Bliss Departs

I’ve written before about how life IS bliss, that the very flow of life can be experienced subjectively as profound happiness. What the sages describe as sat chit ananda or absolute bliss consciousness is the culmination of Self Realization or Cosmic Consciousness. We live experiencing everything as arising from bliss and returning to it. Bliss is the ground of all experiences within silent being.

This joy I speak of tends to come in stages. Sometimes, in a wave of intense rapture which then settles in and becomes normal. It cranks up beyond anything the mind might even imagine, then becomes typical.

It’s a very nice place to be.

Listening to an interview recently, I was reminded that some may experience this ending after a time. It may seem like we’ve done something wrong or fallen out of “enlightenment”.  However, we can be reminded that growth tends to come in stages. For a bigger stage to arise, we have to let go of the prior stage.

This is similar to what Adyashanti describes as the end of the honeymoon after awakening. After a few months, the fresh awakening may be somewhat overshadowed for a time while mind rises up again and what remains to be worked out is resolved. It has not been lost, only that the open space has brought an opportunity for completion. Some work is there to be done. However, while this is a step of purification and integration, bliss ending is a dissolution step.

To understand the mechanism of bliss ending, it’s important to remember that even bliss is relative. In the kosha model, the bliss body (Anandamaya Kosha) is the most subtle body and last to be transcended.

Lest we get mislead, I would not describe this as a dark night. Nor a mandatory stage. I only raise the issue so it’s known to be normal. Nothing has gone wrong in the slightest. We’ve transcended even the most subtle aspect of individuality.

Soon we find the bliss is still there, but as an aspect of the person or jiva, much as the body and mind are no longer “mine” but rather vehicles of expression.

The end of bliss is not a problem. Nothing has ended. We simply have to be willing to give up even our enlightenment to develop further. Life is still bliss.  😉
Davidya

Last Updated on November 26, 2020 by Davidya