Bliss and Enlightenment

My wife is taking an advanced yoga course, studying the yoga sutras.

She said she read that bliss comes before enlightenment, and was wondering if I agreed. 

I had to think about that. 

I usually think about this as:  First comes the agony of ego loss, then we may enter the emotionless state of basking in All-That-Is and All-That-Is-Not, then coming back to bliss or ecstasy when you touch back down into the ego. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2014/02/first-agony-then-ecstasy-and-then.html

Although, others have argued that ecstasy is a prerequisite for enlightenment.

http://www.aypsite.org/382.html

Their answer is also:  “It depends on what we mean by ecstasy, and also on what we mean by enlightenment.” 

Aye, there's the rub…  (Thanks Shakespeare). 

Let us quote Adyashanti:

“Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretense. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.” 

And more here:

http://www.meditationplex.com/nondual-awareness/enlightenment-altered-state-consciousness-adyashanti/

My take on the pre- vs post-bliss or ecstasy is that these feelings are only a distractor. 

Often people get a taste of this positive feeling and chase after it. 

Let this go. 

 

Let everything go…  

Agony may arise. 

Bliss and ecstasy may arise. 

Neither are of importance. 

Clear seeing…   dropping all lenses…

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-first-commandment-part-2.html

This natural state is already present, at all times. 

We just cover this natural state of being with our ego desires, distastes, and confusions. 

When we enter this state, compassion arises, we are interested in everything, everything is new and fresh. 

We dance into the world with child-like fascination. 

And we can not help but act within right-action…

However, we have transcended and included our old cynical “adult-self.”

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/04/innocence-to-sophistication-to-innocence.html

That is what is different from our original child-level fascination with the world. 

So, don’t worry about agony, bliss, ecstasy, or even enlightenment…  

Drop all desire… 

Drop all distaste… 

Drop all fear… 

Like the empty sky it has no boundaries.  Yet it is right here, ever serene and clear.   When you seek to attain it, you cannot see it.  You cannot take hold of it.  But neither can you lose it. -  Yung-chia

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/favorite-quotes-and-entheogens.html

So sit quietly, and let this natural state arise.  

Then when you have seen through “The Game.”

Sit back and enjoy the show. 

Namaste

This Struggle to Die

Grasping onto

This one life

Not realizing

This temporary life

Is also a concept 

Animated stardust

Borrowed stardust

Animated by Source

Dust to Dust

Source continues to be… 

Always has… 

Always will… 

An infinity of infinities… 

This bullshit we create

Within these memories

Stored in this

3-pound gelatinous mass of flesh  

Just stories… 

Stories we create

To preserve

This one life

This small self… 

Can we finally let it go 

Whether

Within this life

By ascending to a higher level of being 

Lighter… 

With more laughter… 

Can we finally let go 

Then

Really finally

 

Letting this body

To Rot… 

Dehydrate… 

To Dust… 

Ashes upon the hearth of doing...   

No more doing

No more being… 

Psychedelics, Meditation, and Death

Actually, the risk of clinical death with psychedelic use is extremely low.

Any clinical deaths are due to recreational use in an unprepared individual, likely with tendencies toward psychosis.  The therapeutic index of psilocybin is 641. This is the ratio between the LD50 (lethal dose in 50% of subjects) and the ED50 (effective or therapeutic dose in 50% of subjects), meaning that the LD50 is 641 times higher than the ED50.  This number is 199 for aspirin, and 21 for nicotine (lower numbers indicate greater toxicity).  (How heretical!)

https://drugs-forum.com/forum/showwiki.php?title=Category:Magic_Mushrooms

There have been no deaths from psychedelics used in the clinical or research setting. 

On the other hand, the EXPERIENCE of death may be the CENTRAL event in the healing that occurs with the clinical use of psychedelic medicine. 

The healing that occurs with meditation likely is also mediated through the “experience of death. “

(Photo of Artemio Rodriguez's, Mickey Muerto, 2005)

Ego death. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_death

Perhaps, recognizing how this sense of self is formed. 

Then transcending this current ego. 

Identifying with something beyond, and bigger, more complex, and maybe also simpler, than this small self (yes, paradox again!). 

The centrality of confronting our own mortality is central to the psychotherapy developed by Dr. Irvin Yalom. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_therapy

Interestingly, often the fear of death is sublimated, transformed, repressed, or displaced, and then manifested as another fear, or anxiety and/or depression. 

Dr. Yalom lists several inner changes he has observed in patients with cancer confronted with death:

-       A rearrangement of life’s priorities: a trivializing of the trivial.

-       A sense of liberation: being able to choose not to do those things that they do not wish to do.

-       An enhanced sense of living in the immediate present, rather than postponing life until retirement or some other point in the future. 

-       Deeper communication with loved ones than before the crisis. 

Other quotes:

If you die before you die, then you won't die when you die - St Paul's Monastery on Mount Athos

To philosophize is to prepare for death. – Cicero. 

No man enjoys the true taste of life but he who is willing to quit it. – Seneca. 

It is only in the face of death that man’s self is born. – St Augustine. 

Why do you fear your last day?  It contributes no more to your death than each of the others. – Montaigne. 

The after effects of a near death experience for some individuals have great parallels with guided psychedelic experiences and long-term meditation. 

http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical/departments/psychiatry/sections/cspp/dops/greyson-publications/mystical-Shift.pdf

So how do you practice dying right now?

There are many methods.  Take up a meditation practice. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/enlightenment.html

One of my favorite mediations is Wes Nisker’s death reflection.  You can download this and listen:

http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/191/talk/4779/

You could try psychedelics, but they are illegal in all of the United States, except within research studies.  And, perhaps, they are best used with guidance. 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/helicopters-and-enlightenment.html

In our own, legal, research work, death or its equivalent, occurs commonly. 

We note that this death, this ego death, is central to the healing we have observed. 

See this amazing commentary from one of our volunteers: 

http://geoffgilpin.com/state-journal-article-outtakes/

Further, for those diagnosed with cancer, who cannot get past their anxiety or depression, guided psychedelic experiences have been central to their psychological healing. 

For stories and videos see here:

http://www.heffter.org/video.htm

So, why is alcohol and nicotine legal, while psychedelics are not? 

A very good question…   

Perhaps, we can do something about this travesty… 

Namaste

William Faulkner on Work

There was a quote from William Faulkner in the “The Week” October 9, 2015, on page 19: 

“It’s a shame that the only thing that a man can do for eight hours a day is work.  He can’t eat for eight hours; he can’t drink for eight hours; he can’t make love for eight hours.  The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work.”

I was a bit surprised at this quote. 

I know he is a much more thoughtful writer than this quote leads us to believe. 

I was coming up with all sorts of other things I could do for 8 hours rather than work! 

Riding my bike, writing, fishing, reading, meditating… 

So, I Googled this quote and got the more complete version: 

“There were many things I could do for two or three days and earn enough money to live on for the rest of the month. By temperament I’m a vagabond and a tramp. I don’t want money badly enough to work for it. In my opinion it’s a shame that there is so much work in the world. One of the saddest things is that the only thing that a man can do for eight hours a day, day after day, is work. You can’t eat eight hours a day nor drink for eight hours a day nor make love for eight hours — all you can do for eight hours is work. Which is the reason why man makes himself and everybody else so miserable and unhappy.” 

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner

Ah, that is more like him!  

Context can often completely change the meaning of a partial quote. 

Now there is great quote.  Outlining the desire to enjoy life. 

The desire to live life fully. 

As Rabbi Harold Kushner said:

Nobody on their deathbed has ever said "I wish I had spent more time at the office.” 

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~roni/quotes.html

There is nothing wrong with work. 

There is everything wrong with work that is a waste of time, or work that hurts others. 

So lets end with 2 more quotes:  

If I could live my life again

   in the next one I would try to make more mistakes

   I would not try to be so perfect, I would relax more.

   I would be more dumb than I have been, in fact

   I would take very few things seriously.

   I would be less hygienic.

   I would take more risks, more trips,

   I would watch more sunsets,

   I would climb more mountains, swim more rivers.

   I would go to places where I have never been to,

   I would eat more ice-cream and less beans,

   I would have more real problems and less imaginary ones.

   I was one of those people who live sensibly and

   prolifically every minute of their life.

   Of course I had happy moments. But if I could

   go back I would try to have only happy moments.

   In case you didn't know life is is made of that, of

   moments only; don't waste this very minute.

   I was one of those people who never went anywhere without

   a thermometer, a bag of hot water, an umbrella and

   a parachute; if I could live again, I would travel light.

   If I could live again I would start to walk barefoot

   at the beginning of the Spring and stay like that until the end

   of the Fall. I would go around more on the calash, I would contemplate more

   dawns and I would play with more children, if I had again life

   ahead.

   But, you see, I am 85 years old and I know I am dying.

                                                            -- J. L. Borges

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.  This is to have succeeded.

                                                            -- Ralph Waldo Emerson