Wishful Thinking

Wishful Thinking

There are those who believe that if they’re not experiencing giddiness or euphoria, they could not be Self-realized. Their idea is that enlightenment ought to provide at least the thrill of a roller coaster ride, only just more persistently. Ecstasy is a product created in an illicit lab, it’s not a reward for awakening from self-centeredness. There is, indeed with Self-realization, a feeling of relief or release, a relaxation of tension, and a sense of peacefulness: because now there is no “self” to fret over, no “others” to chronically react to, nor even a “God” to be petulantly judged by. There is a placid state of contentment for which the word “bliss,” misleadingly, comes nearest to describing. This bliss is more accurately defined as equilibrium, a recognition that all things are equal in their sameness of ultimate, or absolute, nature. In the Sanskrit scriptures, the word is ananda, and it is clearly a consequence of Self-realization. The constant abiding in ananda is what is known as Sahaja Samadhi, the perception of “no self.” As Ramana states:

“There is no difference between the enlightened and the unenlightened in their conduct: the difference lies only in their perception. The unenlightened identifies himself with the ego…whereas the ego of the enlightened has been lost…

“To realize bliss, one realizes the Self…. Self-realization is bliss; it is realizing the Self as the limitless…. The ego is lost, and bliss remains…. Thus the Self is realized,

and bliss results…. Bliss consists in not forgetting your Being.”

If an ecstatic state is what you are interpreting as ananda, Ramana adds,

“…you feel great bliss and happiness and want to stay in that ecstasy. Do not yield to it, but pass on to the next stage which is great calm. The calm is higher than ecstasy and it merges into Samadhi.”

In identifying with a self-affirming phenomenal sensation, there remains a subtle duality. But the source of the phenomena and the organism experiencing it are the same one, omnipresent Self. Ecstasy can become,

“…an obstacle, because (in that state) a feeling of separation from the source of ananda, enabling the enjoyer to say ‘I am enjoying ananda’, is present. Even this has to be surmounted. The final stage of Samadhi has to be reached in which one becomes ananda, or one with reality. In this state, the duality of enjoyer and enjoyment ceases in the ocean of sat-chit-ananda, or the Self…. Be the Self and that is bliss.”