knowledge of Asian thinking in this connection is the avoidance by both Boss and Heidegger of an even more obvious resonance – between Heidegger’s term Lichtung (with its semantic emphasis on the luminosity of the Openness or Clearing) and the ‘En-Lightening’ of human being. The very same resonance is hidden in Heidegger’s use of the term Ereignis, translated as ‘En-owning’. For up to the 18th century this was still spelled Eräugnis - a word that has nothing to do with ownership but much more to do with the eye (Auge) and thus also with the common meaning of Ereignis as ‘event’, for its meaning is something ‘eye-opening’ and in this sense also an En-lightening awareness.

¶ 5:53 AM