True Love and New DNA - LIFE's basic Principle

What is LIFE's basic Principle?  Given the limitation of words to express the inexpressible, the sentence below is my best answer that I can think of at the moment:

Confirm True Love*, (or connection to the heart through intimacy/oneness) and find new DNA (and fully expressing the potential) with the realization that there are infinite ways to do so.

I realize that such is the basic principle of my life that I aim for.  Or, what I call here, The New Hero's Journey!!! And if so, then, how do I confirm the true love (or connection to the base/source/heart - so to speak)? Answer: Through the sense of intimacy... oneness .... Again, given that words have limitation, in the post, Deeper level of Connection and Communication,  I proposed various signs of "connection to the Heart" (shortened as follow):

-  Sense of being present, here and now

-  Vivid sense of inner body sensation, aliveness, liveliness 

-  Calm, clear and quiet mind

-  Body/muscle is totally relaxed

-  No ego/self; desirelessness, effortlessness, no boundaries

-  No doubt, questions, concerns

-  Mind and body are one; I am the universe

-  Sense of serenity, peace, feeling at home

-  Delusions/errors are nowhere to find; If there are, there is no significance.

-  Sense of living truthfully; being absolute

-  Sense of Ki (Life energy) flowing

-  Sense of oneness; non-duality; connection to unconscious/infinite potential

-  Sense of love, bliss, and intimacy to all

-  Sense of time lost its meaning/significance; everything is OK as it is

Then, finding the new DNA (and fully expressing the potential) will be assured as the following points are witnessed:

-  Brain and Heart find a connection

-  Heart to heart communication between people, and everything else is made possible
-  Kegon (interpenetration - everything is connected to everything else)

-  This deeper level communication may be manifested as wisdom and compassion

-  Paradox of human existence is resolved (in oneness)

-  Bliss in various activities, e.g., work, hobby, relationship, health, and the sense of genuine security in any situation 

-  Discover new meaning of intimacy, e.g., sexual union, non-sexual relationship, Aikido, etc.  The list is infinite.

-  All of these corresponds to "living truthfully" - the new hero's journey


To illustrate, here are but a few quotes related to such a state/process:

"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places..." -  Pissarro

"Happiness that does not depend on anything"  - Daisetz Suzuki
"You are the master of your own destiny" - The Buddha

This experience/state/process whatever you may call, to me, is a realization of the whole, where nothing is missing, while all possibilities are being manifested. Yet, us being human, we may go in and out of such experience/state as our mind moves. That is the same as going between duality and oneness. Or, it is like going between mind and no mind. Or, it is like 1) mind, 2) mind but not losing the base ("mirror mind"), and 3) oneness (intimacy/melting into one/no mind). Although such description may be seen as unresolved or incomplete, I see it is so as humans.  In other words, as we go through ups and downs in life, we also appreciate to find the bliss....and find our way in life's journey. Only humans have this privilege. A Myokonin (a group of often poor, illiterate people in Shin sect of Buddhism in Japan) says, "Thank you for not taking all of my delusion away!"  In such words, I see the humble, yet bottomless appreciation of LIFE.

It is interesting when we see our own mind moving.. 

It is like us watching us in the mirror: objects in the mirror moves but not the mirror.

This is what I call the experience of "mirror mind"

Picasso said, "I've reached the moment.. when the movement of my thoughts
 interests me more than the thought itself"  

Taking this occasion, let me also talk about, what I call, the "Mirror mind." With mirror mind, the picture of the world we live in may look like this. We see the contents of the mind moving... as if it is a play on the mirror or movie screen.  Yet, screen or mirror itself does not move.  Interestingly, I found that mind (citta) has a meaning of container or envelope - which is like the image of screen or mirror where play of events takes place.  So, although we can relate to the play in the screen or mirror, it does not have an immediate impact to the watcher (as if he is just watching the movie - calmly and quietly).  There is no significance. This however points to transcending the paradox, where we see not just content, not just  mirror, but as a whole.  (Here, Kitaro Nishida, close friend of Daisetz Suzuki says, "self-identification of absolute paradox." or ”絶対矛盾の自己同一”)


Some call such state as "delusion is enlightenment." Why? Because the watcher see the delusion (mind movement) not as real. It is like a dream, unreal. This is because HE is connected to the source/heart/ground - the very secure ground. There is silence, eternal stillness, and serenity.  (again, the words are just a pointer and not to be scrutinized with mind/logic but to be felt as direct experience).  Again, although it appears that there may be two states, or observer and observed, this paradoxical situation is to be seen as one.  Instead of caught up in the mind, if one can watch his own mind, he is detached, and find the calm quiet mind - mirror mind.    Mr. Levenson said, "You won't be disturbed even if you are killed." This statement points to the functioning of the mirror mind. It is that base, the ground, the heart, true love - or "I am that I am" where "ultimate happiness" is found.

If such statement is not resonating with us now, we may realize that sometime as if from no where... if we keep our inquisitiveness and awareness sharp as if with the mind of new born child with calm and quiet mind....we may find us total openness/release to all of happenings without fear, defensiveness, ego, power, but true love.  (The message of Daisetz Suzuki on Love and Power is, as I believe, nothing but that!)

Perhaps as if adding legs to a snake, here are examples of those moments that may trigger or correspond with such state of being:

In Taichi - inner body sensation...sense the Ki/Chi (life energy) - Ki in Japanese; Chi in Chinese

In Meditation - same as above, mind and body as one, Awareness and equanimity

in Everyday events - sound of guitar, fresh breeze through the window, spider net in the sun - refer to my Poem, symphony of light, joy of life

In Nature - Feel one with nature, sense life energy, or Ki (Ki is Japanese; Chi in Chinese)

In Sex - In pure spiritual experience of intimacy - oneness with the partner, not just in orgasm in the conventional sense but spiritual ecstasy, is the pure moment of creation covered by bliss.

In Aikido - The master uses Ki, the life energy, based on compassion/true love. As if opponents are the extension of his mind and body, the master may read the mind of opponent as if he has a third eye, to resolve the situation harmoniously.  

In Sports, Art, and Business - Some common traits of masters are, effortless, desireless, witnessing, and faith (conscious of unconscious)

Note:

* I plan to write in the next post Re: Characteristics of the Masters (revisiting the Appendix form my book "Results from the Heart")

- True Love*:  I use this expression often, yet I have not defined quite clearly as IT is indescribable, yet to be experienced.  Other terms that may be used as synonym are: God, Law of universe, nature's way, Tao, emptiness, stillness, here/now, presence, ground, absolute, imperturbability, true self, original self before your father and mother were born, I am that (I am), etc.  Or, it may be felt at the moment as one notices one's mistake/delusion.  Or, to see things as they really are and not as they appears in our mind.

Money... Power.. and LOVE!

Everything is connected to everything else.  So what do we do?  Trying to say something about money and related to that, about power, I struggled a while to what message may be most pertinent to convey.  After a while, I came up with the short list which also points to how to live our life. They are:

-  Be aware of Impermanence.. nothing lasts forever
-  Have small desire and learn to be satisfied (as mentioned in the last post)
-  Find things you really like to do, and if that help the society, that will give a good reason that you will be happy in what you do in life (connection to ten-mei: or order form heaven)
-  Use money/brain but not to be used by it.  Also know that, asking what is important is more important than just doing the task. So, re-visit this every now and then.  Never lose the longing for the endless sea

Each item in this list may require more explanation but, instead of doing that, I would like to share the following essay by Daisetz Suzuki, on "Love and Power."  Why?  Because this essay points the essence of our life as I see it, and will give a full explanation of all the items in the list above tied to money, power, life and love.

Back in 1993, I was invited to a YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) University held in London, where I presented the idea of mini-company, waste elimination and unleashing the human potential in three lectures. This paper of Daisetz T. Suzuki, Love and Power, was attached to my presentation with a hope that presidents gathered from around the world might gain what I believed to be an inspirational message.  What is shown below is an abbreviated version of this paper.  (Note also that this paper has a direct link with my book, Results from the Heart with foreword from the Dalai Lama - Kegon* or interepenetration is at the foundation)

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Never in the history of mankind has there been a more urgent need for spiritual leaders and for the enhancement of spiritual values than there is in our contemporary world. We have achieved many wonderful things.. in the past century toward the advancement of human welfare. But, strangely, we seem to have forgotten that our welfare depends principally upon our spiritual wisdom and discipline. ... Of all the spiritual values we can conceive and wish to be brought out before us today, none is more commandingly needed than love.  It is love which creates life. Life cannot sustain itself without love. My firm conviction is that the present filthy, suffocating atmosphere of hatred and fear is generated through the suppression of the spirit of loving-kindness and universal brotherhood, and it goes without saying that this suffocation comes from the non-realization of the truth that the human community is the most complicated and far-reaching net work of mutual dependence.

The moral teaching of individualism with all its significant corollaries is very fine indeed, but we must remember that the individual is nonexistent when he is isolated from other individuals and cut off from the group to which he belongs, whether the group be biological or political or cosmological. Mathematically stated, the number one can never be one, never be itself, unless it is related to other numbers which are infinite. The existence of a single number by itself is unthinkable. “Morally or spiritually, this means that the existence of each individual, whether or not he is conscious of the fact, owes something to an infinitely expanding and all-enwrapping net of loving relationship, which takes up not only every one of us but everything that exists. The world is a great family and we, each one of us, are its members.

I do not know how much geography has to do with the moulding of human thought, but the fact is that it was in the Far East that a system of thought developed in the seventh century which is known as the Kegon* school of philosophy. The Kegon is based on the ideas of interfusion, or interpenetration, or interrelatedness, or mutual unobstructedness.  When this philosophy of the interrelatedness of things is rightly understood, love begins to be realized, because love is to recognize others and to rake them into consideration in every way of life.  To do to others what you would like them to you is the keystone of love and this is what naturally grows out of the realization of mutual relatedness.

The idea of mutual relationship and consideration excludes the notion of power for power is something brought from outside into a structure of inner relationship. The use of power is always apt to be arbitrary and despotic and alienating....  Love is not a command given us by an outside agent, for this implies a sense of power. Excessive individualism is the hot-bed in which power-feeling is bred and nourished, because it is egocentric in the sense that it asserts itself arrogantly, and often violently, when it moves out of itself and tries to overrule others. Love, on the contrary, grows out of mutuality and interrelationship and is far from egocentric and self-exalting. While power superficially strong and irresistible, is in reality self-exhausting, love, through self-negation is ever creative for it is the root of existence.  Love needs no external, all-powerful agent to exercise itself.  Love is life and life is love.

Being an infinitely complicated network of interrelationship, life cannot be itself unless supported by love,  Wishing to give life a form, love expresses itself in all modes of being....Love is affirmation, a creative affirmation; it is never destructive and annihilating, because unlike power it is all –embracing and all-forgiving. Love enters into its object and becomes one with it, while power, being characteristically dualistic and discriminative, crushes any object standing against it, or otherwise it conquers it and turns it into a slavish dependent.  Power makes use of science and everything that belongs to it. As long as science remains analytical and cannot go beyond the study of infinitely varied forms of differentiation and their quantitative measurements it is never creative.  What is creative in its spirit of inquiry, which is inspired by love and not by power.  Where there is any co-operation between power and the sciences, it always ends in contriving various methods of disaster and destruction.

Love and creativity are two separate aspect of one reality, but creativity is often separated from love. When this illegitimate separation takes place, creativity comes to be associated with power. Power really belongs to a lower order than love and creativity. When power usurps creativity, it becomes a most dangerous agent of all kinds of mischief.  The notion of power as aforesaid grows inevitably out of a dualistic interpretation of reality. When dualism neglects to recognize the presence of an integrating principle behind it, its native penchant for destruction exhibits itself rampantly and wantonly....

Power is always arrogant, self-assertive, and exclusive, whereas love is self-humiliating and all-comprehensive. Power represents destruction, even self-destruction, quite contrary to love’s creativeness.  Love dies and live again, while power kills and killed.  It was Simone Weil, I understand, who defined power as a force which transforms a person into a thing. I would like to define love as a force that transforms a thing into a person.  Love may thus appear to be something radically opposed to power, and love and power may be regarded as mutually exclusive, so that where there is power there cannot be any shadow of love, and where love is no power can ever intrude upon it.

This is true to a certain extent, but the real truth is that love is not opposed to power; love belongs to an order higher than power, and it is only power that imagines itself to be opposed to love. In truth, love is all-enveloping and all-forgiving; it is a universal solvent, an infinitely creative and resourceful agent. As power is always dualistic and therefore rigid, self-assertive, destructive, and annihilating, it turns against itself and destroys itself when it has nothing to conquer... What is blind is not love but power, for power utterly fails to see that its existence is dependent upon something else. It refuses to realize that it can be itself only allying itself to something infinitely greater than itself. Not knowing this fact, power plunges itself straight into the pit of self-destruction. The cataract that blinds the eye must be removed in order that power may experience enlightenment. Without this experience everything becomes unreal to the myopically veiled eye of power.

When the eye fails to see reality as it is, that is, in its suchness, a cloud of fear and suspicion spreads over all things that come before it. Not being able to see reality in its suchness, the eye deceives itself; it becomes suspicious of anything that confronts it and desires to destroy it. Mutual suspicion is thus let loose, and when this takes place no amount of explanation will reduce the tension... Those who are power-intoxicated fail to see that power is blinding and keeps them within an ever-narrowing horizon. Power is thus associated with intellection, and makes use of it in every possible way. Love, however, transcends power because, in its penetration into the core of reality, far beyond the finiteness of the intellect, it is infinity itself. Without love one cannot see the infinitely expanding network of relationships which is reality. Or, we may reverse this and say that without the infinite network of reality we can never experience love in its true light. Love trust, is always affirmative and all-embracing. Love is life and therefore creative. Everything it touches is enlivened and energized for new growth. When you love an animal, it grows more intelligent; when you love a plant you see into its every need. Love is never blind; it is the reservoir of infinite light....

To conclude: Let us first realize the fact that we thrive only when we are co-operative by being alive to the truth of interrelationship of all things in existence. Let us then die to the notion of power and conquest and be resurrected to the eternal creativity of love which is all-embracing and all-forgiving. As love flows out of rightly seeing reality as it is, it is also love that makes us feel that we—each of us individually and all of us collectively—are responsible for whatever things, good or evil, go on in our human community, and we must therefore strive to ameliorate or remove whatever conditions are inimical to the universal advancement of human welfare and wisdom.

 ( by Dr. D. T. Suzuki in the Hall of the International Exhibition at Brussels on 28th May, 1958, at the Conference “In Defense of Spiritual Values in the Contemporary World."  The Awakening of Zen, Shambhala, p.66-70)

* Kegon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatamsaka_Sutra
Also at my Japanese home page on Ten Stages Sutra, or Jyu-ji-kyo (sorry in Japanese)

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Hope you found this an inspirational peace of work as I felt with tears in my eyes years ago.  In short, and connecting what we shared so far in this blog, the fundamental principle in LIFE (as I see it) is, Confirm True Love (through intimacy/oneness) while creating new DNA with the idea that there are infinite ways to express who we are. I would like to address this in the next post.


Good day,
Kio

Happiness, Creativity, and Playfulness

Playfulness and happiness; Playfulness and creativity; Happiness in creative state.  I feel they are almost synonymous among themselves.  In other words, in that state, don't we feel a good utilization of our talent as if it is meant to be so?  Don't we feel like being really "alive"?  Don't we feel bliss, no words can describe?  And if so, how important is it to be connected to that state of playfulness, creativity and happiness?

Observe children in the sandbox.  Are they happy, playful and perhaps creative?  What about me writing this blog?  Am I playful, creative, and happy?  How about you immersed in your work or hobby which you like, or perhaps having a playful moment with your kids?  And of course, how about having a moment of intimacy with the loved one when the time has lost its meaning?  Don't you feel playful, creative, genuine and lively in such a moment?  

We do not have to be children to be "qualified" to play in the sand box...

OK there may be "hurdles" to overcome before getting there- like making a living, or address concerns of this and that.  Yet, as paradoxical as this may sound, are we not often dictated by those play of our own mind, to the point of blocking us from accessing those states where our senses are hightened, i.e., bright sunshine in the blue sky, vivid sense of colors of all surroundings, and smell and fresh breeze in the air.  In other words, intimacy with all!

What if we lose inquisitive eyes of children but to live in fear and anxiety?  What if we are caught up in our mind way too often and simply live as if according to the script from the TVs, and magazines and idiosyncrasy of the society?  Lost soul, lost paradise, lost intimacy with all...fun and pleasure of eternal children are no where to be found?!  Yet, I wonder, how can it be the case, especially when we are born as playful, creative, and happy children to start with?   Why not to be with the bliss, or follow the bliss and let the unknown future (new DNA) to unfold?  Or, whatever the task we may have, be engaged in it, forget time and space, or our self-identity.. just merged with the task at hand?

I want to propose to define happiness as the state when we are in the "zone" to express who we genuinely are?  And, may we also define "zone" as us connecting to the primary (the source, heart, law, order from God)?  If so, is it not absolute - beyond right and wrong of human mind?!  In other words, mind has little to do with what we may 'really' and 'truly' enjoy.  Yes, very subjective, is it not?  Although I recognize there are certain "rules" to follow, but they seem to be more of common sense, which is like not to hurt others and if possible, help with each other.  Yes, I propose, we can be playful and creative and happy alone, or with others - if we choose to be.

Desire less and be satisfied (from Buddhist sutra)

Then, I also see the connection to awakening or ultimate happiness (The free state) where Lester Levenson said five elements to characterize it, i.e., imperturbability, desireless, actionless, effortless, and witnessing.  And of course, there is no room for ego. 

Happiness is tied to liveliness, and it is about creativity, playfulness, fun, love, enjoyment!!!  Happiness is physical and biological!!! Also, it is tied to channeling the energy well toward new DNA whereas all cells are jumping!!!   And one more to add: body/muscle is totally relaxed when you are in that state.  These are the essence of LIFE, is it not?!

To end this post, here are some words of wisdom from those who walked ahead of us:

"To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me."  -  Issac Newton

When Pablo Picasso was 85, he was asked how his later paintings could be so innovative - could have the boldness and fire of a young artist's work.  Picasso's reply:"It takes a long time to become young."  -  Pablo Picasso

"Man is a thinking reed but his great works are done when he is not calculation or thinking. 'Childlikeness' has to be restored with long years of training in the art of self-forgetfulness. When this is attained, man thinks yet he does not think. He thinks like showers coming down from sky; he thinks like the waves rolling on the ocean; he thinks like the stars illuminating the nightly heavens; he thinks like the green foliage shooting forth in the relaxing spring breeze. Indeed he is the showers, the ocean, the stars, the foliage. "  -  Daisetz Suzuki

* Related Posts:
Bliss, Ecstasy and Ultimate Happiness
Have Fun and Express Who we are

Meaning of Spiritual Experience: Buddha and Tao Te Ching

In the last post, I commented that the resolution of difference in men and women was to be found in true love/compassion. Or for that matter. it is as if any difference as our mind distinguishes A and B (Yin and Yang: dualism; as well as ego's fight for its existence), is to be resolved in oneness- connection with the source at the core of our existence, i.e., true love, or nature's way, Tao, whatever you call IT. When this is realized, our mind ceases its futile effort to solve problem it has created by itself as if in a vacuum. This is awakening, or insight/wisdom, as well as compassion to release any pain and suffering mind creates.  This is beyond the realm of human mind/logic.

So, with regard to limbic system or karma, our fixed mindset, or habitual way of looking at the world, there is no end to the search for solution if it is in the realm of our mind. --- unless, we transcend mind. That is from being caught up in the logic, which is the search for solution through mind's own logic, but as if to see us from the source, be one with the source, or Tao, the Way, way of nature, absolute, or whatever way we call IT. (This search was the process of Buddha's way of enlightenment - as I see it. Also, this process is discussed in the post on Tolle's spiritual experience compared to mine)

Here is my translation from Daisetz Suzuki's book, re: Buddha's  Enlightenment:

When searching for the truth, typically, we start from philosophy. Then, we notice what wise guys said on this subject in the past, noticing that this difficult problem is also what made them wondered or suffered. Buddha did this as well. But this did not help him. By its own nature, philosophy cannot put us back to where before the questions were yet raised. It is the limit of philosophy. It may give a faint view of existence. But most likely, as we try to reach closer, it will fade away. So, Buddha eventually left these people.

Next, he attempted a hard training. For some reason, we generally think that if we restrain our desire from our body, our mind will be cleansed and can see the truth as it is. Yet, such restraining of desire will see self, the one that ask the question of truth, more like an enemy. Then, this enemy is seen as something to conquer, or overcome. And this enemy stands always at where the man having question. No matter how hard this questioner tries his best to defeat the enemy with his all might, the enemy will not be conquered. So far as the self, the questioner, exists, he will create new enemy and have to fight continuously. 

Defeating the enemy does not mean saving our self nor answering the question. This is because self can only exist by having non-self, and this non-self is the enemy. The self is the creator of enemy. The questioner will be a questioner no matter how far he goes. He remains to be the creator of questions.

In the hard training, the questioner is the self. There, the self is confronted to non-self, i.e., enemy. This enemy has to be defeated no matter what. Yet, so far as we have self, there is no way this enemy is defeated. Self cannot exist by itself.  It always try to express the self, prove the power, and desires to have someone to prove that he is that important existence. When self find that there is no others to prove, or to be proud of itself, it loses its self-nature. Restraining one’s own nature is a way of expressing its own self.

One cannot go beyond its own self through restraining one’s desire or to follow the moral disciplines. Unless we go beyond the self, however, we will not find the opportunity to solve the problems that is related to searching our existence. Our self has to be thrown out totally. There should be no trace of conflict between self and non-self.

Buddha realized this point from his own experiences. One day, he tried to raise from sitting but he could not. As he did not have enough food to eat, he was weakened to the point where he could not sustain himself. …. He then thought, "If he who has the question has to die now, he will leave the question unresolved and die." So, in order to search this major problem that encompasses everything, he started to eat and attempted to recover his health and energy.

But, how can he move forward from there? Intellect did not bring solution. Hard training did not help much. He had nothing to do. Yet, he wished to resolve the problem much more than before. If his mind was smaller, and weakened, it may have been crushed under the heavy pressure of this problem.  Being cornered to its extreme, his whole existence responded. He now felt that there was no more questions to ask, and there is no self to fight against the enemy. His self, his intellect, his whole existence was thrown into the question. In other words, he became the question itself. The distinction between questioner and the question, self and non-self, is vanished and one undivided "unknown" was left. In this "unknown,’ he was absorbed.

If we picture the scene in our mind, there was no Buddha left to ask questions, no self to realize the ego, and there was no question responding to the intellect that threatens his existence. There was no sky above his head nor no ground under his feet. If we could stand besides Buddha at that time and be able to look into his existence, what we may have found there would be a big question mark that covers the whole universe. If he had any mind, if we could say so, such was the state of his mind. He was there in such a state for a while. And.. when he looked up the sky, he saw the Venus in the early morning sky. The light of the star went straight into his eyes. This event brought his whole consciousness back to the previous/normal state. There was no question that was so strong, so persistent and caused him suffering left anymore. There was a whole world shining under a new light with new meaning.

(Note: See: http://web.archive.org/web/20030814014304/http://suzaki.has.it/ under the file name: Daisetz Remembered   Also Note: Daisetz Suzuki(1870-1966) dedicated his entire life to practice Buddhism/Zen and share its essence in his own way with the world.)

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Of course, this is an explanation of Buddha's enlightenment by Daisetz.  Yet, as explained before, I can see what is described here is linked to the process that took place in Tolle (and if I may say so... in myself as well as in Daisetz).  However, I say this; the practice in daily living is not that simple as indicated in the previous post, which means I am yet to clean up my karma, the past conditioning as I move on in my journey.

As mentioned, I went through years of check and balance re: my spiritual experience as Tolle did.  Having done that (as posted in my English and Japanese homepage from 2000 to 2012), I found so amusing and encouraging that many of those who went through this path point to the same "Experience" / "Understanding" without doubt.  

As an example, when you read, Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 16, you should, if not now, eventually come to see/experience that the words may look different, yet, the core message is the same:

Empty yourself of everything.

Let the mind rest at peace.

The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches their return.

They grow and flourish and then return to the source.

Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.

The way of nature is unchanging.

Knowing constancy is insight.

Not knowing constancy leads to disaster.

Knowing constancy, the mind is open.

With an open mind, you will be openhearted.

Being openhearted, you will act royally.

Being royal, you will attain the divine.

Being divine, you will be at one with the Tao.

Being at one with the Tao is eternal.

And though the body dies, the Tao will never pass away.

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Ikkyu, a Zen monk and a poet, said, 

Many paths lead from

The foot of the mountain

But at the peak

We all gaze at the

Single bright moon

This poem is taken from my old English home page (2001)

Bliss, Ecstasy and Ultimate Happiness

Having touched on Deeper Level of Connection, Primary Relationship (Heart), The Free State (Levenson), etc., let us dive into the subject of Bliss, Ecstasy and Ultimate Happiness (Nirvana).  My conviction is that these experiences have a common foundation and that it is easily accessed if we are more attentive to at least some of the characteristics I mentioned already.  The terms may sound foreign, but if patiently examined, reflecting one's own experiences, many if not all people may find the connection to what appears to me as miracle or wonder of LIFE.  (After all, all of us are from there to start with.)

In order for us to familiarize with such experience, let us first revisit Levenson, who said there are five elements that characterizes the free state.  They are: 1) imperturbability, 2) desirelessness, 3) effortlessness, 4) actionlessness, and 5) witnessing.  Some may already relate to such a description.  (Imperturbability and witnessing seem to correspond to what I call, "mirror mind.")

Next, let us review "indicative signs of being connected to Heart" I characterized from my experience in the post, Deeper Level of Connection;

-  Sense of being in present, here and now, choiceless observation, witnessing

-  Vivid sense of inner body sensation, aliveness, liveliness 

(cells jumping around as if very happily)

-  Calm, clear and quiet mind; beginner's mind, no mind, mirror mind

-  Soft eyes...see without seeing - very intuitive, third eye as if opening up a new channel

-  Body/muscle is totally relaxed; There is a sense of effortlessness; no strains felt

-  no ego/self; desirelessness, actionlessness

-  It is as if a new channel opens up by itself from deep within (a new sense of connection)
-  Feeling of all answers are already there (there is no doubt or question any more)

-  Mind and body are felt as one; no boundaries; I am you; I am one with the universe

-  Sense of serenity, peace, arriving/being at home, nothing is missing

-  Wisdom and compassion come naturally; delusions/sufferings/errors are nowhere to find

-  Sense of living truthfully (connection to the Law, the Way); sense of being absolute, imperturbability

-  Sense of Ki (Life energy) manifesting; Blissful sensation spreading over

-  Sense of connection to unconscious/infinite potential (connection of external and internal)

-  Sense of oneness; non-duality

-  Sense of mind and body being 'healthy' and 'genuine'
-  Sense of everything seen as vivid and alive (inside and outside)

-  Sense of love, bliss, and intimacy to all 

-  Sense of time distortion (as if time lost its meaning)

It is also felt as a totally natural state, since it happens on its own.  Yet, as mentioned before, "If you seek for it, you will not find it" (Yuima sutra, or Vimalakirti sutra), which connects to Levenson's desirelessness, effortlessness, and actionlessness. And because of that, when we have it, there is a sense of deep appreciation of arriving at home.  That is ultimate happiness, as Levenson calls it.  Note however, it does not sound like a short temporary state for him.


BTW, this term, "ultimate happiness" points to true, absolute happiness, but "not" the happiness that is transient.  Again, as paradoxical as it may seem, if we seek for it, ultimate happiness will not be found.  Daisetz Suzuki says, "It is Happiness that does not depend on anything." That is Levenson's "Free State."  

Meditating Miroku Bosatsu (Bodhisattva Maitreya) of Koryu-ji Temple, Nara, Japan

(World famous for his gentle compassionate "smile")

Reflecting on his spiritual experience, Eckhart Tolle said since then, there was 80 % reduction in his mind activities since then.  I see it points a long lasting "calm and quiet mind."  Or, this is what Krishnamurti called, "choice-less observation."  Then, the exhibit above indicates the state of body and muscles totally relaxed and mind very calm such that there is a genuine smile emanating from within.  If you remember the "state of centering" in Aikido (the list of ten items), you should see a definite connection there as well.

Then, here are the characteristics of Saintliness summarized in "The Varieties of Religious Experiences" by William Games (p.216):

1) A feeling of being in a wider life..; and a conviction ...of the existence of an Ideal Power

2) A sense of the friendly continuity of the ideal power with our own life, and a willing self-surrender to its control

3) An immense elation and freedom, as the outlines of the confining selfhood meltdown

4) A shifting of the emotional center toward loving and harmonious affections, toward 'yes,yes' and away from 'no,' where the claims of the non-ego are concerned

Finally, here is Maslow's findings from Wikipedia.  Beyond the routine of needs fulfillment, Maslow envisioned moments of extraordinary experience, known as Peak Experiences, which are profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or rapture, during which a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient and yet a part of the world, more aware of truth, justice, harmony, goodness, and so on.

 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

(When self-actualized, however, my view is like that of Suzuki, the state of bliss, ecstasy and ultimate happiness may not depend on the condition we are in*)

According to Maslow, self-actualising people share the following qualities:

- Truth: honest, reality, beauty, pure, clean and unadulterated completeness

- Goodness: rightness, desirability, uprightness, benevolence, honesty

- Beauty: rightness, form, aliveness, simplicity, richness, wholeness, perfection, completion,

- Wholeness: unity, integration, tendency to oneness, interconnectedness, simplicity, organization, structure, order, not dissociated, synergy

- Dichotomy-transcendence: acceptance, resolution, integration, polarities, opposites, contradictions

- Aliveness: process, not-deadness, spontaneity, self-regulation, full-functioning

- Unique: idiosyncrasy, individuality, non comparability, novelty

- Perfection: nothing superfluous, nothing lacking, everything in its right place, just-rightness, suitability, justice

- Necessity: inevitability: it must be just that way, not changed in any slightest way

- Completion: ending, justice, fulfillment

- Justice: fairness, suitability, disinterestedness, non partiality,

- Order: lawfulness, rightness, perfectly arranged

- Simplicity: nakedness, abstract, essential skeletal, bluntness

- Richness: differentiation, complexity, intricacy, totality

- Effortlessness: ease; lack of strain, striving, or difficulty

- Playfulness: fun, joy, amusement

- Self-sufficiency: autonomy, independence, self-determining.

Personally, I can relate to most of these characterizations... As in Tolle's case, my spiritual experience seems to have contributed to heightened sense of such state.  And, I am further drawn into it as if these are confirmation of me moving on the right path, I call here the new hero's journey - following that bliss.

--

Note: Related to my comment to the exhibit on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, here is a Zen koan (puzzle):

Monk: I am new to this temple. Please give me any proper advice.

Joshu (Master): Have you finished your meal?

Monk: Yes, I have.

Joshu: OK, wash the dishes well.

(Hint: If you live by following the law, that is all you need to practice - practice this in all situations)