Bliss, Enlightenment, and Judgment

One of the questions in the TV interview that was proposed but wasn't asked on camera was: "What is enlightenment?"

I was thankful because I've never really formally studied the subject. I know that Buddhist's and Hindu's strive for it, that it's something about transcending the cycles of death and rebirth and suffering. But it's never been a quest of mine.

Yesterday I was in Rishikesh and happened in on a lively dialogue about attaining enlightenment and what people should and should not do to attain it. One one side was a lady who claimed to have been in an elightened state for 7 years. She said she glowed so much that people stared at her and cars crashed. She said she didn't eat for the period because she wasn't hungry. On the other side was a guy who is a whiz kid and went into the quantum physics side of trying to explain things. Their egos seemed to clash in an apparent disaggreement over whether one could actually achieve non-attachment and if so how. They seemed to be saying the same thing in different parables.

I was rather annoyed by the conversation because it seemed to be a clash of egos. And it seemed to be one of those intellectual conversations that was going way beyond direct experience, and an attempt to explain the unexplainable. Plus the two main conversationists, weren't very amenable to the other two of us adding our sense or experience. I did manage to get a lay definition of enlightenment of "extreme state of bliss." That I could relate to. In fact I feel like I've experienced alot of bliss that seemed to transcend the physical realms. The catalysts for such events have included just following my heart, ecstatic orgasisms, meditations, Reiki and other healing modalities, visits to spiritual sites, visits to nature, yoga, and probably a few other things I'm not remembering. There was a year or two after a Native American Ceremony where I prayed for being Unconditional Love and Empowerment and learning to shift realities and Sexually Transmitted Love and Joy as a reality for the whole world, that I was going out of my body a good ways and often feeling rebirthed into a state of ecstatic bliss.

Perhaps what I've claimed as my spiritual practice: Unconditional Love, Joy, Empowerment, Abundance, and Fun is some form of Enlightenment? Though I must admit that my reality does not see a need to end the cycle of death and rebirth; I feel like our Spirits choose to incarnate to have fun and experience things in the physical form. Because it's an empowered choice to be a person as opposed to float around in space as a spirit, or be a tree or ant or something... there's no need to "end a cycle". Just don't choose to be reborn again. And because I believe in true Forgiveness and the Mutability of all things... no karma traps.

The funny thing was as I sat in on this conversation, I suddenly felt an extreme state of bliss come over me. In fact as the woman talked about feeling the atman and it detachment from the body and physical realm, I felt myself leaving my body a bit! I had experienced this state before. Not so strongly for a while. It felt like an old familiar horse. I started to remember other ecstatic times. So I sat in a state of Bliss, while occasionally the woman looked at me and explained what I needed to do... the practices I needed to practice for long periods to get to nirvana! I laughed and said, "Well, I feel pretty damn good right now!" Their chatter went on and I wondered why they just didn't try to practice enlightenment rather than arguing about it. I tried to beam it out at them and even got everyone to take some deep breaths together before we parted.

My two friends went on about the woman laughing that they didn't really believe her and that she seemed to be a bag of wind. Today, they asked a friend who stayed on after we left what she said about us. He said she said she thought we were three guys trapped in fashion and full of hot air! I laughed at the mirrored judgment! And suggested we ought to just practice and keep our mouths shut!

Meanwhile last night my bliss kept on for hours. I decided to intend/pray to remain in bliss the rest of my life... perhaps a more tangible prayer than being a channel of unconditional love and joy. I looked at my hotel room full of stuff and saw how each item attached itself to a reality. A jacket meant I would depend on it rather than my own ability to ask my body to be warm (what the Buddhist's call Tumo, I think). How books on healing and spirituality implied that I couldn't just "look within" and/or have my own direct connection to Spirit. (I keep getting the message that I don't need to study any more but rather just practice what I know and trust my intuition). I made a retroactive prayer for all beings in all realms, sentient or otherwise to be enlightened to a state of bliss such as this or better. I thought perhaps that was even better then praying for healing which I sometimes think is just an ego thing of judgment that creates a need for sick people.

I remembered the day before when I tried an excercise in a meditation book where you write out "What is the way you want to Be now? (purpose, meaning, short and long term): I had set the intention to Be this vision I had of myself as a "meditative sadhu bliss shaman". I wondered if that was why I had suddenly jumped into this state of being during the conversation? was it a silent prayer for me from the conversationists?

I laughed and smiled through my whole body. I prayed this for everyone! I pray this for you! So far I have been keeping pretty well in it for over 24 hours... I'll keep you posted!