Of late, there have been several conversations around the experience of bliss during meditation and satsang—both the bliss of nothing and the bliss of everything. In those moments, we feel we’ve finally ‘arrived,’ only to have the experience pass. Overlooking the unchanging Consciousness eternally present in both our experiences of nothing and everything, we try to regain that state of bliss. Instead of stopping to notice what sees the coming and going of the bliss, we embark on more doing: yoga, diet, meditation, bhajans, mindfulness, prayers, retreats, etc., hoping to tap into the bliss once more.
If the experience—the state of being—comes and goes, it is not us. We are not a state of being. We do not come and go. We are neither the bliss of everything nor the bliss of nothing. We are prior to all manifestations. We are This from which all life flows, in all Its states of expression, in every experience, good or bad.
Adyashanti in his book, The End of Your World, talks about being “drunk on emptiness,” when we mistake the nothingness for Truth, failing to also recognize the everythingness of Truth. Nothingness is the recognition as the first half of Nisargadatta Maharaj’s statement, “When I look inside and see that I am nothing that is wisdom.” If only emptiness is recognized, then Truth is not fully seen.
It is essential to follow through with the second half of Nisargadatta’s statement, “When I look outside and see that I am everything, that is love. Between these two, my life turns.” It is the eternal recognition as nothingness and everythingness simultaneously that characterizes awakening as Truth. Each facet of Truth is the whole. To paraphrase a statement by Adyashanti, “Nothing being and becoming everything while remaining nothing.”
The concepts of everythingness and nothingness are still limits mind grabs onto in its effort to understand what is beyond concepts. Yet, mind can never know Truth, as Truth is mind’s Creator.
When we find ourselves looking to recreate an experience, stop. Notice what sees the movement of seeking, notice from where the doing arises. Be This, move from This, experience from This.
In the search for Truth, it is often more productive to notice what is looking for Truth than to try to intellectually understand Truth.
A young sangha member, Paige Kies, recently expressed this recognition in a poem that she gave us permission to share:
The Ultimate Truth
I believe I was once
a patch of flowers alongside the road
I cannot recall my velvety head
but I do remember such forgetfulness of mine
brought forth laughter and smiles to us all
Perhaps I was a morning glory
Always the most beautiful sight
to observe at the beginning of our days
And my arms would have reached out to all
So my simple beauty could enhance
the wonderful radiance of all others
No- that isn’t quite right
Or how about a rose?
Those prickly thorns
Which sting and bite
Most certainly bring forth the nickname Scorpion grass
Ah but the petals….
They are too delicate to be the likes of me
For a single drop of poisonous sebum
creates a blackness—
marring such beauty
Then maybe I had been a Daisy
This I’m sure is a possibility
Orbiting petals focusing
On a centered sun full with the nectar of Life
However, this again
Seems not to be truth
For compared to the sun
I am a speck of dust
Yet, it seems to be
That I am truly the cosmos—
For matter is neither created
Nor destroyed
So a speck of dust
Is as frighteningly powerful
As the most predatory lifeforms
Which again…
I might have been
Yersinia pestis
Bdellovibrio
Dionaea muscipula
Periplaneta americana
Pterois
Naja
Otariinae
Panthera uncia
Orcinus orca
They all seem a suitable match
For a one who was once called me
Oh what does it matter
What I once was?
For all that has been
It is my present
That seems to matter most
If I were some flower
Or even a speck of dust
I shall, one day, return to those forms
But my futures….
They cannot stop what I am at this very moment
In an immediate sense I am Nothing
And being so said
I connect everything
If only I forget
Forget to have a presence of mind
And instead
Allow the presence of Everything
Unite with me as Nothing
For when this happens
I remember the word Myosotis
That’s what I was—
Once
But then again, there are so many others
That I embodied
Or will become
Such peace
Such tranquility do I find
From being Nothing
And being Everything…
From being One
And being All
Namaste, Steve and Bec