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bewell
1275 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 12 2007 : 11:24:48 AM
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Rumination on "bliss"
In lesson 113, Yogani uses this definition of bliss: "complete happiness, heaven, paradise." For me, that definition resonates deeply. It reminds me of having tasted complete happiness in two forms: the heavenly and paradisiacal.
This heaven is up. It is a place of blissful ascent of the soul. A felt liberation from the fleshy body, the fiery levitation body, the golden ethereal body of ultimate pleasure, and finally from the faculty of thought. Heaven is out of body. It is not known through imagination. Nor is it dreamlike. It is a journey inward to pure consciousness.
Paradise is the earth transformed by liberation from desire. It is Eden, not due to the absence of evil, but instead, due to the absence of temptation. It is peace and rest. It is basking in merciful goodness. It is complete humility: knowing grace. Paradise is embodied, but with no pain, no suffering, no worries. The body is conductive of glowing energy and seems to hover as if weightless.
The gateway between heaven and paradise is beyond temporal and spatial perception. It is registered in memory only by what came before (heaven) and what came after (paradise). The gateway is nondual: The One.
For me, Yogani's refections on "bliss" is evocative of these extraordinary memories:
lessonshttp://www.aypsite.org/113.html
http://www.aypsite.org/16.html
For me, Yogani is a kindred spirit in a rare dimension very real experience.
But more importantly, he has inspired, and equipped me to do twice daily advanced yoga practices. For others doing the practices talk of heaven and paradise may seem dreamy and irrelevant and may even be a barrier. These words are only words, and as such they may mean vastly different things to different people. It is the practices (moreso than the words, and interpretation of words) that keep us growing.
"You will experience many emotions in connection with your journey:
wonderment, awe, gratitude, impatience, boredom, anger, frustration,
pain… whatever the feelings are, use these to redouble your
commitment to practice. If you can transmute your feelings, whatever
they may be, into an unceasing desire to do your daily practice, then
you cannot fail." Yogani, Lesson 16
I confess, I have recently felt anger and sadness related to the use of the word "bliss." I have had to learn that the words are not the experience. I am deeply grateful for the learning process. |
Edited by - bewell on Nov 12 2007 11:36:46 AM |
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bewell
1275 Posts |
Posted - Nov 12 2007 : 2:56:43 PM
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Inner guru
My happy journey through heaven and paradise, though temporary, was a beginning, a wedding night of the soul. The initial glow soon wore off. Looking back, I think the glow wore off soon because I had no idea of the value, the function or even the existence of yoga practices that cultivate such experiences.
Nevertheless, the imprint of that experience on my neurophysiology was indelible. And that indelible imprint became my inner guru, my link to the divine, my bringer of light. Over time, following what resonated with my inner guru, I found appropriate practices for cultivating happiness.
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Edited by - bewell on Nov 12 2007 6:30:13 PM |
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bewell
1275 Posts |
Posted - Nov 12 2007 : 3:09:20 PM
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Hell
quote:
Originally posted by bewell
This heaven is up.... A felt liberation from the fleshy body...
By "fleshy body," I am referring to a felt sense of being frail and mortal. For me, that night, it was also a felt absence of the divine. It was horrible, terrible.
In an essay I came across last night, Ken Wilber writes: "Hell is identification with... the empirical ego, the self that can be seen... the puny, finite, temporal, limited and lacerating..." (Prologue to Entering the Castle by Carolyn Myss)
I'm not a fan of Wilber, but that description rang true. By that standard, I was in hell. For me the "fleshy body" feeling had to do with an assumption that that mortal coil was all there was of me. It was an intense awareness, not just an ordinary sense of mortality. It was abandonment. But quickly, when fire ignited, "hell" became a purgatory, a forced letting-go. |
Edited by - bewell on Nov 12 2007 6:08:10 PM |
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bewell
1275 Posts |
Posted - Nov 12 2007 : 4:38:15 PM
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There is a cessation of suffering.
I was not aware of the constant background noise of desire until it was noticeably absent.
Suffering is constant. The cause of suffering is desire. And there is a cessation of suffering. So goes Buddhist teaching. Here is where it gets tricky: A moment of nirvana, the cessation of suffering, can give the false impression of enlightenment. True enlightenment is not an isolated event, it is expressed in a way of life, it is attained by knowing a path and practicing the disciplines.
That's my take on how "the four noble truths" apply. |
Edited by - bewell on Nov 12 2007 6:12:11 PM |
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bewell
1275 Posts |
Posted - Nov 12 2007 : 6:19:55 PM
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Letting go
quote:
Originally posted by bewell
But quickly, when fire ignited, "hell" became a purgatory, a forced letting-go.
Forced ecstasy was my second great lesson in letting go.
The first great universal lesson in letting go is the bowel movement. It is both a necessity and a pleasure. Excessive holding on, constipation, is primal unhappiness.
In a way the two lessons go together, letting go of the "fleshy body" is akin to letting go of "crap." And false identification with the fleshy body can make one "feel like crap."
Oh the release: sheer bliss. |
Edited by - bewell on Nov 12 2007 6:44:22 PM |
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bewell
1275 Posts |
Posted - Nov 13 2007 : 07:46:25 AM
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Daily practice
In my daily deep meditation practice -- the repetition of "i am" -- the scenery is not nearly as dramatic as in my happy wedding night journey to heaven and paradise. That was a one-time event. But that journey made an imprint on my neurophysiology and left traces in my memory that inform my ordinary daily practice.
The journey taught me the meaning of "bliss consciousness" by way of heavenly subtraction and paradisiacal addition.
Subtraction. When perceptually, it was as if I was "out of body," there was a step by step dropping away of parts of me: my outer body, my sensitive soul, my intellectual faculty. Per Yogani's teaching, I understand "bliss conscious" as the witness to that whole drama which remains even after the intellectual faculty is gone, and there is no more "scenery." When all that was left was "the One," then one could say my "bliss conscious" was merged with "the One," or it was One. Intellectually it is hypothetical. The intellect cannot go that far. But intuitively, and in practice it works. I understand "ecstatic conductivity" as the fire, the rocket fuel, that propelled me "out of body" that night. In propelling me out of my ordinary self to union with "the One," the ecstatic energy was propelling to bliss consciousness alone, freeing me of all (other?) koshas. Bliss conscious received its ultimate window cleaning, and became indistinguishable with that which is transcendentally.
Addition. After union with the One, in the pure first moment of paradisiacal embodiment, ecstatic conductivity had changed from fire that propels to light that suffuses. My body was there, but in stillness and free of desire. My faculty of thought and my memory were there, but free of content. I look back on that as the moment of maximum peaceful union of bliss consciousness and ecstatic conductivity. In the union of ecstatic bliss the generosity of spirit that flows is not my own, it comes from beyond, or from the hidden center.
Back to ordinary spinal breathing and deep meditation. The scenery is not so dramatic (thoughts of tasks half done, impulsive desires etc), but constituent parts of the wedding night journey are there: ecstatic conductivity -- energy flowing through my body -- and bliss consciousness -- the silent witness behind all thought and perception. And hypothetically, (for we are talking intellectually about something that is beyond intellect) when there is no scenery to witness, bliss is in union with the One, or disappears into the One, or is no more. And my only job is to keep saying "i am" until the time is up. Then I rest. |
Edited by - bewell on Nov 13 2007 09:42:59 AM |
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bewell
1275 Posts |
Posted - Nov 14 2007 : 09:37:30 AM
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Happy memory: Like a mantra
Last night I was at an asana class. During a time of meditation, the teacher suggested we repeat a mantra or as an alternative approach, recall a "happy memory." As my mantra-substitute, I recalled coming out of the One into "paradise."
The journey through heaven and paradise is my only memory of "complete happiness." All the rest of my life, the happiness has been incomplete. I'm not complaining. There have been many, many subsequent times that have been paradisiacal to various degrees. But none I would call "complete." So that first time remains my template of supreme happiness.
Many times I have thought of "letting it go" as my supreme memory, thought of doing so with a view for living "in the now." I've tried letting go. But I discovered that when I consciously, gratefully live out of that memory of happiness, it actually helps me access the now. It is not a memory among memories, it is a living memory. It is an ever-present neurophysical window to the divine, and recalling it helps me "let go."
I don't need to intentionally let the memory go. The memory graciously steps aside after it has done its job as guru: Bringer of the now.
For me the memory of paradise and the "i am" mantra have become inter-penetrated: They evoke the same ecstatic bliss. |
Edited by - bewell on Nov 14 2007 11:25:35 AM |
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brushjw
USA
191 Posts |
Posted - Jan 11 2008 : 9:58:07 PM
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bewell, thank you for a wonderful, thought-provoking post. I am just taking my first sips of the devine nectar and having real glimpses of bliss. It is transformative.
At my stage in meditation the earthly paradise is felt through my body. The feeling of rightness as I straighten my back. The sense of being grounded through my hips and buttocks, my connectedness to the earth with my feet. The hypersensitivity of my hands as I place them on my thighs. The whisper of breath nourishing my body, guiding my presence and caressing my nostrils. The feeling as my breath stills and my body switches to prana-metabolism. Relaxing the minute muscles in my face and allowing bliss to enter me.
The heavenly is felt as an afteraffect of the practice. An onrush of unconditional, nonsubjective love. Tremendous gratitude for Yogani and all those who have helped me on my path. A feeling of being guided in the right direction. Yes, up; up to the heavens. Inward and upwards.
quote:
I have recently felt anger and sadness related to the use of the word "bliss."
Part of my purification process is enabling my body to feel bliss, and preparing physically to receive it. My definition of "bliss" changes almost daily.
Namaste,
Joe |
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Bliss: "Complete happiness, heaven, paradise"
