A Glimpse of Merging

A Glimpse of Merging

The enlightenment of each sage has followed a different process: no two alike. However, when you read the biographies of each of these enlightened sages, you notice that they collectively had one thing in common: the profundity of enlightenment is a life-changing development. The bottom line, in these recorded lives, is that there was a radical change between the pre-enlightenment life style and the life’s consequent course. If you listen to electronic recordings of “spiritual” workshops, satsanga, retreats etc., you will frequently hear this comment from attendees: “I had a glimpse of the ultimate state once, but it has disappeared.” The reason for this is simple: the commentator has not transcended the subject/object perspective; there has been a “glimpse” to a “glimpser”; there was a persistent “I” in relation to a “spiritual experience.” In other words, the participant hasn’t fundamentally understood and transcended the perspective which we call dualism. The seeker’s presumption was that “I can have an experience of the One.” And so there is an “I” on the one hand, and “the One” on the other hand. Every “experience” is impermanent; it occurs within the time frame of an “experiencer.” As the time–bound experience concludes, the experiencer’s I-consciousness recurs. There remains the “I” with its “glimpse.” With the “I” remaining central to one’s perception, there will be no radical change in one’s self-centered life matrix. Only when this I-centered perspective has irretrievably dissolved will there be the true groundswell of matrixbreaking enlightenment.

Clearly, it is not uncommon for retreat-weekend “spiritual” participants to have an experience of a “glimpse” of “merging.” But when they come away from that “training” with the dualistic I/It mindset still unconsciously in place, there will be no permanent, substantial realization of the perspective known as nonduality—a permanent, thorough, annihilating change of the “experiencer” perception.