Enjoying the World

Akilesh's meditation IX on Thomas Traherne's quote,
"Your enjoyment of the world..." printed in Huxley's Perennial Philosophy

Yet further, you never enjoyed the world aright, till you so loved the beauty of enjoying it, that you are covetous and earnest to persuade others to enjoy it.

The beauty of enjoying it, the world, of awakening in heaven. There is the world, then with vision soaring like a cloud, there is enjoying the world. Then there is an additional blessing showering -- beauty. There is a second layer of icing on the celebration cake of life, on the world. Enjoying is present, then the beauty of enjoying. But wait, there is yet another layer of delicious icing -- love. "... till you so love the beauty of enjoying it..." This is the ecstatic, this is the song of the adept who has gone beyond, the fragrance of the mystic who has immersed herself in the warm pool of fathomless bliss. This is one who has found the wellspring within her own heart and who is now nourished by the beyond. She moves in the stream of the Tao. Open, receptive, with vast trust, basic trust, unconditioned, not based on any external condition or circumstance, she is living in the radiance of divine love. This warmth radiates from within her own inner lamp, a heart of centerless space. She embodies the space of the whole. Inside and outside have merged in sacred union, in ecstatic bliss. She is nourished by this bliss food. She rides on the wind, the energy wind of her awakening. In authentic presence she dances with the patterns of energy that come out of pure consciousness. She dances with being. Her heart guide is awake. Now all that was formerly dominant in her life, her thinking mind, rationality, emoting, the bodily senses, all are expressions of awakened heart. Mind identification, thinking, ego fixation have been seen through, and the light of primordial consciousness is able to shine through her being with unimpeded clarity. This light shining is her blissful food, it is what sustains her unlike any ordinary food. Now the light shines in ordinary food and drink as well, and imbues it with an energy of subtle and indescribable delight. The light shines now in the most common of behaviors and thoughts. Every thought and act and feeling is now infused with this background light of wakefulness. This is the embodiment of transformation. The ordinary becomes extraordinary in the transforming light of consciousness. This is where the ecstatic lives, within an open secret; within a secret bliss where the ordinary is transmuted automatically in the light of awakening.

Life becomes a life of dance and song -- you so love the beauty of enjoying. And this celebration simply stands alone in open space. You abide in a space of love, beauty and enjoyment, not based on anything. You so love the beauty of enjoying the world, that you dissolve and the world disappears into you. Words fail here, but what is left is vastness, the beyond, pure consciousness. And in the light of this consciousness is love radiating, is beauty manifesting in a most mysterious and miraculous way.

When this rejoicing beauty and love fill the world, merging into your body, dissolving into your soul, the ocean pouring into the drop, you want to share it. You no longer know who or what you are. You feel vast, a luminous presence. Centerless, the center of the whole has become your center. Light is pouring, like a dam has broken and light is radiating out from an endless stream. You are immersed in the Tao. The existential light is showering and you're dancing, rejoicing in secret movement; you're listening to an infinite silence, in reverence, in secret ambient ecstasy. The words are just bits of prayer-laughter, just the notes of a bird's song, ephemeral vehicles of bliss, sound bits of ecstasy, indecipherable by the mind, food to the tender heart. Words become no more than body parts moving in a dance incomprehensible to the rational mind.

What could these movements mean? The questions begin rotting and dissolve into the earth where they are transformed in silence, in darkness, into that which brings forth brilliant flowers, beautiful primordial dances of wordless love and joy. The ecstatic loses herself in this dance, immerses herself in the light showering, in the calm, warm and clear pools of light coalescing in empty space; immerses herself in the stream of this light coursing through empty space. And she so loves the beauty of enjoying it, she is so full of love, of the beauty of living in joy, that she must share it.

The ecstatic shares like a mother bird with her chicks in the nest. The young birds are famished from birth, from the experience of first light. But they have no context for this experience of wakefulness. So the mother bird, who is so full, disgorges her burden, the predigested nourishment deep into their eager throats, into their famished bellies. This food that descends from blue sky in feathered warmth, is received in innocence and utter trust, with a primordial trust not based on anything at all. And the mother bird is blissfully grateful to the young birds for relieving her of her burden. She had feasted on the bounty of the earth, sky, water and sun, the bounty of the beyond, of freedom, and now she is about to burst. Descending from empty sky to the nest, the sacred circle of birth, the waiting mouths, the perfect fit, the mutual needs, triggers a living ritual, the ancient process laid down in heart memory -- the passage of nourishment. This nourishing process, to the mother bird, is a joyful unburdening. At the same time, with the unburdening of the mother bird, something transpires in the young birds. A warmth flickers in their bellies, they remember their awakening, the first glimpse of luminous blue overhead. With nourishment, a faraway longing for something stirs in the core of their feathered hearts: the freedom of flight, the realization of their full potential and purpose, their original nature. The nourishment and nurturing that comes from the mother bird unburdening herself assists the growth and ripening of the young birds so that eventually they are able to stand on their own two feet, on nests edge, and let go. That let go will be their moment of truth and glory, and the fulfillment of mother bird's work. The first time the young bird will fall toward earth in terror, but just before he hits the ground, his wings open and the whole sky becomes his. His joy will be immeasurable, and will reflect the same joy living in the heart of his mother.

There will be many more let go's, a whole life of letting go, and each time the vastness of the sky will open up to meet the open, trusting heart. The sky never fails. You can fall into it and it will catch you. It will never say no to your leaping trust, never forbid you the space to let go into. It is trustworthy. The ecstatic, like the mother bird overflowing with joy, overflowing with nourishment, radiating love, points out the trustworthiness of the sky to others and encourages them to move through their fear and let go into it. The spiritual friend is not doing anything. She is simply radiating the energy of her wakefulness and the love that is bursting from her heart. She can do no other. It is showering there, like an overfull rain cloud. She is in a showering let go. You can look up, open your mouth and be refreshed, and something might transpire in you. Transformation may happen in the blissful radiance of the spiritual friend. But it is not the friend doing something. Rather it is your trust, your openness and receptivity that creates the clearing for the benediction to occur. It is the space you open up inside that allows existence to pour into you. It is up to you. You have to open your own eyes. The friend can't open them for you. Opening your eyes, you see the light shining. But most are living with eyes closed, cradle-to-grave, insisting on living a small life of sleepwalking within the trance of self.

With trust, love and a little courage you can open, open your heart and soul. The spiritual friend is there shining in the light of her being, and that may encourage you to let go into the open sky, into the beyond that exists in your own heart. Letting go into this sky you merge with the friend, and you're no longer separate but one vast ocean. You have dissolved into the ocean. Now you share the oceanic experience of the friend; you're nourished by the same great mother; you have entered the stream. How can you not share what you have experienced -- the way of transformation -- with others who need it? It streams from every pore. It rises like the eastern sun in your being.

Post by Akilesh