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Sri Humananda "All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love's sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live."
"I'm Enlightened... Again." OM Shanti… For most dedicated seekers and practitioners of any inward-looking path - yoga being one of these - depending on you dedication, your strength of desire for liberation and your consistency of practice, there will be hills and valleys in the experience of your path. Sometimes, meditation and even life in general comes to you quickly and easily. You seem very in tune. Things are smooth. Other times, no matter how hard you try, things just don't seem to go so effortlessly at all. These are the ups and downs of the Path, and they are in my experience quite natural and I believe them to actually be required. It is said by the wise that yoga comes and goes. You know when it is here and you certainly know when it's not. Regardless, the Holy War must be fought wisely. When you are strong, advance. When you are weak or your enemy is strong, hold your ground. Fighting against a strong opponent when you are weak is foolish and you will quickly tire and lose. Know that yoga will come again and the tide will change and you'll be able to advance a little easier once again. Just hang in there and continue your practice as best as you are able to. It happens every so often, usually during one of these exceptionally strong and easy times, that we may be blessed with a powerfully amazing insight that really rocks our world and changes our entire outlook for all time into the future. A spiritual evolutionary leap has been made, and though these leaps are rare, they do happen and they happen at the appointed time when we have developed sufficiently to understand the deeper meaning of such a leap on a more evolved level. The elation one feels during such a leap, specially when it involves a quality of the experience of Oneness, is way beyond anything previously experienced, and our experience of it is one of pure unequaled Bliss sometimes almost unbearable and in many cases can be quite terrifying. It is exactly in such forward leaps where there lies a danger that I have been witness to on a number of occasions, as well as having fallen prey to such very traps myself - and not only once. So I feel I should lay some of that out here now in case others have had similar experiences or in the event someone should have one, which is quite likely if you are reading this type of material in the first place. The trap comes to us during and after the experience in the form of a firm belief that we are now enlightened and that all our searching and practice, our learning and insights have now come to the ultimate complete and final end of all spiritual evolution for all time. Hmm, well careful now. Such convictions can have drastic if not severe consequences on us and our environment and the people around us, and can at times even be dangerous when subsequent actions are taken in a dapper but foolhardy way. In states containing such glimpses of the experience of Oneness, our outlook changes drastically on many intricate levels of being. There is a feeling that one can do anything without limit – take over cities and countries if you'd like or rule the world or do nothing at all – and acting on any or none of those extremes seems inconsequential to one at the time. There is no difference between this way or that way, between right and wrong or even life and death. It is a precarious position and caution must be taken. Such a state can last seconds, minutes, hours or days, and in the resulting high caused by the residual effects of the experience, one can come to some drastic conclusions and plan some seriously radical actions which would be unthinkable otherwise, and even worse is that one believes one is doing so from a state of enlightenment. But here's the rub – all these conclusions and plans and actions will once again be understood as drastic and radical and dangerous as soon as the major effects of the state fade into the background again, which invariably they do. It is in the proper, deliberate and measured incorporation of the residual effects into your being where the lessons live. So be careful when the feeling strikes you that you are now enlightened… again, because you are in all likelihood not quite there yet. You have most likely only taken a step forward, and a small step at that. Relax, enjoy the experience, absorb and learn all you can from it over the appropriate period of time. During this fortunate leap-event, don't chase after the feeling when it starts fading, and don't even try to recapture it because doing so will certainly hasten its departure since the very power of such desirous intent of trying is exactly contradictory to being, which is really the nature of the state to begin with. Have no fear, it will return again sure enough when you are ready and capable of assimilating and accommodating the experience again, but not before. Besides, it is not something we can lose – that state we so vehemently pursue is only our very own Self. It cannot be chased as such and it certainly cannot be lost – it can only be hidden from our view by our ignorance in the form of our desire to lay claim to it. During these blessed spiritual forward-leaps - and yes there will be a number of them on your Path – try to not make any radical plans or take any drastic extraordinary actions. Take the time you need to absorb the full potential of the experience and let it fade in its own due time. Don't push it or pull it or try to hold on to it. Simply continue with your sadhana (practice) just as before. Remember that it is this practice that "rewarded" you with this divine blissful experience and prepared you to be able to recognize it, so continue with what worked for you before. It will work for you again. The great ladder has many steps. It is not wise to exclaim at every step "I'm enlightened!" No, relax. The value is in the journey and the journey itself is the Path. The steps, well, they are only steps. Value them, yes, but try to not overvalue them. Enlightenment becomes apparent to you at the end of the journey, not at every step along the way. Life is lived much more fruitfully in the seconds than in the hours or days or years or lifetimes of the journey. Enjoy the seconds - they are much more plentiful than the hours or the years, and they are also much closer to the Now. Namaste.
Sri Humananda © Dwapara 307 (2007) |