Recently watching an interview show, I noted how disconnected the host was from his feelings. By this, I don’t mean an unattached witness but they were so repressed they’d made emotions “other”, not part of their self-sense. Avoiding our emotions can create a dry but safe life experience. However, it can to create “explosions” of repression releasing at inopportune times. And it detaches us from happiness. We may feel superficial things like satisfaction, but we only find the depths of happiness through an open heart.
Put another way, we do not find deep happiness “out there” but within. We can find tastes of joy through various experiences, but happiness that’s tied to an experience always fades.
The happiness that’s possible is far beyond many people’s experience. I’ve talked about levels of bliss and raptures, for example.
We can experience the very flow of life itself as bliss. The vibrations that give rise to the experience of the world around us can be experienced as bliss. We can also experience the liveliness of Divinity, inherent in all things, as bliss.
Texts talk of the bliss of various devas. In that case, the topic is less about what some other beings experience but the bliss of living their qualities. When those qualities become enlivened in us, we can experience them as flavours and degrees of bliss. Of course, there are many other ways we may experience their qualities.
The sages have called a matured awakening sat chit ananda, absolute bliss consciousness. This means the higher 3 koshas are prominent in awareness vs the physical, emotional, and mental that are dominant prior. Bliss becomes an ongoing quality of our very being.
We may get the idea that being awake means being blissed-out all the time. But that shows lack of integration, perhaps after a new opening. Plus, we remain human and will have ups and downs. Bliss can be almost overwhelming or intense. But we can’t live a productive life in that state. Much of the time, it may be a soothing balm in the background. We may even have flatter periods when other qualities become dominant. Yet the Self remains, whatever the experience.
The black of unenlivened consciousness is Krishna. It still has that lively quality which can be known as bliss. It’s a subtle bliss, but very potent. This bliss has a sense of completeness that celestial bliss doesn’t have.
Dreaming of exalted states of bliss won’t make it so. The key is healing those incomplete experiences, those unresolved emotions. Then the channels open up, life can flow, feelings become rich, and love and happiness become our companions.
Davidya
This is so important to be mindful of: “The key is healing those incomplete experiences, those unresolved emotions.”
When peace prevails, when blissful states (even temporarily) pervade experience, when the ‘background” (which isn’t really a ‘background’!) of eternal Silence is recognized, when Divinity is felt/seen/known in/as/beyond all, it can be tempting to see the “healing” as, “Oh, that’s been taken care of.”***
Such an important reminder – to heal unresolved emotions, incomplete experiences – thank you.
*** (as if that thought is not enough of a clue to realize more healing is needed!!)
Hi Don
Right – if we’re still in a human body, there is still karma playing out, there are still experiences to be had, there is still purification to happen. Any idea that we’re finished in some way is an underestimation of the process.
Staying static encourages inertia = tamas.
Hi David,
May I ask you a question about an experience I had during a technique?
I saw what looked like a static hurricane viewed from above. In the center, the “eye,” was the inkiest, deepest black that would be hard to even imagine. The thought came that I could dive into that black center. Is that Krishna’s domain? It seems a contradiction that black is the color for the god f love and compassion. (I didn’t dive into it; I wasn’t sucked into it).
Hi Mary
A static vortex could be a few things. Most typically, it’s one way of seeing a chakra (which means spinning wheel, a stage more subtle). Another is a large stress being released, although that doesn’t tend to be static.
Diving into it in either case would be fine – largely a shift in perspective but can create purification. But not an issue if you don’t.
The inky black would simply be no expression. Like the space between stars in space. Krishna is more a quality that becomes conscious after transcending consciousness in Brahman. We could say it’s in that direction but Krishna is deeper.
Yes. The word Krishna itself means black. Silent consciousness is also black. The Shiva of observing consciousness is considered a very deep blue. Our cultural connotations for the colours can be wonky.
This also comes back to the layers of expression of primary laws or devas. Krishna has an unmanifest form, a cosmic form, and a local form. He’s an avatar of Vishnu, the sustainer, so rules an aspect of what sustains the world appearance. This relates to the heart chakra and sacred geometry. And that to love and the intellect.
More:
https://davidya.ca/2020/08/27/krishna-consciousness/
When I read your articles like this one, I feel my skin tingling and cool air flow over the body. What is happening? It is not the cold.
Hi Sandesh
This is something for you to learn – what is your body responding to? What do you most resonate with?
it could be truth or inspiration or… It could be the words or the energy behind the words. It could simply be an expanded perspective.
The journey is surely ongoing, awakening is the beginning of even more healing and growth. I’ve witnessed many teachers proclaim they are done and finished. As well as students. But the more I think I know the less I do and just being with what is and allowing the flow of life to guide this body mind is a fun and joyful journey. Not always easy but way better than trying to make things happen.
Hi Reggie
Yes, there are places on the journey where we feel very complete and feel done. But usually life happens to correct that impression. Or we read something like the Yoga Sutra that reminds us of what hasn’t unfolded yet. Ego can crop up in there to take ownership though. That can get in the way of clear seeing.
And yes, the more in the flow of life we can be, the smoother it goes. Life events will challenge our equanimity but the deeper we allow, the more we can accept life as it is and move through whatever arises.