The combination of the basic energies and their effects on the planes of existence unveil a great cosmic reality, namely the great principle of contrast: "light" and "darkness". Without this principle no form whatsoever of life experience could take place. All sensory perception and so all experience of life is the same as an experience of a play of changing variations of light and shade. In the clear sunlight of the day we are able to sense physical details by virtue of the shadow that always rules in the spheres of details that are more or less turned away from the sun or the light. That the details have colour does not change their identity as light and shade. The colours are only variations in the light effects. But it is not only physical sensory perception that depends on light and shade. It applies absolutely equally to all spiritual sensory perception or experiences. Here the light in its culmination is the same as culminating absolute love, just as the darkness here in its culmination is the same as absolutely culminating hatred. All spiritual experience is thus a play between these forms of light and shade. Love thus becomes the light on the mental or spiritual plane, that is: in the absolutely highest form of existence. But just as light and shade can form polar regions, icy wastes and hells because of too little sunlight and correspondingly too much shade, so too can spiritual light and shade from a mental point of view form spiritual polar regions, icy wastes and hells. It is this mental state of hell that results in war, murder, killing and terror. Both the spiritual and physical aspects of life experience are thus a play between light and shade. The quality of this life experience is thus dependent on how the combination of the light and shade manifest themselves in the concerned being's mentality and way of living. The way of living can consequently be killing just as the polar night is dark and icy, and it can be life-giving just as the tropical regions are full of sunshine. But just as too much light and heat create deserts or a reduction of life experience on the physical plane, so too does too little sunshine and too much shade, which means too little love and too much hatred, create deserts or a reduction in the experience of life on the spiritual plane. The highest and most perfect form of life experience is consequently a harmonious relationship between light and shade in both the physical and the mental realms. The whole of the living being's formation of fate depends solely on this ability to create harmony between light and darkness. From a mental point of view this harmony is the same as absolute love. Thus love is actually the greatest work of art in life, as it constitutes the culminating harmony between psychic and spiritual light and shade.