And There Was Light: The Autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran: Blind Hero of the French Resistance

This is the most beautiful book I have ever read. I found myself reading and re-reading his profound words, devouring the wisdom and poetry of his thoughts. This book has had a profound impact on my life and how I see the world.

"in 1935 in a lycee in Paris..our work was divided into two equal parts: the world of today and the world of yesterday, the dreams of the ancients and the dreams of the modern man. I can't believe that was a bad thing. At least we were not in danger of falling into absurdity, so common nowadays, of confusing the era of Sputniks and Polaris rockets with the era of Genesis".It is hard for me to categorize this book; it is a spiritual book, illuminating one man's relationship with the Spirit; it is a profound meditation on the nature of truth, morality and friendship, and it is a priceless analysis of human nature. Blindness was no impediment to Lusseyran - on the contrary, he learnt to use his senses with an uncanny precision to represent facts by creating visual imagery, to identify the motives that drive people and countries and to establish contact with the transcendental essence of all Being. "People were not at all what they were said to be, and never the same for more than two minutes at a stretch. Some were, of course, but that was a bad sign, a sign that they did not want to understand or be alive, that they were somehow caught in the glue of some indecent passion. ... It is strange that when laws men make are so ticklish in matters concerning the body, they never set limits to nakedness or contact by voice. Evidently they leave out of account the fact that the voice can go further than hands or eyes in licit or illicit touch."This book is very valuable for its insights on the nature of blindness and sensory-emotional reorganization that accompanies it. "Blindness works like dope, a fact we have to reckon with. ...Like drugs, blindness heightens certain sensations, giving sudden and often disturbing sharpness to the senses of hearing and touch. But, most of all, like a drug, it develops inner as against outer experience, and sometimes to excess" (p.49). I just cannot help myself from quoting from this book, it is so full of unforgettable passages. This is from the time he was caught, as a member of the Resistance, by the Gestapo: (p. 245): "One small piece of advice. IN a spot like this, do not go too far afield for help. Either it is right near you, in your heart, or it is nowhere. It is not a question of character, it is a question of reality. If you try to be strong, you will be weak. If you try to understand, you will go crazy. No, reality is not your charaqcter which, for its part, is only a by-product - I can't define it, a collection of elements. Reality is Here and Now. It is the life you are living in the moment. Don't be afraid to lose your soul there, for God is in it."As you can see, this book was written by a remarkable man, who could "see" life and truth and humaneness better than many of his fellow men. Now, when our times in some ways resemble the late 30ies and we again seem to be descending into the darkness of ignorance, when the world is run by corrupt, greedy and cynical men who value their comfort above and bey

I found Jacques Lusseyran in 1969 when he became my teacher and advisor in the graduate program of French at the University of Hawaii. He also became one of my dearest friends. I lost him two short years later when he and his wife were killed on a lonely French country road in a car wreck. The terrible irony of having survived the Nazi occupation of France, as well as his betrayal, capture, torture and the final years in Buchenwald becomes self-evident as one reads this book. But more than the irony, this book portrays Jacques' great capacity for joy and hope and faith. He taught me to have faith and hope, in God and in others, as well as in myself and in those gifts which each of us possess. I have shed many tears because I lost him. I loved him and his wife, both for what they taught me and what they gave me: joy in life and living; faith that even in the worst of human pain and suffering there is still always hope. I have also shed many tears since then of gratitude for those two brief years of my life. And I continue our conversations about all things good and joyful through reading And There Was Light. Jacques Lusseyran and his life have changed my life and I rejoice and am grateful.

This is a first and foremost, a book about life, _real_ life. Blunt, profound and absolutely inspiring, Lusseyran has written an exceptionally luminous account of living with and learning from adversity. While the content of this book is itself interesting, (WWII, the French resistance, blindness) the book's real value is the majestic picture of human potential it paints. Lusseyran guides us into the subtle depths of the human being and does so with a writing style that is neither cryptic nor patronizing. I have never been quite so moved by a book before.

Upon becoming blind at 8 years of age, Jacques Lusseyran discovered a deep inner joy that henceforth illuminated his entire life and never left him, not even in the horror and despair of Buchenwald. He was a daring, courageous French Resistance fighter who taught people not just to see but also to experience that life beyond all life and that joy that surpasses all human understanding. Even the evil of Nazism sweeping throughout France could not dim this ever-shining light. Jacques lived life to the fullest every moment of his waking hours with an enthusiasm that is astonishing, energizing, and almost unbelievable. To read this book is discover anew that light which the darkness has never been able to extinguish.

The autobiographical book, And There Was Light, by Jacques Lusseyran, was to me, a must read for all people! I am in awe of Jacques Lusseyran. His courage through adversity was a beam of light! The quote by him, "Light is in us, even if we have no eyes," tells of a person, only physically was blind (age of 8 in 1932). In 1939 as a teenager, he founded a student resistance, The Volunteers of Liberty. When Dr. Lusseyran was asked, what is your reason for loving life, only then did he find the real subject to write about his life. He said, ".... since I have maintained this love of life through everything: through infirmity, the terrors of war and even in Nazi prison. Never did it fail me, not in misfortune nor in good times, which may seem much easier but is not".