Awakening Oneness I

Some folks have suggested thinking of enlightenment as a verb, as "enlightening". That's a great comparison to the idea of enlightenment as involving a deep stillness, a position from which one never need move. Ramana seems like someone who did not move from that stillness. It seems to me that he communicated from that point. I like being able to ask, "But what about great sex?" without needing to feel that my question somehow contravenes his position. If sinking into the Self, as Ramana talked about, is amazing and perhaps effortless, maybe we can all be more obviously amazed by sinking into someone else in a romantic, and perhaps physical, way.

It seems that sex is a unique situation in a few ways. The heightened energy as compared to a mundane mindset is closer to inspiration or enlightenment than is the mundane mind. The intimate involvement of another differentiates sex from individual meditation and may include as close a sense of intimacy as we can hold or feel. The passive aspects of sex are great, and the active aspects are too, so we get to experience stillness or passivity and activity/motion--hopefully altogether with someone else who is doing the same. Okay, okay, so this isn't good sex talk, and it may seem like bad philosophy too so far. But most of us live it. We want to enjoy this life while being good people in our opinions as well as other folks' opinions. And it is sometimes nice to set opinionating aside and just get down with what we're doing.

So if I'm at a point where I'm no Ramana Maharshi and no Casanova, either, what then? Even if I'm a fairly average guy, I like movement and I like stillness too. And while some people are satisfied with either spiritual pursuits or more materialistic/hedonist sorts of pursuits, a lot of people want it all. I want it all. I want to be able to sky like Jordan, meditate like a Maharishi, and connect with my girl in a full-bodied, heartfelt, fully inspired (in-spirited) way. It's normal to want better sex, better peace, a better job where I'm appreciated at least somewhat--something that lets me enjoy making ends meet.

That desire for more has been criticized from many angles, but it is an important part of our basic motivation. If we don't start out enlightened, then desires and goals and expectations count. (And for the idea that we are all already enlightened, as correct as it is in one sense, it simply begs the question since we don't all already feel enlightened or act it.) Even for someone who follows Ramana's advice, part of what we might appreciate is the actual feeling and process of letting go. There is an important distinction, then, between the desire for more and a selfish expectation around that desire which sets up resentment, greed, envy, etc. I may want to be able to sky like Jordan, but it's not going to happen in this lifetime; like the rest of the kids on the playground, though, I imagine myself going through the motion I've seen Jordan do lots of times (just on a lower rim); the imagination and inspiration I've felt from watching Jordan makes it even better.

Just as sex takes a mix of excitement and peace, push and pull, there is a psychological equivalent concerning desires. If we become aware of how we can intentionally interact with desires and expectations, we can enjoy that psychological push and pull rather than feeling forced towards one thing and away from something else. In other words, if you can love, you probably already know your girl's desire isn't your enemy, and your desire isn't a bad thing for her. Desire is the heart of bhakti.

While we might not be able to completely control whether we get what we want, with a little practice, we can become pretty able in affecting how we feel about what we want. This is where mindful appreciation as opposed to impulsive enjoyment comes in. With just a small amount of mindfulness, I can enjoy looking forward to when my girl comes home (the anticipation) and I can also enjoy when she gets here. The time spent apart lends significance, and some spice, to our time together. The same is true of being thirsty (desiring and anticipating a drink), looking for a job, or practicing a sport. We tend to value the things we have to wait for and work for. Along with mindfulness of desires making things smoother, it helps to have a self concept that includes the understanding that openness and potential are part of who we are.

There are these varying degrees of intention, then, as we move towards flow and perhaps enlightenment. We all start off knowing how to play without even thinking about it. As we move through the developmental scale, we might add a sense of purpose to our playful exploration or simple exposure to the environment. If we do this well, we also bring a sense of playfulness and curiosity into our goal-directed sense of purpose. Moving further up the scale, we support and further our sense of purpose by improving our understanding of ourselves and our world. We increase our ability to enjoy that understanding by adding mindfulness to our activities, concepts, and responses. And all those things fitting together is the foundation for inspiration.

Inspiration is basic to (in the sense of being an important part of) what people feel during and after flow states. Once we become distinctly aware of flow states, they become one more thing that we desire. That particular desire can be as addicting as any of the other stuff that gets people juiced, so it is helpful to have some familiarity with mindfulness. The mindfulness allows us to relate to this desire in a relatively balanced way rather than spending our lives chasing ecstasy. Essentially, the better we align our 1)exuberant physical energy, 2)sense of purpose, 3)understanding, 4)mindful appreciation of desires, and 5) practiced concentration and ability at some task [think of Michael Jordan practicing left-handed dunks and how cool that feeling might be], the more likely we are to enter flow states somewhat consistently and feel the concurrent inspiration.

But while Michael Jordan may be the best basketball player yet as well as being one of the most fascinating athletes I know about, I doubt that he'd claim to be enlightened. He might give a charming smirk and make an amusing comment on the topic, but he doesn't seem the type to make grandiose spiritual claims. I'd say that, in a similar way to how MJ is great, something like sex can feel enlightening (in the sense of feeling fantastic and breaking anyone out of a limited/unhappy sense of self) without necessarily adding to spiritual maturation. In the same way, a healthy diet may be good for us, so it might be part of the process, but it is not in itself all that enlightening.

What all this means to me is that we can talk about some things being enlightening or inspiring and distinguish that from those things which are merely enjoyable or healthy as well as distinguishing inspiration or flow states from spiritual realization. While inspiration may help build towards realization and flow states show us that limited self-concepts are...ummm...limited, we don't need to be "spiritual" to be inspired. It seems that everyone wants to be inspired, and then some people also want to be spiritual. I can't see any reason why this should cause any problems.