The Highest Bliss
A reader quotes me as follows:
“Removing oneself from identification with form and focusing on the center of peace within is a basic step that must be taken by disciples.”
Then he says: “I don’t recollect you either discussing or teaching this before. Did I miss it?
Actually, I have taught it before but using different words and a different approach.
For the sake of simplicity, we can group all the planes and worlds into the Trinity of Matter-Soul-Spirit.
Matter is comprised of the three lower planes of the physical-etheric, the astral-emotional and the mind. Spirit, from our point of view, is the formless worlds. Some lump all the realms of spirit together in one descriptive word such as the Void, the Unmanifest, the Center of Peace, or just Spirit.
Now the worlds of Spirit interplay with the worlds of form for all form came from Spirit. Thus, within each of the worlds of form is a center of peace of which the average person is completely unaware.
This center of peace can be accessed by the seeker through the soul.
When this is accomplished on the physical level the seeker realizes that creation is composed of more than physical reality. He takes a taste of spiritual energy and thus begins his quest to find where this unseen world will lead him. This is the first initiation.
Next the seeker discovers the emotions are getting in the way of his discovery of Spirit so he places attention on mastering and detaching himself from them. When he realizes he is not his emotions then a door is open to access the peace of the Spirit through the emotional body.
This is the second initiation of baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit.
He frees himself from guilt (an emotional problem) through symbolic baptism and accesses the Holy Spirit through the soul.
The third obstacle is the reasoning mind. It has been very useful up to this point but now he seems to encounter many paradoxes. He is trying to use his mind as the highest tool to solve his problems and answer his questions and it just doesn’t do the job for him. Often, he will become an atheist for a time because his mind cannot tell him why God allows suffering in the world or why he does not come down an interfere more for the good of mankind.
Here he reaches a dead end. When he finally realizes he can only know so much on his own he will finally seek higher answers through an exercise of faith. Here he will encounter his Dweller and Angel of the Presence. After this experience he will never doubt the existence of higher realms again.
Now keep in mind that these three occurrences happen (for the first time) over a series of lifetimes.
Now to get to the question. Did I access this center of peace, or the Spirit through some type of meditation technique, or some other way?
It rarely happens to me though regular meditation. The best I get from that is a quieting down of the noise of the lower bodies. That can seem peaceful, but it is not the peace of the Spirit.
Two things I find to be of great assistance:
[1] Contemplation — I have often said the highest form of meditation is contemplation. This takes a seed thought and expands it like a growing tree of knowledge.
[2] Realization — It is important to realize as a fact that you are not your lower bodies. When this is realized then hurt feelings, grievances and illusions will not get in the way of accessing Spirit.
I have never tried to force spiritual contact but have taken what has been offered as I seem to be ready. I have not been disappointed.
Now I realize that many want a simple formula for soul contact, but in the end the best way to obtain it is to go forward in the service of your fellow men and women. Get your main joy from service and it will follow as the night the day that the feelings of the Spirit will manifest — as long as you are willing to “endure to the end.”
All this talk of bliss brings up an interesting question which is this:
What is the ultimate source of happiness and joy?
Would it be enough for you to merge with “the ALL,” and just feel peaceful or blissful for eternity; or do you need more than this to obtain a fullness?
I find Tolle’s words interesting:
“For the next five months, I lived in a state of uninterrupted deep peace and bliss. After that, it diminished somewhat in intensity, or perhaps it just seemed to because it became my natural state. I could still function in the world, although I realized that nothing I ever did could possibly add anything to what I already had.”
Tolle guesses that the bliss was diminished because after a while it became his natural state. This is a true principle. No matter how high we go in our feelings it is only a mater of time before we adjust and it becomes our natural state. Does this mean the high state of bliss will never be obtained again?
Or does it mean that bliss is not the ultimate? Does it mean that we need more than bliss for fulfillment — that perhaps we are even willing to leave bliss behind for periods of time to obtain it?
What then is the source of eternal joy and how do we obtain it?
Just as there is night and day in our world even so is there night and day in creation. The worlds are created and perform their function of becoming with all their inhabitants and then they unfold and life goes back to its source. There we experience pralaya, a blissful sleep to the worlds of form where we can recharge ourselves and get ready for the next adventure.
It is true that sometimes sleep feels so good it seems you could stay in bed forever, but give it a little time and you feel you’ve had enough sleep, no matter how blissful it is. Eventually you are ready for a new day and new challenges.
Now during the day you can take short sweet naps that bring great refreshment and correspondingly one can be still and drink deep from the waters of Spirit to give the pilgrim the refreshment he needs to continue on until his purpose is completed.
But think. What brings you the greatest joy, the nap or what you do after the nap is completed?
The scriptures say over and over that we will be judged by our works. The reason it says this is our works and our service is the greatest source of joy for us in the world and out of the world.
“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” (Rev 14:13)
Their works will follow them where?
The answer, everywhere including the afterlife and even the great pralaya. The new state of bliss we will have during the great rest of Being will be greater than the last one because of our works which will be as a sweet savor to those who were faithful to the highest they knew.
A reader commented that he has enjoyed the baptism of fire through the Holy Spirit, but still cannot be at peace when watching the pain that his loved ones go through.
Three days is the normal time period to experience the fire of the spirit. Much more than this and the normal seeker would be adversely affected in his three bodies.
In addition to this baptism of fire there is a center of peace within us all that is available at all times if the seeker follows the correct principles in accessing it. He must detach himself from the world of form and see himself as the observer. You watch the picture show of your life without the real you being in it, but just observing.
You can watch someone being tortured in a movie and because you are detached you will not be adversely affected, neither will the movie interfere with your peace.
Accomplishing this in real life is easier said than done, but when it is incorporated one simply becomes the observer and accepts that which he cannot change as a temporary thing you are observing which shall soon pass away.
Even after the disciple develops this ability, he may want to plunge into the feeling world from time to time else those close to him may feel he doesn’t understand or care.
Another step of extreme importance is to free himself from the Beast of unjust, unearned authority and replace it with the voice of the soul. It is impossible to have consistent peace if one gives his power to a representative of the Beast.
“History doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme” – Mark Twain
April 3, 2008
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